LarryJolly wrote: Preston,
Thank you very much for the admission...But what you didn't do was bite.....Someone please ask me what the LSF could do to improve numbers... By the way I do not believe increasing membership has been a huge priority for several of the last LSF administrations. I have to pull back and look at the big picture..You guys on the east coast are facing diminishing numbers..There is no question that in several places in the country the demographic has changed and it reflects the aging of America.. I don't see it yet because the areas I have been focusing on are still vibrant. F3J in Desert enrollment opened today at 8:00 am.. Because of field limitations only 60 pilots were admitted..Entires closed in 5 hours and people are lining up hoping that a space will open. So I am not seeing the decline..but I am reading it from other areas..
LJ
I am very happy to hear that F3J in the Desert did so well. Except for the NATs and a few of the high end pilots in the Eastern Soaring League I never hear much about F3J. Is it growing in the States?
LarryJolly wrote: Lets say the ESAP proposal does pass... Then are really going to presume that those Radian flyers will become gung-ho LSF achievers and are rolls will swell with much needed new blood...Probably not ! That is because it will take much more than this, to get people reengaged and coming to find the LSF.. The LSF has to get more involved at the club level..If there are not strong soaring clubs the LSF will continue to fade because it lacks exposure...Like any company with a product we have to figure out how to connect with the customer and make him a repeat customer... LJ
Larry,
As always your insights are very helpful.
Your comment about clubs caused me to reflect on the structure of clubs and how and why they form. Remember I am only flying 10 years so my personal experience does not go back decades.
It seem to me that soaring clubs probably formed around a few key needs:
1) Large field suitable for a hi-start or a winch
2) Shared ownership of one or more winches, retrievers, batteries, chargers, turn around and the like.
3) Maintenance of said items along with someone to store and be willing to haul this equipment to the field. When they don't fly there is no winch unless someone is willing to go get it. I actually started a newsletter based on informing the club when there would be a winch at the field.
4) Shared expense to mow the grass
5) Common interest in soaring.
6) Tolerance of "keeping the frequency pin" for more than 10 minutes.
Fast forward to 2007 and beyond. Lipos and brushless motors are becoming common. Lighter power systems help e-soaring to become more popular and RTF e-glides are on the rise. 2010 ALES is starting to take-off as a contest format and it doesn't have to be run at a soaring club.
Soaring Clubs in Decline
Based on what I read and my discussions with members of soaring clubs in the Eastern Soaring League, soaring clubs are losing their fields and membership in many is declining. Soaring clubs opened their membership to electric airplanes to attract new membership and the airplanes start to take over the club.
I also observe that, for the most part the operation of a "power club field", even based on electric power, is quite different from the field operation of a pure glider/winch club. They conflict with each other in many ways unless the field is huge and can support operational zones so glider ops and power ops don't interfere with each other. Let's don't even talk about helis.
Fortunately our club found a way to avoid this last trend. The growth of e-gliders has helped us grow our membership without having to turn the club into an airplane club, but it was touch and go for several years. And we have been able to expand the range of flying for many of the e-glider pilots to include pure gliders. I believe hosting the two big ESL unlimited contests also has encouraged some e-glider pilots to expand to pure gliders.
What's your point Ed?
Well, as the soaring community evolves to e-launch:
1) You don't need as large a field as you don't need to string that winch/hi-start.
2) You don't need shared ownership of winches, retrievers, winch batteries, chargers, turn around and the like.
3) No shared maintenance of launch equipment needed. And you don't need someone to store it, haul it, set it up and break it down. And the club is no longer concerned if this person comes to fly and brings the equipment.
4) Grass still needs to be mowed but it is not as important. 100 X100 is fine for e-gliders or you can share a strip with the power planes.
5) Common interest in soaring? Well since 1-4 fade away it is not NECESSARY to have lots of glider pilots in the club so share the burdens as the burdens go away. There is more opportunity for the soaring community to emerge within the power club.
6) With the advent of 2.4 GHz radios the tolerance of "keep the frequency pin" for more than 10 minutes has also gone away too. You can go up and stay up for an hour and no one minds.
You also eliminate a lot of the field operation conflict that you have with winches and hi-starts. An e-glider pilot can walk to a pilot station of a power field, call "on the runway", step out, launch then walk back to the pilot station. Landing can be on the grass next to a hard runway or in a small landing area away from the runway for tape landings for score. And since you have a motor you can "go around" rather than having to demand preferred landing rights.
Now gliders are much more compatible with power fields. And so we keep reading stories of how e-gliders and e-glider guiders are growing in power clubs and power clubs are even hosting ALES contests.
While I love being part of a glider club, the fact is that the need for a dedicated glider club to support soaring as a focused flying style has been greatly diminished with e-soaring.
Larry, you are right, LSF needs to be involved in the clubs. And the number of clubs where LSF can be involved will go up dramatically when the eSAP is passed.
Ed Anderson
LISF, ESL, AMA, LSF