Oh, come on, Sean. To quote: "very much accidentally flew into IMC"

What's accidental about intentionally flying under a CB, seeking out the
strongest lift, rejoicing in the rate of climb, and then bemoaning getting
sucked into the cloud?

Don't you see the links forming in the accident chain? He just got lucky.
I very much appreciate that he wrote about the incident as a warning to
others about these risks, but I didn't take his story as a call to have
cloud flying instruments in the cockpit as you seem to.

He didn't accidently get sucked into a cloud - he knocked at the door. An
intelligent and safety couscious pilot wouldn't have knocked.


"Sean Fidler" wrote in message
news:15111222.691.1329365870544.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@yndy9...
Tom C-

So Flarm is good (I fully agree) and artificial horizons are bad? Please
allow me a brief moment to probe this statement. How exactly would it be
bad for an honest pilot (such as Kempton for example who very much
accidentally flew into IMC) to have a quality artificial horizon instrument
just in case? Did you read this article? Have you ever had to perform a
benign spiral because, essentially, you’ve made a mistake and you were
screwed? Ever just had to ride it out and hope? Have you ever practiced
one? A rule leaving the lives of honest pilots (many who may be newer, etc)
to chance, at least to me, seems completely insane for a sport that is meant
to be fun, enjoyable and of honest men.

What percentage of pilots do you, Tom C, feel would cheat if they had the
opportunity to install a proper AH instrument? Please weigh that with the
rest of the honest, no cheater (your opinion of course) pilots who may,
however slim the chance, benefit GREATLY from the artificial horizon
instrument if they were allowed to include it as an everyday instrument and
not have to turn it on, off, uninstall, install, etc for contests?

What is being demonstrated by those in support of the rule (as it stands at
this moment) is that they are fierce competitors so deathly afraid that
someone is going to be able to cheat “past” them that safety for any fair
pilot is utterly outlawed to prevent it. If you, (insert your name here new
contest pilot) ever get caught making a mistake and flying into a cloud...be
damned! You careless *******! It’s your fault for making that mistake.
Tough taffy. But does this rule really prevent cloud flight if someone
really wanted to? Can all the instruments be policed? At what cost to
safety? At what cost to contest attendance and enjoyment? All because a
few of you really competitive types (in control of the rules today) cant
live with any chance that some crazy fool could cheat.

I won’t get into the fact that I (and a whole bunch of other pilots I know)
have unknowingly been flying illegally with my Android phone all last summer
;-0! See, nobody cares until you start getting close to them in the
standings.
Tom K, I have to disagree that forcing pilots to go to Sears to get a throw
away phone is smart, good or not irritating...but it comforts me that you
recognized that under the current rules smartphones (65% market share and
increasing about 10% per year) are illegal and pointed this out. Maybe this
should be for National contests only guys? Would that be a fair compromise?
Should we really have this kind of rule in place for our little regional?
Please say no.

Whatever the result of your decision, I strongly suggest another SSA wide
email from the rules committee specifically pointing out that as of today -
any usage of an iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone (or PDA, most
Tablets, etc) are absolutely illegal. Then perhaps consider locking your
doors and hiding under your desks for a few weeks and hunkering down tight.
Not sure if that would be a positive result. “Any pilot attending a
regional should go and get a throw away phone,” etc. Yeah sure those cheap
crapola throw away phones are going to work in BFE when you land out in the
country somewhere. But I digress.

Think about this carefully. Do you really think that you’re going to be
able to prevent any pilot truly intent on cheating via cloud flying if
someone really wants to with today’s technology? Are we going to randomly
ransack everyone's cockpits on the grid assuming that any contraband found
is a DSQ? Throw the new guy out of regional who is caught with a smartphone
in his pocket? If yes, then what of the last 3 years? Like baseball’s
steroid investigations, should we hold investigations? Subpoena phone
records to ensure that data and calls did not occur during contest flights
of the top pilots? Confirm the device model of these calls? Or are we just
going to let that slide and start now that the butterfly vario is available?
Nobody is going to cloud fly let alone manage any level flight with an
iPhone. Now we have to tell all the pilots at the regional to go buy a dumb
phone, program in some numbers, etc. Seems paranoid to me at best.

I really hope for all of our sakes that an inadvertent flight into IMC fatal
accident never happens, because if the lawyers get ahold of this thread
while suing us we are probably going to get killed in court. Absolutely
killed. That would not be fun to watch.