Duo Discus Rides in 2017 ?

Is anyone interested in selling Duo Discus rides next year at various stops along the competition circuit as KS and others have done over the years - either for the benefit of the US Team, SSA Juniors, another cause, or perhaps themselves?

One can never sell too many Duo Discus rides (preferably mentoring or instruction flights) in contests. It's a great sales tool for the sport and for high-performance two-place trainers in general. I think there are a number of clubs who have a handful or more members who'd like to experience this for themselves and who may have influence in steering their own Boards towards purchasing a Duo for the purpose of implementing XC dual flight instruction into their training programs and encouraging member use in regional contests. It's surely a good thing for growth and retention, and Junior Development (see Luke Szczepaniak's comments on RAS about Juniors dominating the Canadian Nationals). Moreover, we shouldn't underestimate the effect those rides had over the years in growing the 20m class.

On a personal note, one flight with Tim Welles at R3 in a Duo changed my life forever; he let me do 90% of the flying and make all my own mistakes. I left a Juniors XC Camp 11 years ago with a whole different perspective and an infectious love affair with XC soaring ever since. There's no doubt in my mind clubs should work to obtain advanced two-seaters. It will help grow the sport.

Maybe the distributors can step up and demonstrate their aircraft to the masses (especially interested racing newbies), as others have done in the past.

On Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 10:32:10 PM UTC-4, Christopher Schrader wrote:
Is anyone interested in selling Duo Discus rides next year at various stops along the competition circuit as KS and others have done over the years - either for the benefit of the US Team, SSA Juniors, another cause, or perhaps themselves?

One can never sell too many Duo Discus rides (preferably mentoring or instruction flights) in contests. It's a great sales tool for the sport and for high-performance two-place trainers in general. I think there are a number of clubs who have a handful or more members who'd like to experience this for themselves and who may have influence in steering their own Boards towards purchasing a Duo for the purpose of implementing XC dual flight instruction into their training programs and encouraging member use in regional contests. It's surely a good thing for growth and retention, and Junior Development (see Luke Szczepaniak's comments on RAS about Juniors dominating the Canadian Nationals). Moreover, we shouldn't underestimate the effect those rides had over the years in growing the 20m class.

On a personal note, one flight with Tim Welles at R3 in a Duo changed my life forever; he let me do 90% of the flying and make all my own mistakes. I left a Juniors XC Camp 11 years ago with a whole different perspective and an infectious love affair with XC soaring ever since. There's no doubt in my mind clubs should work to obtain advanced two-seaters. It will help grow the sport.

Maybe the distributors can step up and demonstrate their aircraft to the masses (especially interested racing newbies), as others have done in the past.

Food for thought.

- B2G

I'd suggest that it may be worth expanding to more 2 seaters than Duo's. There are a lot of ASK-21's and Grobs that can be used for regional contest flying with new prospective cross country and contest pilots. "All" it requires is a suitable medium to high performance 2 seat ship and an experienced and willing mentor.
The 2 sixteen year old pilots that flew with me this year at Springfield didn't mind that they were in a '21 and not a Duo. In fact they enjoyed beating the Duo's most days. Incidentally, the enthusiasm from this activity spurred both to finish their licenses and one is now in the Jr's Libelle with the other to follow shortly.
You have a great concept, I only suggest not limiting it.
Good Luck
UH

Of course UH is right. I remember the first contest day I flew ever, was Region 12 in the mid 1990's. I was flying an ASW-24, crossing over from the Whites to the Sierras near lone pine and a ASK-21 (perhaps it was a Grob 103) flown by Marty and a student passed me! If had had a little more experience I would have been embarrassed, but I had only been flying XC in the mountains for a year and happy to have an experience pilot even in a much lower performance bird to try to keep up.


On Friday, October 14, 2016 at 6:21:03 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 10:32:10 PM UTC-4, Christopher Schrader wrote:
Is anyone interested in selling Duo Discus rides next year at various stops along the competition circuit as KS and others have done over the years - either for the benefit of the US Team, SSA Juniors, another cause, or perhaps themselves?

One can never sell too many Duo Discus rides (preferably mentoring or instruction flights) in contests. It's a great sales tool for the sport and for high-performance two-place trainers in general. I think there are a number of clubs who have a handful or more members who'd like to experience this for themselves and who may have influence in steering their own Boards towards purchasing a Duo for the purpose of implementing XC dual flight instruction into their training programs and encouraging member use in regional contests. It's surely a good thing for growth and retention, and Junior Development (see Luke Szczepaniak's comments on RAS about Juniors dominating the Canadian Nationals). Moreover, we shouldn't underestimate the effect those rides had over the years in growing the 20m class.

On a personal note, one flight with Tim Welles at R3 in a Duo changed my life forever; he let me do 90% of the flying and make all my own mistakes.. I left a Juniors XC Camp 11 years ago with a whole different perspective and an infectious love affair with XC soaring ever since. There's no doubt in my mind clubs should work to obtain advanced two-seaters. It will help grow the sport.

Maybe the distributors can step up and demonstrate their aircraft to the masses (especially interested racing newbies), as others have done in the past.

Food for thought.

- B2G

I'd suggest that it may be worth expanding to more 2 seaters than Duo's. There are a lot of ASK-21's and Grobs that can be used for regional contest flying with new prospective cross country and contest pilots. "All" it requires is a suitable medium to high performance 2 seat ship and an experienced and willing mentor.
The 2 sixteen year old pilots that flew with me this year at Springfield didn't mind that they were in a '21 and not a Duo. In fact they enjoyed beating the Duo's most days. Incidentally, the enthusiasm from this activity spurred both to finish their licenses and one is now in the Jr's Libelle with the other to follow shortly.
You have a great concept, I only suggest not limiting it.
Good Luck
UH

On Friday, October 14, 2016 at 9:21:03 AM UTC-4, wrote:

I'd suggest that it may be worth expanding to more 2 seaters than Duo's. There are a lot of ASK-21's and Grobs that can be used for regional contest flying with new prospective cross country and contest pilots. "All" it requires is a suitable medium to high performance 2 seat ship and an experienced and willing mentor.
The 2 sixteen year old pilots that flew with me this year at Springfield didn't mind that they were in a '21 and not a Duo. In fact they enjoyed beating the Duo's most days. Incidentally, the enthusiasm from this activity spurred both to finish their licenses and one is now in the Jr's Libelle with the other to follow shortly.
You have a great concept, I only suggest not limiting it.
Good Luck
UH

UH, I'm in total agreement with you. My comments were too narrowly focused. Any two-place mentoring is good for the sport. While I don't know you personally, I'm told over the years you've done this with a lot of Juniors and it's been quite successful. My hope is that clubs around the country come to understand that using their two-place ship for mentoring budding pilots, regardless of age, will be a good thing for the long-term health of their club. Moreover, pilots entering the sport in their 30's and 40's should get this sort of encouragement and mentoring as well. And if that leads to more affluent members over time participating in the sport at this level, why all the better! The benefits carry-on to increased competition attendance and better retention of pilots at the club level (which indirectly is good for the SSA). Win-win-win!

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

/Chris (B2G)