Re: [Aus-soaring] GFA, marketing and democracy in the GFA (was Re: PDA Programs and other matters)

[Jenny Ganderton]

Al Borowski wrote:  The RAA has been growing steadily over the last few years - they currently have just over 8000 voting members, and an annual growth rate of about 17%! Obviously we can't compare apples to oranges but they are clearly doing something right. Can the GFA learn anything from them?   Personally, I think a big issue is the lack of goals to shoot for after solo. With the RAA the answer is obvious: You prepare for the flight test, hopefully pass, then add endorsements as desired. Want to take a friend up? Sure, no worries. You have a certificate, clearly someone thinks you're responsible enough to be a pilot.   What equivalent does the GFA have? Certainly not the C certificate. With just a C, you still need to be directly supervised with an instructor, cannot take passengers without an instructors approval each time, cannot fly cross country without an instructors approval etc. So what's the equivalent to an RAA pilot certificate? Not level 1 independent operator; your club is still responsible for your actions. Level 2 is more like it, but you need 200 hours of gliding time. Oh, and a Silver C. Can you imagine telling a new student asking that they need 200 hours of glider time before they can be responsible for their own actions?   If the RAA gets their weight increase, it'd be interesting to see how many new motorgliders start getting registered RAA instead of GFA.   Cheers,   Al     At present, once you go solo, then what? Yes, you can     Others have also commented on the differences in the training between RAA and GFA pilots. I am a GFA instructor and an RAA pilot. I try to encourage new glider pilots to get their certificates and silver C as soon as possible, but for many it seems that the commitment in time is too much. Gliding is a bit different to power flying.  If you are a bit out of practice in a powered aeroplane, you can go around if your circuit isn't quite right. In gliders you have to learn to land in paddocks, not just nice easy airfields, and you have to get it right first time. I think this is why we require our pilots to be under the supervision of instructors for so long. You need other people's cooperation to get airborne with gliding - which requires some social skills as well as aviation skills! Our gliders are more expensive than ultralight aircraft - even though they have no motor. We have no manufacturers building gliders here, and we do not encourage home building. I think all these things make gliding somewhat harder to do than powered flying. If you want to learn to fly a powered aeroplane, you got to a school and pay for it. You book your lesson, fly for an hour or two and go home again. That is hard to do in gliding. In most cases you have to be a bit of a diplomat to negotiate with an array of volunteer instructors to get your training, and you cannot always choose who you fly with. This requires a degree of commitment not found in all starters. For those of us that are hooked on gliding, we don't have a problem with any of this - but how do you get people hooked? All positive suggestions welcomed! Jenny

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