Is a 45 year old student pilot considered 'youth'?

WOW - you figured that one out all by yourself or did you cheat and look at what is going on across the pond?? ;-)

I flew 2011 and 2012 with a German club at a field that support six resident glider clubs. On any given day I was there the number of youths pretty much matched the number of older members. I flew a half dozen weekends in England, too.

More than one of the older members explained the pattern of "license while in school job/wife/kids/house back to flying as a 40-year-old" to me.

The teenagers were soloing in an ASK-21, getting their first single-seat experience in an ASK-18, moving onto an LS1 or LS4, then a Discus - all before even getting a license. A winch launch in this club is $6 if you have a license, $5 of you don't. The ASK-21 is $18/hr, billed by the minute; the ASK-18 and LS1/4 slightly less.

Everyone can get three or four short lessons (one or two longer ones if thermals) for less than the price of a single aero tow!

It's quite typical in a German club that the student pilot's first aero tow takes place just before the check ride, doing enough that both winch and aero tow show up on the newly printed license.

A very large fraction of the students who solo will eventually get a license and eventually let life's realities get in the way of flying. Most of them will come back.

No one in Europe thinks of the ASK-21 as an "advanced trainer" that can only be flown after mastering an SGS 2-33. There are 14-year-olds in Europe soloing -21's, flying over the Autobahn that they won't be able to drive on for three more years!

I have to agree with Uli about the excitement of the winch. My log book shows about 270 flights. The private- commercial- (both in the US) and aerobatic training is all aero tow, but virtually all of the rest is via winch launch. All of my longest flights to-date were winch launches.

I don't know what all the answers are. Membership in German clubs is slowly declining as more and more competition for time arrises. It's hard for people to get to the glider field at 10:00 and stay to 5:00 every day they want to fly; there's no reserving a time and just showing up for that.

The Brits have great success doing things similarly to the Germans. The ASK-13 (nicely spin-able) and the ASK-21 are generally the trainer(s) of choice there, too. The Brits have a very popular Air Cadet program somewhat analogous to the Cadet Program of the US Civil Air Patrol.

Soaring in the US seems to be about as expensive per flight as powered flying. I've paid "minimum per flight charges" for five minutes in a 2-33 that were higher than an hour in "a real glider" elsewhere. My local FBO charges $110/hour for an older, IFR C-172. How does that compare to $75/hr for a 2-33 plus a tow?

My suggestions:

Prices down, recruiting up, a/c utilization up, publicity up

This won't work everywhere, but what if we encouraged FBOs to refer would-be pilots who are too young to have much money to join the CAP and learn to fly through the glider program. CAP benefits. The new glider pilot benefits.. Ultimately even the FBO benefits as the glider pilot considers adding on powered flight. It's not for everyone, but it is a relatively inexpensive way to fly gliders.

Long ramble - hope it's of some value!

Terry