Just been away for a weeks ("unreal") gliding way out west beyond the internet and I
get
back to see that we finally seem to be having a debate about what form the gliding
"product" should take. Horray!
Couple of points I think deserve comment.
I find it really really sad that a person should state that the refuse to join/re-join
the GFA because of the situation with the magazine. This is such small fry in the
bigger
picture I can't believe that this is an issue. I don't care what form the magazine
takes.
We were given the choice of a b/w once every two months or a color a4 each month with
"ads" for another similar minded sport. Didn't take too long to think about that one.
Go back to b/w a5 once a month? Sorry that wasn't an option for financial reasons. Hate
to dash emotive thinking with reason but there ya go. My only beef with the magazine is
I wish that they would stop sending me two copies each month. I'm sure the money could
be
better spent on other things!
While we are whinging about fees lets talk about the comps levy on every GFA member!
Somehow world comps pilots have convinced the GFA (or dominate the GFA?) that a strong
sport requires a strong competive scence. Of course the AUF situation must just be an
aberation. But regardless, We now live in a era of no result --> no payment, and given
that membership had declined then the comps pilots should lose there levy because they
have failed to deliver a result! (oh yeah that's right when things are going bad we pay
upper management with a bonus ah la HIH et al). 'scuse my cynacism but really. If you
want to make gliding cheaper for the grass roots pilot there's an expense that you can
remove. I object to funding flying for comps pilots especially when I believe that the
risks that they take and the accidents that they have are dragging the sport down and
putting my insurance costs up!
Emilis
> resources sucked out of the sport by the commercial
> customer who has been serviced by the amateur club; and has then gone away
> telling others how gliding doesn't achieve the 'acceptable standard', while
> having got the flying they wanted at a substantial discount, and having left
> behind an impoverished club with worn out club members.
I think that this is a very very important point. Amateur clubs need to take stock of
what work is required, remove "make work" tasks as much as possible and ensure that
the load is shared around. And especially to ensure that they aren't training
"commercial" pilots at club rates. And yes Mike I was being kind, I agree I think
20% retention is grossly optomistic. I would suggest that it is less that 10% which
means
that 90% of the time we are working for nothing. Even working for the tax man at 49% is
better than that! I don't have a magic solution but I do know that at most clubs more
and
more of the work is being done by a diminishing core of individuals. Clubs need to
discover ways to allow everyone to contribute, to especially to *reduce* the load.
Every clubs motto should be "How can we reduce the work required to go gliding safely?"
Mike Bolgelt
> I have every motive to want a strong growing gliding movement where lots of
> people are having fun flying gliders. It isn't happening. Turning this
> situation around will involve a willingness to question every aspect of the
> way gliding is conducted including ab initio training and instructor
> standards. Placing certain aspects off limits to criticism is self defeating.
> Unless the product on offer is changed radically, any money spent on
> promotion will end up being wasted.
Agreed! Until we are prepared to visit the house of mirrors and have a good hard look
at what we are doing there is not going to be any progress. I state again,
"It's a product problem, not a marketing problem".
Last week I met yet another pilot flying paragliders who had tried gliding but
couldn't
deal with "the gliding scene", yet he's prepared to put up with the hours and hours of
driving around and waiting and paying commecial rates for training that are required to
go paragliding. (believe me paragliding requires a lot more hours invested for each
hour of flying than gliding does, a *lot* more). Why? Because he is treated like an
adult and not like an errant boy scout!
Comparing gliding to every other sporting activity I participate in one glaringly
obvious point arises, all of them are focused on the qualified participant not the
training. In other sports training is undertaken independantly of the day to day fun
of participating in the sport. Gliding stands alone as a sport where by training takes
centre stage. Only at comps and camps does training take a back seat. Time to seperate
training out as a seperate process. This doesn't mean it necessarily needs to be
conducted elsewhere but it does need to be seperated so that the "instructor" of the
day is just that, the person doing "instructing" for the students, not the person
responsible for the entire operation. In addition the role of the instuctor needs to
be restrained back to being a teacher. I recently asked our CFI what was required to
get a back seat rating, he didn't know and took the issue up with the clubs instructor
panel. Apparently many of the instructors were adamant that only instructors could fly
from the back seat! Why?! If I can safely fly the glider from the back seat why can't
I? How does agreeing to teach someone else to fly improve my ability to fly from the
back
seat? I don't want to teach because I don't think I'm very good at it. But yet I'm
being
"encouraged" to gain a rating (instructor) so that I can have the "privledge" of being
allowed to fly from the rear seat. Fortunately our CFI won the debate and I now have a
back seat rating which I have to keep current but that is perfectly acceptable and
seems
totally reasonable to me.
These are the sorts of things that the gliding movement has to question and challange
and change. Debating it on this list isn't gonna make it happen but it's as good a
place as any to start.
rgds
Pete
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