The
following rambling is from a recent arrival from the UK who was part of the
team that ran the 2000 UK Junior champs.
Accessibility is definitely important, but not the end of it. Some clubs
have had great success in attracting young members and then generating XC
pilots.
The
clubs who have managed this all seem to have a "cadet" scheme. Ours offered
"free" flying to solo (they had to pay membership) and are given a lot of
encouragement to carry on after that - I have leant my Std Cirrus to a very keen
17 year old for the UK summer. The last thing that anyone wants is for them
to stop flying through lack of money. The luck ones have family who have been
gliding for a long time and borrow their parents gliders at any opportunity -
the rest will spend all they can on flying (I know someone who spent £200 on a
car and £5000 on a glider share).
Others
have learnt with the air cadets, but this typically is only as far as going solo
and flying circuits.
The
real key is that once they are safe to fly XC, that is what they do. A teenager
flying circuits all the time once they have Silver will give up very
quickly.
The
other major area of assistance comes from the Universities - not sure they
realise it, but the Uni gliding clubs have been very imaginative in getting
funds from the Uni to operate very cheap flying. They all operate from a
"normal" club site, but have their own gliders and usually instructors, but both
sides tend to share when needed.
It is
common to see them flying just about every day during the long summer break -
occasionally working to pay for the flying. Winch launching is also common and
about 1/5 the cost of an aerotow. Most pilots are very good at scratching away
from what seems to be unacceptably low here (500' is
common).
10
years ago I gather the Junior championships was being flown by early XC pilots
in K8s and similar. Over the years, both the standard of flying and the quality
of the gliders made available to them has increased substantially, many now
flying LS8s or similar, but still with a K8 on occasion. Some of the Juniors
will also make the main UK team for international comps - and win. many of those
who are now too old will help in running the Junior comp to keep the momentum
going. It takes a lot of hard work from all.
The
big question is could this be done in Australia - I think it can, but it will
need strong direction from the GFA and the Junior pilots themselves - don't take
no for an answer seems to be a good start. It will also take time - don't expect
results for several years.
Matt
-----Original Message-----I agree with you Andrew, I am an ex ATC, but only knew about bugsmashing in power planes when I was in Seven Squadron at Bankstown. Gliding did not get a mention. Today we have a member of our club who is very active with teaching the ATC guys at Bathurst each year. Out of that we have at least one active member flying single seaters etc and instructs for the ATC as well himself.
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Dave Boulter
Sent: Wednesday, 23 July 2003 2:26 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [aus-soaring] Fwd: Winners - 3rd FAI World Junior Gliding Championship
/daveb
ANDREW WRIGHT wrote:
Peter My 2 cents worth. (For what its worth.) I recently saw my gliding club and the GFA spending lots of money on a radio advertising campaign with MMM. Their target audience was the 30 year old + male. The success of this campaign is yet to be determined but from what I have heard was very limited. It seems that we (The GFA) are targeting this older demographic and not the younger person. On the flip side I am (very proudly) associated with the airforce aircadets in Adelaide. My role is that of auxiliary instructor. The Adelaide flights of the RAAF ATC are overflowing with young, enthusiastic, talented and very aviation minded young people. The RAAF ATC Gliding Club based at Gawler has six or seven young boys and girls learning to fly gliders. Some of these are already asking to go cross-country. It seems we already have a good mechanism to get young people into gliding, namely the Air-cadet movement. Why don't we (The GFA) actively support this movement instead of pouring hard earned cash into commercial radio stations? My 2 cents has run out so I had better stop. Flame suit ONIn most sports it is recognised that to have continued success at the highest level that you need a strong junior base which also reflects the long term health of that sport. Great Britian junior pliots placed 1st, 2nd & 5th in Standard class and 4th and 6th in Club class. Germany was not far behind with 3rd and 4th in Standard and 1st and 3rd in Club Class. It begs the question if Great Britian can achieve this sucess at Junior level why can't Australia do the same? What is Great Britian doing at a Junior level to attract and develop elite junior pilots? What is preventing Australia developing similiar programmes and achieving the same success? This will only now serve to attract more junior pilots into gliding in Great Britian. Regards Peter RobinsonFrom: FAI - Anne-Laure Perret <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], News IGC <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"IGC, Information" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Winners - 3rd FAI World Junior Gliding Championship Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 10:57:22 +0200 Sport: Gliding Title: 3rd FAI World Junior Gliding Championship Type : World Date: 5 - 19.07.2003 Location: Nitra, Slovak Republic Final Results : Club Class 1st : Michael STREIT GER ASW 19 2nd : Peter TOFT DEN Std Cirrus 3rd : Stephan ZEMMEL GER ASW 19 Standard Class 1st : Jez HOOD GBR LS 8 2nd : Luke REBBECK GBR LS 8 3rd : Achim BESSER GER Discus 2 The full results can be found at the following address : http://events.fai.org/ FAI congratulates the Winners and thanks the Organisers of the Championship. ________________________________________________________ This is a message from the IGC News Distribution List. To modify your subscriber status for the IGC-NEWS list, check http://www.fai.org/general/subscribe.asp?list=igc-news_________________________________________________________________ Hot chart ringtones and polyphonics. Go to http://ninemsn.com.au/share/redir/adTrack.asp?mode=click&clientID=174& referral=Hotmail_taglines_plain&URL="" class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilemania/">http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilemania/ default.asp -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.ANDREW WRIGHT -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.-- ----------------------------------------------- http://www.sgi-extremelinux.com The source of innovation and discoveryTM ----------------------------------------------- | Dave Boulter |"Flying is learning to throw | | Technology Solutions | yourself at the ground, and....| | Director of Operations | miss."--- Ford Prefect | | ICON | Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Silicon Graphics | Tel: +61.2.8875.9541 | Sydney Australia | Fax: +61.2.8875.9484
