On Feb 22, 12:42*pm, Andy wrote:
On Feb 21, 4:57*pm, "Morgans" wrote:

To some, that may be the reason they fly, but that sure isn't the reason
many or most fly. *I want to be old and gray, and flying all the way till I
can't see straight in my upper 90's, at least!

This seems to be quite a common attitude toward glider flying.

I wonder how much better the glider fatality numbers would look if the
cases where the pilot was dead, or otherwise medically incapacitated,
prior to the accident were eliminated. *Several US fatal accidents in
the past few years seem to fall into that category.

Is there a case for requiring a medical certificate for SSA sanctioned
contests?

Andy

This was on the RC agenda last Fall and the judgement was that this is
not needed.
My OPINION:We would more likely reduce accidents if the money that
would be spent on a medical were to be applied to regular recurrent
training. My personal observation is that the majority of the poor
flying I see is due to lack of recent practice and need for recurrent
training.
The 2 pilots I know of that had recent fatal accidents believed to be
attributable to medical causes both knew about their condition and
elected to fly anyway. Even a pilot holding a medical could do this-
not legally. Self certification holds us all to the same standard of
not having a physical defect that would make us unable to pilot
glider.
FWIW
UH