Mike Borgelt wrote: I'd prefer "we will expedite a full report so others may learn" to
"there will be a full report in the fullness of time."
While I agree that we can all learn from a detailed understanding of what happened in a gliding accident, particularly a tragic one, there's another reason why I value early details.
Lots of my friends and colleagues know I'm a glider pilot. For many of them, perhaps the majority, I'm the only pilot they know. When something like this happens they ask me about it. On the one hand I feel a certain pressure to defend the sport. On the other hand I feel that my friends and colleagues expect me to be "in the know".
Whenever there's a gliding related incident in the media I rely on this list, and RAS to get some facts that maybe aren't in the news reports (or are misreported) while it's still fresh in people's minds. It's not much use (in the particular situation I'm thinking of in the photocopier room at work or at the pub) to say "I'll get back to you in a few months when we've got the whole story."
I'm proud of the sense achievement I feel when I reflect that I AM a glider pilot, but it's a heavy responsibility when so many friends and colleagues see it as a wacky, dangerous thing to do, about which they know next to nothing. "What if there's no wind?", "Aren't you scared with no engine?", "What about that guy who got killed?"
I've been off work today (coincidentally to attend a funeral of a friend from my other [dangerous?] life as a jazz musician) but the questions will start around nine o'clock tomorrow morning at my day gig.
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