>From: Mike Borgelt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >the question you should ask is: How is it that the GFA official response is >so out of kilter with the opinions expressed here?(Rhetorical question, I >know)
No Mike! Really good question!. It's out of kilter because the GFA DOES know what a lot of glider pilots think and genuinely tries to do what it sees as best for them. The vocal members of this list are OTOH a tiny minority whose views are quite unrepresentative - and that includes Mike and myself. About 10% of glider pilots in this country are subscribed to the list. About 20% of those subscribed contribute. About half that number have "voted" with Ron. Representative? Democratic? Not worth the waste of bandwidth. A simple example. Simon contributed but I bet he didn't vote. I won't either. In a club of 80 members, I am one of four people who are subscribed to this list. I know of nobody in our club who shares Peter Rundle's views (and he was a popular member of it - they just don't share his views. Come back Pete, the Mountain needs you!). I know of nobody with Mike Borgelt's views in my club (Well, that's a tautology really. Mike's the only actual exponent I know of the Groucho Marx idea that he won't be a member of any gliding club that will have him!). There are a lot who share Simon's views and a fair number would be very happy with Brian. I believe the majority of my fellow club-members would be very wary of the idea of needing a licence to glide. We have a recreation we enjoy and have no desire to have a closer brush with any bureaucracy. Decisions about our flying are made by people who know us and our skill level intimately and we're happy that way. We have grave doubts that an official licence would make our sport any more attractive, cheaper or enjoyable. Yes, most of us rarely go out of final glide distance from the field. But isn't that true of 80% of glider pilots? It's a great discussion and thank you Mark, Simon, Brian, Peter, etc. But it's not real and it's not representative. Graeme Cant _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
