Barnaby Lecture

John,

Very good job! Thoughtful and well written...

There were many good points that you made, but I was intrigued by your
claim that the US encouraged safer behavior than the Europeans via
deliberate rules changes. From your examples your contention sounds
plausible, but I expect our European friends will have a different
point of view.

I also really agree with this statement: "The natural progression of
our sport should be from license, to thermaling, to cross country, and
then to contests – without losing 95% at each step of the way." The
question is: how do we convince them?

Most new glider pilots I meet think that XC pilots are crazy to leave
the "safety" of the airport, and yet they're comfortable with the fact
that most of the public thinks glider pilots are crazy to leave the
ground. My club is trying to change their minds by letting them
experience XC in a Duo Discus, partnered with an experienced XC pilot.
It remains to be seen how many new XC pilots we'll create this way.
Perhaps the comfort factor will work against us - they won't be
experiencing the thrill (The adrenalin surge? The intense pride?) that
comes from knowing it was entirely due to their own ability that they
found and used the last two thermals needed to land back home instead
of in a farmer's field.

-John


On Oct 5, 7:23 pm, John Cochrane
wrote:
I had the honor of giving the Ralph S. Barnaby lecture at the fall
Board of Directors' meeting. The title is "The evolution of US contest
soaring," which I sort of talked about but couldn't resist adding an
editorial here and there. If you're really, really bored at the
office, you might enjoy the talk:

http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john...Papers/barnaby...

John Cochrane

On Oct 6, 10:34*am, jcarlyle wrote:

There were many good points that you made, but I was intrigued by your
claim that the US encouraged safer behavior than the Europeans via
deliberate rules changes.

Yes, this caught my attention too. One could look at the highly
dangerous US practice of changing a task in the air 10 minutes before
task opening and draw a quite different conclusion.

I suppose it all depends on which particular rules touch your hot
button.

I enjoyed reading the lecture though as I've been around long enough
to experinece all the changes being discussed. I had 3 incidents
running start lines and don't miss then at all, but I still prefer the
50ft line finish although I seldom finished that low. Nothing to do
with any buzz from flying low, just that the whole thing can be
executed eyes outside where they belong.

Andy

On Oct 6, 11:34*am, jcarlyle wrote:
John,

Very good job! Thoughtful and well written...

Snip---

I also really agree with this statement: "The natural progression of
our sport should be from license, to thermaling, to cross country, and
then to contests – without losing 95% at each step of the way." The
question is: *how do we convince them?

Snip----

I expect the most effective answer is to get them started flying XC
while they're young.

Young people are far more adventuresome than older folks - unless
those older folks were fortunate enough to become comfortable with XC
while they were younger. I think, for many people, there is a "window
of opportunity" in their teens and 20's when they are receptive to
cross country glider flying.

To test this theory, we need to find a way to get a large number young
folks into cross country flying. One way is to support youth soaring
through Mike Westbrook's SSA Youth Committee.

I also note there seems to be a large number of gliders sitting around
in trailers which never fly. Finding a way to put these in the hands
of qualified and insured young pilots so they could explore XC and
contest flying might have a very promising long-term effect on the
population of contest pilots.

Bill Daniels