How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

On Monday, August 17, 2015 at 12:49:08 PM UTC-4, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
On Monday, August 17, 2015 at 12:18:03 PM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Great post! The concept of a "catalyst" or "spark plug" is very important. It's also hard to quantify. It sometimes can be under-rated how important these kinds of people can be to local growth in many sports or groups.. The kind of person who gives time, knowhow and encouragement and basically does whatever it takes to help others move forward (short of paying their bills).

Perhaps we need to more actively recognize and appreciate these folks wherever they may be at our annual convention. They are probably the glue that holds the sport together right now!

Sean

Not sure whom this was directed to..... but.... I know Hank has been honored before as has Dianne (by SSA).
VSC (as well as HHSC) have been honored in the past for their junior programs as well (by SSA).
In fact, I believe these 2 sites usually via against each other for their junior programs.

You are correct though, ANY site can "help promote the sport"! All it takes is one or more people that see a stranger, walk up and say, "Hi, how are you? Do you have any questions??" Some new people are hesitant to talk to strangers at a strange place (what could be stranger than flying, with some of us that are at the airport??, LOL......)

Sad but true story.....
I used to travel a LOT, I had a free weekend in the SW US. Went to a "local but known site" hoping I could do a flight/share costs for a cross country flight (I know they have great weather compared to the NE US).
I had generic clothes on, but a hat with a Gold "C" & 2 Diamonds pin on the front.
I hung around for a couple hours, helped move some gliders, etc.
Not ONCE did ANYONE come up to me and ask, "Hi, how are you? Do you have any questions??".
I had decided to see what they did as well as see if they picked up on the pin.
Needless to say, I didn't spend any money there...... At least, while it looked decent, overheard conversations were that it was not too good a day, thus I didn't push it.

I do think we sometimes make it more complicated than we need to. There's no silver bullet - it's a lot of hard work by a relatively few people that typically moves the ball forward. I suspect (though I don't have data to prove it) that my local SSA Region (Region 2) does disproportionately well in terms of getting folks into XC. That has to do with basically 2 or 3 locations that really go out of their way to mentor XC pilots, two Regionals (Mifflin and Wurtsboro) that really cater to newcomers, a very active decentralized contest (the Governor's Cup) and a few people who work really hard to push newcomers to "convert".

I don't think equipment is as much of a problem as some folks would like to believe. It would be nice, since it would "just" mean more money.

If I get around to it I'll publish the results of a survey I did two years ago. At least in this region, a surprising number of pilots do go XC, though not that many of them participate in either contests or the OLC.

Erik Mann (P3)