FAI, soaring and Olympic Games

At 03:56 07 November 2016, Papa3 wrote:
Sean,=20

If nothing else, you are entertaining. =20

Busy with work this evening, but in a nutshell... The Collegiate
Soaring
A=
ssociation has been around for 30 years. It is an affiliate of the
SSA.
=
It was founded by Dr. John Campbell in 1984 who was a post-doc
at
Princeton=
when I was an undergraduate. The two of us, along with several
others,
sp=
ent years working very hard to revive college-based soaring
activity.
Joh=
n was incredibly passionate about the project, and spent
countless hours
pr=
omoting, cajoling, and driving this. We obtained 501 C3 status,
we
receiv=
ed a few donations, we even hosted competitions. I personally
drove
aroun=
d to Penn State, Ohio State, RIT, and several others with John to
conduct
=
workshops, help with recruiting drives, etc. I drove the 1-36
which was
=
donated around to several sites as a loaner to help drive activity.

Eventually, we were able to pull together a few Collegiate
Championships,
=
but in reality they were just a couple of juniors participating in
existing=
SSA Regionals (I believe Sean Franke won one, though calling it
an "MSU
Ch=
ampionship" was really a stretch). John managed to pull a "local"
competi=
tion together in Colorado due in large part to the presence of the
Air
Forc=
e Academy. When John tragically died way too young from brain
cancer,
th=
e CSA really started to fade away.=20

In the end, it turned out that College Soaring clubs are very hard
to
maint=
ain. As an example, the Princeton club was at one point one of the
largest
=
campus organizations, with over 70 members. It was started by
Steve Sliwa,
=
himself a Harris Hill Junior. We had tremendous advantages,
being a
unive=
rsity with an active Flight Research program and our own airport.
That
mea=
nt qualified CFIs, towpilots, and even mechanics. But, over the
years,
th=
e university got out of the Flight Research business, they sold the
airport=
, and the nearest glider operation was an hour away. After a few
years,
th=
e membership was down to a handful of students, and those
students rotate
o=
ut every 4 years. Also, many recent graduates are challenged by
finances,
=
time, and frankly have other passions. So, imagine the difficulty
at
othe=
r colleges and universities that don't already have an active group
of
stud=
ents naturally inclined toward aviation.=20

Soaring is a very quirky sport. If a person with as much energy
and drive
=
as John can't achieve critical mass in Collegiate Soaring over 10
years,
i=
t's not something that a couple of posts on RAS will change. =20

Erik Mann (P3)


I was the SSA Youth Education Chair before John Campbell, and
wrestled with the same issues. College soaring goes back to the
1930's with the MIT and Michigan clubs. The biggest problem is
that we soar in the summer when the college students go home to
other places. In spring when we start up, they are studying for
finals. The timelines just aren't conducive to making it work
reliably.

The collegiate soaring thing has gone up and down over the years.
Back in 1971, Pete Silvaggio at Cornell tried to start a collegiate
soaring association. He even organized a contest at Harris Hill
(which I won) that summer. I think we had competitors there from
maybe 4 schools.

My old alma mater (RPI) even designed and built an ultralight glider
as an exercise in design and composite construction. Dr. Francis
Bundy even test flew it up in Schenectady (I believe), but it never
went much further than that. The students were able to work on
the construction over the winter school year part time, but during
the soaring season, they were gone. I think that there were also
insurance issues with flying that glider as well.....

Money is also an issue because most college students don't have
much extra to spend with already having to pay for college, etc..

College soaring sounds like a great idea, and it has been tried many
times. The only consistently successful operation is at the USAF
Academy where the students stay there and fly over the summer as
opposed to going back home like most college student do. The
flying is also free for them, as it is part of the overall USAFA
program.

RO