Fatal accident in Scotland

On Sep 5, 8:03 am, Ian wrote:
On 5 Sep, 01:31, Dan G wrote:

You do not attach a cable to the glider until it is ready to fly. All
checks complete, nothing left to do.

Yes, precisely. I don't see any problems with that. I'll go further
and
state that I would need to be convinced that anything else was safer.

Which is fine in an ideal world. But it doesn't always work like that.
Sometimes there are delays, and a safe system will take account of
that possibility.

Er, what's the problem with releasing the cable if there's a delay?
In what way isn't that a "safe system"?


You
have one hand on the stick and the other holds the release. You will
not have time to go feeling for the release if you need it.

That's my opinion, too. As an early solo neophyte who recently
experienced
my first low-level winch failure, heads down while groping for the
cable
release would have been too high a workload. In addition, there is a
significant chance I would have grabbed the airbrake instead of the
release.


It's hard to see how you could screw up if you follow these simple
procedures. I don't give a toss who invented them or why - they're
safe, and that's all that matters to me.

I'm interested in
1) if I follow those standard rules, what are the remaining
potential
problems and avoidance procedures

2) what's the relative probability and severity of problems with/
without
hand on the release

I suspect the (2) is the reason for the BGA selecting the current
rules.

The onus is firmly on anybody challenging the current rules to
convince others that the rules should be changed.


It's when people start thinking that the rules will keep them safe
that accidents happen.

True, but of course that has only tangential relevance to whether
or not the rules are good.