Glider fatalities soaring, what's up?
- Thread starter Douglas
- Start date
Douglas
Old School KSUX
You best believe it.
Inverted25
Well-Known Member
Just the way the cookie crumbles. I haven't personally seen anything change over the years. Our club has been more active over the past two years. We had a serious crash this year but it wasn't caused by lack of safety precautions. It was just a bad series of events that ended unfortunately.
drunkenbeagle
Gang Member
I haven't seen anything abnormal this year, if anything, less flying with the LET L-13's being grounded. That's a huge chink of the training fleet in the US.
That said, flying gliders east of the Mississippi is inherently safer - geography keeps us over flat areas in thermals, low enough we don't have the same aeromedical issues as out west.
That said, flying gliders east of the Mississippi is inherently safer - geography keeps us over flat areas in thermals, low enough we don't have the same aeromedical issues as out west.
gliderboy
Well-Known Member
1. No medical required and only the most modest skills needed to get a glider rating means that there are quite a few glider pilots flying around who maybe ought not to be. (Kinda like all the middle-aged born-again bikers wiping themselves out on Harleys or big sportbikes.)
2. Jumping into gliders after long periods of no flying (winter).
3. Bad economy cutting back on flying time, skills perish, etc.
No bad happenings at our field, however.
2. Jumping into gliders after long periods of no flying (winter).
3. Bad economy cutting back on flying time, skills perish, etc.
No bad happenings at our field, however.
drunkenbeagle
Gang Member
The old farts seem to be the most current an proficient at my field. Some of them were flying gliders with the Wright brothers I think.
Someone that gets into flying when they retire and buys a high performance ship right of the bat can get themselves into trouble, for sure. But no worse than with airplanes.
A150K
Well-Known Member
That's a big issue fro the Soaring community at 0E0 (Moriarty, NM). I'd like to get into it, but I don't know how I'd be able to stay current enough to be safe. Maybe one day I'll get a Comm glider add on and give rides or something on the side. It looks like a lot of fun.
Inverted25
Well-Known Member
I gotta agree with drukenbeagle on this one. There's a few guys here who learned to fly in the hitler youth and they are by far the best pilots around.
Springer
Well-Known Member
You do have statistics to back that statement up, right? As the owner of a cruiser, a "big" sportbike, and being middle-age +, I am still intact.
