I have so far focused on technology. Most soaring pilots are analytic, engineer types, and a story line that focuses on technology is natural to us. But in tracing this story, already we’ve discovered that the technology per se was not the central part of the story; it was how technology changed the “soft stuff,” the rules, procedures, strategy, and character of contest flying, that really mattered.
And as I review the development of soaring, it is the “soft stuff,” the human side, that really is the story, in so many of the other developments we have experienced. Let me start with two demographic trends, and then review the big changes in races, classes, and rules.
1. Participation.
Overall, participation in US soaring contests has shown the same slow decline as in the rest of soaring. We’ve lost about 10% over the last decade. Nationals in particular are getting smaller and smaller, in part because there are more of them. For example, in 2010, there were 8 pilots at the open nationals, 27 at 18m, 29 at 15m, 10 at standard, a healthier (but still declining) 42 at sports and 6 at the world class. Smaller contests are less economically viable, and the site committee’s work now consists more and more of twisting arms rather than adjudicating too many bids.
Participation has always been small. Only about 5% of SSA members every fly a contest. But a glass that is 95% empty is also 5% full. That means we could double contest participation if we just get an extra 5% of SSA members to show up! (Similarly, if the SSA could get 1 out of a hundred power pilots to take up soaring, we would dramatically increase our members.)
I see low and declining participation as the main challenge to contest soaring in the next decade.
You might say “who cares?” After all, a trivial percentage of drivers racy the Indy 500, and that seems neither to hurt car sales nor lower the quality of the race.
The answer is, you care. Soaring is a participant sport not a spectator sport. We are organizing events for the enjoyment of participants, not for the big TV money. And the economics of our sport have vast “economies of scale.” Everyone has a better experience if there are more people.
I had a vision of this a while ago. I spent a lovely half hour 500 feet above a golf course. I don’t need to tell anyone in this room exactly why I was there. As I looked down, I noticed a full parking lot; tennis courts with happy wives; a swimming pool full of happy children, a pro shop where you could get your wings waxed – no, sorry, buy golf clubs – a bar and a restaurant. And it occurred to me; why do we fly gliders out of dusty deserted airports in the middle of nowhere, while these people pursue their sport in such pleasant surroundings? The answer is simple. Their club has 1000 members. I fly from a great club, well run, with great equipment. But we’re not putting in a restaurant for 60 members!
Every bright idea everyone has for improving contest soaring comes down to one obstacle: There aren’t enough of us. More classes, more contests, cheaper gliders, better teams, more instruction, more coaching, more development, more fun times, better venues… It all needs the money that comes from scale.
And contest soaring is a key to stabilizing the numbers in regular soaring. When I went back and looked at the contest winners from 1985, it was striking that almost everyone on that page is either still soaring or dead. It seems we fly until they pry our cold dead hands from the stick! When they start flying cross country or contests, they stick. The problem in soaring is not numbers in the front door, it’s that the typical member stays two years and then leaves out the back door. More contest participation can really help that trend.
2. Wives (spouses) and crews.
A big change in soaring since the 1970s follows a big change in society. Wives work! (Sorry for being sexist here; almost all US contest pilots are men.) If you ask a modern wife to take her two weeks of vacation, and take care of the kids in the back of the station wagon for two weeks in, say Uvalde Texas, and come pick you up from various ranch roads, you will get a big laugh. Those days are over.
Partly as a result, there are fewer and fewer crews. Most contests, even nationals, now have more than half of the pilots showing up crewless.
On the one hand, it’s a good thing rules and tasks have evolved to allow it. If we go back to distance days or mass landouts, we’ll lose half our sport.
On the other hand, the fact that so many pilots now show up alone – and the vast majority of pilots who are still working and have kids at home show up alone — is a big impediment to participation. The fact is, glider racing is now a sport that people take up in their mid-40s, when kids are at least a bit independent, and the majority of our population is retired or semi-retired with no kids in the house.
All of soaring needs to make the transition to this new demographic reality. The days in which hubby could hang out at the glider port while wife takes care of kids at home is gone. I don’t have any big answers, but this is the big question. Again, if only we had 1000 members and could be like the golf club…
One small lesson here comes from contest experience. The successful contests are fun . The Seniors, Newcastle, Perry and Mifflin are big successes. What do they offer? A great place, a well organized social scene, and a lot of support for newer pilots. This is a lesson for us winter pundits. Team points, handicaps, and all the things we obsess about over the winter eventually matter a whole lot less than fun.
