Come on Dave, I do not think Adam was serious; just a bit of stirring by the younger generation. I have NO problem with that. :-) PeterS Aged 55yrs but wears an Arab Hat instead of being an OFITTH.
I have no problem with stirring either Peter, in fact I have been known to do more than a little myself occasionally.(IRONY thick right here, just in case you don't get it) A couple of other thoughts -Its hard to find a genuine terry towelling hat, they all seem to be made of cotton these days! -How much is a left nut worth? More or less than a right? (-: We could have a collection and see how serious Adam *really is*.(-: Now that (pickled?) would make an interesting and unique trophy for the best effort to attend Joey glide!(-: Thanks to those who replied re my question about W/C pilot ages, but do you know the oldest winner? I thought Johns posting was spot on! Young people are absolutely critical to the future of gliding, and the aging demographic in gliding will make things increasingly difficult. Another issue in this case is glider repair personnel they won't last forever either you know, how many are in training right now? I guess we are currently starting to experience the retirement of the bulk of the baby boomer generation which has more leisure time as well, but I suspect 20-30 years down the track will be the really critical time when today's 50-60 year olds reach 80 and retire from actively flying. The current juniors will reach 40-50 around that time. In SA I know of about 10 under 20 yo active x/c rated pilots, and the same number between 20 and 25 A total of 20. Each club needs 5 committee members and a CFI-in SA alone we would have all chiefs and no Indians! We also need to accept that a lot of these juniors may well need to take 10-20 years off of flying to raise a family and establish a career. Regaining them after this should be an important part of our strategy. Adam don't worry about me see first paragraph! Tom, you misunderstand my comment, what I meant was I was happy the current image reflected the actual situation in gliding right now, not that I was happy with the current situation! Ironic you say you don't want to join the discussion then do so anyway! I do feel that the current emphasis on competition for juniors as a way of increasing interest ignores the fact that 90% of pilots do not fly comps, it is a mistake to make a comp the main game for developing juniors, particularly under 18s, camps and fun regatta's would be a better way I think. I also firmly believe that junior events should be alcohol free during the event after experiencing the last Joey glide. Top sportsmen these days virtually abstain from alcohol during their seasons, it was noticeable the top finishers were rarely seen drinking during the comp at the last Joey Glide In my view image has virtually nothing to do with the lack of juniors, And is everything to do with the high costs. I know lots of interested people who cannot afford to glide. With the current government determined to bring back virtual slavery by the new Industrial relations and welfare rules this will get much worse. Our only saviour in this respect is winch launching, offering as it does huge savings particularly during training. And to think all this came from stirring Adam back after his picture post! Regards all and come on summer!!!!!!! Dave Lawley P.S. a (-: indicates I am not serious!!!!!! _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
