Make Sailplane Racing Great Again

On Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 10:02:54 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 11:22:20 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Q-"What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?"
A- Poor instructor experience level nationally, and poor fleet nationally speaking.

Soaring is not fostered by the clubs in the US, gliding is. If you can't soar, you can't race. A newly minted pilot must choose between a 20-100k investment and teach themselves to fly X/C or earn an instructor certificate and spend the rest of their days in the back of a 2-33. (this is why membership is down.) The self starters who spend their money to buy a private ship care little about fostering a fledgling pilot unless they want to buy a glider and try to keep up. The whole system is out of wack. Clubs that won't invest in high performance equipment and advanced instruction miss the opportunity to sustain membership and improve the sport. The instructor group refuses to acknowledge the problem because it exposes their inexperience in x/c and time in high performance a/c. They have no desire to invest money out of pocket as club members in the higher performance a/c or the financial investment required of themselves to become x/c proficient.
Take a look at the JR. program in the UK. Do you think they expect those kids to buy their own gliders and figure it out themselves? No, they have real instructors and real sailplanes. If you have a large number of x/c proficient pilots with a bunch of high performance gliders laying around the racing part will take care of itself.

-Doug

Doug, beating up on US clubs maybe en vogue but doesn't come close to the truth. As a member of 2 clubs that own ASK-21's, a Duo, an ASW-24, LS6 and LS4's we promote x-country flying and beg members to use these assets. We also have competent competition pilots to show them the ropes. Maligning the US club culture is not helping, how about you working on improving it?
Herb

Being an armchair critic requires 15 seconds. Being a builder of the sport requires a lifetime of commitment.
Our club does primary in 2-33's (gasp), advanced in ASK-21. We teach XC in both.
We have 2 1-26's and a 1-34 for solo XC. Our Juniors have their own 1-26 and Std Libelle for XC. Three,possibly four of our juniors will fly in contests this year, with some others doing contest "riding" where they fly the task assisted by an experienced contest pilot.
Harris Hill does the same, except their juniors have a Discus.
FWIW
UH

Just to build on this... Our little slice of the world (eastern Region 2) generates contest participation disproportionate to our size and especially to our soaring conditions. Why? It's because 3 or 4 sites are committed to building/fostering an active XC community. Without an active XC community, you can't have racing.

At Aero Club Albatross for example, we push people out of the nest early on. Once they get a Silver distance (in a 1-26), they have access to a 1-34R. After the 1-34, they can move into an LS3 or an LS4. Oh, and we've refurbished 2 of the 3 glass birds from basket cases to like-new condition ourselves. It's not due to some top-down mandate but rather a culture that's been formed over decades.

Now, we have clubs at Randall (UH's group) and Brandywine (Philadelphia area) to compete against thanks to similarly driven and growing clubs.

Message: Think global. Act local. It's actually not that hard . It just takes a few people who will abandon the keyboard and actually go out and do stuff.

Erik Mann
Refinisher-in-Chief, ACA



On Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 11:13:24 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 10:02:54 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 11:22:20 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Q-"What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?"
A- Poor instructor experience level nationally, and poor fleet nationally speaking.

Soaring is not fostered by the clubs in the US, gliding is. If you can't soar, you can't race. A newly minted pilot must choose between a 20-100k investment and teach themselves to fly X/C or earn an instructor certificate and spend the rest of their days in the back of a 2-33. (this is why membership is down.) The self starters who spend their money to buy a private ship care little about fostering a fledgling pilot unless they want to buy a glider and try to keep up. The whole system is out of wack. Clubs that won't invest in high performance equipment and advanced instruction miss the opportunity to sustain membership and improve the sport. The instructor group refuses to acknowledge the problem because it exposes their inexperience in x/c and time in high performance a/c. They have no desire to invest money out of pocket as club members in the higher performance a/c or the financial investment required of themselves to become x/c proficient.
Take a look at the JR. program in the UK. Do you think they expect those kids to buy their own gliders and figure it out themselves? No, they have real instructors and real sailplanes. If you have a large number of x/c proficient pilots with a bunch of high performance gliders laying around the racing part will take care of itself.

-Doug

Doug, beating up on US clubs maybe en vogue but doesn't come close to the truth. As a member of 2 clubs that own ASK-21's, a Duo, an ASW-24, LS6 and LS4's we promote x-country flying and beg members to use these assets. We also have competent competition pilots to show them the ropes. Maligning the US club culture is not helping, how about you working on improving it?
Herb

Being an armchair critic requires 15 seconds. Being a builder of the sport requires a lifetime of commitment.
Our club does primary in 2-33's (gasp), advanced in ASK-21. We teach XC in both.
We have 2 1-26's and a 1-34 for solo XC. Our Juniors have their own 1-26 and Std Libelle for XC. Three,possibly four of our juniors will fly in contests this year, with some others doing contest "riding" where they fly the task assisted by an experienced contest pilot.
Harris Hill does the same, except their juniors have a Discus.
FWIW
UH

On Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 9:16:08 AM UTC-8, Papa3 wrote:
Just to build on this... Our little slice of the world (eastern Region 2) generates contest participation disproportionate to our size and especially to our soaring conditions. Why? It's because 3 or 4 sites are committed to building/fostering an active XC community. Without an active XC community, you can't have racing.

At Aero Club Albatross for example, we push people out of the nest early on. Once they get a Silver distance (in a 1-26), they have access to a 1-34R. After the 1-34, they can move into an LS3 or an LS4. Oh, and we've refurbished 2 of the 3 glass birds from basket cases to like-new condition ourselves. It's not due to some top-down mandate but rather a culture that's been formed over decades.

Now, we have clubs at Randall (UH's group) and Brandywine (Philadelphia area) to compete against thanks to similarly driven and growing clubs.

Message: Think global. Act local. It's actually not that hard . It just takes a few people who will abandon the keyboard and actually go out and do stuff.

Erik Mann
Refinisher-in-Chief, ACA



On Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 11:13:24 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 10:02:54 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 11:22:20 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Q-"What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?"
A- Poor instructor experience level nationally, and poor fleet nationally speaking.

Soaring is not fostered by the clubs in the US, gliding is. If you can't soar, you can't race. A newly minted pilot must choose between a 20-100k investment and teach themselves to fly X/C or earn an instructor certificate and spend the rest of their days in the back of a 2-33. (this is why membership is down.) The self starters who spend their money to buy a private ship care little about fostering a fledgling pilot unless they want to buy a glider and try to keep up. The whole system is out of wack. Clubs that won't invest in high performance equipment and advanced instruction miss the opportunity to sustain membership and improve the sport. The instructor group refuses to acknowledge the problem because it exposes their inexperience in x/c and time in high performance a/c. They have no desire to invest money out of pocket as club members in the higher performance a/c or the financial investment required of themselves to become x/c proficient.
Take a look at the JR. program in the UK. Do you think they expect those kids to buy their own gliders and figure it out themselves? No, they have real instructors and real sailplanes. If you have a large number of x/c proficient pilots with a bunch of high performance gliders laying around the racing part will take care of itself.

-Doug

Doug, beating up on US clubs maybe en vogue but doesn't come close to the truth. As a member of 2 clubs that own ASK-21's, a Duo, an ASW-24, LS6 and LS4's we promote x-country flying and beg members to use these assets. We also have competent competition pilots to show them the ropes. Maligning the US club culture is not helping, how about you working on improving it?
Herb

Being an armchair critic requires 15 seconds. Being a builder of the sport requires a lifetime of commitment.
Our club does primary in 2-33's (gasp), advanced in ASK-21. We teach XC in both.
We have 2 1-26's and a 1-34 for solo XC. Our Juniors have their own 1-26 and Std Libelle for XC. Three,possibly four of our juniors will fly in contests this year, with some others doing contest "riding" where they fly the task assisted by an experienced contest pilot.
Harris Hill does the same, except their juniors have a Discus.
FWIW
UH

Erik (and Hank and others) make important points. I'd offer a couple of thoughts.

Glider racing is basically s subscription business in that you need to attract "customers" (Glider Pilots -- XC Pilots -- Racing Pilots) at some considerable upfront cost and effort and attempt to retain them. The basic health of the business is therefore dictated by "installed base churn" - that is, you need more people coming in than going out.

Generally retention is cheaper and easier than running more volume through the customer acquisition pipeline, but it has limits (at minimum people retire ultimately). Keeping racing engaging and fun (in terms of the the competition itself and socially) helps retain pilots. People in my part of the world call this good UX design (user experience). We should ask ourselves why Seniors, Perry, Nephi and a few other places draw so well. For some the adventure of a new environment and the promise of exceptional flying conditions are alluring, but good UX for participants (and those who support these events) is more than that.

No matter what you do with retention, you still have to attract new blood through some or all of the Glider Pilot -- XC Pilot -- Racing Pilot customer acquisition chain. That process basically requires that the impetus and motivation to move forward exceed the obstacles. I think Erik and Hank have it basically right. There are obstacles related available time, distance and suitable equipment for XC that need to be knocked down (some - like distance - are harder to solve for), but are also relatively straightforward approaches to increasing the motivation to move forward. It is partly intrinsic (the person needs to have the flying/racing "gene"), but much of it is human relationships and social. This is where training, mentoring, encouragement, and making the process socially attractive matter. For instance, getting into this sport requires a high ratio of non-flying to flying time - what's that time look like in terms of UX? Dealing with those things takes more time than money and that can be easy or hard, depending on whether there are people willing to invest and stick with it.

Those who do put in the time are precious resources and I thank them. I've been watching Erik's glider refurbishment projects from a distance - that's a big commitment. I know how much energy Hank (and many others that I don't know so well) puts into keeping a flock of younger pilots engaged, excited and making progress. I think that's a lot of what needs to be developed and emulated.

As Hank would say - FWIW.

Andy Blackburn
9B

I am so amused. Please keep going. #popcorn

Ok, for you and Wilbur, I have been around the sport for many years (started in the early/mid 70's).

Did the basic, kid learns to fly, starts getting away from airport, does off airport landings, gets license, eventually becomes CFIG to "give back to the sport", worked on badges (gold "C" with 2 diamonds, all from SE NY), numerous regionals, a few nationals. I would go XC in a 1-26 just as often as an ASG-29, I didn't care, I was flying.

I don't fly contests right now, haven't for maybe 6 years.

Why?

To start, it has NOTHING to do with the contest rules then or now. Period.
A lot was time, my job entailed a lot of work travel, this meant when home, I had things that needed to be done, wife that wanted to spend time with me (imagine that), 2 kids that wanted to do things with me (also imagine that).

We did all go to our airport, wife would do some things with other wives while I flew, my kids would fly with me, one got to the point of getting a private glider license.
Kids ended up doing other things, I still didn't fly as much as I wanted/needed.
I flew enough to "be safe", marginal on being decent on XC, no where near what I consider good enough to be competing, both for myself as well as others in the air I was flying with.

I either own or have access to a great selection of aircraft. With enough current flying, I would like to compete again, I do enjoy the flying as well as being with the majority of the contest crowd. This is the pilots, their families and all the people on the ground that put on a contest.
I started contests when we all had sectionals with rings on them for distance, cameras as flight proof, waiting hours as film was developed, most people didn't have electric varios (I thought an audio vario was VERY cool to have!). Last contest had GPS, flight computers and moving maps, FLARM, again, really cool stuff.

So, for me (again, read my background), to make "soaring great again" has absolutely NOTHING to do with rules that we used to use or currently use.

I can't/won't speak for others, I can only speak for myself.

I will say that I'm glad I fly in a club that PROMOTES XC and badge flying.
I'm also glad I have the aircraft access that I have.

Maybe if more locations do what our club does as well as ACA, HHSC and others, it can turn things around.

But I think the "broad brush stroke" of what is wrong with the sport is just as wrong. That is my opinion though.

..

Been in clubs that had crap equipment and actively discouraged getting better. Same clubs had leadership that did all they could to discourage cross country soaring. Been in clubs that had great equipment and encouraged racing and cross country. Guess which of those two types are the more successful? Unfortunately, club sports of all kinds tend to get taken over by bureaucratic types who love nothing better than to rule. They love to forbid, restrict, deny. Usually in the name of "safety". Oh, and they love love love to trot out the "Oh, we can't do that, it exposes us to LIABILITY!. These people throw roadblocks in the way of anything that is not their idea. God forbid someone suggest we allow a junior to take the club glass single place (obtained by tramping over the dead bodies of those who said we'd buy a club glass ship "over their dead bodies"). We have a particularly talented junior in our club. Superb stick, smart, and absolutely dying to fly cross country. Club leadership pitches the expected hissy and throws obstacles in the kid's way. So, the kid just decides he'll abide and fly as best he can. Of course, one day I ranged out to one our regular turnpoints about 35 miles away. Guess who was there already? Of course, the kid, and he's comfortably centered in a great thermal going up. We flew together for a while until I got embarrassed about being outclimbed. He knew where he was, knew what he needed to get to a landing field, and what he needed to get home. The point is, there was no reason to discourage this young man's progress in soaring other than pure bloody mindedness and the bureaucratic urge to say no (and, I think no small part of jealousy). So, even in clubs that bill themselves as encouraging cross country and racing, the faithful have to constantly fight to actually provide that encouragement and opportunities to the membership. It's fatiguing and stressful to have to fight with people you love and otherwise respect, but sometimes that's what we have to do.