PUT ON YOUR THINKING CAPS!

This is an unusual request for RAS but, as a community of sorts, it is one of the logical places to look.

Some time back (July of 2001), I advanced the idea of holding a 'race' that would promote the sport of soaring if it could find its way onto television. Since then, I have been working to make this more than a pipe dream. As of yesterday afternoon, it now has every likelihood of becoming a reality.

All it takes is money. I will be beating the bushes for a corporate sponsor or two. I do not need suggestions on whom to call. That is my job. But, possibly, here in our midst is someone who IS a corporate sponsor, or knows someone who is a possible sponsor, or knows someone whose ad agency has the account of a corporate sponsor. I WILL find the money. Help if you can.

So, fellow glider pilots, put on your thinking caps. Do you know someone? We have a budget in the low to mid 6 figures to put this thing together. Al's Pizzaria won't do. Ford Trucks will. I cannot describe the demographics of the viewing audience yet so Microsoft might be great if it goes to Discovery Wings. Corona Beer or Nextel might be fine if it goes to ESPN.

The impetus for this was a short that I re-edited from Al's terrific footage shot by some friends of his in England. From the broadcast quality stuff, I will create a decent promo. If you have broadband, you can see it at:
http://www.imdata.com/SoaringRocks.html

ESPN, Fox, and Discovery already have. Let's see if we can put soaring in its proper place in the world of sports.

Respond, if you have a good leads, contact names, experiences to my email

Nice recut John.

Al

And that has been working in the back of my mind ever since. I was recently watching a program on a Bass Fishing Tournament on a sports channel. These guys spent several days fishing and each contestant would get one or two fish per day. How do you make something as dull as that into an interesting show? Actually they did a pretty good job. The video of the contestants only showed the few seconds where they were actually fighting a fish. They had interviews, little informative segments explaining the sport, little human-interest segments on the participants, and even computer-generated images of the bottom of the lake used to discuss strategy. It occurred to me that any director who could do that, could easily make a sailplane race palatable to the general public.

I do not think we need some special kind of race, the races we have are fine; we just need a great producer, a sponsor with sufficiently deep pockets and (this may be the hard part) contestants and event officials willing to accommodate the process.

I wish you the very best of luck.

Thank you for your comments.

The rules and objectives of our contests are not conducive to creating a viewable product...for a first impression anyway. Not much chance of getting a film crew something to do for the day in Uvalde. There, we were in the air over 6 hours every day. We started at sunup and quit at sundown. At 100 grand a day, that makes it a million dollar shoot. I think..no way.

I do not think there will be any problem getting contestants at all.

There was a time in the past when Hitachi was supporting the sport in some way, Smirnoff as well. I wonder what their motivation was, and what they got out of their experience? - a place to start.

SNIP

Nice work on the editing!

You might also try Michelin. The Japanese site has a very nice soaring promo for their winter tyres. See: http://www.michelin.co.jp/local/winter/p129.htm or download the 2.6 Mb mpeg via: http://www.michelin.co.jp/local/winter/images/ MICHELIN.mpg

Success!

Nice work! I wonder if that's what Jimmy Page had in mind when he wrote 'Rock & Roll'?

Baron Hilton seems like such an obvious contact that you've probably already thought of him.

Hi John (or anyone else),

Do you think there's any market for a more 'adventure' biased rather than 'race' oriented product?

I was thinking a while back that the Hilton event would be a good one to try and get coverage of. I'm sure Mr. Hilton wouldn't mind the increased exposure of his organizations support. It could be a half hour piece within a larger program or a full piece showing more aspects of soaring as a sport.

Without having been there, I imagine there is some decent facilities for putting

up crews and a mix of aviation for a little variety.

We could also try and get some 'star power' behind it by inviting a few already aviation oriented 'Hollywood' faces out for a few day's flying around in a two seater. (Two names leap to mind as being wing-nuts) They might even fly themselves in and save on the travel budget ;-> I'm sure there would be a line of potential 2-seaters and pilots ready to go too!

Shoot me down in flames for even thinking of it, but it seems to be an all around winner:

Hilton: Vastly increased exposure of event sponsorship for expense of putting up film crew+guests (They already do this for all the participants I believe, so a few extra bodies can't be too bad) Stars: Chance to experience a new flying mode, to add to helicopter and jet time! Sport: Great exposure with www.goSoaring.com spattered along canopy rail, known face (smiling!) and Nevada landscape racing past in the background.

I do. I just think that for a first impression, a race gives us the best chance of attracting attention. We know that there is a lot more to soaring than racing. But, the public doesn't even know we exist. We may only have one shot to catch their eye. I decided that using the methods that work for autos, motorcycles, skiis, snowboards, surfboards, boats, bicycles, and every other thing that people make move is a good way to go. Competition sells.

I have no 'in' with Mr. Hilton and cannot seem to get anyone to help me with that either. His ranch or another nearby are one of the three preferred venues right now but without any other contact, Bishop or Sedona look good to me.

If we are successful in dispelling the image of being over-aged, high-priced bird watchers and replacing it with a vigorous sport with interesting people, we might have the opportunity to show something more of our sport later. In either case, it will not be airplanes that sell soaring. It will be human interest and great visuals (backed by a good soundtrack. Not much chance that Msrs. Page and Plante will let us use the one on my clip).

I thought of him a long time ago. Apparently, he does not have ESP because he has not thought of me in return.

I do not know if our event will hit his demographics but if I get it on ESPN, who cares? One needs and 'in' and I don't have one. People get very quiet when asked about it. So, I will hound Nextel, Ford, Corona, OnStar, Verizon, Toyota, Chevrolet, Lucent, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, and whoever else comes to mind.

I can't do it indefinitely. Most (no, wait, make that all) of the people who will benefit from my efforts have not quit their jobs to help and I don't expect them to.

How about some footage like:
http://www.silentflight.com/movies/UKsmokinhispeed.wmv

in the form of 'On any Sunday', 'Endless Summer', or any of Warren Miller's films.

Put a few birds with cameras into the middle of a contests.

Send a copy to the Banff Film Festival http://www.banffcentre.ab.ca/cmc/

Get Warren Miller to include some glider shots in his annual ski movie. The footage of base jumping this year was pretty good. Some radical mountain and ridge flying might fit the college extreme type sports audience.

A good film like that once a year for the presoaring season might be a good annual event for clubs. The technology has gotten relatively inexpensive to make these types of digital movies compared to the old days.

Tim