At 20:51 20/06/2005, Peter Creswick said:
Went searching through some old AG's (after finding the box in the garage
roof space).
Those of you who have AG August 1992 might find pages 16 -17 - 18 - 19
relevant.
Given the subject, and the author, I would have thought it reasonably
definitive at the time.
If anyone can find 200 ft mentioned (and I have read it 5 times in the
last day or so), then please advise page, paragraph, line and word count
from beginning of line.
Well, not making excuses, but the facts are, (a) I haven't been up since
Dec93, (b) never flew in a comp, so no gaggles ever, and (c) as far as
the brain cells can recall, in club flying, I never had anything else
close enough to give cause to consider the matter.
None the less, a perusal of http://www.gfa.org.au/Docs/ops/opregs.pdf is
in progress, and yes, Section 9-22 is where it says 200 ft.
Quite true, Peter.
For those who don't still have access to it (i.e. do not hoard their old
magazines) it was a discussion by Mike Valentine about the extraordinarily
high rate of mid-air collisions involving gliders - in particular 4 fatal
collisions between gliders and aeroplanes were addressed, along with 11
glider-to-glider collisions from 1981 to 1990 (1 fatal and 2 serious injuries).
Sadly, we have if anything had a greater rate of fatalities from a similar
rate of collisions since 1990.
However, if you followed Mike's advice in the article, to always look well
when joining a thermal, to join opposite any gliders close to your height,
and to stay out of other gliders' blind spots and fly conservatively rather
than aggressively, you would in fact achieve the 200 ft separation in any
direction (measured both horizontally and vertically) that has been often
quoted of late.
So rather then concentrate on a distance that cannot be readily measured
(and certainly should not be used as a "target" separation [pun intended]),
the article actually tells us how to achieve a safe separation by
displaying good airmanship. The required separation will fall out of the
equation if you follow the advice given.
I have a number of friends who have been scared by other pilots who did not
follow these rules, one of whom has only recently returned to competition
flying after several years away from it. Whilst the "friendly" Club Class
has not been without close encounters and touches, a more aggressive flying
style that has come into this comp over recent years is not a positive
development.
Let's hope the Juniors and the coaching team have worked to have our up and
coming competitive pilots achieve their results safely, and remain in the
sport for a long time.
Wombat
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