Bad medical examiner postcript

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.