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Find a 2-22 and auto tow it. Winches are better but big powerful cars are cheap in America.

On Thursday, 29 November 2018 00:01:53 UTC-5, John Foster wrote:
How does one get people involved locally?


Have you thought about trying to use a meetup event? https://www.meetup.com/

If you can create a meetup event, say once a month over the winter, in the larger cities perhaps there are enough interested people that would attend and that can help get the ball rolling.

Since this "new" internet thing has sucked people out of real life - we have to use it's power to pull them back out.

The OP’s question about what it would take to develop our next American World Gliding Champion is interesting and thought provoking.

We have had three Glider Pilots win a total of four World Gliding Championships in the past fifty (50) years and a total of four Americans winning five titles in the history of the sport.

I don’t believe that our lifestyle is conducive to the challenge at hand. Most American families can’t afford to participate in Gliding activities, let alone devote their entire summer vacation (which many struggle to afford in the first place) to a Gliding Contest.

Two of our five World Championships belong to George Moffatt, who had the advantage of being a School Teacher for a living. That gave him his summer months off of work. Additionally, his Wife was also a glider Pilot so he had complete support for his soaring activities on the home front. How many guys are out there with the same type of favorable circumstances?

Dick Schraeder came close to winning a World Championship, finishing third. He had his own business and machine shop on his own private airport with equipment which permitted him to construct his own gliders. His family did spend their summer vacations traveling to contests with him via motorhome. How many other wives and kids are going to sign up for that in this era?

Wally Scott was another great glider Pilot who finished in the top ten twice during the World Gliding Championships. His family owned and operated a movie theater or theaters at night, which permitted him to go Soaring during the day.

A.J. Smith and Doug Jacobs won the other two championships in the past fifty years. Paul MacCready won in 1956. I am really unfamiliar with their circumstances so I won’t comment on them. The point is that the majority of glider pilots that won or came close to winning a World Championship benefitted from unique circumstances which permitted them to devote the time necessary to succeed internationally. The average, vast majority of Americans do not have these types of advantages to work with or the availability of time and resources needed to succeed.

On the women’s side, Sarah Arnold has finished in the top three on two occasions in the Women’s World Gliding Championship. Here again, she has the unique advantage of owning her own commercial glider operation. Do you think she has time to practice?

My impression is that most of the folks that can afford competitive equipment today and have the time and resources to Soar on a regular basis are retired individuals with little desire to pursue a World title or are past their prime to compete at the highest levels of competition. There has to be someone zealously devoted to that goal with the necessary resources and favorable circumstances to even have a chance for a World Championship.

On Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 10:57:59 PM UTC-5, wrote:
The OP’s question about what it would take to develop our next American World Gliding Champion is interesting and thought provoking.

We have had three Glider Pilots win a total of four World Gliding Championships in the past fifty (50) years and a total of four Americans winning five titles in the history of the sport.

I don’t believe that our lifestyle is conducive to the challenge at hand. Most American families can’t afford to participate in Gliding activities, let alone devote their entire summer vacation (which many struggle to afford in the first place) to a Gliding Contest.

Two of our five World Championships belong to George Moffatt, who had the advantage of being a School Teacher for a living. That gave him his summer months off of work. Additionally, his Wife was also a glider Pilot so he had complete support for his soaring activities on the home front. How many guys are out there with the same type of favorable circumstances?

Dick Schraeder came close to winning a World Championship, finishing third. He had his own business and machine shop on his own private airport with equipment which permitted him to construct his own gliders. His family did spend their summer vacations traveling to contests with him via motorhome. How many other wives and kids are going to sign up for that in this era?

Wally Scott was another great glider Pilot who finished in the top ten twice during the World Gliding Championships. His family owned and operated a movie theater or theaters at night, which permitted him to go Soaring during the day.

A.J. Smith and Doug Jacobs won the other two championships in the past fifty years. Paul MacCready won in 1956. I am really unfamiliar with their circumstances so I won’t comment on them. The point is that the majority of glider pilots that won or came close to winning a World Championship benefitted from unique circumstances which permitted them to devote the time necessary to succeed internationally. The average, vast majority of Americans do not have these types of advantages to work with or the availability of time and resources needed to succeed.

On the women’s side, Sarah Arnold has finished in the top three on two occasions in the Women’s World Gliding Championship. Here again, she has the unique advantage of owning her own commercial glider operation. Do you think she has time to practice?

My impression is that most of the folks that can afford competitive equipment today and have the time and resources to Soar on a regular basis are retired individuals with little desire to pursue a World title or are past their prime to compete at the highest levels of competition. There has to be someone zealously devoted to that goal with the necessary resources and favorable circumstances to even have a chance for a World Championship.

Time or money pick one. If we really want a US world champion getting together and sponsoring a talented Jr or just aged out of jrs is the way to go. They have the talent and potentially time if they haven't gotten married or careered yet. Someone just needs to loan them a new racing machine. If soaring was a pro sport(I'm glad it's not) most of the people now racing would be coaches. The racing would be done by younger pilots. If a country wants to win that's how to do it. Champion pro sailors don't own the boats, Champion pro drivers don't own the cars.

Um, let's not be so quick to write off those retired guys with time and money at hand.

Pro sailing and pro driving are different. Sailboat racing takes a lot of the same sort of thinking machinery that soaring requires but sailing also takes a high level of strength and endurance. The strength and endurance part does favor the younger player in sailing; yet strength and endurance are quite minor factors in soaring. In auto racing, fast reflexes are key; younger is certainly better for that. Soaring doesn't require super fast reactions.

I think soaring greatness is achievable by young ones and old ones alike. History has proven that to be the case. What seems to matter is a learnable set of somewhat mechanical skills combined with experienced soaring smarts involving the ability to accurately weigh the importance of multiple factors simultaneously.

Sufficiently motivated old guys can do all that. I suggest it wiser to find ways to motivate those old guys with new ships on the way to practice their collective asses off rather than write them off as unfit for the job. In glider racing, motivation and willingness to work hard is a lot more important than youthfulness per se.

Steve



Time or money pick one. If we really want a US world champion getting together and sponsoring a talented Jr or just aged out of jrs is the way to go. They have the talent and potentially time if they haven't gotten married or careered yet. Someone just needs to loan them a new racing machine. If soaring was a pro sport(I'm glad it's not) most of the people now racing would be coaches. The racing would be done by younger pilots. If a country wants to win that's how to do it. Champion pro sailors don't own the boats, Champion pro drivers don't own the cars.

I once looked at the makeup of foreign teams at the WGC. Several European teams had one young pilot in his late 30's or 40's and one older experienced pilot in their late 50's or early 60's competing in each class. In other words, the older pilot was the experienced mentor who had attempted a previous worlds and the younger pilot (who in some cases had won a Junior worlds I believe) had no previous experience competing at (adult) WGC. While I agree that age isn't as important, I would respectfully ask some of our more experienced competition pilots at what age they felt they were at their best and had the most fire in them (sometimes read courage to take certain risks) to win. Fwiw, I'm not necessarily asking when they knew the most or felt they had the most overall experience. In any case, I venture to say the answer is that it was somewhere in their 40's or early 50's, with 10-12 years of competitive gliding experience (or world record attempts) under their belts. I invite former and current team members to provide us their perspective on this. This subject has always fascinated me.

- Chris Schrader

If Larry Ellison and friends decided they wanted to win world gliding championships who would they put in their gliders? 40 year olds tops. Sure there'd be old guys as coaches. Glider racers have coaches, fitness trainers and nutritionists right? How old were Jacobs, Moffatt, and Smith when they won? How old is Kawa? If the US wants a world champion the old guys need to give up their seats and support fast young pilots. I don't care if they choose not to, and certainly not saying they should. Just pointing out what it would take to win.