Disagree... vehemently.

What other forum could we possibly use?

The example you give is a poor one. Though the Uvlade glider pilot you
reference was gracious after the fact, it was a very serious situation, and
repeated more than once on that particular day. (Others were much more vocal
about the level of risk they were subjected too.) The offending tow pilot,
it turns out, was wholly unqualified for the job at hand, flying an
underpowered tow plane, and towed several ships at critically low airspeeds.
He wasn't even aware that gliders could carry water ballast.

Even with a competent PIC on board, I dreaded every tow I took behind it.

I'm glad the FSDO responded. It put the appropriate level of apprehension
back into contest management, on whom we depend to make sure that we're
being supported by competent contest personnel, just as they depend on our
competence.




wrote in message
...
All,

This is not a private channel. If you love soaring in the US and want
to be allowed to continue it the way we do now, which is conducted
overwhelmingly in accordance with the FARs and safe flying practices
and is statistically quite safe, then be careful about saying things
that are not fact based or have the effect of making us seem more like
daredevils and less like the safety-conscious pilots most of us really
are.

I was at Uvalde a few years ago when a towplane experienced a problem
that caused the pilot of the fully-loaded glider to release before
reaching the end of the runway just to be safe. No big deal but the
write up here or on the SSA contest report site included a line or two
that might have made it sound more dramatic than it really was (I
watched it happen and spoke to both pilots afterward so I have some
facts). Imagine my surprise when, the next morning while I was staging
my ASW 24 on the grid, two gentlemen from the FAA's San Antonio FSDO
showed up asked questions. One fellow was very polite, extremely
knowledgeable, and--not incidentally--an experienced glider pilot who
owed a high-performance ship. The other one was, well, more in the
mold of the stereotypes we love to hang on government employees. But
both had a job to do and that was to investigate a report (ours) that
something had been done not in compliance with all the applicable
regulations. I chatted amicably with them for at least 15 minutes and
then they wandered off to find one of the organizers (who I
immediately telephoned so he would be able to allocate adequate time
to be interviewed by these gentlemen). All turned out fine, as we
expected it would.

But the lesson is that anything you say on this forum will likely be
read by other glider pilots, non pilots, and the FAA. So statements
like "we have lots of mid-airs" and "I came close to other gliders"
and so forth are incendiary. I don't believe the former is true. I've
been at contests where a mid-air occurred and am aware of a few
others, but I suspect the statistics comparing those incidents to the
number of contest flights or hours or whatever look very good. As for
the latter, I agree it's great to learn from each others' mistakes--
and I've written up some of my own--but this isn't the place for
confession without context and details.

Just my [typically long-winded] opinion.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
USA