"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
...

SNIP-----
....the more we depend on
electronics the more we are keeping our heads down in the cockpits.

SNIP------

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA


Eric, I think you've been flying gliders as long as I have, but I must
strongly disagree with the statement above. I remember flying cross country
without a single electronic device - not even a radio. (A good retrieve
crew had to know how to set the dwell and adjust the carburetor on a Chevy
as well as how to outsmart the phone company with person-to-person, collect
calls.)

You can't argue that folding maps, scribbling notes on pads and working a
"prayer wheel" trying to make navigation by pilotage work when spending half
the time flying in tight circles is less distracting. Often you could add
trying to get it a pellet vario unstuck at the same time. That was a
serious "heads down" situation.(I still carry a well marked sectional and
little notebook with all the important facts and numbers.)

By comparison, grabbing a quick glance at a computer screen that tells me
everything and them returning my gaze outside is vastly safer and easier.
The only time "heads down" becomes a problem is when a pilot doesn't know
how to work the electronics. The present problem is pilots trying to learn
to use avionics in the air instead of on the ground. (A good season prep:
go sit in your glider for a couple of hours reading manuals and pushing
buttons.)

Like it or not, ubiquitous computing is a part of everyday life - including
gliding - and the "good 'ole days" weren't all that great.

Bill Daniels