I think i may be able to help with this one.
My background.... as a 15 year old learnt to fly Blaniks L-13 With the AIRTC,
16 yrs of went powered and continued to fly with the AIRTC for the next 15
years as a cadet then as a adult instructor, and now in a instructing role.
The big problem in making the "Conversion" from a cadet on a Abinitio Course is
the age, Must cadets Learn in gliders because they can solo befor they can
drive a car , and they can solo a year befor they can solo a powered aircraft.
This is the problem, Once they are hooked and want to continue flying at a
club they have no way to get to the club (usally a 300km round trip), many
parents get suckered into ferring there son/daughter/ward to the airfield only
to sit in the car all day then drive them home.
This usally lasts the first trip then they get the " If you want to fly you get
yourself there and back me and your father are busy all weekend"
Burger flipping at maccas is usally the weapon of choice to raising funds to
continue flying, i my case i was glassing and mixing drinks in a bar (well
under age) to pay for my flying, i was lucky dad is a powered pilot so did not
mind pushing blaniks around the base all day.
When Cadets get a income to pay for there flying, they also incurr lifes costs
CARS, Smokes Alcohol and Girls/ boys as we all know these are expensive. and
the fun of flying fades into the distance.
Car pooling was tried for many years it does work but when you leave it to
teenagers to organise it never happens.
In saying that many of my ex cadets now flt F18's orions hercs pc9's and hawks,
also with the contigent that go the GA COM avenue.
I have just finished 2 weeks ago a Abinitio course with cadets and i'm trying
like shit to get the cadets to join a club and continue, it all up to them now.
Most of the people dont know that the RAAF has a huge abount of AVGAS allocated
to cadets for there flying training, so if a cadet fly's at your club IN
UNIFORM they can apply to have the system reimburse the club for the cost of
the fuel used during their Aerotows.
Basically they can get a aerotow for "Dry Hire Rates" much cheeper considering
AVGAS is about 1.80 a litre at the moment.
Hope this helps.
Ben
----- Original Message -----
From: Gus Stewart
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 8:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Targetting Groups for retention,and my own
recriutment, retention story
I think when it comes to retention, areas like the Air Training Corps are
sorely overlooked.
They (NSW) run approximately 4-6 courses a year, with about 15-25 students
per course. I'm not sure about other states. Here we have a large amount of
flying-crazy youngsters, and barely any of them join clubs after that. I learnt
to fly with the AIRTC, and I think the amount of people I know still gliding
from from the last 8 years of AIRTC camps, you could count them on your hands.
Mind you, I'm not sure where kink in the chain comes from there. I'm sure
efforts have been made to engage the AIRTC to encourage their students to join
clubs after they leave the cadets. What I'd like to know is why this is falling
down. Does anyone know? The junior gliding movement in Australia is slowly
gathering momentum, however we can see this huge group of flying-obsessed
youngsters but can't figure out why we don't hear from them!
If anyone from the AIRTC group reads this and wants to contact me offline,
please do! If there's anything we youngin's can do to get more interested in
the sport, let us know!
Gus
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