Benalla

At 16:33 12 January 2017, Duster wrote:
Not a real fan of Facebook, but here is one link

https://www.facebook.com/SoaringSocietyofAmerica/

Quite a remarkable video of one of the gaggles:
Scroll down to see the post by Matthew Scutter and pics by Sean


Howard Jones (uk) described it as
"A knife fight in a phone box"
Plus blue
Plus 32C
Not my idea of fun

At 14:13 12 January 2017, krasw wrote:
There was a mid-air collision in 18m class today. Both damaged
gliders returned to airfield. Such routine is this at WGC level that it
did not make news anywhere?

Do they use FLARM ?

Flarm is essentially useless in big crowded gaggles. Alarms are going off all the time. That says something more about the wisdom of big crowded gaggles and rules that promote them rather than anything bad about flarm.

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 2:12:18 PM UTC-8, John Cochrane wrote:
Flarm is essentially useless in big crowded gaggles. Alarms are going off all the time. That says something more about the wisdom of big crowded gaggles and rules that promote them rather than anything bad about flarm.

The flying today is scrubbed due to PM wind forecast.
Jim

FLARM is most definitely *not* useless in big crowded gaggles. You do need competition mode enabled, and a proper display (I recommend a FlarmView).
Has saved me many times already this competition from gliders turning inside me just as I was about to tighten up.

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 3:45:02 PM UTC-8, wrote:
FLARM is most definitely *not* useless in big crowded gaggles. You do need competition mode enabled, and a proper display (I recommend a FlarmView).
Has saved me many times already this competition from gliders turning inside me just as I was about to tighten up.

In Matthew Scutter's video of a crowded Benalla pre-start gaggle, the FLARM behaves as it should.
Can only find the video on FB. Sorry.
https://www.facebook.com/SoaringSocietyofAmerica/
Jim

At 21:27 12 January 2017, Jock Proudfoot wrote:
At 14:13 12 January 2017, krasw wrote:
There was a mid-air collision in 18m class today. Both damaged
gliders returned to airfield. Such routine is this at WGC level that it
did not make news anywhere?

Do they use FLARM ?


Yes, Flarm is mandatory.
T1

Op donderdag 12 januari 2017 15:13:23 UTC+1 schreef krasw:
There was a mid-air collision in 18m class today. Both damaged gliders returned to airfield. Such routine is this at WGC level that it did not make news anywhere?

If you look at the score sheet, LK and HK were involved in this occurrence
I have put both igc files together in this GoogleEarth KML file https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...se4comfort.kmz

It looks like LK turned inside HK during thermalling
HK immediately returned in the direction of Benalla and landed on Baddaginnie (Earlston) airstrip.
LK initially continued the task and flew back a little bit later to Benalla.

This slide was shown during a safety briefing
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ng-wgc2017.jpg

At 11:10 14 January 2017, RuudH wrote:
Op donderdag 12 januari 2017 15:13:23 UTC+1 schreef krasw:
There was a mid-air collision in 18m class today. Both damaged
gliders
returned to airfield.

Matthew Scutter's Gliding
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScut...fref=hovercard

At 12:32 14 January 2017, Jock Proudfoot wrote:
At 11:10 14 January 2017, RuudH wrote:
Op donderdag 12 januari 2017 15:13:23 UTC+1 schreef krasw:
There was a mid-air collision in 18m class today. Both damaged
gliders
returned to airfield.
This the work of an ethics committee.

1) It is hard to argue that someone who gives up their race to assist
another pilot in mortal trouble isn't doing the right thing

2) It is also hard to argue that the organisation that decides to cancel
the race because said pilot gave up his race for noble reason and was so
disadvantaged isn't doing the right thing

yet note that the rules say that pilots involved in a mid air must suffer
a technical land out at that point. I was not present in this rule making
but presume that the reasoning is that this rule discourages pilots from
continuing in potentially lethally compromised gliders. It also has a
deterrent effect on rash pilot behaviour as the penalty is very high, even
if not to life and limb.

so

3) It is therefore possible to argue that the organisers who cancel the
task, remove the points downside to the pilots from unsafe flying and that
is wrong.

Better to find a way to reward the good shepherd for his proper and
humane decision?

Always controversial, not always correct
Jim