Cheap sailplanes

In article ,
Mike Lindsay wrote:

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

I'll continue to say that some leadership opportunities in gliding clubs
(and all volunteer orginizations, for that matter) should give priority to
the LEAST qualified person. A flight committee headed by the LEAST
experienced CFI (who's willing to do it), the social committee headed by
the NEWEST member of the club. Then all the members agree to give them as
much support as possible. I've found the "leader" then asks for lots of
help, there is lots of interaction, the newer "leader" has more energy
than the more jaded members, and if for some reason things go wrong or
the rules are dumb, there is less entrenchment by the "leader," and
more forgiveness for the "leader."

At Avenal, when I was the newest CFI, I was very surprised when I asked
our operations guy and local DPE, Dan Gudgel, about our syllabus posted
on line and I suggested some changes, including "narrow runway training."
He said that the document could certainly use some updating, and welcomed
me to write an improved one.

Another senior instructor, Harold Gallagher, was talking about standardizing
our training. We talked for a while, and he essentially said "great, we've
discussed this, and you've talked to the other guys, and it'd be great if
you put something together and I bet we'd all love to use it as a guide."

True leadership involves being a good teacher, and a supportive follower
too. Leaders don't always lead from the front; in my experience they often
lead from the middle. The ideas and energy comes from the front, the
support and wisdom comes from the middle. Let the young whippersnappers
provide ideas and energy, while the others give wisdom (only when asked for),
support, and steady lifting.

and let the youngsters with backwards baseball caps,
wrap around shades and baggy pants drag soaring into the 21st century.

The wrap around shades are great for the open cockpit (like the
Blanik or PW-2) and the baggy pants come in VERY handy around the
Halloween, thanksgiving, and christmas holidays :P

Us
old farts are not doing too good a job of stewardship if you ask me.

One of the best run organizations I've ever seen is the Monterey Bay
99's. This womens' pilot organization gives out scholarships,
some big and some of just a few hundred dollars, to young and entering
women pilots. When these pilots make CFI, they then often give free
instruction to new scholarship winners. Really makes a buck go farther...

Creating this kind of incentive track seems like a real good idea.

Er, what younger people do you mean? At our club the average age of the
members attending on Wednesdays is just short of 70. It may be slightly
younger at weekends, but not by very much.

Hmmm...ours is 30-40. Maybe the family BBQs, easygoing rules, encouragement
of X-C, "fun" mini-races, etc. is paying off.

Of course having a private gliderport helps...
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Mark J. Boyd