I did send an email to the editor of this paper complaining about this
article. I got a reply back from him in which he was very apologetic and
explained that he was a glider pilot himself.

He was on leave that week and the article was passed by a sub editor. He
would have squashed it if he had been there. I believe that a retraction
was published a couple of weeks later on an inside page, but the damage
had already been done by then.

I wasn't in a position to offer the journalist a flight, because I was
doing a comp a long way from home and only had a single seat glider.

I suppose that from a journalistic point of view, 'glider lands safely in
large empty field' (not a school playing field btw) is not very
newsworthy. A bit like the famous (London) Times headline 'Small
earthquake in Peru, not many killed'!

Derek Copeland


At 09:06 18 June 2009, Ian wrote:
On 17 June, 18:00, Del C wrote:

They also got my name and the make of my glider wrong. The only facts
they
got right were that I was unhurt and the glider was undamaged! They
never
spoke to me, only a couple of witnesses and the police who had checked
that I was OK.

What can you do?

Phone the reporter and invite him/her for a flight?

Ian