GNZ Survey of New Members

out the TE line. The next fl ight went much better and I found I could easily centre a thermal and just hold it in the core fl ying at 40 kts. This was great because it meant I could get high out of the heat. I felt much happier. The glider was handling like a dream and I could fi nally explore the area.

Lake Keepit is a really easy site to fl y out from, with large landable paddocks in almost every direction. As the name indicates, the airfi eld is right next to a large dammed lake. The lake and surrounding dams turned out to work quite nicely as thermal triggers. The next week was spent getting used to the gliders and conditions. The conditions weren’t the best for the week before the comp, so the fi rst few days we just fl ew around trying to get used to the big fat Aussie thermals that seemed just as tight as the New Zealand mountain thermals I was used to. Later in the week, we set a few practice tasks and had our fi rst land out, in blue conditions. Nick and I were both about 100 km west of the air fi eld when things started to go soft. We carried on, with the mind set that if you run through a forest with your eyes closed you will eventually hit a tree. We didn’t hit a tree. We tried all the possible thermal triggers we’d been told about, but none of them worked. So I found myself a nice big stubble paddock to land in and pulled up outside the farm house. I then saw Nick land in a big perfectly groomed airstrip across the road from the paddock I landed in.

There were 18 pilots fl ying in the comp and another 10 doing coaching, which meant that they would fl y around the task with coaches in Duos and other two-seaters. The competition was organised and run by juniors, and ran like any other competition - except for a few odd things, such as it being compulsory to wear a bathrobe to the pilots meeting, a tradition that has been around for a few years now. There was lots of other friendly banter; one of the pilots who tried to keep his birthday quiet woke up to fi nd his glider decorated in pink balloons and streamers. There was lots of non-standard radio talk on the competition frequency, with the occasional sing-along and plenty of kiwi jokes. The fl ying was very competitive, with many of the pilots having competed at junior world and national competitions. It was great to have a chance to really test ourselves against good guys.

The competition went pretty well for me. I learnt lots and reckon I will be able to do way better when I go back again. I only really made one major mistake. I stuffed up my fi nal glide and had to land in a paddock on the other side of the lake from the airfi eld. I had the choice of a dodgy glide across the lake or a safe landing in the paddock. I chose the paddock. I was gutted, because I’d fl own through a few 10 kt thermals but decided not to take them. Bugger. Oh well, a lesson learnt. When you did manage to make it to the airfi eld, the fi nal glide across the lake was awesome fun. You could fl y across the lake on the deck and land straight ahead. Results

Nick came 8th and I came 9th overall. Most of the people who fi nished in front of us are at the end of their time as juniors. This puts us in a good place for future comps, and for the 2015 junior worlds.

Overall, the trip was a great success and we will be going back. The next three junior competitions will be held in Narromine: Joey Glide 2013, the pre-Junior Worlds 2014 and the 2015 Junior Worlds. We’re aiming to be at all of these, as well as other practice trips in Australia.

We would like to thank all the people who sponsored us and helped us out along the way. A special mention and thank you to the Mike Rix and the Ian Pryde Memorial Trusts. We couldn’t have funded the trip without their support.

In October 2012, GNZ emailed surveys to members of Gliding Clubs who had joined in the previous two years. There were 154 who met the initial selection criteria (i.e. not having rejoined after an absence, member of a family group already members, valid email address).

This was whittled down to 100, mainly as the survey software was limited to 100 participants. We had over 33 replies which is pretty good in survey land :-) The questions asked were:

Q1 What got you in to gliding? Q2 What was the ‘trigger’ that made you take the fi rst lesson? Q3 What do you think the gliding movement could do to attract more members? Keep in mind that we don’t have a large promotional budget. Q4 What TWO things do you think your local club could do to make learning gliding easier? Q5 Have you any other suggestions on how to ‘grow’ the sport of gliding in New Zealand. The answers to question one were interesting and slightly unexpected.

Always wanted to fl y - 16 responses Introduced by a friend - 6 responses Saw a glider fl ying - 4 responses. (One had a glider “sieve his fence” so thought, give it a go?{sic}) ATC - 4 responses Got a gift voucher - 3 responses Nobody ticked the box “Because Richie McCaw does it”.

Replies to “What was the trigger” didn’t have any theme, however the most interesting reply was, “My wife getting pregnant and realising I might never have time after the baby was born.” Trying to ascertain how people got their information, we asked about their thoughts on promotion. 11 said, advertise in local media (Radio & newspapers) 9 said, local club promotions 6 said, national promotions 5 said, promotions in schools

Questions 4 and 5 are not easy to pigeonhole, however they tend to support the things that we have been talking about for years. The major sentiment is about the time requirement and time required for quality structured instruction.

If I was to summarise this information on how we should ‘grow gliding’, I would be looking at: a) Reviewing the product we are selling. i.e. the instruction a nd its support materials, manuals, DVDs, websites etc. b) Asking every glider pilot in New Zealand to ‘bring a friend to fl y’. c) Create some marketing ideas, with associated materials, that clubs could use for local promotion. d) Do some national promotion around the ‘Always wanted to fl y?’ theme

We would be interested in your thoughts before we take the next step. Drop me a line at roy_baldman@yahoo.com