Bruno recruits dozens

On Monday, October 10, 2016 at 9:52:37 AM UTC-6, wrote:
Great idea Soartech! A link to SSA's "Where to Fly" page would be great. I also think the SSA office should be prepared to field calls as well and every new member should be greeted by someone on behalf of the SSA. Frank Whiteley told me someone used to do this. I wonder if we could find some personable, outgoing individuals to step up and help the SSA with this.

-Chris Schrader, Brighton, MI (Region 6)

A member once did this, on his nickel. SSA State Governors are requested to do this with both new and lapsed members.

Frank Whiteley

On Sunday, October 9, 2016 at 3:00:43 PM UTC-6, Soartech wrote:
It's a rainy day here and so I sort of drifted into watching a few of Bruno Vassel's awesome "Scenery tours of Utah" videos on YouTube. I bet most people have no idea that the mountains seperating the dusty, brown valleys of Utah are so green and intersting on top! Then I started reading the comments by others, many of whom are not glider pilots.
These videos are inspiring many people to try soaring!! Here are just a few of the many comments I read:

"Bruno, I just found your videos today and you have wrecked my entire work day. I am going to the Prescott Soaring Society this Saturday to sign up. I'm doing this!" (3 weeks ago)

"Never been in a plane before, but one of the things i really want to do is get a gliders licence and join my local club, though it is 2 hours away." (15 hours ago)

"Your vertical speed indicator makes a sound? That's hilarious! An inexpensive alternative to a heads up display." (4 months ago)

"i want one!! what kind of licenses and requirement are there to fly glider air craft ???"

Bruno is very helpful and patiently answers many of the questions, but there are hundreds. Maybe a link to the SSA website could be inserted into the initial comments to make it easier for people to find out where to train.

Bruno will be serving the SSA and soaring as a Director-At-Large for 2017. His passion for family, life, and soaring is quite evident.

Frank Whiteley

A little story.

Some years back we almost lost our club. Financial pressures were mounting as membership dwindled, and many thought this was just another manifestation that soaring in the US is dying. We had put a number of rules in place that prevented ab-initiates from qualifying in club equipment, and this made us dependent on local commercial training operations. As capacity in those operations declined, our life blood (new members) was being cut off.

Instead we took a decisions and actions to make it easier for new members to find instructors and train in our club ships. Almost magically, our financial problems began to ease. We have even been able to grow our fleet, and have enjoyed slow, steady growth ever since.

Until this year. Bruno decided to increase his involvement in recruiting, and suddenly we have had more students than we can handle. So he helped recruit more instructors. Now our biggest concerns involve figuring out how to maintain and allocate our fleet so that everyone who wants to can fly -- and, by the way, that can be a big job. In some ways it is hard to manage double-digit annualized growth rates, but that is a good problem to have.

I think our sport isn't dying. Instead, we sometimes have an inadvertent hand in killing it. Our experience suggests all we have to do is make it easy for students to get their butts into a nice-ish glider with a qualified instructor, and the rest takes care of itself.

And it helps to have an energetic, passionate guy on the recruiting staff.

Lynn Alley
"2KA"

Wow guys! Thanks for the kind words!!! Living in Utah makes it really easy to shoot soaring videos - even with only one camera. It has been really fun meeting people from all over the world through these videos and answering their questions and I hope some more people will try out our sport as a result.

Only one request: if you have any interest in flying the west or the Rocky Mountains, come on out with your glider and come fly with us!

Bruno - B4

Not to steal the spotlight from the amazing videos that Bruno does, but I just ran across this one made by a few of our Embry Riddle students in Prescott Soaring. Well done I thought

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdU2ujVPoNc

On Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 9:43:07 PM UTC+3, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:
;930541 Wrote:
Not to steal the spotlight from the amazing videos that Bruno does, but
I just ran across this one made by a few of our Embry Riddle students in
Prescott Soaring. Well done I thought

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdU2ujVPoNc

This video is a long way from stealing anyone's thunder. I would not
show it to a potential pilot: antique glider, sun blasted desert,
uninspiring footage.

That's a bit harsh.

I agree, the glider and other equipment are fairly ancient and dilapidated, but my biggest criticism is that it gives the impression that gliding is about sled rides.

Probably for many people the mere idea of getting your feet off the ground and being in control of a flying craft is attractive enough to get started.

This video has the huge benefit that the whole exercise looks affordable, and like an achievable goal for someone starting from zero.

I love seeing skilled pilots travelling hundreds of km through gnarly mountains in sleek machines. But for I'd say 99% of people it looks as if you have to be both a millionaire and a genius -- and they know they aren't either of those and are put off, not inspired.

In reality, of course, there is a vast middle ground with affordable older (but still nice looking and well performing) aircraft such as Grobs, Libelles etc that lets normal people build up from being a beginner to flying 300 km maybe an hour slower than the bank-breaking stuff.

But how to communicate that?

On Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 2:43:07 PM UTC-4, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:
... antique glider, sun blasted desert,
uninspiring footage.

The strongest point of this video is that the pilots are not antique, and they appear to be having great fun.

I've just recently learned of Bruno's videos, some of which are inspiring indeed for this relatively n00b student that I am. I especially like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijx4ez8ZzXE
in which he contour-flies the ridge, occasionally reaching out the window to pick pine cones off the tree tops, and also buzzes a camp (unfortunately, unoccupied at the time).

Another source of spectacular glider videos, for the abinitate and anyone else alike, are the flights of Ramy Yanetz, who seems to be everywhere all over Region 11 and thereabouts. The best of these seem to have gathered about 3000-4000 views, but really these ought to be going mad-ass viral. In addition to the videos, he writes blogs about his flights discussing some of the more technical details, with spectacular photos (click any to enlarge), OLC traces, etc.

Herewith, I'll copy here a post I wrote in my nearby self-introduction thread, in which I give some links:

BTW, for whom it may interest, here are two beautiful videos of flights over the Bay Area, San Francisco all the way to Point Reyes, done a few years ago by Ramy, one of our members --

Low altitude, under 4000 ft -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggv5kkjqHrI
High alt, 15K-18K ft -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDdnfIANUxU

(For more like these, search for videos posted by "ramyyanetz")

Here, his blogs of those flights, with great photos, OLC traces, etc. (click any photo to enlarge) --
http://yanetz.blogspot.com/2011/05/m...ight-with.html
http://yanetz.blogspot.com/2012/01/bay-tour-sequel.html
http://www.valleysoaring.net/?page_id=314

-- J. J.
==========================

It has always seemed to me that the sport and recreation of soaring has always been relatively unknown outside the society of people who are all into aviation. I wonder how many people happen to stumble upon videos like Bruno's and Ramy's, other than those of us who go actively looking for them, and those who hear of them from us. It's not mentioned much in any mass media, for example, in contrast to, e.g., ice skating or even skydiving.

I myself first learned about soaring at the age of 15, and got interested, via a great article in National Geographic in 1967 (January or February issue, I think, but I'm not sure), with lots of pictures of course. My father then took me out to Dillingham Field (Oahu) for a glider ride. (In a 2-32!).

Fast forward about 10 years. Now out of college and fully employed, I started lessons at Sky Sailing, Fremont, 1975. But if it hadn't been for (a) that Nat Geo article and (b) a friend in college who was all into it, I might never have heard of gliders or sailplanes or soaring to this day.

Back in the 1960's or 1970's, Cessna had a major public advertising campaign, the gist (and slogan) of which was "If you can drive, you can fly!". But I never saw a similar publicity campaign to make soaring better known to the public. How about "If you can swim, you can soar!"

-- J. J.
======================

On Friday, October 21, 2016 at 8:25:31 PM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 2:43:07 PM UTC-4, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:
... antique glider, sun blasted desert,
uninspiring footage.

The strongest point of this video is that the pilots are not antique, and they appear to be having great fun.

To expand- I'd say it shows that you don't have to have the latest Arcus jet or fly in the Alps to have fun. This sport has a wide variety of ways for people to enjoy themselves. Many(most?) of the people in the "target" market have limited financial resources. Showing them an option they can afford may catch a few more.
FWIW
UH