Accident at Szeged WGC

On Jul 31, 12:48*am, Z1 wrote:
On Jul 31, 8:47*am, JJ Sinclair wrote:



Boring cylinder finishes anyone?
UH

Boring *(but safe) cylinder finishes!
I was rolling on the runway when another competitor did a low finish
right over me, even though the cylinder finish was in use at Parowan.
I thought he was trying to land in front of me for a second or two and
was ready to ground-loop out of his way, if
necessary................nope, just another hot-shot showing his
ignorance as he did his little macho-crotcho low pass and then pulled
up into a crowded pattern without a word over the radio!

Radio contact is no longer needed to get a good start or finish and
the most important use of the radio is to let each other know where we
are in relation to finishing and landing. Recommend the rules call for
a 4 mile call, finish and down-wind to XX radio calls.

I CD'd Air Sailing Sports Class last week and instructed all to call 4
miles, finish and down-wind to whatever and anyone below 500 feet
better be in the pattern or doing a rolling finish!

Hank, it is high time we get the unnecessary and unsafe line finish
out of US rules and instruct CD's to not allow any low finishes.
JJ (the outspoken trouble-maker)

You yanks crack me up...

The fact that he may have had his wheel and flaps down when he hit the
truck has nothing to do with it, lets not actually wait until the
whole fact are known, nah let's jump in and make lots of assumptions,
don't you think if he was in fact completing a high speed comp finish
the pilot would be dead???

No, you guys would rather have multiple gliders coming from different
directions at high speed with all the pilots focussing on looking at
there GPS's screens.

It seems to me that when you guys were all flying comps when you were
younger there seemed to be no problem with low level finish but now
your are all over 65 it's all to dangerous.

So lets ban comp finish, but make it perfectly alright to complete a
task after you have had a midair.

This very sad event was an accident waiting to happen. It is
unfortunate that the organizers did not adequately recognize this
going in. We can have vigorous debate about rules intended to increase
safety for the participants, but anything that needlessly puts others
at risk just can't be accommodated. This is not about being girly men,
it is about conducting our sport with responsibility towards
outsiders.

John Godfrey (QT) wrote:
This is not about being girly men, it is about conducting
our sport with responsibility towards outsiders.

Exactly. It is always sad when a pilot kills himself, but then, after
all, it was him who decided to take the risk. But when an innocent
outsider gets involved, then it's a completely different story.

I don't know what the pilot did wrong or right. But the primary
responsability for this accident lies at the organisers, who decided to
set the task so that the final glide led over a populated road.

No, you guys would rather have multiple gliders coming from different
directions at high speed with all the pilots focussing on looking at
there GPS's screens.

We use our radio to tell each other direction and altitude as we enter
the finish cylinder and head-on trafic is 2 miles from each other at
the finish.

It seems to me that when you guys were all flying comps when you were
younger there seemed to be no problem with low level finish but now
your are all over 65 it's all to dangerous.

May be, but the line finish was the only way to finish the race in the
distant past. Now days we have GPS and flying low and fast over
people, places and things is no longer necessary. Don't the FAR's have
something to say about flying below 500 feet while not in the act of
landing? Please don't tell me the low finisher is, "in the act of
landing". Has he slowed down? Has he lowered the landing gear? Has he
lowered the flaps? Has he made a down-wind call? No, No, No and No!
The Federallies could rip us a new one over this.

So lets ban comp finish, but make it perfectly alright to complete a
task after you have had a midair.

By the time both pilots sorted out what had happened, they were miles
apart and escorting the damaged ship to a safe landing was no longer
an option. He struck the other ship with his nose and knew that
portion of his ship was OK. He had another competitor look him over.
Why shouldn't the un-damaged ship continue?

JJ (old and sincerely trying to get older)

On Jul 30, 8:51*am, Tony wrote:
Hauntingly similar to the Hawker collision.

How so?

the large wing parts left stuck in the truck reminded me of the Hawker
crash:

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007288.html

and what that jet would have looked like had it been a tiny bit lower
and taken the wing through the window.

On Jul 30, 9:10*pm, brianDG303 wrote:
On Jul 30, 8:51*am, Tony wrote:

Hauntingly similar to the Hawker collision.

How so?

the large wing parts left stuck in the truck reminded me of the Hawker
crash:

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007288.html

and what that jet would have looked like had it been a tiny bit lower
and taken the wing through the window.

ok i'll give you that.