Well, Kirk, the first poster said the pilot was finishing. He also said
the pilot was arrested, why? Because he committed a homicide. That's
right he was responsible for the death of an innocent bystander. This
tragic loss of life occured because the junior pilot was performing the
prescribed finish maneuver. He was flying the finish gate because
that's what we do, we sanction it, its in our rules.

The local authoraties did their job, they arrested the guy responsible
and the competition was suspended.

How many more finish gate accidents must we endure before this
outmoded, unneccessary and proven unsafe finish gate is abolished and
replaced by the mandatory GPS finish cylinder?

You really don't want to argue that the pilot wasn't operating his
aircraft below 500 feet (not in the act of landing) and that he wasn't
within 500 feet of a person, do you?

JJ Sinclair

wrote:
Condolences to all affected by this tragedy.

But, JJ, tell me how a correctly performed contest finish at 50 ft
(per current SRA rules) and per FARs (no overflying of people, man-made
objects, reckless, etc) has direct relevance with this accident?

By your logic, takeoffs should be done away with (ref groundloop that
hit and injured spectator at Tonopah) at contests, too.

And how do you know it was a finish - it could have been a pre-arranged
photo op after the finish, coordinated between the photographer and the
pilot - that went horribly wrong. Not the first time that has
happened.

Sorry, you are on the wrong soapbox this time. Take a deep breath and
go fix a glider or something.

Kirk
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