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Terry Roake's report of Dec 16th mentions Mergers in
the following way:
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MERGERS DO NOT SOLVE
CLUB PROBLEMS -
Marco Dohmen (Germany) has completed an in depth study on the
merger of clubs as a possible solution to gliding's present problems.
Stefanie Becker has taken the research even further and according to
her, mergers bring only short term relief.
Gliding needs re-organising lifting itself into the 21st century.
Gliding does little to help itself!
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----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2005 11:32
AM
Subject: [Aus-soaring] Re:
membership
The truth is, folks, I havent got the foggiest idea what
will increase
numbers in gliding, I can only assume, estimate and
evaluate. The only
thing that is certain -and I repeat- "whatever we have
been doing has
led us to this point, if we keep doing it, it will likely
to continue on
that route".
Thus what we HAVE BEEN doing in terms of
has resulted in a declining
sport, keep doing it and gliding WILL
die.
So the majority of my posts on this are fairly extreme, in the
knowledge
that, if implemented, they can only be wrong in
hindsight.
The moderators of the sport will pull the veiws back to an
acheivable
blend of what can actually be done.
When I am blessed
with the time to visit my club (commercial Sportavia)
I dream of flying
the flash ships and always have. Everyone
contemplating gliding does. 20
years back when I first walked in there
it was a dream to fly an LS-3,
then a 4. They were the hot ships of the
day. Achieving that dream just
recently in no way diminished it, yet I
can now dream of an ASH or a
Antares or whichever.
It is the same passion in any sport that forms a
large part of the
motivation to continue it. Should you twist a throttle
you will dream of
racing in a GP, crossing the alps or looping off a jump.
Push an
accellerator for fun and your dreams are of Gran Prix F1, rally,
Bathurst. Sail a dingy and your a lone round-the-worlder, olympic skiff
hero or Sydney to Hobart winner. When first interested in a sport or
hobby, NOBODY dreams " I might purchase a 35 year old (insert mode of
fun) and operate it gently around the neighborhood, wow, won't that be
everything to me" C'mon -YOU can always go do that after your dreams
mature.
This has NOTHING to do with ones ability to fly the damn
things!
Usually, in fact, the reverse applies, AND there is a safety
element to
putting low hours pilots into later (safer) aircraft. A lesser
skilled
pilot will always win the day no matter what they fly, there is no
need
to feel threatened or jealous.
Perhaps that could be part of
why newbies fall out so quickly after
solo. The magic of flight is still
happening, sure, in the club trainer
or the pog single, but the dreams of
flying the current shiny dart are
not being forfilled.
Look at my own
experience - how may people fly LS-4 out of Tocumwal?
They are the most
popular glider to hire. They LOOK like a flash, new
ship. They FEEL like
an armchair. Your there, rocket man, manic
stuntman, intrepid explorer,
whatever the dream was.
The only way to make an LS-6, 8 or 10 (DG800,
ASG-29, whatever)
affordable in 50 years (as has been suggested) is to
produce bucket
loads of them now, and create the infrastructure to keep
that production
rate forever, including updates in dream technology. Hence
the analogy
previosly to motor vehicles.
Doing this will expose
these modern ships to more punters, creating more
interest, on it
goes.
Please note some may find this affronting - busting your guts at
the
local club level to spend an afternoon flying types- and I am pulling
on
the firesuit as I type this. The cornerpins of our sport are to be
admired, and I do- but guys, it can't continue. YOU can, IT -the sport-
can't!
Regardless of what occurs, there will always be an increasing
interest
in "antiques" as there is with cars, bikes, boats and all other
aircraft. I am not degrading that in any way, but in every other sport,
these older forms of transport, once embraced as vintage, become
EXPENSIVE. Sorry, you can have your cake, eat it, but only once at that
price!
Germany, Holland -what on earth are they doing over there to
have such a
great participant rate in Gliding? Have they better access to
equipment?
(yes, but because they need it with the numbers -"build it and
they will
come") Do they have better weather? (shaking head in dismay) Is
it
easier to fly because of restrictions? (again -shaking head) Have they
got better outlanding options (oh please, stop me!)
So we live in the
best part of the world to glide, we have just as good
options for
attaining equipment, with current communications and
transport, its a
world market.
Yet most of the high hour/distance flights are made in
Australia by
oversea's pilots. Thats crazy. The commercial operations here
should be
getting the tourists as cream, not bread and butter.
The
participant rate is high in Europe because the individual dream is
possible.
Backing away (shaking, mumbling, thirsty) from the rant,
if I rock up to
the field dreaming of flying a shiny dart and end up in a
Blanik well,
truthfully, I love it as I am hooked. I would prefer to fly a
rattling
donation tin in winter than even sit and watch whilst others walk
out
the "white razor blades of fun" in glorios sunshine. The people
required
to expand this sport by acheiving those production numbers are
not so
tolerant.
so......
Consolidate the clubs. IF it is a
cycle, they will re-form later.
Sell the aging stuff to the stalwarts,
create interest in them by
specific vintage racing, antique cross country
regatta's, whatever.
Use the funds to get the newbies into shiny stuff as
soon as possible,
to validate their dreams.
Manipulate the media to our
overall advantage, in good times and bad.
ADVERTISE -everyone can do this,
at every level.
Take your old soaring magazines to the local chiropractor,
Dentist or
GP's waiting rooms and leave them there -the place is full of
people
contemplating the meaning of life, sitting about reading WHO and
Womans
Day. How depressing.
Don't ever fear change, its inevitable.
Try to just manipulate the
change enough fot it to be an
advantage
Love and sunlight to
all
Wayne
>>From: Wayne Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>>When we drool over a
50+, dream of a 70+ and imagine a possible 100+ L/D
>>ship -all
quite feasable- we must face reality that the technology used in
>>our sport is at the expensive forfront of aviation design. When
this
>>technology is safely available to the public we buy it, but
there must be a
>>large base of consumers to keep it economically
viable, thus the increase
>>in participants is essential. When the
old ships are damaged, and there are
>>few replacements, even your
club will go down, as a new ship will cost even
>>more, due to
declining sales. Can you imagine what the cost of the first
>>new
model Holden off the line is? $B! -yet we pay only $20k+. Although our
>>own lifespans will see gliding easily accessable, our kids and
grandkids
>>will not unless the figures are
changed.
>>
>>
>
>With due
respect, that's nonsense, Wayne. The average age of my Club's
>trainers was about 30+ years. The cost of the new one (21801) is
about the
>same (in real terms) as the oldest one (13008) was when it
was new. If you
>go back to the old AGs you'll find Blaniks being
offered for around 5000
>pounds at a time when I earned 1300 pounds a
year. The absolute frontiers
>of the technology are now well over
$1m but very few could ever afford the
>frontiers and we still
can't. Only one Glasflugel 604 ever came to
>Australia. One day
an Eta will come.
>
>Gliding is less attractive to people now than
it was when aviation was an
>exciting new technology and all club-based
sports are declining currently.
>The cycle will move on
though. There are already signs of this. New
>trainers are
being bought in increasing numbers, new single-seaters are
>appearing. The national prosperity of the last 10-15 years has
come through
>to gliding and it will experience a mild renewal of
popularity and
>accessibility for the next 5-10 years. After
that, who knows?
>
>Regards,
>Graeme
>
>
>
>>Safe,
Wayne
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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