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Gliding Membership Report

Saturday, 26 February 2005 21:26
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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