Jet Sailplane Racing League

On 4/29/2011 8:32 PM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:42:19 +0000, Walt Connelly wrote:

The reality is that Bike Week brings in many millions of dollars to the
local economy. It draws about half a million bikers and wannabees to
the local area for an entire week. We can't compete with those numbers
but It's hard to understand how there was NO local TV coverage of a
national event like this. JMHO

OK, that explains a lot. I've never been to Florida and so had no idea
what Bike Week might be - in fact I thought it must have been some local
cycling promotion.

However, there remains one relevant question: did anybody tell the local
media that the Seniors was on?

Our club's experience is that the local TV and/or paper generally ignore
us, but will usually cover stories we tell them about provided they're
something that interests folks outside the aviation community.



Not just tell the media about the event, but did anyone bother to
volunteer to take a reporter with a TV camera on one of the contest
flights? Most local stations are constantly looking for interesting
feel good stories that they can use on slow news days.

--
Mike Schumann

On Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:57:01 -0400, Mike Schumann wrote:

Not just tell the media about the event, but did anyone bother to
volunteer to take a reporter with a TV camera on one of the contest
flights? Most local stations are constantly looking for interesting
feel good stories that they can use on slow news days.

One of the more unusual things we've done was to get some of our two-
seater owners to fly their gliders round a 'five cathedrals' task, i.e.
each cathedral in our area was a TP, with the associated bishops or
cannons on board. It was flown a group tour rather than a race on a nice
day. The churchmen enjoyed their flights and the local media loved the
idea.


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

Sailplanes CAN draw big crowds and lots of media attention. At my
last airshow, I flew before a crowd of 180,000. Lots of media
coverage. I'm scheduled to fly 5 days at Oshkosh this year. By the
end of the 2011 airshow season, literally millions of people will have
been exposed to sailplane flying. I've tried to get SSA to work with
me to promote soaring at the airshows I attend. I've never been able
to get any cooperation. At last year's SSA convention, it was
announced that SSA's goal was something like 120 new members
nationwide this year. On a good airshow weekend, we could approach
that number of new SSA members daily. It would take some real
marketing effort on the part of all participants to sell soaring.
We'd need a good hook and some professional salesmen. The announcer
would need the information on the local soaring clubs, then the local
club would need to offer a exciting experience in a modern sailplane
(no Schweitzers, please). Hook them for a one year SSA membership,
then get some modern aircraft in the magazine (again, no Schweitzers).

This year, I also filmed for our local TV news (three mornings of
shooting, with their helicopter), History Channel, Discovery Canada,
Discovery Australia and the new Discovery 3-D - all at their request.
The jet sailplanes have appeared in hundreds of magazines worldwide.

Yes, I realize that flying low-level aerobatics in a jet sailplane
isn't 'real' soaring any more than driving around a circle at 150 MPH
isn't 'real' driving, but there is a reason every car manufacturer
sponsors racing. It sells the excitement of their product, even
though most people will actually buy the mini-van.

Jet sailplane racing? Crazy! Ridiculous! Stupid! But it could be
just what our sport needs to capture public attention, recruit new
members and remain viable.

BC

Bob,
You articulated the thought and dream very well! Keep up the great
work promoting the wonderful sport of soaring through your very
effective non-soaring methods. I love the bonus jet!
John Ackerson