Future Club Training Gliders

On Nov 7, 8:32*am, Burt Compton - Marfa wrote:

Turning away from soaring because of how the glider looks just doesn't
seem valid to me, but that's just me.
I don't care to argue about it. Nobody is wrong. *If you can afford to
buy a nice lookin' glider for your club, then buy it for them.

I think that it is certainly true that there are some number of people
that would start and continue soaring even with the most outdated
equipment, but there would be more people if the equipment and
operation were more modern and more exciting.

The question is how large is the difference, and would it pay for the
additional cost.

Todd Smith
3S

On Nov 8, 3:18*pm, toad wrote:
I think that it is certainly true that there are some number of people
that would start and continue soaring even with the most outdated
equipment, but there would be more people if the equipment and
operation were more modern and more exciting.

The question is how large is the difference, and would it pay for the
additional cost.

It doesn't need to be very new.

My experience is that if you sit a brand new DG1000 (in 18m config, so
no swoopy tips and winglets) next to a well-maintained late 70's Twin
Astir or Janus then most visitors to the airfield can't distinguish
between them.

Its been said by myself and a couple of others in this thread, but let
me try to rephrase it:

Those of you saying "well it worked for me" are missing the point.
YOU are on the inside, looking out. YOU are one of the rare people
who overcame the obstacles and pitfalls in the current system of
enciting and training new glider pilots. You are NOT one of the
millions of people who have no idea what a sailplane is, or how it
works, or haven't ever given much thought to aviation.

If we're only attracting people who are already interested in flying
gliders, then we're not doing any real recruiting at all; and we
certainly will never grow the sport.

--Noel

On Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:16:11 -0800, noel.wade wrote:

Its been said by myself and a couple of others in this thread, but let
me try to rephrase it:

Those of you saying "well it worked for me" are missing the point. YOU
are on the inside, looking out.

That's not what Bruce is saying. Look back at his comment. I agree with
him too: on Saturday we had a trail flighter and some starting student
pilots out and were using an ASK-21, a G.103 Acro II with out Puchacz
visible in the hangar. The visitors and students really didn't
distinguish between the three two-seaters, even one Polish guy who knows
his power planes well enough to know what a Wilga is.

I think Bruce is right: if a two-seater has a composite airframe, is
painted white, and is well-maintained even a Puchacz and an ASK-21 are
similar enough that that anybody who isn't 'one of us' won't make
distinctions between them.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |