Here's my ideal if a good gliding day.... you tow your glider out of your little hangar, line up for a launch and head off cross-country with several of your mates. Afterwards, you have a beer at the clubhouse and enjoy chatting about the day and whatever. Well this is just what I did yesterday, and one of my mates was the CFI, and another was the club prez, and they are both keen and competent cross-country pilots. Another thing I've done in the last few years is to build a Jabiru. At the ASC, I've had first-class instruction for very little money ( and that only for club and AUF fees) . Why build a Jabiru? Well I was close to getting a Ventus 2, but the Jabiru kit was cheaper than the SALES TAX on a motorised 18m Ventus 2. So I kept the good old mosquito and now have a Jabiru for those other days. Here's a clue to the downturn in gliding.... it is not the cheapest form of flying anymore. Here's some other clues... membership in lodges and service clubs has fallen drastically. As it also has for other clubs. There used to be dozens of small yachts racing at Adelaide clubs, now you see hardly any, the netball at Gawler used to have hundreds of girls and now it is down to less than half of that. So society has changed in ways that give us less glider members.... well this really isn't the fault of the GFA. My USA friends tell me that gliding is declining there too, and not just since Sept 11th. Some commercial operators may be closing there. Nobody is blaming the GFA for this. So while its a bit sad that the glory days are gone, there is plenty of good soaring out there for those of us who are smart enough to enjoy it.
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