Why Soaring's Safety Record Doesn't Improve

(Jim Vincent) writes:

I tried to get the *wing tape sign off* adopted by asking my local
FBO's to refuse to give a tow unless the tow pilot saw a wing tape
sign off on each sailplane wing

While this is a great idea, the implementation is far different. I
have seen pilots do a "PCC" and not catch the disconnect or
reversal. The core problem, I think, is HOW the pilot does a PCC.

No, the problem is in how people think. If you have a person who
expects a result X, and give him something that is neat to X or -X, he
will in a very high percentage of cases accept it as correct. This is
not lack of atention, or carlessness, it is just the way our brains
work.

Yes and no. If the person is not trained to question result X, they will
accept result X. If they are ignorant through stupidity, ignorance, or
attitude, they will never even get to the point where they even have the
oppportunity to evaluate result X, never mind Y or Z. The problem goes back to
the AB and C of doing a PCC. The instructors at my club haven't a f'ijng clue
how to do one....never mind that they won't allow the student to do the
checklist approved for the G103 in the POH. So what you get is a dumb ****
trained by a dumb ****.

Jim Vincent
CFIG
N483SZ
illspam