On May 21, 2:20*pm, "S. Murry" wrote:
I don't want to hijack the thread about Walter Mueller's 75 gliding
anniversary (GO, Walter!) by talk about an early death...seems a bit
morbid. *But I have to comment on Bob's statement:

snip
However...if any reader knows of a gliding participant who feels
predestined to die in a sailplane, perhaps you'd be doing said participant
a real favor by suggesting to them some serious re-examination of why that
thought persists is in order. Just sayin'...

Bob W.

end snip

I think I agree with your statement, Bob, insofar as if you have a belief
that you are predestined to die in any particular way (whether gliding or
otherwise), you are either suicidal (and have picked out your method of
ending it all), have some kind of strange religious belief (i.e. that you
know that God is going to kill you in some particular way), or are
suffering from some other psychosis and probably shouldn't be soaring.

On the other hand, if you are in this sport and don't realize that it may
very well be one of the most dangerous sports out there, I submit to you
that you are deceiving yourself. *Obviously, you are still far from
"predestined to die in a sailplane" (statistically speaking, but of course
your *individual results may vary), but if you don't recognize the risks
involved you may be more likely to avoid taking the necessary safety
precautions to prevent these risks from growing beyond those that are
inherent in this sport. *For this reason, I think it is actually quite
healthy to have a feeling that strapping on your sailplane may very well
be the most dangerous thing you do today...I think about this pretty much
every time I suit up, and I think it helps to keep me focused on safety.

--
Stefan Murry

I feel uncomfortable blackening the sport of soaring with the label
"dangerous" without some caveats. It is certainly dangerous for some
pilots and not so much for others - the variable part is the pilot not
the sport. If the statement is, "Since I have no intention of
becoming a skilled pilot, this sport is dangerous for me", then I
would agree.

The essential part of being a pilot is making something inherently
dangerous into something inherently safe through the application of
knowledge and skill acquired through training and diligence. I happen
to know many, many pilots who have made the effort to become highly
skilled. This has resulted in a long lifetime of safe flying. I try
not to get to know the other kind.