On Monday, March 8, 2021 at 12:43:07 PM UTC-7, Walt Connelly wrote:
Douglas Richardson;1039844 Wrote:
Good morning,

My name is Douglas and I am a glider pilot here in the UK.

I would like to start a friendly discussion about the decline of gliding
and whether this is an issue outside of the UK.

Within the UK gliding has been in decline for decades and according to
discussion on gliderpilot.net this is down to a few key issues, which I
may go into later in the thread if required.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts on this.

-------------
Douglas
I would ask if anyone has thought of "Marketing" their operation?
Things are in decline and yet operations are doing the things they have
always done which in many cases is close to nothing. Unless the target
audience for your facility knows who you are, where you are and what you
can do for them your prospects will be in decline. ( I brought this up
at a facility I once frequented and it fell on deaf ears, among other
things)

While I cannot speak to the conditions in the UK and elsewhere, my
experience with commercial operations in the US shows little being done
to "advertise" their presence. (Clubs are a different story and take a
different approach) I lived 30 miles from a glider port for 35 years an
never knew of its presence, I learned about it by accident. A business
should not depend on a small sign on a secondary highway for much
business.

The "target audience" for a glider operation is in age group 14 to 94
and includes high school students with a desire to learn to fly, general
aviation pilots seeking another challenge and add on to their current
license AND the older pilot who has lost his or her medical but still
wants to fly. SO, what are you doing to make your presence known to
these potential sources of income?

A little advert in "Soaring" magazine is nice but the subscription rate
to this magazine is quite limited and probably in decline as is the
industry. My suggestion would be to selectively advertise in General
Aviation magazines targeting local zip codes (yes, many magazines will
allow you to place your ads based on local zip codes to subscribers and
magazine stands within your geography). I subscribed to "Plane and
Pilot" and "Flying Magazine" among others while I was out of the cockpit
for a couple of decades. I never saw an ad for a glider port although
one did exist locally. This would allow for an awareness among the
general aviation pilot seeking another challenge and the medically
disqualified who wish to get back into the air. And how many medically
DQd pilots know a glider rating doesn't require a medical?

A well managed service operation (and yes a glide port is a service
operation) needs to constantly be aware of its "capacity utilization"
level and its break even point. Your profit is beyond the break even
point.

Of course management must be willing to spend the money to accomplish
this level of communications to the target audience. Nothing ventured,
nothing gained.

When I decided to get a helicopter rating a coupe of years ago I googled
helicopter flight schools locally. NOTHING came up and I found myself
driving and hour or two to investigate such schools when there was one
10 minutes from my house. I too found it by accident and a business
cannot depend on potential customers finding them by accident. They now
advertise on a local TV station quite frequently and have an online
presence. They have a professionally shot video which grabs the eye and
communicates the proper information to the public. They have seen a ROI
which has made it an ongoing activity.

Walt Connelly
Former Tow Pilot
Now Happy Helicopter Pilot




--
Walt Connelly
Timing is everything and COVID-19 has put many operations on pause. That said, chapter memberships have remained pretty steady as many age out of the sport. The SSA is working on a marketing program, but picking a launch time is a tricky as taking that first launch and staying up. SSA chapters and business members should benefit. First will be a new web site front end. Getting close. Marketing will follow. It will be up to those operations to close the deal. SSA has been trying to help grow CFI-G at the chapter level for a couple of years now. There are plenty of youth scholarships but applications seem a bit slow this year.

Real growth is a grass roots effort or at least an effort when people show up. Post COVID growth of outdoor activities could be an opportunity.

Frank Whiteley