- Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:00 am
#402603
The book, "Downwind, A True Hang-gliding Story" was written by Larry Fleming, 44 years since 1974 and still flying hang-gliders. I still believe that hang-gliding moved beyond the general population, but I do see pilot socialization in the landing fields. It is no longer totally about freedom and doing your own thing, but rather working to keep our sites open. The sport now requires insurance, organization, etc and we have become responsible. We no longer fear authority; we work with it. We have become"the man". We now have established, regulated flying sites and our pilots socialize there and on the ride up the hill. However, many of our sites are out of the public view and I do not see the general public there, like in the 1970's and 1980's. My experiences as a high school teacher (summers free to fly, yahoo!) have shown me that young people just don't do stuff like I did in childhood; active stuff like building tree houses, flying and crashing line-controlled model planes, playing sandlot football and baseball on Saturdays, riding miles away on adventures with a bicycle, working on my first car, jumping off the roof of my house, etc. People today tend to have had passive childhood experiences with computers and video games, or sports that are organized by adults. Today, we have many people who go through life as passengers, not pilots. There have also been many new inventions that allow the few active people to do stuff; para-gliding, drones, kite-surfing, new technology for bicycles, etc, which draws away from the pool of possible pilots.
In short, I believe that our decline in numbers is due to several factors;
1. a change to a more passive culture
2. more choices of activities for the fewer active people
3. the need for insurance and organization, which creates more hoops for future pilots to jump through
The beginning years of hang-gliding were exciting, a special moment in time, and I still see and relive that excitement with the very few new pilots, who are learning, but we have learned that freedom is not free and we are paying the price with organization, dues, insurance, cost of instruction. The general population does not dream of flight strongly enough to pay that price. Should we go back to our roots? I don't think we can.
Best Wishes and Good Flights,
Larry Fleming
In short, I believe that our decline in numbers is due to several factors;
1. a change to a more passive culture
2. more choices of activities for the fewer active people
3. the need for insurance and organization, which creates more hoops for future pilots to jump through
The beginning years of hang-gliding were exciting, a special moment in time, and I still see and relive that excitement with the very few new pilots, who are learning, but we have learned that freedom is not free and we are paying the price with organization, dues, insurance, cost of instruction. The general population does not dream of flight strongly enough to pay that price. Should we go back to our roots? I don't think we can.
Best Wishes and Good Flights,
Larry Fleming