Last year we reviewed the 2007-2008 World Directory of Leisure Aviation and paid special attention to the attitude expressed in the editorial introduction, which contrasted the "Private Property - Public Not Admitted" posture of most general aviation airports, and the "aviation for the people - all are welcome" posture of the Leisure Aviation community. We noted that gliding as we know it was not included in their definition of "leisure aviation," with the exception of a few ultralight sailplanes on the fringe of our gliding world. At the same time, we had been reporting the decline in membership of the world's gliding organizations, and various suggestions from readers as to why this should be. Some mentioned the seduction of modern youth by computer games, rising costs, the small number of young women pilots, the fading glamour of early aviation, and so on, and mentioned that the increasing age of age of club members could make them off-putting to the young. This new edition of the World Directory is like its predecessors, only more so. The 1,500 aircraft described, with full color photos, are now divided by type: paragliders, paramotors, paraplanes, hang gliders, powered hang gliders, on and on to gyroplanes and helicopters. Full-page ads feature the many companies that make them in almost every country, it seems. This is anything but a shrinking world, and my guess is that most of the pilots are younger men and women . . . as in most physical sports.
What the Directory evidences in abundance is a vibrant, growing aviation economy clearly reflecting a growing community of enthusiastic pilots. Many enjoy the simplicity of foot-launching off any convenient hillside or powering off a smallish field and experiencing the wind-in-the-face contact with the environment that is a lot closer to the Wright brothers than our sleek carbon-fiber creations, and at about a tenth of the cost. Not only are their airplanes vastly simpler, but also less filled with gadgetry and burdened with government regulation. Our gliders must now carry batteries to power varios, computers, GPS dataloggers, and radios, and soon must carry ELTs or FLARM to compete in contests and transponders in high-traffic areas. Our local gliding field, less than ten miles from Camp David, has an elaborate protocol that must be followed to operate in this Temporary Flight Restricted area. We're glad to operate at all - but we have to use an airport to launch and land, and this is where we are. The ultralights can just move a few fields over and carry on.
I guess what impressed me most about the Directory was the sheer number and variety of the airplanes included. They represent an enormous amount of fun in the air, most at quite reasonable cost. If they are what it takes to keep people flying, great. They won't achieve contest speeds around a 500K triangle, but they don't require $100K to do it either. God bless ‘em, say I.Val Brain
