Fatal accident in Scotland

On 5 Sep, 10:37, Tom Gardner wrote:
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.

Agreed - as long as the ground crew (signaller, driver, anyone else
involved at the site in question) are also ready to go.

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"?

How long a delay? Ten seconds? Twenty? A minute? What if the ground is
muddy and the pilot doesn;t want to make someone grovel in the mud
again to reattach? What if an impatient instructor (I have seen this)
is saying "Don't drop the cable, this won't take long".

Yes, in an ideal world we could hook up and go. I just think the final
word on whether to start the launch should rest with the pilot in
charge ... and in a world where occasional delays between hook-up and
launch are inevitable, that means the pilot should initiate the launch
after the hook-up.

My reasons for liking the "Up slack" and "All out" signals from the
pilot are because too many signallers are rotten at deciding when to
do the transition (although most are fine). I have in the past pulled
off because the signaller was giving "All out" too soon, and I'll do
it again if I have to ...

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.

I don't agree. No rules which are followed mindlessly are good.

Ian