On May 4, 1:54 pm, Bullwinkle wrote:
Medical examinations are really useless in determining who is safe to fly.
Very few pilots are grounded due to objective medical findings. Listening to
the heart and lungs, looking in eyes and ears, reviewing EKG's and lab
results: those items have a very low yield in detecting medical problems.

ECGs and cholesterol levels - both tested in medicals - are good
indicators of cardiac health. I expect pilots normally pass this part
of the medical because they keep themselves healthy in order to do so.

Cardiac disease is the second biggest killer in the 44-65 age group -
behind cancer - and the fact so few pilots collapse at the controls
suggests that these tests do work.

In this case the results of the tests meant the crash pilot knew that
sudden collapse was a stronger-than-normal possibility for him. The
problem is that he knowingly put other people at risk too by
continuing to tow and his club's procedures were not good enough to
find him out. (And while afaik it's never happened it's conceivable
that an out-of-control single seater could harm people on the ground.
Such an event would be quite bad for gliding I think.)

I think the point the accident report was making is that *everyone*
needs to be properly checked that they meet requirements, and
procedures should be put in place in Ireland to make sure that
happens. I don't think that's harmful to gliding.


Dan