Bad medical examiner postcript

Morgans wrote:
The proof (one way or another) will be the statistics gathered after a few
years of the sport pilot program. The results could very well result in
changes in the current system of PPL medicals, or show reasons for keeping
the system in place for many years to come.

again (the subject keeps popping up regularly in this newsgroup),
the data is already here, and has been available for ages:
how many flying hours have been flown by glider (sailplane) pilots,
who routinely do something far more challenging physically than what
most powered private pilots do, i.e., longer, higher, more
adrenaline charged flights, and who do all that without
requiring a medical certificate (not even a driving license as
required by sport pilots);


--Sylvain

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 23:19:10 -0800, Sylvain wrote in
::

Morgans wrote:
The proof (one way or another) will be the statistics gathered after a few
years of the sport pilot program. The results could very well result in
changes in the current system of PPL medicals, or show reasons for keeping
the system in place for many years to come.

again (the subject keeps popping up regularly in this newsgroup),
the data is already here, and has been available for ages:
how many flying hours have been flown by glider (sailplane) pilots,
who routinely do something far more challenging physically than what
most powered private pilots do, i.e., longer, higher, more
adrenaline charged flights, and who do all that without
requiring a medical certificate (not even a driving license as
required by sport pilots);

And what information has been gleaned from those data? I would guess,
that the rate of glider accidents per hour flown is significantly
higher than that of typical private pilot powered operation. But
would that be a result of the glider's lack of an engine or
catastrophic medical issues?

Larry Dighera wrote:
I would guess,

wrong approach. Check NTSB database and tell
us how many gliders went down due to medical
issues (if you find any)

--Sylvain

how many gliders went down due to medical
issues

Still better would be how many on the ground (3rd party) have ever been
killed by no-medical glider pilots. (Ha!)

I read in an interesting WWII history book "Blood, Sweat, and Folly"
(about that name but since given away & can't remember the author) that
describes many of the subtle screwups etc of pre-WWII -

"The reason so many regulations for private pilots were generated in
the '20s after WWI was the paranoia that most governments had to aerial
surveilance"

nrp wrote:

Still better would be how many on the ground (3rd party) have ever been
killed by no-medical glider pilots. (Ha!)

No really material to powered flight, The reason that the FAA does not require
medical exams for glider pilots is that gliders don't weigh much, don't travel
at high speeds, and don't carry fuel. Therefore, they can't cause a lot of
damage in a crash. The only important question is how many glider crashes have
been caused by conditions that would have been caught by a medical exam. Those
crashes have the potential of causing severe damgae on the ground in something
like a Bonanza (and have done so).

"The reason so many regulations for private pilots were generated in
the '20s after WWI was the paranoia that most governments had to aerial
surveilance"

Blood, Tears and Folly, by Len Deighton. The author was writing about
regulations produced by the European nations and Britain. He made it very clear
that this was not the case in the United States.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 01:08:07 GMT, George Patterson
wrote in XPIpf.10446$aU4.1733@trnddc06::

The reason that the FAA does not require
medical exams for glider pilots is that gliders don't weigh much, don't travel
at high speeds, and don't carry fuel.

And seldom fly over congested areas.