On Monday, July 20, 2020 at 5:37:07 PM UTC-7, Shaun Wheeler wrote:
On Friday, July 17, 2020 at 2:43:50 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wednesday, July 15, 2020 at 12:40:07 PM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
... It appeared from the flight path that the glider was "flying itself" for several minutes before coming to an abrupt halt.

... the pilot had suffered a neurological issue in the minutes prior to the crash and suffered no serious injuries.

This incident sounds like a stroke, but I've been reading about Covid patients feeling 'normal' before their O2 saturation reaches critically low levels.

It might make sense to check O2 saturation as part of preflight IMSAFE checklist. If O2 is already low on the ground, hypoxia could happen at lower than normal altitude.

Is the Corona boogeyman going to replace the dehydration boogeyman?

There's just no damn job security anymore.

Only a few weeks ago I was talking to a young pilot who's pretty well up on things and asked if the whole IMSAFE thing is still being taught which apparently it is. I remembered hearing it forty+ years ago and what got me started was obvious fatigue on the part of another pilot.

How many gliding ports have a helicopter standing by for an emergency rescue? Damn few - Invermere does because the copters give scenic flights to the tourists. That guy was lucky to crash where he did - anyplace else and it would take a day to get S&R to the crash site.

Tom