I realize that anything can happen to anyone at any time, especially while flying. Failure to maintain adequate flying speed, failure to properly coordinate a turn, flying with ones head up ones rectum all can lead to problems resulting in disaster, but aren't we carrying this to an extreme?

I am far from the most experienced glider pilot on this forum and I certainly don't have the technical, engineering or assembly background to create a device such as suggested herein but it would appear that we are trying to complicate the passage of bowel gas. I've seen my yaw string depart during flight, I've flown with a malfunctioning airspeed indicator, I've flown with the thrill or victory, the agony of defeat and the heart break of psoriasis, all without losing control.

To be honest when I started flying gliders I was surprised that there was no stall warning indicator. It would appear to me that such a warning would be preferable to a yaw warning. What I love about flying a glider is that by and large it is seat of the pants flying but the seats of our pants are becoming less and less sensitive as we rely more and more on items that will inform us when our flying skills are below the line.

While I am in favor of anything that will improve safety, especially when in proximity to other gliders I am wary of becoming dependent on things which replace simplicity with complexity. Besides, the glider port at which I fly has about 500 yards of yarn and plenty of tape. Thank you very much.

BTW, I like Karl S's idea of adding 10 knots to your pattern speed every decade. Some of you would now be doing 120 when you turn final.

Walt

Walt