Contest Reporting (in "Soaring" mag)

On Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 11:20:38 PM UTC-7, Eric Bick (ZN7) wrote:
Another longish post-

First, I greatly appreciate this thread. I get very little direct feedback from members on magazine content. It is easy to complain, harder to constructively critique, harder yet to be a part of the improvement process.

My biggest challenge taking over as editor last March was finding enough material to fill even half the magazine. I've written articles myself to ensure we didn't publish with blank pages. (We get many photo submissions, which are much easier to generate than articles - but it is actually as hard to get an outstanding and interesting photo as it is an article. I hope everyone enjoys the March issue article about Maria Szemplinska's approach to photography in soaring.)

There is no budget to solicit articles such as published in Gliding International, which provides a modest stipend to contributors (I will be asking for such a budget for this year, but don't think it will appear).

I, too, long for the days when Dick Johnson provided his test reports of the latest and greatest, or when Bob Whelan was writing his monthly tech articles. I pored over every word written by Joe Lincoln. I devoured these reports. And stories of soaring at "exotic" spots such as Rosamond, or the Sierra Wave project. But times change. Social media have become a "voice of the people" and posting short snippets has, in many instances, replaced thoughtful writing (as opposed to sharing personal, spur of the moment, thoughts). I know many younger pilots who can't read past a couple of sentences in the first paragraph, lose patience, and go onto other things.

I've made requests in the magazine and elsewhere for specific articles on specific topics of the type I used to find so interesting, but with minimal responses. It really is true that writing an article is hard - it is time consuming, can require research and focused thought. And the editor might not like it, even after all that.

My goal is to have a stack of articles to choose from and even reject some. Not sure when/if that time will come. It is getting better, and I have been seeing some good articles, but there is much room for improvement. In my mind, the magazine is the place for more thoughtful and in-depth articles.. The SSA website carries more the social media type content. The magazine has a different purpose, partly in presenting articles of interest and depth, and partly in providing a photographic experience.

I have personally made trips to various soaring activities in order to write articles about what was being experienced by myself and those that attended (such as cross country trip), and wrote a series of articles about a neophyte flying in a first contest. This is fun for me, but I have limited time to do this. I also like to just go out and fly - and being editor does interfere with this at times.

The membership is diverse. The articles reflect that diversity. Contests are a part of the experience. I am contemplating specifying a format that summarizes the results and focuses more on the "Here's what I did" experiences from the pilots to give a flavor to non-competition pilots what it is like to fly in a contest. I've flown in one and thoroughly enjoyed it. Currently, it is a challenge to find someone who is willing to write about any particular contest. This is understandable. A contest is a high energy, focused event. Asking someone to write about it is asking them to divert their energy and focus from the contest itself. And to gather inputs from participants is asking for even more effort. Is it worth it? If it can put a reader at the contest to share in the excitement - and frustrations - it can be worth it. But it takes effort.

We've had some great articles from the likes of Mitch Polinski about his record setting attempts. I like these because they share the challenge of going after records. And we've been getting more articles about flying at different locations, which I think helps motivate pilots to get away from their home fields and accept the challenge of flying where they don't know where the house thermals are, or the safe landing spots - without doing some research.

Finally, we are faced with a series of challenges in soaring, this year and for the next few. Aging pilot population, declining SSA membership, new ATC/FAA dictates (ADS-B, etc.), changing face of competitions (to FLARM or not to FLARM), more airspace constriction/density, increasing use of drones, and other challenges. The magazine is the logical place to discuss these topics in-depth, backed up with solid research to enable intelligent decisions. Further, most of us just want to fly our gliders - but these other topics keep popping up and sometimes interfere. So who's going to write those articles that induce neophytes to really become a part of our sport? Convey the challenge and excitement of contest flying, or going on that first cross country flight? And who is going to write the in-depth articles that enable our membership to intelligently help make decisions about how we fly? If SSA members don't, then it won't happen.

Again, thanks for the inputs in this thread. They are helpful. I can use more help.

Editor, Soaring Magazine

Great response Eric, thank you. I have contributed articles in the past and I know it does take effort, for example I am currently into my third year of writing a book about my soaring experiences. I follow many people on the various media sites and they report on their efforts. With a little expansion many of those reports could be Soaring articles. I would encourage those "reporters" from the Williams, CA site at the Hollister group as well as Avenal reporters to give it a shot. I certainly enjoy reading all of their reports on the sites and I am sure others would like them as well in the Mag.

gary kemp "NK"

Eric,

I think you're doing a great job.

In the sport of sailing, detailed articles are required (demanded) by the winner (or can be delegated to another competitor in some cases) of any minor (regionals, camp, etc) regatta. A detailed nationals article by the winner of any class is a given. The mob gets angry if a solid regatta report is not available within a few days (week max) and published in the class online magazine, social media, yearbook, etc. This is part of the sailing culture.

In soaring I think there are many more interesting subjects to write about than sailing. Long OLC flights, record attempts, new achievements such as badges, instruction, rating, etc., new gliders (buying a new or used one), Safari excursions out west, etc., etc.

I often wonder if the time has come to change to an online soaring "magazine" instead of a printed version. This has happened in many sailing classes long ago and saved tremendous amounts of money. This way you are not waiting a month or quarter for the print magazine to arrive and there is a constant stream of content several times a week as articles, reports and news are published. This has numerous advantages.

Anyway, I know it's hard to be an editor and I think you are doing a great job. Probably the best thing to do is not be bashful about hounding key people more and helping them come up with more ideas. Rather than asking for one article, ask for one article a month, quarter, etc. As a community we should not be starving you of such content. That makes your job much harder than it should be.

I have a hundred ideas for you as I write this little note. PM or email me and I will send you a list. I have a friend who flies in France every summer for 3-4 weeks for example. That's an easy annual article right there about the French gliding experience (very interesting). Every winter a few lucky Americans go to Africa or New Zealand to fly, etc, etc. Junior activity is another. Sailplane Grand Prix USA is another. And so on....

Sincerely,

Sean

For the record...

On 2/2/2016 11:20 PM, Eric Bick (ZN7) wrote:
Another longish post-

First, I greatly appreciate this thread. I get very little direct feedback
from members on magazine content. It is easy to complain, harder to
constructively critique, harder yet to be a part of the improvement
process.
Snip...
I, too, long for the days when Dick Johnson provided his test reports of
the latest and greatest, or when Bob Whelan was writing his monthly tech
articles... Snip...
Even though I'm about as minimalist a soaring pilot as can be found I, too,
enjoyed ==Bill Collum's== "Soaring Tech" monthly-for-a-long-time, articles.
For multiple reasons, I was amazed he was able to keep it going for so long on
a regular basis.


Editor, Soaring Magazine


Communication's a two-way street. Great to receive thoughtful, comprehensive,
seriously informative feedback from ye Editor of a national organization's
magazine on RAS. Thank you! ("Soaring" magazine is still treasured by many
recipients other than me, I'm sure [reading from a glowing screen has a
different resonance than from printed pages].)

Bob W.

On 2/3/2016 6:13 AM, wrote:
Major snip

Great response Eric, thank you. I have contributed articles in the past
and I know it does take effort, for example I am currently into my third
year of writing a book about my soaring experiences. I follow many people
on the various media sites and they report on their efforts. With a little
expansion many of those reports could be Soaring articles. I would
encourage those "reporters" from the Williams, CA site at the Hollister
group as well as Avenal reporters to give it a shot. I certainly enjoy
reading all of their reports on the sites and I am sure others would like
them as well in the Mag.

gary kemp "NK"

Right on, Gary K!

Other than RAS, I'm not a regular imbiber of "electronic media" as a means of
maintaining ties to regional or national groups (of any kind, not just
soaring). Life's too short; when it comes to research and self-informing, I
fall into the "relatively focused" category. That's not to knock (say) the
Facebooks of the world and what can be found on them...but the world remains a
big place regardless of communications ease and speed. How much have our minds
- as distinct from what's inside them - changed in (say) the last 10,000
years? Point being, I'm generally "Facebook ignorant" (by contented choice).

That said, I completely agree that (not only) FB contains (very many!)
"diamonds in the rough" quite suitable, after - maybe even minor, in some
cases - massaging, for "Soaring" magazine. Probably a valid observation for
every country with a national print magazine.

Key to helping this sort of cross-pollination happen is - unavoidably, IMO -
"SOMEone(s)" at multiple local levels to take a bit in their teeth by
providing suitable nudging/encouragement/support/whatever to the original
poster. As noted elsewhere in this thread, there's no reason "Joe Someone"
can't be the face looking back from the mirror every time you happen to glance
at one. Doesn't mean your commitment needs to be overwhelming or everlasting.
A one-time effort upon recognizing a certain local posting that you think
others beyond your local geographic circle might similarly enjoy, that
eventually (with your supportive effort) sees "national print space" (woo
hoo!) will've measurably enriched "Soaring"...and maybe even "soaring" in
general. Philosophic "global selflessness" aside, imagine how warm and fuzzy
seeing the final printed product will make everyone involved with birthing
each such article feel! Ah self-interest - not a thing wrong with it when done
in "golden rule" proportions...

I look forward to such contributions!!!

Bob W.

P.S. Gary - you likely don't remember it, but "some teacher from California"
was one of "those XC soaring gods" upon whom I gazed in mild awe in several
early seasons of soaring my 1-26 from Heber City in early/mid '70s. I may have
even helped pull you from a field post-midnight near (Richfield?)...can't
remember whether it was Gary K. or Gary F.

P.S. Gary - you likely don't remember it, but "some teacher from California"
was one of "those XC soaring gods" upon whom I gazed in mild awe in several
early seasons of soaring my 1-26 from Heber City in early/mid '70s. I may have
even helped pull you from a field post-midnight near (Richfield?)...can't
remember whether it was Gary K. or Gary F.

Yep, it was me, sad to say, it was east of Richfield, in Emery, Utah. I used to just take off working on records (500K at that time) and someone would agree to come for me if I landed out. Thank you Bob, I have often thought of those guys who selflessly came and got me in the middle of nowhere (turns out it was where my grandfather lived his young life). I got shot down by thunderstorms trying to get to Salina-Gunnison. What great fun. Thanks again.

Gary F. Kemp