Hang Gliding off Black Cap

[redsagebear]

Hi everyone, I have had the privilege of talking to several pilots this year here and on the phone. I'm excited to learn I have new members growing slowly...Bob K. David Beardslee, Jim Feeley, George Harding, Dennis (?), myself (Sara Martin), Dana (?),and a few others I hope to include soon. There is a lady that i know who has offered some computer tech support here in town and i am wanting to get some pretty flyers printed to help with our outreach around the county.

Jim and George were flying Black Cap September 4th and I went to Hunters to talk at them after they landed! More awesome stories!! I am working on purchasing a harness and helmet over the winter. I'm reading the Hang Gliding Bible.

I am moving to Lincoln County in the spring for the new and improved Oregon Coast Community College. I will be super close to Corvallis, Or. I want to connect with Jim Tibbs, as I admire him and he is close to my family in the valley. I am exploring a lot on line and I'm keeping a journal...lot's of questions, but the usual ones that go along with learning. Boy, if i could only find one of the pilots here in Lakeview to start some "hands on!" This sport opens our minds and hearts. Never have I felt so close to any element. Now I go up to high cliffs and get that "rush" to get use to odd heights. Still a little vertigo. I want to learn and after my second flight my attitude has been adjusted a little. Not quite so smooth that last time. I have run into the chase to find a garage or diner to hold our meetings in the winter.

We truely are fresh and new and I am hoping this winter we'll get hoppin'. I could write all day..I want to fly, thank you for the support throughout. Please send me a PM any time or just post here on the forum. Man this forum is PERFECT. I will live here very soon....happy flying

[Bob Kuczewski]

Did I hear you say "Corvallis Hawks"?

Yahoo!! Just let me know when I should add a new forum for your next new club!!!

Hi everyone, I have had the privilege of talking to several pilots this year here and on the phone. I'm excited to learn I have new members growing slowly...Bob K. David Beardslee, Jim Feeley, George Harding, Dennis (?), myself (Sara Martin), Dana (?),and a few others I hope to include soon. There is a lady that i know who has offered some computer tech support here in town and i am wanting to get some pretty flyers printed to help with our outreach around the county.

Jim and George were flying Black Cap September 4th and I went to Hunters to talk at them after they landed! More awesome stories!! I am working on purchasing a harness and helmet over the winter. I'm reading the Hang Gliding Bible.

I am moving to Lincoln County in the spring for the new and improved Oregon Coast Community College. I will be super close to Corvallis, Or. I want to connect with Jim Tibbs, as I admire him and he is close to my family in the valley. I am exploring a lot on line and I'm keeping a journal...lot's of questions, but the usual ones that go along with learning. Boy, if i could only find one of the pilots here in Lakeview to start some "hands on!" This sport opens our minds and hearts. Never have I felt so close to any element. Now I go up to high cliffs and get that "rush" to get use to odd heights. Still a little vertigo. I want to learn and after my second flight my attitude has been adjusted a little. Not quite so smooth that last time. I have run into the chase to find a garage or diner to hold our meetings in the winter.

We truely are fresh and new and I am hoping this winter we'll get hoppin'. I could write all day..I want to fly, thank you for the support throughout. Please send me a PM any time or just post here on the forum. Man this forum is PERFECT. I will live here very soon....happy flying

[redsagebear]

Hi, I am looking into a new brochure for the Lakeview Hawks. I think there is more interest than I'm aware of because a few days before my article came out my cell phone went ca-put.
I think a beautiful flyer will be a next good step.[quote][/quote] sara

[Bob Kuczewski]

Hi Sara,

I think that sounds like a great idea.

I'll be happy to help. I've got some photos from the trip (but not too many). Do you have any good photos of the area or of anyone flying? Maybe we can post them here and start putting it together on line.

Also, I admire you staying calm in the storm that seems to be swirling around the Lakeview Hawks. Keep positive and then no matter what happens, you can be proud of what you've done.

Bob K.

[redsagebear]

Hey I have been camping for a few days and staying late at the antique store. I hope this post helps reassure you all that i am keeping my connections flowing and I what to step up our forum here. I have been a little quiet. I really don't see much we can do about any opposition about a club. i'm still chippin away at it..finding the people is the challenge..their lurking in the shadows. I have excellent social skills and a wide range of mutual firendships. Gotta go to work now....soon, Sara

[redsagebear]

I have in mind to start an advertisment in the newspaper calander of events section. I have a friend who will help with a sweet flyer. Next month I will have official Lakeview Hawks publicity out completly. I'm keeping all my steps in a journal. Happy flying! redsagebear

[SamKellner]

Keep up the good work. Thank You Sara!

[Free]

I have in mind to start an advertisment in the newspaper calander of events section. I have a friend who will help with a sweet flyer. Next month I will have official Lakeview Hawks publicity out completly. I'm keeping all my steps in a journal. Happy flying! redsagebear

Great ideas, Sara.
Here's an article I noticed on hg.org that says flyers are very effective.
http://www.nctimes.com/business/article ... 6b44d.html

Flyers could be much more cost effective than the only marketing scheme I've heard from USHPA. That being 'google stalking' potential new members on the net... Mark Forbes, figured that the corporation could spend $30 for each new google stalked pilot.. a poor ethical choice, IMO.

A flyer with a web address is going to be a lot more effective and no evil stalking issues.
Build it and they will come.

The problem in Lakeview is that there are no instructors?

[Free]

Well I mis-spoke when I said that Mark Forbes felt like the corporation could justify spending $30.00 marketing as that evidently was the profit they had figured for the each new member. The actual number is $46.22 and this was reported in 2008.

The corporation sees google stalking people at $46.22 each as a good value.
My thoughts, because there is a such a great shortage of qualified instruction, that more value to the growth of hang gliding would be to spend money in supporting a grass roots instructors' movement. An Instructors Guild, if you will..

As it is, google stalking mostly benefits the largest commercial schools that already have considerable marketing exposure. Paying to google stalk people already on the internet doesn't seem like such a good value to me, besides the ethical issues of data mining/stalking. The corporation can google stalk all the $90,000 income people they want in a 2.5 million populace
area in the midwest and it still doesn't amount to anything because there isn't any instruction available within 500 miles.

The corporation figures 10% of their income or $100,000, is a fair price for google stalking new pilots but it just doesn't matter if the only thing the stalked "targets" can fly is the computer they were stalked on.

Your idea of cheap flyers and brochures is better in my opinion but there is still that problem of no instruction in most places. The corporation is marketing things they can't deliver. The corporation really has nothing to sell. Marketing expense with no product to offer doesn't make as much sense to me as up front subsidizing the only producers.. the instructors.

The instructors are the only "product" the corporation can feed from. Instead of paying the 'do no evil' (sarcasm) CIA originated google to data mine and stalk new memberships the money would be better spent supporting mobile instructor teams, IMO.

I've brought this up before and at the time was willing to front a considerable amount of my own funds and equipment/infrastructure to implement something of this order but alas, many on high horses can't yet see it.

Others who have benefited from hang gliding over the years could match my contribution and ask the corporation to match that. New instructors can be grown with a little help. A little advertising and easy entry options for rudimentary instruction could field more new students than the present.

Free ground schools and cheap scooter towing can expose a lot of people to the sport for not a lot of money.

Some will wash out quickly and some will stick with it. Over-all there will be growth.
It won't take many to beat what is happening now..

Flyers and brochures are good. I get a handfull of flyers every week in the mailbox. Pictures of hang gliding and a message of 'This Could Be You' IMO could be very effective... that is *IF* there is initial instruction available.

A scooter tow set up in a field next to a busy hiway.. a large portable sign that says "FREE HANG GLIDING INSTRUCTION TODAY!"

That's marketing, IMO, and a way to launch a lot of people into what we have discovered on our own. No google stalking required...

[redsagebear]

Hi
I have been invited to Corvallis for instruction. They want me to come for a few days and then come home, take a break, think it over, do homework, and then go back for some more. He wants to get me trained and said if I could do that a few times i'd be "prepared." I don't have transportation and that is making this hard to do. I asked how the flying is in the winter. it looks like next spring I will go in all the way!!
I saw a paraglider yersterday off Blackcap! I looked up (always in hope) and low and behold....Our meeting is coming up. I think I will contact all the local pilots I can in November. It should be interesting. One of them doesnt want to be involved in the club and says the only next step I have is to get trained. All in good time, i just want to talk. I don't understand why that idea for a large part of our club sounds wrong. I'll keep in touch.
P.S. You "gliders" are peculiar. Ha Ha Sara