On 11/11/2011 5:50 AM, C-FFKQ (42) wrote:
On Thursday, 10 November 2011 23:26:49 UTC-5, Eric Greenwell wrote:

Step outside this little world of soaring, and think about why the
automobile fatality rate has dropped so much over the last 50
years. The majority of the improvement comes from safety devices
like divided highways, seat belts, crush zones, and other
improvements in safety devices.

While this is true, Eric, I wish to point out that all but one of the
devices you mention are intended to save lives "during" the ensuing
crash. Only the divided highway "prevents" the crash, and that by
forcibly separating the traffic flow. To my knowledge there is no
existing automotive device (except my wife) that screams out,
"Stupid! You're going to get us killed!!".

It wasn't intended to be a definitive list, but only to point out that
safety devices can and do save lives. If you limit it to prevention
safety devices, it's still true. In gliders, examples are auto hookups
for controls and spoilers that don't suck open.

On a negative side of your argument, the great decrease in fatalities
has been matched by a great increase in permanent life-altering
injuries. I leave it to individual discretion to determine which is
personally preferable.

Are you saying the _rate_ of "permanent life-altering injuries" is
higher now than 50 years ago? I am not aware of studies showing that is
true. What I do read about is crashes with little or no injury, that
surely would've resulted in severe injuries in autos from the 50's.

In any case, I don't think the markedly improved cockpit crash
protection from the ASW 24 on has increased the rate for gliders.
Personally, I'll always choose greater crash protection, glider or car.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)