Cheap sailplanes

"Peter Seddon" wrote in message
...

"Bert Willing" wrote in
message ...
I absolutely agree with you.
There is a great market out there for any budget above $2-3000, and all
this 2price for racing" stuff isn't interesting to at least 95% of the
soaring population.
And in Europe, gliding for youngster asks for a budget very much like
skiing, horse riding, small motorcycles or whatever a 16 years old
fancies
to do (and it's those 16 years old kid who are the future of soaring,
not
any of those 50-years-old-catching-up-with-their-dreams folks) and gets
the money for anyways.

As you said, we need a new approach - at least the ration "airborne
time/time running around on the field" has to be greatly improved, and
those "because-we-have-done-it-like-this-for-the-last-fifty-years" farts
have to be dumped...

--
Bert Willing

ASW20 "TW"


"tango4" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
The 'which glider should we make cheaply' , 'glider classes' and some
of
the traditional 'winter threads' seem to be based on the premise that
if
we could build a 40:1 sailplane for some nominal amount then the steady
decline in worldwide sailplane pilot numbers can be stemmed.

I am yet to be convinced that aircraft cost is the major threshold to
entry into the sport of soaring. I remain firmly convinced that even if
we came up with a near zero cost aircraft we would do little more than
temporarily halt the decline.

In the UK annual membership of a golf club costs about the same as
joining a gliding club and flying club ships for the same period.

Ditto for a dinghy sailing club - based on joining a club and renting

dingies.

Our club runs a 'scholarship' incentive for a number of student pilots
each year, basically they fly for free, their bills being carried by
the
rest of the membership. We don't have hundreds of applicants for the
scholarships, just sufficient.

Most operations have a continuous stream of intro riders, the
conversion
rate to sailplane pilots is astonishingly low though, in the order of a
few percent.

Todays youth have more disposable income than most of us could ever
have
dreamed of at their age and in the future they are likely to have more
leisure time and even more money. Flying has to become something that
youngsters 'want to do' it has to become cool. Rather than sticking
with
the old way of doing things perhaps we should fire every club committee
member on the planet over 30 and let the youngsters with backwards
baseball caps, wrap around shades and baggy pants drag soaring into the
21st century. Us old farts are not doing too good a job of stewardship
if
you ask me.

We need a new approach.

Ian







Put the gin and tonic down sweetie and join the real world, gliding is
VERY
frustrating, we all dont have thermals at our beck and call. The last
three
years have been abizmal for flying. I have to travel 50 miles to the club
so
if ti's not a decent day there are other thing to do that can take
precedent. Our club is one of the least expensive in the UK but our
membership is dropping and it's all down to the lousey weather we've been
having. Mosxt young people get their thrils from two or four wheels, where
you just get in and turn the key and off you go. Instant gratification is
what keeps the young comming back for more, you don't get that at a
gliding
club, until you can fly solo!!!

Peter.

Pilatus B4



Go watch Hellingvliegen (Dune gliding) by Nistal Wloczysiak a 17 year old
Dutch Videographer. They winch launch an open cockpit T-31b in the dead of
winter to ridge soar the dunes on the Dutch coast. It's one beautiful
video. Weather isn't stopping youth from participating.

I see plenty of young people that LOVE gliding but can't afford it even with
their parents solid support.

We need to offer youth winch launch and other cost reduction avenues.
Wringing our hands and whining that the sky is falling isn't solving the
problem.

We also need to stop pigeonholing young people. They come in all levels of
interest. Not all of them are into video games and hot rods. A wonderful
few really love soaring.

We need to stop driving them away.

Bill Daniels