While I have some sympathy for Jim Culp's position
as an abstract philosophical position, and would not
want to hinder him from practicing it as he sees fit,
it applies in both directions. If contest organizers
feel an ELT is important enough to be mandatory, they
can demand it as an exercise of their individual and
collective responsibility; Jim can then choose to ignore
the contest, but should not whine about the rules.

Ian



At 06:12 18 June 2004, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Vorsanger1 wrote:
Jim indicated that it is his choice whether or not
to carry an ELT, and it is
NOT the contest manager's responsibility to search
and rescue, or body
recovery. The fact is that when a plane or boat goes
missing, a whole lot of
assets and efforts go into trying to help / rescue
the crew. That being said,
and since it is the individual pilot's responsibility
to deny or accept
assistance, let all those pilots who opt NOT to be
helped to have this
preference down in writing, notarized, etc...This
in order to absolve everybody
else in the case of a mishap.

I'm trying to imagine the publicity the sport might
receive if a glider
crashed, and the organizers did nothing. Would that
seem bizarre to the
public?

'The pilot requested we do nothing if he did not
return', stated the
contest official, 'and particularly not alert search
and rescue people
or the police'. 'Of course, we hope he is enjoying
himself, whereever he
might be', continued the contest official, who asked
to remain
anonymouus, as requested by the missing pilot on his
entry form.

--
Change 'netto' to 'net' to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA