At 07:45 PM 17/02/04 +1000, you wrote:
> When the news agency (news.com.au) is running the same story alongside
>each other calling it a glider in one headline and an Ultralight in the
>other both on the same page you really have to wonder where they get their
>information from.......
>
> If your not sure about a story then just make it up...... (rule number 1
>journalists school)
>
>
> Emilis Prelgauskas wrote:
> At 09:19 AM 17/02/04 +1100, Ian wrote: I believe the 24hrs of
> "Two die in Glider Crash" has done much damage to gliding so lets get it
>right for next time.
You are all missing the point.
It is the accidents that do the damage, not the coverage. What are we
trying to do here? Pretend that the accident didn't happen? If nobody knows
about the accident we can pretend we are safe?
I don't expect to ever see enough information about any glider accidents to
be helpful to pilots in avoiding them in future. The Waikerie accident was
the second in the last couple of years or so involving significant damage
after an attempt to lower the landing gear at the last moment. Everyone
know that?
I estimate we are running about one major accident every 1500 to 2000
hours. We could and should do a lot better. There are many other aviation
organisations in the world that have had accident problems and successfully
tackled them.
> & Terry handled media and accident at Waikerie nationals. For those of
>us who have been through it in the past; media helicopters circling the
>crash for 'good vision - film at 11'. This was dealt with by giving all the
>emergency services the 'calming' information they needed, and getting the
>airframe into the enclosed trailer within the time before media arrived.
>'Nothing to see here folks'. The same message to the inevitable pester
>follow up media calls for days after 'in the public interest'.
Keep this up and one day a media person may figure out that something is
being hidden. The ATSB stats are available to them. Should make a nice "60
minutes" or "4 Corners" story or even just a segment on the "7:30 Report".
Think about it - "gliding as dangerous as cropdusting" "new members not
informed of risks" "amateur instructors" "no exams" "official coverup"
"CASA dereliction of duty" "Sport aviation officials protecting their jobs"
"Minister mislead". It will make a *great* story.
And speaking of stories - did anyone see the NAS story in yesterday's
Australian where Henk Meertens was claiming to represent 300,000 sports
aviators(anyone got any idea where that number came from?) and threatening
to sue if the NAS was rolled back significantly? What a brilliant idea!
After all sport aviation has such huge resources to pursue this. He is also
quoted as claiming that sport aviation put huge effort into educating
members about NAS. It didn't really seem to be discernible to me.
Best not to bullshit the media as the truth is on record.
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments
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