How dangerous is soaring?

I absolutely disagree, and I stand my point (and manner).

Once you stop thinking about the risk, you become one.

However, if the thinking about the risk starts to intimidate you, you are in
the wrong place.

Bert

"Kloudy via AviationKB.com" u33403@uwe wrote in message
news:7a860aefd44d3@uwe...
Bert Willing wrote:
Fairly stupid comment.


uh, not really.

But despite your poor manner I will elucidate for our thread host.

One year several friends and acquaintances died around me in soaring
accidents.
The year my daughter was born.
Everytime I climbed into the plane I began thinking about how the small
increase in risk to my safety became more acute to those counting on me.
The
results of those risks were suddenly clearer, close and personal.
I thought about my friends.
I thought about my family.
Being too careful was starting to interfere with fluid responses to my
piloting.

I was thinking too much. Risk increased.

I Quit for 15 years to reduce the probability of injury in the interest of
those relying on my health.

Returned to soaring as our social/family/financial situation matured.

My mind is not occupied outside the task of piloting anymore.

Too much analysis can be a hazard.

--
Message posted via AviationKB.com
http://www.aviationkb.com/Uwe/Forums...aring/200710/1

On 1 Nov, 08:26, "Bert Willing"
wrote:
I absolutely disagree, and I stand my point (and manner).

Once you stop thinking about the risk, you become one.

However, if the thinking about the risk starts to intimidate you, you are in
the wrong place.

I stopped flying for a while because I could only fly midweek and
there were just too many near-misses with military aircraft at my
(then) club. Personal best: a Tornado around two wingspans away, at
the same height. Intimidated? You bet I was.

Ian

On Nov 1, 9:26 am, Ian wrote:
I stopped flying for a while because I could only fly midweek and
there were just too many near-misses with military aircraft at my
(then) club. Personal best: a Tornado around two wingspans away, at
the same height. Intimidated? You bet I was.

EEK! Which (ex) club, if you don't mind me asking.
And I thought I was quite close enough to B1s maybe 5 miles away,
or C130s at my altitude and where I could count the individual
cockpit window panes.

I've also heard a story of a B52 lining up on the club's runway
(wheels down, wing root lights) before realising its mistake
and peeling off.

And I did witness some "interesting" commercial airliner and glider
movements at Lasham, back in the 70s.

Is there room in a B1/B52/C130/Tornado for a FLARM? :}

On 1 Nov, 10:20, Tom Gardner wrote:

EEK! Which (ex) club, if you don't mind me asking.
And I thought I was quite close enough to B1s maybe 5 miles away,
or C130s at my altitude and where I could count the individual
cockpit window panes.

Borders GC. Lovely club, excellent site beside the Cheviot Hills - and
that was the problem. Normally the fast military stuff stays at 500'
or less, so it isn't a problem for gliders. However both they and we
could be at 500' AGL in the hills, and there were too many close calls
for me to be happy.

It wasn't the military pilots' fault: I am quite sure they don't want
half a ton of fibreglass in their cockpits. However there did seem to
be some serious deficiencies in the Civil Air Notification Procedure,
with information about midweek gliding (hint to Mr Putin: invade over
the weekend) simply not getting through to the pilots.

Is there room in a B1/B52/C130/Tornado for a FLARM? :}

We did have a visit from a military ATC chap, and he said that a Good
Big Radar Reflector would help enormously. I was thinking about
installing an 18" aluminium cube reflector, made for yachts, in the
fuselage above the wheel.

Incidentally, this is probably ten years ago, and I think it very
likely that with the growth of BGC and increase in midweek flying
things should be much smoother and more effective now. Please, folks,
don't let this put you off flying there!

Ian

On Nov 1, 12:23 pm, Ian wrote:
We did have a visit from a military ATC chap, and he said that a Good
Big Radar Reflector would help enormously. I was thinking about
installing an 18" aluminium cube reflector, made for yachts, in the
fuselage above the wheel.

I've idly wondered about that, but I'd want to know that slow targets
aren't simply removed from the screen before the radar operator even
sees them. Even several decades ago "ground clutter" was routinely
removed by simply ignoring any reflection with a doppler shift of
less than 70mph.

Clearly it has to be more sophisticated than that for airborne
radars,
but I'm sure it is possible.

I used to fly in Northern Germany during the time where there was still the
Berlin Wall. My personal best was an F4 diving to avoid me and passing
something like 20m below me.

There has been more than one occasion that I was intimidated in-flight (as
well as on the road), but it didn't scare me off, because the general risk
at that time to be run over by a fighter aircraft at that time was something
I accepted.

"Ian" wrote in message
oups.com...
On 1 Nov, 08:26, "Bert Willing"
wrote:
I absolutely disagree, and I stand my point (and manner).

Once you stop thinking about the risk, you become one.

However, if the thinking about the risk starts to intimidate you, you are
in
the wrong place.

I stopped flying for a while because I could only fly midweek and
there were just too many near-misses with military aircraft at my
(then) club. Personal best: a Tornado around two wingspans away, at
the same height. Intimidated? You bet I was.

Ian