Bart Doets <<email>>, editor, Delta Magazine, Holland, writes:

Holland is a small country, with a hang gliding population of about 500 pilots. Nevertheless, there have always (since the late seventies) been a number of quite active hang gliding schools, that were backed up by dealerships of the world's most important hang gliding manufacturers.

The late Rob Kells worried about manufacturers that sold directly to the customer. Wills Wing is dedicated to selling its gliders through dealers who support hang gliding schools. Lately, I am worried about precisely the disconnect taking place in the Dutch hang gliding landscape.

Rob argued that the dealership of gliders should remain with the schools, because without schools hang gliding will die, and hang gliding instruction is not a very solid basis for a business; selling a new glider every once in a while does help keep the finances up.

In Holland, the situation is a bit worrisome in this respect; for years, most hang gliding brands were imported by schools, with the exception of Aeros, which was dealt as a side business.

Moyes used to be dealt by hang gliding school Randonaero, until, about two years ago. Moyes decided that Randonaero did not sell as many gliders as they would like. The dealership was taken from Randonaero and arranged with Rob in't Groen, a succesful young National Team pilot who had been working with Moyes during his study. Rob does not run a hang gliding school. Randonaero still deals some with minor factories like Finsterwalder, La Mouette and Ulteam.

Icaro was for many years been dealt by hang gliding school Flying Dutchman, owned by Bob Koenders. Recently, Bob decided he would quit the training business and sell his school; but the Icaro dealership will remain with him.

Diederik Meeusen, owner of hang gliding school De Meeuw, used to deal Wills Wing for Holland. About a year ago, together with Ton Draaijer, Diederik started Seagull Aviation which acquired the WW dealership for most of Western Europe. So far so good; there was a clear link between school and dealer. But recently, Diederik announced that he would be selling his school, and, along with his partner, start up a home for mentally handicapped children; he will also continue dealing WW through Seagull Aviation, but the dealership will not have a connection with a school.

Then there is the Nederlands-Franse Zeilvliegschool (Dutch-French Hang Gliding School) owned by Harm Abbes, who also deals Tecma hang gliders for Holland; but Tecma is by no means an important manufacturer today.

The only Dutch hang gliding school left that deals a major hang gliding brand is DNN, which operates a school in the north of the country, and sells Airborne gliders.

The conclusion is clear, and had been pointed out by Rob Kells years ago: it is financially attractive to sell a leading hang gliding brand, but running a hang gliding school all the way until retirement is no easy feat. As the schools are our only means to see hang gliding will exist in the future, selling hang gliders should be their second business, as it enables them to survive.

I worry how long it will take the new school owners to discover this.

Besides, once some schools drop off because just teaching hang gliding is not very financially rewarding, sales for the non-school-dealers will go down as well, and they might as well worry about that beforehand. Some of them must be aware how important selling gliders was back when they still taught hang gliding as a core business.

I never had any economics education, and I may be all wrong about this. Also, I have no idea whether similar effects take place in other countries - maybe it's just Holland. But I feel strongly that the hang gliding business is aiming too much for short term economics.