Seniors Contest

Kilo Charlie wrote:
Every single one of these is a stall spin accident. They are
examples of
poor judgement and are not different than any other stall spin
accident....e.g. from base to final....

That's right, but you're missing the point. Of course all these
accidents represent failures of judgement, decision-making, "improper
manipulation of the controls" or whatever you want to call it.

The fact is, though, that the standard finish gate procedure seems to
require a lot of that judgement, especially at the end of a long hot
flight and a long marginal final glide. This is proved by the fact that
a disquieting number of pilots are finding this task occasionally
beyond them and crashing.

So what do we do? We can say "well, they were bozos who didn't show
good judgment" and forget about it, which I take to be your proposal.
Ok, but then we resign ourselves to the fact that we will be picking
gliders out of the trees about once every two years, and mourning the
loss of one or two pilots per decade. That doesn't seem to bother you.
It bothers me, and it would bother me even if I were foolish enough to
think I was immune to screwing up once in a thousand or so finishes.

The fact is that a cylinder finish, followed by normal pattern entry,
is a maneuver that requires far less "judgement" by pilots. It's not
screw-up proof -- it is possible to fail in judgment here too, for
example by trying to thermal at low altitude with waterballast in an
effort to save a 5 minute rolling finish penalty, and spining out of
the thermal. But I think most of us find that a much less likely
failure of judgment.

Yes, it's less "fun" and has less "spectator appeal." For both, let me
suggest instead a tow after the contest flight and go do some
aerobatics. Put on a really good show. It will be even more fun and it
will really please the spectators.

And on spectator appeal, consider the effect that seeing even one crash
has on spectators and spouses. Just one crash converts the spectator
from "wow that looks like fun, I think I'll try it" to "man, that must
be dangerous".

John Cochrane
BB