Soaring: Is it declining in popularity?

There seems to be some indications that our beloved sport is not as popular as it used to be. My own club, New England Soaring Association (NESA), has experienced a major decline over the last four years. In talking with other soaring enthusiasts in New England and around the country there seams to be a decline in interest by the younger people. I personally have seen more interest in soaring by power pilots who are getting up in years and are concerned about losing their medicals. They're looking at soaring as a way to continue to fly.

I welcome all who are interested in soaring to come and enjoy our sport but we're going to have a problem with the future of soaring as a sport if the majority of our new members are power pilots without medicals.

In August of this year, I took my "homebuilt" Monerai Sailplane and went to the EAA air show in Oshkosh. Ever since I built the Monerai I've wanted to display it at Oshkosh. I've gone to the show every year since 1984 and have found it to be a great place to make new friends from all parts of the country. The one thing that I've noticed is that out of some estimated 10,000 aircraft at the show I've only seen one old Schweizer TG-2 and on a few occasions an ultralight glider on display in the aircraft display area. Yes, in the past few years I have seen some commercial motorgliders in the exhibit areas and they have drawn a lot of interest but where are the homebuilt sailplanes and the restored classics and the super ships that can set world distance records?

On the way to Oshkosh I stoped in Elmira New York and had a very nice visit with Paul Schweizer. We talked soaring, sailplane designs, the cost of new commercial ships and homebuilt ships. As a one time Schweizer dealer, I've had these talks before with Paul, but this time he was very concerned with the decline in SSA membership and the problem of the aging fleet of 2-33 trainers. What's going to replace them and at what cost is one of his major questions. I personally question why a basic trainer has to have higher performance than a 2-33. After all, isn't it a "basic" trainer. With our new materials and building techniques we should be able to build cheaper trainers than the last run of 2-33's. As a flight instructor, I'd like to fly a higher performance trainer, but now I've started to lose sight of the design goal - "basic trainer".

Two weeks before the Oshkosh convention I took my Monerai to the East Coast Sailplane Homebuilder's workshop which was held in conjunction with an ultralight fly-in in central New York. At first I thought it strange for us to be mixing with powered ultralights. What could we have in common? When I assembled the sailplane, it drew a lot of interest with a lot of questions on how to get started in soaring. In talking with Jim Marske, Al McCarty and some of the other "movers and doers" of the Sailplane Homebuilder's of America, some interesting things started to come to light.

The ultralight flyers love to fly, especially something they built themselves. They have gone back to basics and found a joy of flying that's been lost in all our high-tech aircraft. More performance does not guarantee more flying fun, just more money spent.

I believe that the driving force in the old hang gliders, which became powered ultralights, was the need for men and woman to fly in any way possible. Performence was not the driving forc; if it were they never would have flown the things they did. What counted most was that it flew. When you start at the bottom of the performance scale, even a Schweizer 2-22 is a big improvement. These people are excited when you talk about homebuilt sailplanes with glide ratios of 26:1.

Getting a sailplane on the flight line at Oskosh is no easy task but we did it. John Watkins, also a Monerai builder and flyer and loyal friend helped me assemble the ship and then walk it almost a mile to the front row of the "show aircraft" parking. We were able to squeeze into a spot in what is called Monett's corner with many of John Monett's other kit planes. What happened next was quite unexpected.

A sailplane on the flight line at Oskosh really drew the crowd. I never knew so many people would want to talk about soaring - how to get started and where to go to get a ride. Can I buy a sailplane kit? How much does it cost? Is it hard to build? Bob Wander at the SSA booth came out with SSA information and in no time at all it was gone. So we went to the booth and got some more literature. In fact, Bob made many trips to be sure we didn't run out.

You know, you can hand out all the literature in the world but nothing sells soaring more than taking the time to put people in the sailplane and showing them the controls and instruments. All of the "show planes" are beautifully done and many are roped off to keep people from touching them. Unfortunately, ropes and fences are keeping people and kids on the outside while we're on the inside wondering why more people don't become interested in soaring and flying. All that's required is to show them where the gate is, and talk to them and if you can, let them touch and feel and see what you see when you're in the cockpit.

Now we get to the best part of all. Kids. You want to see someone get "high" on flying? Put the kids in your ship and talk to them about your soaring flights. How high you've flown or how far you've gone and how long you've stayed up. Tell them how you started in soaring and how they might get started, too. And, remember, no kid is too young to want to fly like an Eagle! When I put the first kid in the cockpit and closed the canopy, he became an instant pilot - controls in hand and a grin I'll never forget.

The EAA has a program for kids called "Young Eagles". The program consists of "handout" literature which describes the basics of aircraft control systems with pictures. It talks about the basic forces of flight, lift, drag and trust with a picture. The program is built around the idea of getting kids in the age group of 8-17 to take a flight in an aircraft. The literature includes an application form with a parent or guardian permission form. The application and permission form are then presented to a participating EAA pilot who then gives a ride to the applicant.

Is soaring, then, losing its appeal? I don't think so. We've just lost sight of our own youth and what really turned us on. What made us ride a bike 10 miles to spend $3.00 worth of our paper route money to take a 10-minute ride in a J3 Cub? Think back. Who helped you at the airport by showing you "what to do" and "not do" around the field? Who let you help assemble the glider? Who let you do important things, like moving the wing stands out of the way at the right time and storing the parts in the trailer? And who gave you your first flight in a sailplane? If you do the same, you just might find that missing youth you think you lost so many years ago.