In article ,
Bob Whelan wrote:

Pardon the long post, but a Really Nifty Something happened at the recent
1-26, 2013, North American Championships held at Moriarty, New Mexico,
recently. Hollywood couldn't have written a more dramatic script, and I'm
guessing some RASidents might enjoy hearing about it. I know I sure enjoyed
witnessing it from the perspective of a ground grunt (aka crewperson for a
fellow competitor in the concurrently run 13.5 Meter Region 9 Super
Regional).


Wow, great write-up, Bob. That really needs to be in SOARING. Good show
to the competitors and congrats to Mr. Baldwin.


I understand and generally agree with John Cochrane's position on safety
rules, but I'd like give Mr. Baldwin the benefit of the doubt regarding
his final glide strategy. I have not flown at Moriarty, but have flown
at one or two places where, WITH LOCAL KNOWLEDGE, flying a 1-26 right
down to the ground would not involve much risk and would not be "dumb".
I would like to think that this was the situation described in the
story. Finally, did not Mr. Baldwin exhibit fine judgement? He knew
where the obstacles were and chose to land rather than push on with an
approach taking him under power lines and into a fence. Looks to me like
he weighed the risks, acted accordingly, and had a successful outcome.