This question is the topic of an email we have sent numerous times over the past few months.

The International Gliding Commission (IGC) has reformed a group now called the Gliding Development Group (GDG) to support gliding around the world. In order to measure if the group is being effective we needed to collect data from countries where gliding occurs.

Our data is published below.

Thanks to fellow Group members –

Valeria Caselato – Brazil
Eduardo Toselli – Argentina
Peter Eriksen – IGC President
Sushil Bajpai – India

Mission Statement of Gliding Development Group

Support existing gliding organisations
Assist gliding development in emerging countries
Support the development of gliding in any country where IGC sees a potential
Provide advice, support and expertise
Share the outcomes of successful initiatives
Develop strategies to enhance the growth of gliding globally

Tasks for the first 12 months

Data collection
Advocacy
Focus on South America
Collect and share examples of successful strategies to grow membership
Work towards achieving recognition by ICAO as subject matter experts

Data Collection

We collected data from 48 countries and compared it to data collected in 2005 from 34 countries.
For completeness, we also report on data from 2015, but readers should note that much of this data was marked as ‘Estimated’.
The average percent change across 34 countries was a decline of 18%.
We will collect data again in 2024 to see how our strategies are working.

Key

Green – Increase

Yellow – Decrease but less than 18%

Red – Decrease more than 18%

Pilot numbers