What should a soaring club do at an airshow

Can you tell us more?
Do you know why folks from the Governor's office wanted a glider hanging
over the ballroom? Maybe there's something repeatable or leveragable....


"Ray Lovinggood" wrote in message
...
While not anything like an airshow, one of our club
members is letting his 301 Libelle be used at the Gubernatorial
Inauguration Ball. (North Carolina, USA, Governor
re-elect: Mike Easley)

Folks from the Governor's office (I guess) visited
our airfield looking for the 'glider guys.' They wanted
a glider to suspend from the ceiling of the Raleigh
Convention Center. They ran into the owner of the
301 and he has agreed to let them display it above
the heads of the dancing democrats.

The Ball is Saturday evening, 15 JAN 05. I wonder
if anyone will start thinking about how lovely the
Libelle is and thinking about learning to fly?

I hope the owner gets good photos!

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

I think the Ballroom was being decorated in three 'themes':
Land
Air
Sea
to represent the different areas of North Carolina.
The 'air' portion could play on the history of the
Outer Banks and the Wright Brothers. I don't know
why they chose a sailplane rather than an airplane.

I don't know what they have to represent the Land and
Sea portions.

If I can ever find out why they sought out a glider,
I'll report back.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

At 17:00 14 January 2005, For Example John Smith wrote:
Can you tell us more?
Do you know why folks from the Governor's office wanted
a glider hanging
over the ballroom? Maybe there's something repeatable
or leveragable....


'Ray Lovinggood' wrote in message
...
While not anything like an airshow, one of our club
members is letting his 301 Libelle be used at the
Gubernatorial
Inauguration Ball. (North Carolina, USA, Governor
re-elect: Mike Easley)

Folks from the Governor's office (I guess) visited
our airfield looking for the 'glider guys.' They
wanted
a glider to suspend from the ceiling of the Raleigh
Convention Center. They ran into the owner of the
301 and he has agreed to let them display it above
the heads of the dancing democrats.

The Ball is Saturday evening, 15 JAN 05. I wonder
if anyone will start thinking about how lovely the
Libelle is and thinking about learning to fly?

I hope the owner gets good photos!

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

I've cut the pictures from old soaring calendars and used spray adhesive to
mount two per poster board. These can then be displayed gallery style by
taping them to the trailer side or placed on the grass, tarmac, or floor
just inside the rope barrier (this also helps keep people at bay) so they
can see gliders in all sorts of flight situations.

Which university?

Frank
Colorado

"C Koenig" wrote in message
oups.com...
Dave - You have received a lot of good suggestions, I would like to
offer a few as well - all static display comments. Depending on the
circumstances of course, plan to assemble or disassemble with an
audience. This is a big hit at fly-ins, and camps (space, boy
scouts...) Keep the trailer somewhere where you can at least point it
out. Better yet is to have it open with your gear set for display. I
carry a shortened tow rope, and hook it to the glider for a prop. -
easier to explain when it is there. I also have four pictures - aero -
winch - auto - and bunjee. The bunjee is in B&W which seems to
reassure some people. If the glider does not have cushions in the
seatpan - put some in - or place the parachute in if you don't plan on
allowing people to sit in the plane. People commented a lot about how
uncomfortable it looked until I did this. If you do allow people to
sit in the plane, perform a mini ground course/cockpit check. (oh and
put the canopy in the trailer!) Buckle them in emphasizing low and
across the hips, then shoulder belts. Let them move the stick and
rudder - show how you have to move the controls in symetry to fly the
plane. Ask them to speed up, slow down, perform a turn to the right I
use my hand to show the roll, pitch and yaw as they move the controlls
so they have some feedback. The biggest thrill seems to be pulling the
dive brakes - as somebody already mentioned something can actally be
seen then. I also carry a picture of a thermal and wave - wave is
difficult to explain but most people have seen a thermal and the
beautiful cu at the top. Having kids around helping is a good draw -
my kids love telling people about how their mom flys gliders and the
places they have been - not to mention when they tell these people they
have flown in one. (my kids are 6 and 8) Hand out flyers, and put
YOUR name and phone number (or email address). People don't want
another cold start in soaring with more strangers - they want to start
with the person they met and liked at the show. Even if you are there
just to pass them to the next person for a demo ride - they will feel
good that your interest was not just at the event.

Showing gliders at events is rewarding. I love showing people about
this sport - over the past two years have had over 120 kids/teens sit
in the cockpit of my Cirrus. One teen sent me an email - he is going
to college in Colorado because there is a glider club close by. I have
also had teens stop to talk to me in the mall because they remembered
me - and to hear them telling their friends about the glider and soring
is just... well.. worth every minute I have spent doing this.
Hope this helps and good luck!
Colleen Koenig

One of the big issues in soaring is retention of people. It is quite an
investment in training people to fly, hoping they will solo, get licensed, and
perhaps more importantly, stay in soaring.

If a person does not have the aviation interest to even know that gliders
exist, do we even want them in our sport? I think the pilots we want are those
that have the curiousity of aviation to know the range of options available in
aviation. If a person at an airshow is surprised that gliders even exist, it
seems to me that they lack the curiosity and drive to pursue this rather
challenging sport. IMO, the best indicator of a high potential candidate are
interests such as building model aircraft, flying kites, sailing etc. I
question whether even the typical power pilot would be a good glider guider.
I've met enough of them who have never even heard of gliding; their scope of
knowledge of aircraft is so limited that I wonder why they even got a power
ticket in the first place.

Rather than letting anyone join a club and take advantage of a flight training
program, how about giving an aptitude test to see if the canditate has the
basic intelligence and knowledge to better assure they might make it through
the flight training program? I would rather train one student to solo than
three students who quit half way through or take twice as many flights as most.
It would be a better utilization of club resouces, make everyone safer, and
increase the morale of the sport since the retention would be higher.

Jim Vincent
N483SZ
illspam

Yes, some people's children are idiots,
but I've never experienced any damage.

Me neither. But, I did see a kid step onto the lowered wingtip of a
DG300 at a static display, and proceed to walk it up to the fuselage.
Dang near made it too.

Tony V.

At a local airshow...a kindly sort had brought his
Stemme, and had the canopy up so visitors could look
inside. Suddenly a parent thought it was a great idea
to plop his infant and others into the ship's seats...with
their ice-cream and cotton-candy greased little hands.
I winced, but the owner was unbelieivably courteous
as he explained to pop why that was not such a hot
idea.



At 17:31 15 January 2005, Tony Verhulst wrote:

Yes, some people's children are idiots,
but I've never experienced any damage.

Me neither. But, I did see a kid step onto the lowered
wingtip of a
DG300 at a static display, and proceed to walk it up
to the fuselage.
Dang near made it too.

Tony V.

If you are letting people into the cockpit get some sort of lock fitted to
the U/C handle to prevent a sickening crunch.

Ian