Some of this is the "urbanization" of the USA. I'm
told there used to be several gliderports under where the
current San Francisco class B airspace exists.
They are now gone.

Airports have also lost some commonality, but to a much
lesser extent, mainly because they actually become more useful
as the cities grow.

So soaring has been slowly, creepingly driven away
by airspace issues, and rising cost of land near
population centers (which are the breeding grounds for pilots,
by the way).

The upside is that renting a 172 to go to the local
gliderport is actually not so tough. $200 split four
ways to get to the gliderport isn't too bad.

Can you say "planepool?"

:P

In article .com,
wrote:
There are several issues with declining membership issues. I think that
the main one is the cost directly involved. Many say that soaring is
less expensive then flying power. Well, not really. Think about
it.Compare price of LS-8 at 65000 Euros to Cessna 172. You can rent a
Cessna 150 for $50.00/hour wet. How many airports permit gliders to
operate? Not very many. I am traveling every weekend 125 miles one way
just to get some flying time in a glider. That how is from my house to
the club hanger. At the same time I can go to local airport, as a
matter of fact we have 3 of them around, in a few minutes and rent that
damn Cessna or Piper or whatever else is available.




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Mark J. Boyd