This forum is dedicated to discussions on how to grow the sport of hang gliding. We will take a methodical approach to collect data and come up with implementable ideas on how to increase our numbers. This includes effective marketing, lead generation, site access issues, improving regulations, lack of instructors, lack of sites, etc

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User avatar
By jimrooney
#135842
I've not yet gotten through all the wanderings of this thread... but I thought I'd throw this little bit out there to chew on....

Apparently, my next door neighbor when I was growing up flew hang gliders. I've been obsessed with flying from birth.

I can't help but imagine how different things may have been if he'd set up his glider in his yard one day.

Jim
User avatar
By CHassan
#135844
jimrooney wrote:I've not yet gotten through all the wanderings of this thread... but I thought I'd throw this little bit out there to chew on....

Apparently, my next door neighbor when I was growing up flew hang gliders. I've been obsessed with flying from birth.

I can't help but imagine how different things may have been if he'd set up his glider in his yard one day.

Jim
Image
I've set mine up several times in the yard. Here was my new U2 set up in the back yard due to the winds that day. Usually I set up in the front yard to hose it down a couple times a year.
A few neighbors have asked about it, but not many others.

Going XC and landing near the general population works well. It is not just a static diplay, but a full on "HOLY SH#& LOOK, LOOK, LOOK, HE"S LANDING HERE!!!!!!!!"
User avatar
By TommyT
#135873
Anyone may create hanggliding.org vinyl stickers for their car. Fine by me.
Jack
Do you have a large copy of the hanggliding.org with the white glider image just below web page menu on top of this page that you could post. something forum members could take to their local sign shop [ print shop can make them also].



Local Hang Gliding School
http://www.midwestaero.net/
Local Hang Gliding Club
http://whitewaterhangglidingclub.freefo ... ng-f1.html

Tommy
Last edited by TommyT on Fri Jul 31, 2009 8:00 am, edited 3 times in total.
#135891
Fixed wing, rotary, hot air balloons, whatever, if it flies, we need it!
Saturday August 8, 2009, 9am-5pm

From: dean@regathon.com [ mailto:dean@regathon.com]
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 4:06 AM
Subject: Pilots Needed - 2nd annual Take Flight for Kids San Jose Reid
Hillview Airport Saturday August 8, 2009

Greetings!

Could you do me a favor and post the following to any pilot's email list
that is likely to be seen by Northern & Central Coast California pilots.
We need ~75 pilots for this year's 2nd annual Take Flight for Kids in
San Jose, to fly young people with disabilities. Fixed wing, rotary,
hot air balloons, whatever, if it flies, we need it! This year's event
is going to be enormous! We expect to make 200+ flights and fly 750
people. Plus we expect 200+ exhibitors to join us and strut their stuff
to 4000+ festival attendees. In fact would you like to host a (free)
booth? Let me know and we'll hold a prime space for you!

Thanx, I appreciate the help in spreading the word!

Have a great summer!
Dean McCully

-------------------------------------------
Hi Pilot Friends!

Can you believe it? Only 4 more weeks to the August 8, the second
annual VMC Valley Medical Center Foundation & EAA-62's Take Flight for
Kids, San Jose' Young Eagle's special flying event for young people with
disabilities.

* Saturday August 8, 2009, 9am-5pm
* San Jose Reid Hillview Airport RHV, San Jose, California
* Pilot brief: 8am in the EAA-62 hangar at San Jose Reid Hillview
Airport (RHV)
* Pilots can join us any time, come and go as you please, if you
can't make the 8am briefing, we'll brief you when you arrive.
* First wheels up 9am
* Last flights 4pm or until we've flown all the kids.
* 75 pilots needed!
* All EAA Young Eagle's rules and restrictions apply. This is an
official 'Young Eagle's Rally'
* EAA National membership required for pilots (local chapter
membership NOT required).
* ~200 flights thru the day
* Flights are 15-20 minutes, depending on conditions
* About 750 passengers including 150+ young people with disabilities
+ 2 guest passengers each.
* All passengers subject to approval of Pilot In Command.
* Guest passengers are usually siblings and friends, but adult
parents/guardians/caregivers are allowed to fly if the young person has
a medical condition that might require in flight attention from a
responsible adult.
* 4000+ people at the simultaneous festival involving 200 non profits
hosting (free) booths.
* FREE BBQ for everybody who joins us (plus an infinite numbers of
smiles and giggles from the kids for all volunteers)
* All subject to weather, of course.

We need at least 75 pilots this year. So if you can fly with us, please
sign up online asap so we can send more info:

http://www.takeflightforkids.com/pilot.htm

Please spread the word to fellow pilots. We need all the high quality
flying men/women we can get!

OR if you cannot fly with us, come on out and volunteer anyway. We are
in big need of flight school instructors, escorts to planes, just pilots
to sit around and tell stories to the captivated kids about how cool it
is to fly! Volunteer signup is here:
http://www.dayinthesky.org/volunteer.htm

Hope you can join us Saturday August 8 in RHV. Let me know if you
have ANY questions....

Cheers
Dean McCully
Take Flight for Kids etc :goodidea: :thumbsup:
User avatar
By TommyT
#136052
then I will

1) Fund the project and sell at cost
2) Produce a high resolution graphic for the lettering shop in the format they want (I would hope it would be an SVG file)

Then we can funnel more people into the sport here. Unfortunately I dont have the bandwidth to do this right now all by myself
This does make sense, for any sign shop to make the first sticker it well cost about $50 (for setup cost) after that the price per unit goes down


utube video on vinyl graphics, installing start half way through video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uUu-SCz1OY

Local Hang Gliding School
http://www.midwestaero.net/
Local Hang Gliding Club
http://whitewaterhangglidingclub.freefo ... ng-f1.html

Tommy
User avatar
By TommyT
#136108
Finally, most handy people could probably do the lettering application by themselves, but I'm not so sure everyone would/will get it right. Should we not worry about that (beyond pointing them to that informative YouTube video)?
Wingspan34
Or you(or someone on this forum) could make an installation video to put on YouTube, you never know maybe even a non-HG person could see it and think how cool that would look on their car/truck.


Local Hang Gliding School
http://www.midwestaero.net/
Local Hang Gliding Club
http://whitewaterhangglidingclub.freefo ... ng-f1.html

Tommy
User avatar
By gasdive
#138478
sg wrote:Im still waiting for the very first person to do this and take pics.

I think we should design a printable hg.org brochure to hand out. A black and white and color version so people with only black/white printers can use it too.

A 4x6 photo would be good as a hand out too.
Anyone could download the image and have it printed for cheap at Walmart to use as a brochure/card.
I didn't take photos but back in the 80's there was a kite flying festival at my local beach. Attracted about 50 000 people.

I used to take a Mars down (then the GTR and a GT), set it up on the grass and hand out brochures from my local instructor.

I don't know if it ever did any good but it was a fun day out. I would have gone down anyway to look at the kites but I had a shade to sit under.

Cheers Jason =:)
User avatar
By Windlord
#155724
That is so excellent Bob. Definitely a good way to get some interest going. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
User avatar
By TommyT
#155731
The Hawks should have entered the Oct promotion contest
:ditto:
User avatar
By i8godzilla
#155837
bobk wrote:I've been looking for a place to post this (sorry about the image size)...

On October 24th, 2009, 5 members of the Torrey Hawks Hang Gliding Club set up a hang gliding simulator at the 2009 Kick Gas Festival. We encouraged anyone passing by to give it a try, and we ended up giving 64 "hang gliding rides" during the day. We also handed out dozens of cards and brochures for our local hang gliding schools and instructors.

Thanks to the members of the Hawks who helped out during a long day!!

Image
As SG said, you should have entered the October contest. But what the hell, PM me your address and I'll send a set of straps the the Hawks. You can auction them off at your next meeting and put the money in your club Treasury.

(Next time you can ask Nick Greece for some magazines and give the away also.)
User avatar
By Erik Boehm
#162429
I wasn't keeping up with this thread, didn't see this until bob linked to it, so thats my excuse for reviving an old topic.
bobk wrote: The San Diego Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (SDHGPA) was also at the Festival. But they were mostly promoting paragliding. They brought a paraglider which they kited for a brief time, and they intended to bring a paragliding simulator (but they had problems with insurance). They did a similar thing at the May 30th Powerline fund-raiser. They donated tandem paragliding flights but not tandem hang gliding flights.
...
The SDHGPA president and vice president and most of their board have been paragliding pilots for as long as I've been associated with the club (about 5 years now). That's why we need a separate voice for hang gliding here in San Diego.
Why does this not Surprise me?
You mention they were "mostly" promoting paragliding?
What did their Half-azzed attempt (I suspect thats giving them too much credit, 1/8th assed attempt?) consist of? The word hangglider buried in the middle of some brochure plastered with PG pictures?

Sounds more like rather than being a SDHGPA group, it was a TP Glider-port concessionaire promotion.
Let me just guess where they were recommending interested parties go to learn more? Whose contact info were they giving out - TPG's, right?

I'd go into it more, but I don't want to hijack the topic
User avatar
By TomGalvin
#166414
My Airwave Klassic was hanging in The Poughkeepsie, NY Civic Center during a local radio station event, the "Man Show". Unfortunately is was a flyable day at Ellenville. :(
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User avatar
By Windlord
#166425
That's pretty good Tom. :thumbsup:
Gotta love those "Man Shows" with all of the Man Tools and Man Toys.
Going there is just the Manly thing to do. :mrgreen:
That makes for some good HG exposure. Very nice!
User avatar
By TomGalvin
#166497
Greg got a booth for his school showing hang gliding videos of the training hill and the mountain. A few locals pilots pitched in hanging two gliders from the ceiling and working the booth.
By NotoriusKP
#182297
I'm fairly new to the sport of hang gliding. I haven't taken a lesson, but I've begun speaking with many hang gliding pilots across the nation. From what I've read here, it doesn't seem that many of you actually offer Tandem flights, is this correct?

I think a great way to promote hang gliding is by simply taking people up for the excitement of a tandem flight. The main reason I haven't been yet is my weight. I'm kind of a big guy (alright, real big, about 280 lbs.), but I've been busting tail trying to get down to a reasonable weight to fly.

I've talked to a couple of "regular joes" who have taken Tandem flights and would not stop talking about it for at least a year after their first experience.

From an extreme newbie perspective, it seems that taking a tandem flight and word of mouth from there would be the best way to spread the word about hang gliding.

I've also talked to several people who did not take a tandem their first time out, and went out for lessons. I was surprised at how many people got burned out so quickly because they didn't realize how difficult it really would be.

I'm kind of new to this forum, as well as the sport, but I thought I would try to put my two cents in and see what kind of response back I could get. If I was interested in getting Tandem certification eventually, and starting a tandem operation, what kind of cost/time would I need to invest in this?
User avatar
By Anadactyl
#195345
Oh man, that is a great idea. I would've gotten into the sport a lot earlier if I had been exposed to it more at a younger age. In fact, I would've been a lot more capable if I had gotten into it before my car accident.

There are very few hang gliders in my area. The closest club is almost an hour away. I'll definitely see what I can do to help promote the sport. In fact, my husband is a graphic designer and printer who has taken marketing classes.... hmm... I've got to put this to good use.

:goodidea:
User avatar
By peanuts
#195347
wanna know how to propagate hang gliding? fly a hang glider.
User avatar
By wanderingalbatross
#201467
I don't think you can grow hg by word of mouth or by regional events. The best case that comes to mind immediately is the Airplane Owners and Pilots Assoc. or AOPA. I remember when our numbers were dwindling down around (heck I cant remember the number) 380,000 and student starts were almost dead, there was nothing but 70's era cessna's to fly. AOPA launched an all out campaign to increase our membership. Granted, they had money to spend, mainly from yearly dues which entitled you to a great monthly magazine, an airport facility book, etc. They focused magazine articles in publications that targeted the demographic they were looking for, ran some 10 sec tv spots, encouraged the members to take a prospect flying, did a monthly magazine spot in AOPA mag highlighting the new prospects accomplishments, etc. Before you knew it, new student starts were up, new light aircraft were popping up all over (light sport aircraft), FAA relaxed some rules, people were flying again. Last time I checked, they had increased membership to 600,000+. This figure has diminished some due to the deplorable aviation climate we are now in from top to bottom.

How much of the above could translate to HG? I'm too new to tell. You are pretty much unregulated so you don't have as much reason to come together and fight for your right to fly as we do. The sport has its own brand of individualism that isn't conducive to banding together under one flag. I imagine you would hear howls from the hills if you asked everyone to contribute yearly dues of say $39 as AOPA does. But all the things I've just mentioned have made AOPA a force to be reckoned with.

But these may be the antithesis of where hg's want to go. I would only add that if nothing else, AOPA's model of nearly doubling it's membership over ~ 5 years must have something worth imitating, even if you can't or don't want the whole 9 yards. And they are great people to talk to. Look at EAA. Every year about 750,000 aviation nuts flock to Oshkosh, by gosh! Same principle. You charge a little dues, put out a great magazine (or not, since the net) and you organize people into a common group. I'm sure if HG.org contacted AOPA with this story, the association president would be happy to sit down with you and help you brainstorm this thing. Hey, birds of a feather....

wanderingalbatross

PS: I am in no way suggesting that HG's and PG's should band together into one group. That quagmire is way above my paygrade! :wink:
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