frankflyboy1

We do what we do away from people, as much as we can. Although some of us fly at parks, most of us fly as far away from people as we can. We build our planes pretty much in private, again, away from people.

There are plenty of hobbies/sports that get little or no attention. Biathlon comes to mind. Because it is an Olympic sport, it gets 5 minutes of coverage in the middle of the night on TV. Except when Bobby Fischer play against a computer, chess gets zero coverage. About the only time we see mountain climbing is when someone falls off or dies on a mountain. There are a tremendous number of examples of activities that get no exposure.

I think that most of us would agree that Pattern is the pinnacle of our sport when measuring mastery of a plane (sorry racers and scale guys). Have you ever watched a Pattern contest? After a couple of flights it is like watching the grass grow. Even at the TOC, the spectators found something to do between freestyle rounds in order to stay awake. It's just my opinion, but it would make horrible TV. Ever seen a thermal duration sailplane contest? Even the contestants have been known to fall asleep. Talk about watching the grass grow.

The best we can hope for is a minute or two of air time with planes boring holes in the sky and/or a quick interview. Our stuff makes better commercials than actual coverage.

Keep in mind that it takes a special sort of person to be involved. This is not for the risk adverse activity. We tend to be the sort that are not interested in having government control us. We don't want to be put in a bubble to protect us from risk all of our lives. We put our fingers, our hearing, and our bodies at risk each time we go to the flying site, not to mention some of the stuff we use to build with. That fact alone alienates us from a huge portion of the population.

And then there are women. Women, in general, show very little interest in what we do. I don't know why. I tried to get my daughter interested when she was younger. No way. Now she is married and her husband enjoys going to the field with me, but she still finds something better to do. There goes another 50%+ of the population.

It's always seemed to me you can spot a potential member of our hobby. Just look for the guy that looks up when a plane goes over and watches it. On any street you can see it. It's not a very high percentage of the folks on the street.

All of this does not mean we can't have political clout by pulling together through our numbers. I have never seen a guess or statistic that shows the actual numbers involved. Mine is somewhere around a million. Enough to demand support from government IF we pull together.

So.. we remain an almost invisible, relatively small and committed group of friends and buddies having fun at what we do. A group that ranges from the very young to the very old. Maybe that is as it should be.

JR