Challenges for Gliders
According to the FAI President, gliding as a sport faces challenges in the years ahead. These include:
• Time pressures on participants: gliding typically takes whole days that many people today
find harder to devote. As a result, the average age of glider pilots is increasing.
• In some countries, the need for more land for housing is threatening small airfields. These
airfields may also be used for other general aviation activities, and the addition of gliding
may be difficult to accommodate. This can limit the number of available airfields and so it
can require longer drives to reach them.
• Airspace: in many European countries, the growth of civil aviation is reducing the amount of
uncontrolled airspace. In the U.S. new security requirements, and the growth of controlled
airspace around cities, has also had some impact on where to fly.
• Competition from other activities: there is now a greater variety of similar sports such as
hang gliding and paragliding that may attract potential glider pilots.
• Lack of publicity: without coverage by television or popular publications, many people are
unaware that gliding is even a sport. Without this knowledge the public may have a poor
understanding of how flying without an engine is possible and safe.
• Increasing costs: due to higher costs of fuel and insurance, and due to greater regulation
requiring equipment such as new radios, or in some cases transponders, gliding costs have
increased, although without the continuous use of engines and fuel, they are still
considerably lower than traditional power flying.