On 05/03/2013, at 9:01 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
Emilis's last three paragraphs has me intrigued. Emilis, I would like
you to amplify just exactly what you mean in each of these paragraphs.
As the sport gets smaller, it relies ever more on the old hands where
the corporate knowledge resides. Making that section of the sport
wonder about the value of what they offer, the ineffectual nature of
hand-on of that knowledge, let alone being left hung out to dry in
terms of carrying the costs as well; is the rapid path toward those
resources not being available.
While there seems to be good things happening at the introduction to
cross country flight/early contest scene, and at the elite training
pinnacle; these concerns affect the transition of aspirants between
those 2 states at either end of the performance spectrum.
(The individuals concerned know who I am talking about without me
violating the ethics of a public discussion list; don't you)
The thread began with an individual noting that in being left to carry
real immediate costs on an activity in addition to where he was already
providing the aircraft, time and knowledge at no cost to participants,
this left him wondering whether he could afford to help the sport out
to that extent.
A possible implication being that others may not have access to those
resources into the future. Thus the sport loses.
I was making the point that others have previously come to that
conclusion.
(Remember Barry Wrenford?)
The loss is not just in handing on skills and knowledge right now, the
distance created between the sport and the knowledge means that in the
end the knowledge is lost entirely.
Look at the explosion in paperwork within GFA, and yet the absence of
real knowledge amongst its officers.
I am aware of elite training camps put together for pilots aspiring to
world comp attendances.
I am aware of coaching courses, notably those targeted to pilots
beginning to fly cross country or enter first contests.
I am wondering where the provisions are for 'continuing professional
development' for the pilots in the central section - neither tyro nor
dux.
I have always worked on the basis of gliding being a self directed
activity (we do this because we want to; it isn't a job even for those
who run support businesses within the sport; it isn't an obligatory
activity directed by government or industry edicts) and so I expect a
basis of fair dealing between people within the sport.
I knew things had changed first some 2 decades ago when a President of
a club from whom I offered to buy a sailplane reneged on the deal done
with 'we have a better offer'. Of course there was no 'better deal',
he was trying to be smart and get me to renegotiate at a higher price.
In the end the original deal went through; which I always felt bad
about - maybe I should have matched him and driven the purchase price
down in retribution.
Since then, this daily commerce 'smartness' has been occuring ever more
frequently within the sport.
For those who haven't figured it out yet; I don't respond well to daily
commerce pressure - I don't accept it in my business, I don't put up
with it in my pro-bono activities. It comes from growing up in a
household where the parents lived through Europe in the 1930s, with its
'Gauleiters' and 'do it my way or you're on the cattle truck to
Auschwitz'.
(try pushing my buttons some time, eh?)
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