Peter I'm sure we'd all love to know the secret of the British and German successes in promoting junior soaring. If anyone finds out what they do so right, let us all know !
Probably a lot of it comes down to accessibility. Take Sydney with just over 4.2 million people. To get to Camden by CAR for many of that number it takes between an hour and an hour and a half (for major population centres on the North side, Eastern Suburbs, Parammatta, Penrith, etc. Train journeys are problematic because the closest station is Campbelltown (allow for a 1 hour journey from Nth/East/Central suburbs, and up to double that for Western or Southern lines where you must change trains). Then there's a 15-20 minute taxi ride (read $$$) or an infrequent bus network (once an hour on weekends) and then you still need to get from the bus stop in Camden to the airport (more hassles) In the UK, there's 60 million people sharing a land area of circa 241,000 sq kms. There are around 100 clubs in a tiny little area (compared to even NSW). I'm sure Germany is similar to the UK in terms of population, land area, and proximity to gliding clubs. Now Australia has only 19.6 million people sharing a land area of 7.6 MILLION square kms. There's just 88 gliding clubs covering this great land of ours (and doing a quick estimation or two says that the average number of members is less than 30). I think we'll never be able to match the UK or Germany for this reason. On the subject of statistics, demographics and all that jazz, a quick look at my club membership database shows me that: We have just 4 student members (17, 17, 19 and 21) For Full Flying and still flying Life members (NOT including students shown above) We have just 4 under-30s Then 10 between 30-39 Then 29 between 40 and 49 Then 26 between 50 and 59 Then 22 between 60 and 69 Then 8 aged over 70 In other words, we have an enormous difficulty attracting (and more importantly keeping) members in the younger age bracket, even though our current probationary membership figures shows that 75% of them are aged between 25 and 45. Comments / comparisons anyone ? Cheers Jason Armistead Southern Cross Gliding Club Camden, NSW > In most sports it is recognised that to have continued success at > the highest level that you need a strong junior base which also > reflects the long term health of that sport. Great Britian junior > pliots placed 1st, 2nd & 5th in Standard class and 4th and 6th in > Club class. > > Germany was not far behind with 3rd and 4th in Standard and 1st and > 3rd in Club Class. > > It begs the question if Great Britian can achieve this sucess at > Junior level why can't Australia do the same? What is Great Britian > doing at a Junior level to attract and develop elite junior pilots? > > What is preventing Australia developing similiar programmes and > achieving the same success? > > This will only now serve to attract more junior pilots into gliding > in Great Britian. > > Regards > Peter Robinson > >From: FAI - Anne-Laure Perret <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], News IGC <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"IGC, Information" > ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Subject: Winners - 3rd FAI World Junior Gliding Championship > >Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 10:57:22 +0200 > > > >Sport: Gliding > >Title: 3rd FAI World Junior Gliding Championship > >Type : World > >Date: 5 - 19.07.2003 > >Location: Nitra, Slovak Republic > > > >Final Results : > > > >Club Class > >1st : Michael STREIT GER ASW 19 > >2nd : Peter TOFT DEN Std Cirrus > >3rd : Stephan ZEMMEL GER ASW 19 > > > >Standard Class > >1st : Jez HOOD GBR LS 8 > >2nd : Luke REBBECK GBR LS 8 > >3rd : Achim BESSER GER Discus 2 > > > >The full results can be found at the following address : > >http://events.fai.org/ > > > >FAI congratulates the Winners and thanks the Organisers of the > >Championship. > > > >________________________________________________________ > > > >This is a message from the IGC News Distribution List. > > > >To modify your subscriber status for the IGC-NEWS list, check > >http://www.fai.org/general/subscribe.asp?list=igc-news > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Hot chart ringtones and polyphonics. Go to > http://ninemsn.com.au/share/redir/adTrack.asp? mode=click&clientID=174&referral=Hotmail_taglines_plain&URL=http://ninemsn.com .au/mobilemania/default.asp > > -- > * 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. -- * 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.
