Scott wrote:
Ramy wrote:
I'm with Kirk and also hope that if something will ever happen to me
people will discuss it right away and try to learn from it.

Ramy

Just to play devil's advocate...what can be learned from "what ifs"?

If I weren't there to physically witness the accident, I might as well
say the engine quit and someone made a 180 degree turn to return to the
field and spun in. What is learned by that? Especially if the real
cause was something such as a forgotten bolt or pin, causing the wing to
fold.

I myself prefer to wait for an investigation where there are at least
some preliminary FACTS. That's just the way I work, I guess.....

We have some preliminary facts: Pawnee, crash, fatality, glider OK,
Creswell, Oregon, etc. How long do you want to wait for more facts? How
many facts do you need? My experience is we often don't have "enough"
facts to conclusively understand an accident, even the year or so later
when NTSB report is issued.

RAS isn't a court of law trying to issue a fair judgment. We don't need
"all the facts" to have discussions that leaven the pain of losing a
fellow pilot, or goad us into rethinking about what we do when get into
our towplane or glider, and what we should be doing.

That is just the way most of us work.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* Sections on Mode S, TPAS, ADS-B, Flarm, more

* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org