On Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 5:28:14 AM UTC-4, Ian wrote:
On 14/03/2017 14:09, wrote:

What we need in soaring is a new glider built for a reasonable price.
$150,000 for a new glider is just not even a consideration for most
people. Let's face it, you can get a low mileage Ferrari for half
that price!

Lots of people have explained why this is not going to happen. But maybe
I can suggest an alternative.

Set up a company that makes simple affordable, practical closed
trailers, rigging aids, tow out aids, radios, flarm kit, loggers and
instruments. Parachutes too while you are about it. It is essential that
as much as possible should be standardised, with "entry level" feature
set and mass produced.

Then set your self up selling "refurb kits" for all the 2nd hand gliders
that are quietly rotting away in storage, with rusty and/or home made
trailers, radios etc that no longer meet today's standards, parachutes
that are time ex and lacking flarm, GPS and loggers etc.

While you are about it, set up a factory with cheap labour to refinish
those gliders in 2 part polyurethane.

Your new ships will still require all of the above. Irrespective whether
you start with a new magically cheap airframe, or a proven 2nd hand one,
you still need all of the above.


There is a tremendous amount of cost and labor involved in refinishing a glider. more than most realize. if you haven't done one start to finish, you don't know... doing a total refinish on old gliders is a good idea, but the cost of the refinish makes that concept difficult if the air-frame isn't worth much anyway. perfect example: it's not profitable to buy a standard cirrus for 14k, pump 5-7K worth of materials into it (not to mention labor, which is also several thousand.) and then sell it for 22k (the going rate for a pristine one.) it's a losing proposition. these gliders are anywhere from 30 to almost 50 years old. it can be profitable if you do it yourself, as a sole proprietor, but as soon as you have to pay people, the profit margin gets chipped away, and most (if not all) goes to the employees.

there's lots of economies-of-scale stuff that goes into building cheap cars.. Phil nailed it mostly. i think someone really visionary with an automotive or aerospace composite manufacturing background, and alot of capital could do something impressive. but again, the demand to support moderate production isn't there. it goes back to the cirrus example. these gliders have long life cycles.
i don't think price, and supply and demand of gliders is the issue, i think it's supply and demand of pilots. unfortunately it's a pretty unique game we play. it consumes time, and money, and gets you strange looks at the office when you don't know whose playing in the superbowl, but you know who won the last WGC, and where the next one is.

i think in order to grow the sport one of the things that would help would be wider media exposure. also, you have to make it sexy. many pilots look seriously dorky. sorry, but we suck at being fashionable. watch a redbull airrace, those pilots are wearing cool looking "decalized" helmets, firesuits, gloves, et cet. it has sex appeal. it looks dangerous and exciting. i'm not suggesting we wear firesuits, that's stupid. but we wear floppy hats and grimy button down shirts. it's just not sexy to the casual observer. so it doesn't get a ton of attention, so it doesn't attract a lot of enthusiasm the way that nascar, dirtbike racing, or indy does.

the equipment is sufficient. it's marketing and drawing attention to our sport.
on the club side, there has to be a huge social component to build cohesion..

TL,DR;

We need more pilots, not more gliders
soaring is not sexy
clubs need to be as much social, as they are aviation.