Oops, my mistake, too obtuse again & you missed the point. It doesn't matter whether it's a national list or The National List; how many people are regular readers; that the glider pictured might have been somewhere else in the world (or might/might not have been operating within 'appropriate approvals and limitations'); whether I was or wasn't speculating about the UK accident; whether the pins & duct tape were real or just a troll... etc.
What matters is that the things we say in public influence a) those outside of the sport with enough interest to start asking questions, and b) those keen newcomers within the sport who may not yet have the safe v gung-ho balance worked out. We don't see speeding in car ads because its judged to adversely affect driver attitudes; yet adverts or offbeat comments implying we have an irreverence for safety in gliding are treated as humorous? I wouldn't deny anyone the right to crack jokes about duct taped pins when they are standing around as a bunch of old farts shooting the breeze, or even to fly themselves in a duct-taped glider. But in a public forum? I thinks its akin to telling stories to novices XC'ers about the day we got away from 150' in a dust devil, and is a disservice to the sport as a whole, IMHO. Cheers Brett -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Newton Sent: Monday, 5 September 2005 2:45 PM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Discus Pins Brett Kettle wrote: > And yet our national mail list contains stories (I hope someone's just > pulling my leg) of gaffer taped pins & no pins at all; The number of GFA members in Australia is about 20 times higher than the number of subscribers on this list. Many of the subscribers on the list aren't GFA members, so I reckon the membership of the list is < 5% of Australia's GFA members. Of those, many are subscribed but don't read it. There are probably less than 20 people who post regularly. This isn't "our national mailing list." This is something Simon Hackett has set up as a community building exercise. It's a bunch of pilots standing around and electronically shooting the breeze; it isn't an officially sanctioned and approved forum. > and our latest > national mag boasts advertisements for new gliders showing a high energy > finish how far (<3m?) above the deck? There is nothing inherently wrong with a high-energy finish. They are routinely carried out legally all over the world (note that the glider in the photo you're talking about has a German registration). With appropriate approvals and limitations they're carried out legally in Australia. GFA and CASA are working towards approving a training syllabus and a CASA dispensation to permit glider pilots to practice and perform high-energy finishes in Australia, which is likely to be released before the end of this year. For an appropriately trained and qualified pilot, with a suitable regulatory system, there is no problem with safely carrying out a high-energy finish; So I'm not sure why you think it's not suitable for an ad in Soaring Australia. > Surely this type of advert is just plain wrong after the tragic death at UK > Juniors recently; Maybe you ought to wait for the BGA's accident report. Uninformed speculation from 20,000km away about an accident which involved two people most of us don't actually know is not likely to generate a useful outcome. > and the pins stories just plain wrong Perhaps you're overreacting to a "troll". Do you believe that the account of the pins was actually factual? My money is on some wag trying to start an entertaining thread. > I'm not a police-state kind of guy, but I'd almost think it was in the GFA's > interests to take some kind of action to prevent these practices and/or to > reduce their gung-ho profile in the sport. The GFA is not my mum. They don't have a responsibility for my safety. They don't have a responsibility for yours either. > I had a nasty little outlanding incident myself a short while back, and I'm > busily recalibrating my own sense of what's safe versus too risky; newcomers > to the sport seeing this kind of stuff are surely getting the wrong message. Ok, so you've had a scare and you subsequently think the GFA should step in and do something. The psychology behind that kind of reaction is understandable, but somewhat wrong-headed. GFA, CASA, ATSB, and other aviation regulators give us tools we can use to enhance our safety and the safety of those around us. But the responsibility for the use of those tools has always been with us, and will remain so. It sounds like you understand that at some level, because you've said you're recalibrating your own margins. Do you think you'd have recalibrated them sooner if GFA was your nanny, or would you have had exactly the same incident under the same circumstances, with the same risks and actions leading up to it? - mark -------------------------------------------------------------------- I tried an internal modem, [EMAIL PROTECTED] but it hurt when I walked. Mark Newton ----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 ----- _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
