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I've edited Bill's comments below because in many ways I'm the poster-
child for his comments. I started in power-flying. Got my license and was starting to get bored after only 70 hours of flying in straight lines. I had a dream of someday building my own airplane and joined the EAA. I wanted to visit some build projects and fortuitously Brad Hill invited me up to his shop to look at his "Glidair" and HP-24 projects. I was curious about the long wings and the things he was saying, so I went out to the gliderport on his suggestion and took a ride - and was instantly hooked. (SIDE NOTE: Luckily my ride was in a DG-1000 not a nasty-ass ratted- out 2-33. I appreciate the economics of a 2-33 but giving people rides in 2-33's or worn-out Blaniks is a sure way to turn them off to the sport. They're 50-year-old technology and it shows. They are OK for training - the Blaniks more than the 2-33's - but these aircraft have NOTHING to do with modern soaring and do not give people any sense of what's possible) The point is, I was a motivated inquisitive pilot. I've been obsessed with flying since I was a kid (I grew up just a couple of hours from Mojave and followed Rutan's projects from afar with young eager eyes). Yet with all my curiosity and motivation, I didn't have a CLUE about soaring or what was possible. Many of the soaring pilots out there just don't have a clue how extremely far Soaring is from the public consciousness. Its just not even on the radar. IMHO, in decreasing order of public awareness you have: Airline crashes, flying in Airliners, Small airplane crashes, Skydiving (partly because so many TV ads use skydiving), Flying computer games, Flying R/C airplanes, Hang-gliding & Paragliding, Small piston airplanes, and then wayyyy down at the bottom you have Sailplanes & Ultralights in some kind of jumble. Again, as Bill pointed out, even power pilots just don't know or understand. I gave a talk last fall to the Washington State Pilots Association and out of 100+ people in the audience maybe 10 knew that we could stay aloft for more than an hour and go "cross-country". And it makes sense - all they ever see is the local training Op with takeoffs and landings happening repeatedly throughout the day, and students circling and circling (and circling and circling and circling) right close to the airport. The ugly truth is that the people involved in the sport let things stagnate over the last 25 years. Things got really comfortable and the sport failed to adapt or refresh itself (in terms of new blood into the organization). As a result, we're now way "behind the curve" and have to put in EXTRA effort, just to halt the decline. Its an especially deep hole that we have to dig out of, because a lot of the experts are old and burned out - making things that much harder. But despite these challenges (or perhaps because of them) - the effort HAS to be made. Frankly, I'm tired and fed up with all of the naysayers who claim that this effort (or others) will never work. Your negative attitude is PRECISELY WHY the soaring pilot population is declining. You don't have to love the SSA or everything it does to see the value in promoting the sport and trying to get the word out. If you're rooting against the "Let's Go Gliding" campaign then you're nothing more than a selfish *******, and you are a detriment to the sport. Each pilot is a "lone wolf" in the cockpit of a sailplane; but the sport only works if there's a critical mass of people involved. Even a selfish pilot has a vested interest in maintaining that critical mass - if nothing else than for your own ability to continue flying (and secondarily, so there's a market of people to buy your sailplane when you finally sell it). --Noel On May 7, 8:21*am, Bill D wrote: The thing with the 'glider gene' is people don't know they have it until they are made aware of soaring. *(It doesn't take much - They don't know about us. They don't know how spectacular this sport is. inadvertently done a great job of hiding. *Very few people even know we exist much less what we do. I constantly talk to airplane pilot groups and I'm amazed at how little they know. *Almost to a person, they think gliding is exactly When shown what modern sailplanes can really do, and are doing on a regular basis, they're flabbergasted. *Explaining the OLC is an |
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I've bought a set of stickers for my trailer. I think the promotion needs some tuning, like more depth on the Let's Go Gliding website, since it goes from a lively site directly to deep links in the SSA site, but it's a start and we can work on it.
I've put a lot of effort into promoting soaring over the last few years and with some success bringing many new members into our club. One of the challenges is that people expect instant gratification. Take a glider to an Airshow and get 5 new members. It doesn't really seem to work that way. The conversion rate is really, really low. You've got to set the expectation that you'll talk to 100 or 200 or 300 people to get maybe one person to come out and try it. And of those people, only a small percentage will stick with it. It makes it seem like an impossible task, but the reality is that you can have an impact if you get out and talk soaring. I've found that having some good bragging rights about yourself or just other club members is a great eye opener. Points that really light up the eyes of Power Pilots: * I flew to 17,999 in wave last month * I fly 120hrs a year on about 25 gallons of AvGas * I flew over 5000 miles of XC last year * I average 100mph over the ground for an hour and a half last week. Sharing stats in power pilot terms is a real way to grab attention. It's a way to say, we aren't an alternative to power flying, we're better. You can fly more for less. Power pilots already know aviation costs money, but give someone the option to fly for a much lower rate than they are currently paying and you can attract new pilots. It's still tough and a small number that you'll convert, but it is possible. Morgan |
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On May 7, 1:37*pm, Morgan wrote:
I've bought a set of stickers for my trailer. *I think the promotion needs some tuning, like more depth on the Let's Go Gliding website, since it goes from a lively site directly to deep links in the SSA site, but it's a start and we can work on it. I've put a lot of effort into promoting soaring over the last few years and with some success bringing many new members into our club. *One of the challenges is that people expect instant gratification. *Take a glider to an Airshow and get 5 new members. *It doesn't really seem to work that way. *The conversion rate is really, really low. *You've got to set the expectation that you'll talk to 100 or 200 or 300 people to get maybe one person to come out and try it. *And of those people, only a small percentage will stick with it. It makes it seem like an impossible task, but the reality is that you can have an impact if you get out and talk soaring. I've found that having some good bragging rights about yourself or just other club members is a great eye opener. Points that really light up the eyes of Power Pilots: * I flew to 17,999 in wave last month * I fly 120hrs a year on about 25 gallons of AvGas * I flew over 5000 miles of XC last year * I average 100mph over the ground for an hour and a half last week. Sharing stats in power pilot terms is a real way to grab attention. *It's a way to say, we aren't an alternative to power flying, we're better. You can fly more for less. Power pilots already know aviation costs money, but give someone the option to fly for a much lower rate than they are currently paying and you can attract new pilots. *It's still tough and a small number that you'll convert, but it is possible. Morgan It may also help to stop calling them "power pilots". I think they would prefer to be called "Airplane Pilots". The term "power pilots" either has no meaning to them or seems strange and redundant. "Airplane" implies an engine is installed. |
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