FAI, soaring and Olympic Games

I think the Harris Hill group is doing great. But they are unique in many ways in terms of the facility, history, museum, funding, etc.

What's missing? :-). How about what isn't missing?

1) Serious focus at the SSA level. Leadership and realistic prioritization..
2) A sense of urgency nationally (carefully drilled down to the club level) and a plan. Oddly youth soaring programs would be very healthy for soaring clubs yet we seem to have few and no real national focus.
3) A national plan to motivate/help clubs to do what Harris Hill is doing.
4) A website (for the youth specifically) along with social channels. Kids do not want to talk to us about this, they want to talk to other kids. It needs to be self sustaining and "theirs" not ours. (a different conversation)
5) The chemistry and inertia of 30 such vibrant youth programs (or 10-15 in a region) operating simultaneously and feeding off each other. One or two at a time is not going to ignite this. Many need to be doing what Harris hill is doing now.

IMO, the SSA leadership needs to seriously re-prioritize (rules committee, etc) and re-focus on making sure that we develop these programs and measure success constantly.

Just look at Britain, Australia, France, Germany, etc. They seem to have great youth energy and participation (at all levels). Many have several national youth competitions, each with 50+ youth pilots each (plus instructors, etc). Imagine 3 or 4 seniors full of Juniors. Great parties for the kids, fun, etc. A great vibe. Healthy, active social media, video (youtube), twitter, snap-chat, etc.

A few quick examples (links to websites, etc all available and lots of inter-team taunting [very healthy]):
(Some of these are all 50x more active than our own SSA overall websites and social media)
(PS...websites are becoming almost irrelevant)
https://www.facebook.com/ukjuniorgliding/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/176599515713334/
https://www.facebook.com/GermanJuniorGlidingTeam/
https://www.facebook.com/Belgian-Jun...7310690991217/
https://www.gliding.co.uk/juniorgliding
Also France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Poland, etc, etc, etc, etc.
All flying FAI rules together by the way.

The truth is that we may never recover. The kids are trying but they are going to need significantly more help than they have at present. We (SSA, US Soaring) cant survive without solving this problem soon. It needs to be a huge priority. It simply is not.

How the US fell so far off the ledge with youth soaring yet so many other countries are still thriving (and highly organized and focused) is puzzling to me (despite the obvious). What happened 15, 20, 25 years ago to cause this near extinction vs. other counties east and west? Australia has the same size, isolation problem but seems to be developing many juniors. Even Canada is stronger. Anyone have any thoughts?

3) A national plan to motivate/help clubs to do what Harris Hill is doing

Harris Hill is unique because of the history of the site, and therefore
the governmental preservation and backing of the facility. The HHSC is
essentially given the whole facility to operate free of charge as long
as they "provide rides for the public". As I understand it, the
government does all of the facilities maintenance as well. The rides
also produce revenue , so they basically have no overhead costs.
Because of this, they are able to free up funding for programs like their
Juniors program. Even as prolific as the HHSC program is, they have
the same issues with young people staying "with it" over time. One
can only try to "set the hook" so that they come back after "life" gets in

the way.. ie, college, getting married, having kids, job, money, etc, etc.

The club which I have belonged to for the last 52 years (Nutmeg
Soaring Association formerly of CT, and now in Freehold, NY) has had
many scholarship students over the years. We have had them go on to
the USAFA , USNA, and other fine schools and universities. Some have
wound up as military aviators, airline and corporate pilots. Very, very
few have been able to stay with soaring as they went about the
business of living life. We can only hope that they can come back at a
time when life will permit it....

Most soaring operations/clubs don't have anywhere near the
"discretionary cash flow" that HHSC may have, so they can't spend as
much on youth programs. It is a very tough nut to crack....

RO

Soaring runs on obsessed pilots with the rare combination of money and time.. You need more of those before you have the trickle down resources(excess money and time) to run large youth programs. I'm not saying discard youth programs or not start any, just that we don't have the resources to make big ones. We need to recruit soaring pilots from the ranks of bored trustfunders. Another thought on youth programs, people don't like going back to sports they did when they were young if they are unable to perform at the same level. Soaring might not have this issue and I think any flight training for young people is a positive life enhancer whether or not they go on to be regular pilots. But training up masses of kids that don't become obsessed regulars is spent energy with possibly very low return to soaring. Noble certainly, but soaring doesn't have the resources for large scale nobility at the moment. Soaring needs more wealthy pilots(time, money, energy, and desire) if you want large youth programs.
PS Sean do you have your CFI?

Good points Gregg. It's going to be very hard, but this must be the SSA's "OBVIOUS" top priority. I'm not seeing very much in the way of even "light chatter" on this topic unfortunately.

No CFIG yet but I am planning on earning one. Maybe next spring. I just need to find some time.

I have been training/supporting a couple fairly famous photographers (one sports focused and the other a pure nature artist) to fly some very advanced custom drones (which help design and build to carry their ridiculous cameras) safely and efficiently ;-). That has been incredibly fun and rewarding.. I get to work with ESPN, NBC, America's Cup, etc. I plan on continuing with that.

For soaring, I would mainly be interested in a CFIG for teaching & promoting cross country soaring.

No trust fund here unfortunately.

Sean

At 16:26 08 November 2016, Sean wrote:
Good points Gregg. It's going to be very hard, but this must be
the SSA's
=
"OBVIOUS" top priority. I'm not seeing very much in the way of
even
"light=
chatter" on this topic unfortunately.

No CFIG yet but I am planning on earning one. Maybe next
spring. I just
n=
eed to find some time. =20

I have been training/supporting a couple fairly famous
photographers (one
s=
ports focused and the other a pure nature artist) to fly some very
advanced=
custom drones (which help design and build to carry their
ridiculous
camer=
as) safely and efficiently ;-). That has been incredibly fun and
rewarding=
.. I get to work with ESPN, NBC, America's Cup, etc. I plan on
continuing
=
with that.

For soaring, I would mainly be interested in a CFIG for teaching &
promotin=
g cross country soaring.

No trust fund here unfortunately.

Sean


You could volunteer to be on the SSA Youth Education Committee.
You might possibly even get to be the chairperson. Maybe you can
promote your social media skills to the SSA board, and maybe come
up with an SSA sponsored youth initiative which will be more
appealing to young people than what is out there right now. It is an
all volunteer thing, so the loudest complainers will be given the
chance to actually do something about it if they really want to....

RO

On Tuesday, 8 November 2016 16:41:26 UTC+11, Sean wrote:

Just look at Britain, Australia, France, Germany, etc. They seem to have great youth energy and participation (at all levels). Many have several national youth competitions, each with 50+ youth pilots each (plus instructors, etc). Imagine 3 or 4 seniors full of Juniors. Great parties for the kids, fun, etc. A great vibe. Healthy, active social media, video (youtube), twitter, snap-chat, etc.


Sorry to say, same problems as you down under! Our club runs a youth scholarship program and very little retention is seen. Although that's no worse than the retention rates from other recruitment sources!

Cheers Ben