Soaring Safety

On Feb 16, 9:04*am, Jim White
wrote:
At 16:24 16 February 2008, Jj Sinclair wrote:

I actually saw Tom Madigan hit the Whites just east
of Bishop.

I dont think anyone has discussed airspeed in this
thread. My glider has crap airelon authority at 50kts
but at Va it is very good. Isn't safety near rocks
a factor of speed? If you are belting along at a Va
would you not be able to pull up / fly away from the
cliff if you needed to?

Jim

Sure Jim, but these guys were trying to climb and flying fairly slow
in weak slope lift ond/or trying to work weak thermals. You bring up a
good point though, I never slow down below 65 knots on my first pass
across a piece of ridge that I haven't made at least one pass by to
check for squirrely air.
JJ