Hi Marshall,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems you haven't been in flying very long, because if you had, you would know that there are lots of very smart people who have done the same. And more than you know that have come very close.. Smartness and how much they paid for the glider have nothing to do with it.

Allow me to set the stage here so you can understand a little better. There are about 132 gliders here. Most of them finish within a very short period of time each day, so it gets very busy on final glide, approach and landing. We can land three gliders side by side if we have to, and frequently we do. There is little room for error. Even two miles out on the approach, we have to commit to one of the lanes so that we don't turn in to the glider that we can't see above or below us to each side. Then throw in weather and what the glider that just landed in front is going to do. Did I mention that his crew car is rushing out to get him, and in my path too? Don't forget that there are another three gliders behind me, lined up for the same patch of real estate that is my landing spot for only a brief time. We have to land long to give them enough room to do that, while avoiding the previously mentioned obstacles. It's amazing choreography and it's intense. Are you dizzy yet?

Most of the time we handle this very well, but occasionally one of us makes a human error while trying to prioritize and then minimize the risks we face. I'm not excusing any gear up landing. I'm just saying that those of us with decades of flying experience don't criticize a gear up landing because the pilot wasn't "smart" enough. The reason we don't is because we know it can happen to us on the next landing. We also try very hard to let a little time elapse before we hit the send button.

Here's to the hope that you and I never scrape the belly. Cheers!

7K