Gliding Membership Report

John Roake, Chairman of the IGC Membership Subcommittee, has submitted his report on the development of gliding members worldwide up to the end of 2004.

WORLD MEMBERSHIP REPORT – YEAR ENDED 2004

	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
ARGENTINA	351	286	251	268	253	242	252	264	186	174	316	322
AUSTRALIA	3519	3532	3349	3240	3139	3089	2976	2785	2725	2673	2606	2637
AUSTRIA	4096	4038	3986	4028	3990	3965	3599	3690	3711	3724	3686	3687
BELGUIM	1561	1577	1580	1571	1557	1570	1591	1530	1520	1472	1916	1877
CANADA	1288	1257	1292	1257	1319	1321	1313	1290	1350	1295	1232	1134
CHINA											120	117
CROATIA											270	272
CZECH REPBL	3202	3311	3385	3531	3540	3591	3190	3142	3114	3206	3246	3249
DENMARK	2052	2046	2036	2005	1984	1927	1950	1892	1875	1841	1766	1756
FINLAND	2540	2595	2533	2442	2670	2474	2602	2814	2600	2548	2493	2442
FRANCE	13248	14165	13809	13256	12554	11813	11100	11510	12020	12155	13300	12669
GERMANY	38465	38444	37592	37624	36724	36768	36687	36414	35852	35650	35236	34642
GREECE	52	52	50	50	49	49	51	52	53	60	60	83
HUNGARY	3110	2097	1881	1881	1881	1664	1664	1628	1637	1643	1602	1450
ICELAND	91	94	100	97	96	96	101	80	70	68	65	53
ISRAEL	225	225	204	193	189	190	190	183	184	175	180	176
IRELAND	71	74	75	78	79	81	85	94	98	111	118	111
ITALY	2140	2165	2135	2105	2120	2135	2125	2110	2122	2129	2129	1749
JAPAN	744	733	719	705	697	686	675	663	684	670	643	640
KENYA											7	9
KOREA											10	9
LUXEMBURG											49	35
LITHUANIA						471	469	472	494	510	526	532
NTHRLNDS	4259	4200	4024	4090	4046	4125	4079	4065	4088	3816	3617	3952
N. ZEALAND	1007	1069	1109	1047	1017	987	889	867	901	917	919	893
NORWAY	1696	1701	1707	1618	1701	1599	1574	1550	1578	1760	1760	1513
PAKISTAN						23	25	28	29	28	27	25
POLAND	2310	2466	2422	2697	2808	3062	2902	2892	3048	3058	3058	2996
PORTUGAL											64	64
RUSSIA	215	145	130	130	130	115	115	112	126	127	127	123
SERB./MONTEN.											143	130
SLOVAK REPBL		1045	962	945	925	846	774	736	699	729	675	652
SLOVENIA			915	898	885	874	861	872	924	949	949	598
STH AFRICA	577	612	655	651	641	688	728	579	597	613	635	598
SPAIN	452	459	467	478	490	493	498	496	435	436	560	561
SWEDEN	3534	3595	3322	3088	3249	3013	3025	2700	2950	2700	2912	2776
SWTZRLND	3786	3779	3574	3654	3647	3666	3680	3145	3040	2977	2871	3154
UNTD KNGDM	9409	9522	9757	9409	9225	9225	9164	8802	8848	9166	8341	8242
U.S.A.	23557	23636	23252	22764	22565	22464	22025	21997	21960	21826	20950	20980
	127557	128920	127273	125800	124170	123312	120959	119454	119518	119206	119184	116908

NOTES ON THE MEMBERSHIP TABLE:

There has been a decrease in world glider pilot numbers of 11,990 (9.3%) over the past 10 years. The losses are not only alarming they are escalating with a decline of 2254 pilots (1.89%) over the past 12 months alone.

In New Zealand, the average age of a glider pilot is now 52.3; ten years ago it was 45.6. If this is indicative of a worldwide trend, then our sport has serious problems. We (New Zealand) are not attracting youth to the sport and I suspect that most countries are experiencing the exact same situation. We are now looking at ways and means of make gliding more accessible to teenagers, and it may well be that we will have find subsidising funds for youth participation and involvement.

Our sport has two basic problems - the two same problems that have been around for 50 years. Gross time wastage and costs. Competition from other sports in today’s world is intense and our youth are too impatient to sit around and wait 2/3 hours for their turn to fly. Club’s, world wide, have to get more efficient, and more smarter if they are to survive. In my country, we have a trend of smaller clubs closing down or amalgamating with dedicated enthusiasts now starting to go to commercial organisations to complete their training in days, not months as it has been taking with club organisations.

During the next 12 months, I will dedicate more time to completing a world survey on time to solo, age of pilots, clubs closing down/starting up, so we can be more informed on the world picture. Next year’s IGC meeting should be a “membership congress” so that the problems and solutions can be fully explored. A full day not an hour or two should be set aside for this purpose and those in involved in each contries administration invited to attend, the debate not just involving the same delegates IGC sees every year.

With delegates help the review figures I will be seeking will be available by late November and not just before the meeting.

The following notes should be read in association with the membership table. A determined effort has been made to achieve accurate as possible figures. Further new data suppled this year has again allowed me to correct errors in previous years.

ARGENTINA: A small increase in both of the last two years..

AUSTRALIA: A small increase, not enough to suggest they have arrested their major decreases since 1993.

AUSTRIA: Completely stable no increase/no decrease over the last year.

BELGIUM: Could get no response from their delegate. Applied the international average to their previous year’s figures.

BRAZIL: A concerted effort made to get their membership figures, but without success.

BULGARIA: A concerted effort made to get their membership figures, but without success.

CANADA: Last year I wrote, “A substantial drop in flying membership, their lowest level in 20 years” The trend continues in 2004.

CHINA: A surprisingly small number of pilots - Down in 2004.

CROATIA: Contact achieved with their delegate for the first time.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Stable membership with a small increase over the previous year.

DENMARK: Stable membership with a small decrease over the previous year.

FINLAND: A 2% drop over the previous year.

GERMANY: The world largest soaring country. A small but continuing drop in membership - year after year since 1992. Germany’s membership loss over 12 years amounts to 9.4%

GREECE: No response from delegate - Used previous years membership figures.

HUNGARY: Accuracy in membership hard to achieve. Delegates estimate.

ICELAND: Two clubs only. Maintaining membership numbers.

IRELAND: Small increase on last year. Up 6%.

ISRAEL: No change.

ITALY: Major drop in membership 2004. Down 17.84%.

JAPAN: Remains stable - no change

KENYA: One club (commercial operation) minor change

KOREA: Small numbers, stable.

LATVIA: No response from delegate.

LUXEMBURG: Down 28.57% on 2003.

LITHUANIA: Another small increase – Have achieved increases every year since 1998.

NETHERLANDS: Up 8.47%.

NEW ZEALAND: Down 2.8% Disappointing as the country works very hard at lifting membership.

NORWAY: The reversal of inhibiting legislation shows figures around the 1999 – 2003 level being maintained.

PAKISTAN: A small decrease.

POLAND: Once again no response from their delegate and no response from the Polish Aero Club. – Used international average based on their earlier years report.

RUSSIA: No change.

SERBIA/MONTENEGRO: Small decrease (9%).

SLOVAK REPUBLIC: Reasonably stable membership. Small decrease

SLOVENIA: Major unexplained drop in membership. Down 36.7%

SOUTH AFRICA: Decrease of 5.8%. Above the international average..

SPAIN: Very stable – No change.

SWEDEN: Down 4.6%. Had a major increase the previous year.

SWITZERLAND: After an almost continuous downturn in membership since 1992 their membership decline has been arrested with an increase for 2004 of 9.85%

UNITED KINGDOM: A drop of 99 members over the past year (1.18%).

U.S.A.: There has always been difficulty attempting to get factual figures for the USA. Soaring pilots do not have to be a member of the SSA. SSA represents less than 50% of soaring pilots in the U.S.A. FAA have issued a new summary of licensed glider pilots which has resulted in a major change of figures over the past 10 years. JOHN ROAKE
TAURANGA, NEW ZEALAND
26-02-2005