But the F/A 18 guys will eventually return to gliding when they
become airline pilots in 15 - 20 years time and what something that
is fun and gives them real stick and rudder time. Those that can't
afford that or don't go to the RAAF will maybe come back to
sailplanes when they get too old for HGs.
I started with Air Cadet movement and then my choice of University
was partly based on a gliding club funded by student union - I was
Sec for 3 yrs and still administering a gliding club 40 years on.
We are required by the rules of the system to make everybody a GFA
member to take an AEF and give them insurance protection - or take
them as private passengers if they are already mates and we can be
sure they will not sue us if all does not go well. [Plenty of history
here of "instant mates" later going litigious - hopefully the Civil
Liability laws will sort this out if we do not make false claims of
safety.] Since we are all "the GFA" this means we do not all
subsidise AEFs by charging them less than it costs to insure and fly
them, and many clubs can make a profit on this. However not all can
do that, though these people may either qualify as true "friend"
passengers or else be unable to afford the cost of becoming involved
in the sport even if they wanted to.
Some gliding organisations are set up to cater for the money-rich and
time-poor, but most of us still spend a lot of time "going gliding"
that could be spent doing something else, and call it "relaxation".
Being a sport that depends on either voluntary effort or paid time to
get the background work done, GFA might well be more flexible in the
styles of club they encourage to exist.
Going back to the "PPrune" posts that started this thread off, only
one posting there so far seems to totally bag gliding (the rest being
glider pilots bagging the GFA's traditional and historic sense of
instructor responsibility) - and those claims of irresponsible
behaviour towards airspace and other pilots should concern us all of
they were founded in truth. I cannot reco0ncile them with any one
site I know of, but some of us may be guilty of some of the things
the movement as a whole is accused of - and we should root these
accusations out of the system as soon as possible if they are even
remotely close to the truth.
Wombat
At 00:09 17/10/2008, you wrote:
Hi Gus
Having been introduced to the sport through this path myself 20 odd
years ago I think the reality is that the majority of these kids
just want to fly F/A-18's, and also they are unlikely to be in a
position to, or have the desire to, get seriously into gliding for
some time. A definite investment in the future though, just don't
expect a return for a while, and definitely not much short term
retention. Just my experience. I started gliding in 87 & by 93 had
left to do other things .. but then I came back.
Cheers,
Richard
--- On Thu, 16/10/08, Gus Stewart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> From: Gus Stewart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Targetting Groups for retention, and
my own recriutment, retention story
> To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."
<[email protected]>
> Received: Thursday, 16 October, 2008, 8:10 PM
> 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
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 6:51 PM, Texler, Michael <
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > >In my experience, long-term members are people who
> always wanted to learn
> > how to fly, but never knew they could do it as
> accessibly as gliding. Kids,
> > sailors and motorcycle riders tend to be
> disproportionately represented.
> >
> > I think it has been mentioned before, that posters for
> the local gliding
> > club could be put up at sailing clubs or other
> represented group.
> >
> > The other group of people to target are those who have
> been more active in
> > gliding or other aviation related activity in the
> past. The task would be
> > then to reignite their passion and interest.
> >
> > It would be interesting to know the retention rates of
> Air Training Corp
> > Cadets.
> >
> > My own experience:
> > I was fascinated with flight ever since I hopped on a
> TAA T-jet in 1974
> > (Adelaide to Melbourne flight).
> > As a kid, I built planes out of lego, made a balsa
> wood and doped paper
> > throw glider, even considered getting into radio
> controlled stuff.
> > (i.e. I always wanted to learn how to fly)
> >
> > Just before I started Uni, my Dad had told me that he
> thought there was a
> > Uni Glining Club. A work colleague of my Dad was a tow
> pilot at Waikerie and
> > had told my Dad about the Adelaide Uni Gliding Club
> (i.e. lucky word of
> > mouth)
> >
> > So when I started Uni, at O'week, I actively
> sought the Uni Gliding Club
> > and signed up. At that time (prior to joining up), I
> thought that gliding
> > was a poor cousin to power flying (just glorified
> paper darts), but any
> > flying was better than no flying.
> >
> > My first day on field comprised 3 circuits off a winch
> launch in a Bergy
> > (GZM) at the end of the day.
> > I was hooked.
> >
> > So either fortunately or unfortunately (depending upon
> your opinion of
> > me..;-) ), I am still keen on gliding some 21 years
> later.
> >
> > Mind you raising a young family and having chronic
> illness in the family
> > has tempered my participation over the last couple of
> years (my priority is
> > to my family), but I anticipate that my activity in
> the sport will increase
> > as my kids become interested (they are only 4.5 and
> almost 3 years old) and
> > health problems settle.
> >
> > The challenge for the gliding movement in Australia is
> seeking out those
> > who wish to fly for pleasure, versus those who want to
> do it and move on as
> > they they tick the "been there and done
> that" box.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Aus-soaring mailing list
> > [email protected]
> > To check or change subscription details, visit:
> >
> http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Aus-soaring mailing list
> [email protected]
> To check or change subscription details, visit:
> http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
Make the switch to the world's best email. Get Yahoo!7
Mail! http://au.yahoo.com/y7mail
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
