Mike Schumann wrote:
Why the emphasis on keeping everything private all of the time? That just
makes people think that things are being covered up.

What kind of things are you talking about? The OLC files are posted
publicly for your inspection, so you and everyone else can look for
these issues. If a pilot decides to withdraw a file from the contest,
does he have to give a reason? The files that remain in the contest are
still there for inspection.

If there are issues,

If the issues involve violations, or the appearance of violations, why
do we need to know about them? The flight is no longer in the contest.

there's no reason for them not be discussed civilly in public.

There are some reasons they won't be discussed civilly in public: some
people can't discuss things like this civilly. Take a look at the recent
threads on this subject.

That way
everything is on the up and up, and everyone else can learn something in the
process.

I think we can learn from a discussion, but it doesn't have to be about
identifiable incidents unless the pilot wishes to contribute his/her
experience. Doug (or other OLC person) could also describe the kinds of
problems they are seeing, discuss how they handle them, and suggest ways
to avoid them. All this can be done without "trying the case in the RAS
courtroom".

I think we will have a lot of pilots leaving the OLC if we try to
discuss every potential violation here.

--
Note: email address new as of 9/4/2006
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org