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Terry
The points you have made are valid
... so come back here near the fan, but I would counter with the
following:
We don't need to excite the "general
population". All we need to do is excite 3000 people OZ-wide and we've just
about doubled the size of the sport.
For the "satisfaction now"
generation, if they are also the "money now" generation, why wouldn't
you just shunt them off to Sportavia or Keepit and they can be solo in a
week?
One option that we have is to
narrow the marketing target a tad. One example is that while I was at Sportavia
last Feb/March, the standout was that the most keen Glider Pilots who had
shipped their machines and selves from overseas, were current or ex airline
pilots, who were bored to death with their normal flying but kill-to-fly
passionate about Cross-Country Soaring. So that group in OZ are a good
place to start ............ BUT would you really expect to keep them all if you
suggest to a 5000 or 10000 hour airline pilot that they should just go out to
their local club for lessons?
Regards Geoff
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 12:54
PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] A NEW APPROACH
TO GFA PROMOTION & MEMBERSHIP??
Geoff Kidd wrote:
<>See http://www.glidingmagazine.com/FeatureArticle.asp?id=485
for the NZ article titled "Membership: ItÂ’s not a pretty picture".
It may however be totally accurate - for here - as well as
for New Zealand.
That's the scary thing about writing out a blank
cheque for a group of consultants, as some are advocating. Some
100+K$ later they will almost certainly come up with the conclusion that
gliding doesn't really interest, much less excite the general population, and
that other "competing" pastimes come easier and/or cheaper.
We already
know that, and it hasn't cost us anything (in monetary terms).
One of
the things that the combined magazine should have taught us is that gliding is
pricing itself out of the sporting aviation scene, or at least putting itself
at the higher end of the options. Compare the prices in the hang
gliding classifieds with those of our kind, and you soon get a picture of the
relative costs of the equipment.
Furthermore, the price of the basic
equipment sets the base line for the cost of the complete operation. The
simply fact is that a K-21 costs more that (say) a Jabiru, and if you want to
put an engine in the K-21 - surely the only way to really set up even a basic
training regime for the "Satisfaction Now!!" generation - it gets even
worse. There isn't really much we can do about that.
I don't
particularly like to see this in print myself, but all the publicity,
promotion and research doesn't change the basic facts of the equation.
Gliding these days is expensive; it also takes time, effort and a certain
dedication to 'make it'. Only an enthusiast is going to see it
through - even to solo stage - much less to go on to greater
things.
Most people will make easier and cheaper choices - no matter
what we do, and how many consultants we hire, and what they tell us.
Of
course we still promote the sport we love, and we need to do so with the
same enthusiasm and passion we show in our inner circle here. Terry
Cubley and the others who are working in this area are doing well, and should
be supported with ideas and action. However we need to keep
our expectations and ambitions within the parameters of our product.
Almost everyone I speak to about gliding expresses the wish to "go for a
flight sometime". However I just know that even if they do - and I
give every encouragement for them to go to their nearest club and give it a
try - that they probably won't be seized with the elusive addiction that keeps
the rest of us going over the years and even decades.
That's just how
it is.
Now standing well clear of the fan
.....
Terry
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