----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2005 12:10
AM
Subject: [Aus-soaring] the many
glidings
On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 17:20:29 -0800, Michael Derry
wrote:
>Do other people see the
direction the sport is heading in ? Will it
>affect us or future generations
? Do we, or should we care ?
The range of contributors to the
interrelated threads are always good to listen in to.
When contributors disagree, I
suspect that they are talking about different definitions of the core term
'gliding'.
- if you want to fly at a
commercial operation, fine
- if you want to fly at a large
club, ok
- if you want to fly your own
glider, yep
- if you want to fly at a small
operation, goforit
- if you want the club to provide
all the gear, easy - just show that $ + human value is there
It is likely that then you will
disagree with the definition/goals/priorities of others in other categories
than your own. Pity.
There seems to me instead to be an
inherent strength in the diverse paths offered by such widely different
approaches to gliding.
In that it permits people from the
outside to look at which one of these quite different formats is the one that
appeals to them specifically.
And possibly thereby attract more
newcomers than would be if everyone gathered just under a single large
umbrella. (a belief unsupported by any data)
In my belief there is even a place
for a 'no, we don't accept members of the public at any price' option. (Such
option being only accessible to established rated pilots.)
That one provides the benchmark of
scarcity which put into a better context other clubs' entry point cost and
accessibility conditions.
In the same way as it is desirable
to have large & small clubs, amateur, volunteer and commercial, club
fleets spanning the spectrum vs clubs which provide only entry level gear and
encourage/facilitate private syndication.
Just as there are winch, aerotow
and self launch clubs or parts of clubs.
What I haven't heard on the list,
is pilots aware of which of these categories their particular club fits into,
what specific marketing edge/approach this leads to, which of these categories
are the currently successful clubs.
{I suspect these are the
historically well established resourced ones able right now to appeal to
newcomers of limited talent, funds, time and contribution to
make}
(I watch with interest the tone of
enquiry from public change during the conversation toward finding out about just what entry requirements
they would need, to be accepted into the 'no public' club. - ie go learn to
fly, get rated, then talk to us about what glider you are going to buy -
)
As several clubs close to me know,
I pass each and every of these enquiries onward to clubs who do do public
entry points.
On the premise that the enquirer
will find that club appealing, or that they want to use it as the entry point
to get later to another more suited format.
Just as individual glider pilots do
tend during their flying lives to move from one format to another as their
available time, funds, interests change. (sometimes repositioning themselves
within a club, sometimes by moving to another club)
The level of 'paying forward'
similarly varies significantly in line with the differing personal
definition.
Some pilots focus on the immediate
needs to hand, some to those where they can see value-adding or advance, and
there are even a very few who do non-core things which no one else in the
sport and related organisations in their right minds can see any point to at
all.
Which then leads to chat on this
list about 'why doesn't he/she put that same effort into what I declare is
patently much more important.'
Surprise, surprise - 'cause that
person has their own view of what is most important.
My own belief is that there was
more congruence of effort and more success when there was a sport-wide
overarching 'vision' that happened to encapsulate lots of these individual
priorities.
Each such vision appropriate to its
time.
When I got into gliding, it
was
'an Oz pilot, flying an Oz
sailplane, winning a World Comp'.
In my estimation that got 'old' in
1974.
I'm not aware of a similar
overarching theme since.
The stats tell the story of
commensurate outcomes in my view.
(No, I don't have an overarching
suggestion to offer for here and now)
(People who know me are aware of
the fairly limited 'vision' that I trudge along after on an as-can, when-can basis).
While I'm rambling on, permit me to
note that just as club success is conditioned by local population
circumstance, there are similar conditioners on groups of clubs in
regions.
People who travel more widely than
I, tell me how different gliding is in Australia north of the grey nomad line,
compared with west of the Idaho line.
In one there is no shortage of
current generation equipment at significant numbers of clubs and in private
hands, contest entry numbers are high, etc.
In the other, even zero-hour old
generation stuff is rare and in single numbers, there are no contest venues,
etc.
Expectations of survival and
success I suspect are defined in quite different terms in each.
Now back to your regularly
scheduled diatribes.....
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