How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

On Monday, August 17, 2015 at 4:28:28 PM UTC+3, Dan Marotta wrote:
Every place I've flown in the USA has offered the stick to the
customer.* In my experience the term, "sleigh ride", refers to
flights when there is no lift available.* In that case we suggest a
different time or day for the flight.

Of course guaranteeing lift is not compatible with taking bookings for a fixed future day and time, so we encourage people to take the 4000 ft tow option to ensure a reasonable flight length.

Anyway it's not a good idea to fight too hard to exploit marginal lift (thermals, certainly) with a 1st timer aboard. Even if it's a thermal day, I'll generally only demonstrate a climb of 200 or 300 ft before exiting the thermal, just to give them a taste.

Of course if it's big fat thermals that work with well under 30 degrees of bank, or even only part of the turn in the thermal, then it's a different matter.

On Monday, August 17, 2015 at 7:28:28 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
Every place I've flown in the USA has offered the stick to the
customer.* In my experience the term, "sleigh ride", refers to
flights when there is no lift available.* In that case we suggest a
different time or day for the flight.* Often the suggestion is
accepted but just as often not.* A lot of the people who come for a
ride are simply checking off a box on their bucket list and there's
no doubt they won't be returning.* For those who show the spark of
enthusiasm, we go far out of our way to encourage them to return.



In my case, as a prior experienced formation pilot, I was given the
stick from the beginning of the takeoff roll to the end of the
rollout.* The hook was deeply set for me and I immediately began
taking lessons culminating in a commercial add-on rating.




On 8/17/2015 6:11 AM,
wrote:



On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 7:21:35 PM UTC+1, Andy Blackburn wrote:


On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 9:39:44 AM UTC-7, wrote:


Reply to all 3 posts.

Sean, how much fun actually flying gliders is doesn't matter that much to the initial "sale" An interested visitor will at most get a 20 minute "sleigh ride" in a glider but spend hours on the ground at the airfield. The thing that makes the "deal" possible is the environment at the gliderport. Unfortunately, most are fly blown armpits of creation populated by not very friendly people. Guess which one makes the biggest impression?. What to do is obvious.

Yes, participation in all aspects of aviation is shrinking. Our bad press is mostly to blame. From the evening news to stand up comics, people are being frightened away from aviation. All of aviation needs to mount a PR campaign to offset this. We also need to become absolutely militant about reducing accidents. We are far too tolerant of unsafe practices.

Dan, be very careful about overgeneralising. I did an informal survey in shopping malls observing about 1000 young people. My numbers say only about 10% were fiddling with cellphones. That's still a big number but it's not 100%. My impression is they do this when they are bored and have nothing else to do. We can give them something more interesting.

Keep the overall numbers in mind. If 1,000 people walked onto US glider operations seeking flight training our infrastructure would be saturated. We just need to figure out how to find that 1,000 in a population of 310 million.

Bill Daniels


Bill and I talked about this at the Nationals a couple of years ago. There are three related challenges: intake, conversion and churn.

- Intake is the number of people taking an introductory ride, or are ins some way given an initial introduction to the sport.

- Conversion, is the percentage of people who transition to solo, licensed pilot, XC pilot, racing pilot.

- Churn, is the number of people who get all the way through the conversion "funnel", are in the sport for a (short or long) while then drop out.

The balance of these three effects determine the size of the racing pilot pool year by year.

A big chunk of churn is related to demographics and aging of the baby boom, some is related to the pressures of modern life. Retaining an older pilot for a few more years only buys you a few more years, but given the current profile of the pilot community there might be some work to do.

Intake is expensive, especially with a conversion rate like ours, which IIRC, is around 1% of those who are introduced to the sport actually become a licensed pilot, let alone a regular XC or racing pilot. This is partly a time and money issue, but at the higher levels it is one of finding a mentor to bring you along. At the RC meeting last year we hosted a gathering of local XC, OLC and racing pilots. The most profound comments were around the lack of an onramp to racing, to lean the skills by flying (following, really) a better pilot to see how it's done.

Team flying using the radio is allowed at the regional level. For better or worse Flarm following has reduces some of the "where'd you go?" issues associated with flying with someone. It's kind of fun to run around the course with other pilots from time to time. Bruno's hybrid events have seen a higher proportion of pilots flying at least one, but seemingly more that one, of the assigned tasks as a learning experience - and because it allows you to fly with buddies.

I think there is something that each of us could do in increasing the conversion rate of new XC and racing pilots.

9B


Improvement at all stages -- intake, conversion & churn, should be improved by participants seeing clear goals ahead that they could achieve. For the most part this is XC flying in a nice ship, but there are other goals people could set themselves.

One observation is that on your side of the pond, you refer to introductory flights as "sleigh rides." I've heard that, by default, the prospective pilot doesn't even get a stick to handle!

If that's true, then no wonder the conversion rate is so low! In the era of high rises and budget commercial airline travel, sitting passively in (an ageing) glider just isn't very appealing to young people.

Give them a "trial flight," get them on the controls, and allow them to see themselves flying a high performance ship in the future.

That seed needs to be planted right from the get-go. Once it is planted, their own enthusiasm will do the rest.






--

Dan Marotta

The SSA Group Plan does not allow club/chapter scenic passengers to manipulate the controls. Hence the FAST program.

Frank Whiteley

On Monday, August 17, 2015 at 10:33:39 PM UTC+3, Frank Whiteley wrote:
The SSA Group Plan does not allow club/chapter scenic passengers to manipulate the controls. Hence the FAST program.

The opposite in New Zealand. Scenic flights are not allowed. If you do not offer use of the controls during the flight then you are in danger of being reclassified as a commercial operation, not a club, and that means a whole other (much more onerous) maintenance and regulatory regime.

Hey Sean,

My club (Aero Club Albatross in Blairstown, NJ) does a great job inspiring pilots to take up cross country soaring. This is due to several reasons.

1) Cross Country flying is encouraged in club equipment.
2) There is an active group of cross country pilots that fly often, which consistently shows what can be done.
3) The social scene encourages people to stick around after landing, which helps in mentoring new folks and almost guaranteeing that someone will retrieve you if you land out.
4) Landouts are treated as an accomplishment, rather than a hassle and a burden.

One of the big reasons that my club is so relaxed about cross country flying in club equipment is due to its two 1-26Es. If you would like to get XC approved, the rules are quite simple. Get your Silver climb and duration in the 1-26 and then you are approved to do a Silver Distance. After completing your silver badge in a 1-26, you are free to fly XC in any glider that you are approved to fly.

This arrangement works out very nicely because the low-time pilots cut their teeth in a glider that is cheap, safe and durable. If they land out, they are unlikely to hurt it and if they do incur some minor damage, it isn't a big deal to the club because at the end of the day, it's still a 1-26. As a result, ACA encourages people to get on out there and fly rather than being reticent about cutting them loose.

Flying cross country in club equipment is a big reason why we retain membership. Our fleet allows people to progress from Schweizers through sleek German glass at low cost. It makes it a lot easier for people to really try out the sport and get hooked rather than being faced with the daunting decision of having to buy a glider before they are really ready to go headfirst into this activity.

I am forever thankful that I am fortunate enough to be a member of such an awesome club and incredible soaring site.

Daniel

On Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 2:43:38 AM UTC+3, wrote:
One of the big reasons that my club is so relaxed about cross country flying in club equipment is due to its two 1-26Es. If you would like to get XC approved, the rules are quite simple. Get your Silver climb and duration in the 1-26 and then you are approved to do a Silver Distance. After completing your silver badge in a 1-26, you are free to fly XC in any glider that you are approved to fly.

Things work a bit differently at my club.

I'm not aware of any formal requirement to demonstrate soaring ability in order to go cross country. The requirement is to demonstrate ability to make a circuit and short precision landing over an obstacle (fence at least) to a place you haven't previously landed. This could be an unused corner of the airfield, or a nearby field with a friendly farmer (bonus points if it's far enough away in a suitable direction that you might actually need it in anger later). Cross country ratings are given for each glider type -- you might be allowed to take the PW5 cross country, but only fly the DG1000 locally.

On Monday, August 17, 2015 at 5:14:20 PM UTC-6, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Monday, August 17, 2015 at 10:33:39 PM UTC+3, Frank Whiteley wrote:
The SSA Group Plan does not allow club/chapter scenic passengers to manipulate the controls. Hence the FAST program.

The opposite in New Zealand. Scenic flights are not allowed. If you do not offer use of the controls during the flight then you are in danger of being reclassified as a commercial operation, not a club, and that means a whole other (much more onerous) maintenance and regulatory regime.

Interesting approach. The baseline for insurance here is commercial coverage. Under our SSA Group Plan, a club with 100% SSA members receives a discount, but will have some constraints, e.g., rides okay by current commercial rated pilot (and other FAA compliance such as Type Certificated glider, 100-hour inspections) but membership required to manipulate the controls. There are other insurance options, and other approaches. At least one club requires all members to have renter/non-owner insurance. This also allows members to fly with local commercial operations. This coverage is included under our group plan for private owners up to the insured limits of their hull value. The thinking behind the ride coverage is expectation of performance when the passenger pays for the service and how will the courts find that this expectation is met in case of a claim.

Frank Whiteley

I think there is something that each of us could do in increasing the conversion rate of new XC and racing pilots.

9B

Improvement at all stages -- intake, conversion & churn, should be improved by participants seeing clear goals ahead that they could achieve. For the most part this is XC flying in a nice ship, but there are other goals people could set themselves.

One observation is that on your side of the pond, you refer to introductory flights as "sleigh rides." I've heard that, by default, the prospective pilot doesn't even get a stick to handle!

If that's true, then no wonder the conversion rate is so low! In the era of high rises and budget commercial airline travel, sitting passively in (an ageing) glider just isn't very appealing to young people.

Give them a "trial flight," get them on the controls, and allow them to see themselves flying a high performance ship in the future.

That seed needs to be planted right from the get-go. Once it is planted, their own enthusiasm will do the rest.

Our clubs and chapters have been encouraged to offer introductory lessons over scenic flights. We have our Fly A Sailplane Today (FAST) package, which includes some materials, a log book, 1/2 hour ground lesson and 1/2 hour flight lesson and three-month SSA Introductory Membership (Soaring Magazine, website access, etc). Our committee encourages a local 'upgrade' for some additional dosh to make this a three-lesson 'FAST Plus' package and include a local introductory membership for a similar term (insurance reasons). After three logged lessons, there is a 'value-added' weight to that logbook, and with encouragement, many will become full members, especially if one of the lessons includes nice soaring sortie. Of course a reasonable cap on lessons as an 'intro' membership is recommended. But at least this will shake out those who are a good fit for the sport, for the club or chapter, and makes a bit of money. Scenic flights may be revenue positive, but deny members access to fleet and instruction although it may prepare a commercial pilot for becoming an instructor. Unfortunately we don't have a tiered instructor program like the BGA.

Frank Whiteley