[Jason]

This sport is having a problem, who is the youngest pilot you know

when I started 12 years ago.......I was the youngest person I knew......
now 12 years later......I'm still the youngest HG pilot on the hill.......12 YEARS...over a decade.....and no new blood...

the only reason I'm in it, is I had a father that was in it.....I suspect the same is true for Ryan....who is right about the same age I am

who taught ryan.....wasn't it his dad?
who taught me....I had a few instructors......but by and large my dad taught me most of what I know.....and now..... I can't share that knowledge/joy/experience with anyone.......unless I spend spend spend to get the proper paperwork....which makes no sense to do since I have no interest in ever selling a ride/lesson

30 years ago there was no "tandem exemption"....then there was a tandem rating.....and now there are 3 tandem ratings.....the first all but useless....

if we want more people in this sport.....we need to make it easier for people to share the experience

it only took 10 minutes this week for 3 of my friends to see why this sport has so little young blood in it

[Manta_Dreaming]

The solution is for all the old pilots to get fake ids.

I've actually met several pilots in their teens, so don't be so glum.

[Jason]

[Scorl]

I'm 25 and a half, I'm a young'n!

At the Colorado Fly Week I was the second youngest hang pilot. There was also a 21 year old, he and his dad were both H2's.

Here in Ohio there are a number of pilots working toward their hang 2's or hang 3's that are around my age. From my limited perspective things aren't so bad as you make them out.

[Jason]

[Mokimadness]

I'm the youngest pilot I know. I'm 21 and Ive been dreaming of hang gliding since I was 9 years old and saw a video of someone flying on TV. The only reason I was able to pick up hang gliding is because of the Berkeley hang gliding club. Here are what I see as the primary blocks for young people like me picking up hang gliding:

1. Money:
Most instructors nowadays want you to purchase all your own equipment almost immediately which can run upwards of many thousands of dollars and on top of that the rate for private instruction is pretty steep. So if you're on your own which most people my age are nowadays that can be next to impossible to do.

2.Time commitment:
Learning to hang glide requires a lot of time and the rewards aren't that visible initially, especially for someone like me who started on low hills and slowly progressed upwards it can be very time consuming (I have never flown tandem).

3. Exposure and misinformation :
Nobody knows what hang gliding is, where and how to learn, and how amazing it can be. I have had countless friends who were completely shocked that I was hang gliding, after I explained to them what hang gliding is, and what soaring is. Most people assume you jump off of a cliff and glide to the ground in a few minutes and thats it. If I wanted to do that I would have picked up skydiving.


How to address these issues In my opinion:

1.Money :
The only reason I was able to afford my lessons and gear is because I am part of a co-op. The berkeley hang gliding co-op and it costs a mere fraction of learning it elsewhere. I use gear provided by the club, and in return I put in my time to help the club and also pay a small fee.

2.Time:
This part is really not something you would want to fix. Hang gliding is not something that I think you want to rush and you want to make sure you perfect your skills on every step of the way to avoid nasty life threatening and bone breaking accidents. Its worth it to take all the time you need to learn things properly.


3. Exposure:
There is no exposure for young people to hang gliding. Nothing on the internet, or the tv, or pretty much anywhere. I'm not sure how exactly this could be fixed but for my part I have been trying to inform all of my friends and people I meet about what hang gliding is and to try to get them interested in picking up the sport.

Well thats my 2 cents anyway, I'm sure there are lots of differing opinions on how to fix this or even if there is an issue to fix.

[Avnav8r]

Hey,

We have a H2 pilot at Lookout named Ethan. His dad, Jason, is a Tandem Pilot at LMFP. Ethan recently had a great flight at Lookout where he outflew many of the experienced pilots. He seems to be a natural pilot and is very enthusiastic

John Stokes
www.soarsouth.org
www.osceolabaldeagle.com

[Jason]

Moki
I think you hit on 2 things
Money
Exposure

Money---itd be a lot cheaper if friends could teach friends......I have some experience with the berkley club...I don't know if they charge for training or not, but I know the berkley club has come a long way in the last 10 years

Exposure----free rides!.....id give them......but I'm not about to spend the money & jump thru all the hoops that USHPSA has put in my way to do that

[Paul H]

Many people complain about the cost to get into hang gliding, but it's not really any more expensive than many other sports/hobbies. Look at what is costs to get a kid into motocross. The complaint about the cost of instruction is kind of ridiculous. Who has the time or desire to teach for free? While it's possible to do some free instruction, how many people have the time and/or can afford to take time off from a regular job to do it? Is there something wrong with someone making a living as instructor? Shouldn't they get paid a decent wage for their time? Times have changed so comparing the requirements that exist now with what existed 30 years ago is useless. The feds take an interest in tandems now so there have to be more serious requirements for tandem pilots. The legal risk for instructors is much greater now with our lawsuit happy society. Another thing to keep in mind when comparing the sport now with years ago is the number of pilots who used to die while hang gliding. Things are a lot better now even if there are more hoops to jump through.

[jjcote]

Hang glider pilots tend to be old guys. That doesn't bother me.
Hang glider pilots are few and far between. That doesn't bother me, either.
The only person about whom I have any interest as to whether he flies or not is me.

[Eteamjack]

[HangDiver]

Jason has a valid point and I agree with him. However, there isn't any way around it. When I started in 1976 we were "Ground Skimmers". We did not factor into aviation. We didn't exist.

Step forward 30 years. Flights to 17,999 are common. Mike Barber goes 438 miles (Dustin/Johnny went 475 + last week). We fly with food, water, instruments, O2 and parachutes. Our numbers are many and liability to land owners in our litiguous society looms large.

In essence, our sport is the victim of its own success. Regulation of hang gliding is here to stay. And while the new hang gliding Risk and Mitigation Plan may seem to be an additional burden, it may in fact protect our future.

Our sport is different now and we must adapt to survive. Jason gave tandems this past week and introduced hang gliding to someone in the most fundumental way. He didn't say it this way, but as he correctly observers, with the lack of exposure we're behind the curve.

Rich J.

[Paul H]

[Suneagle]

The Canungra Hang Gliding Club has a whole bunch of new young pilots on Fun 2's. Youngest is 15 years old and his Dad (a non-flier) is there to support him. There are a large bunch of oldies in the HG side of our club too, plus a few pilots coming across from PG. Our club has about 150 members split about 60/40 PG/HG. With a dozen pilots who fly both.

My feeling is that we don't need to recruit people. Hang gliding should and does draw those who want to do it to its arms. Sites are busy enough and landing areas threatened by overuse (especially PG).

People are drawn to other sports, whether it's curling, darts, base jumping or whatever. It seems to me that anyone and everyone can give PG a go and the result is many inexperienced pilots with little or no competence or understanding of the air. Lots of rescues, accidents and bad publicity reflecting on all of us.
Yeah, I sound like Rick Masters, sorry.

Anyway, I notice that novice HG pilots tend to stay under supervision a lot longer than PG pilots. I'm uneasy flying in a sky full of PG pilots as I know some of them have no idea and will fly through your turning circle unaware of the danger and nuisance that they make of themselves.

Flying with experienced PG pilots is a pleasure as you can trust them to fly considerately and safely and even work thermals with them in confidence.

Novice HG are easily identifiable on their single surface machines (though not all single surface are novices) so it's easier to give the novice some space. With a sky full of PG, they all look the same to most HG pilots and you often feel like you are flying an obstacle course on a tough day rather than just concentrating on the thermal and getting up and out of there.

These are my observations and I hope I don't offend people with my personal feelings. I've had a mid-air king hit from an idiot low hour PG who wasn't looking where he was going, so I'm probably over-aware and a tad biased.

Jerry

[Jason]

[Paul H]

[ktbearpaws]

Well.... I can't really say I am "into" it quite yet...I am just now getting "hooked up" with somew of the locals willing to kinda show me the ropes... I am 43 years old and just now getting into it, But, I have wanted to do it all my life!!
The ony reason I am doing it now is, I was ignorant on how to get started. When I was younger there was no internet, so information was hard to come by. til I found this site getting started seemed more like an impossible dream. I am finding it won't be has impossible as it seemed.
I also thought it would be a lot more expensive than it really is...When I was younger I didn't have a job that paid what I thought I would need to get started.
While the schools can seem a bit pricey, not really that diffrent from deer hunting. My biggest problem will be the distance away from my instuctors..But, I am determined to figure a way out.
And I think one of the biggest deterent was I didn't think anyone in my part of the country was into it... I thought most were on the west coast.....I mean it wasn't like i ever seen anyone out flying....

[Jason]

[Paul H]

[CAL]

though i would love to share a hang gliding experience with others as i have done before the rating system. i see several pilots coming up, young and old, i think we need ratings, but once you are rated and are current you shouldn't have to be observed again to keep your rating as a tandem pilot and there should be someone that can rate you in your region but that would cut money out of those tandem pilots that make a living at it so, maybe it is a good idea to keep things the way they are, another issue would be our insurance could get more out of hand then it is,