The Decline of Soaring Awards

No Dis intended Flubber. You have found your own nitch within the sport and are having lots of fun. I have just been looking at the trends over the last 40 or so years and see that it usually takes some goal or subset of soaring pursuit to keep folks involved in the hobby.

You found your points of motivation. For others its the instruction side where they just love to introduce people to the sport. For others its the social aspect of their club. These guys may have never had any interest in xc, and are content just to fly local, it works for them. But the drop out rate is still pretty substantial. I grew up at a time when soaring was an actual lifestyle. That really does’nt exist anymore in large part.
Dan