I remember having to repair that Cirrus, caused quite a bit of damage. MR
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:26:42 +0930From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [Aus-soaring] How dear? Mitchell Preston wrote: It ends up being dear to hit a 'dear' in the long grass. He would have been better off to have hit a bird - that way it would have been 'cheep'. Has anyone on the list ever hit any wildlife when outlanding? I seem to remember a story in ye olde Australian Gliding years ago about someone colliding with a 'roo when outlanding in the Warrumbungles (NW NSW for our interstate members). MP.Mr Chairman,Many years back one of our members managed to topple a sheep with the wing of our Cirrus 75 during an outlanding. Some may argue that a sheep is not "wildlife" within the meaning of the act, but I would plead that while the sheep may not have been necessarily wild, it certainly would have been a bit upset and possibly quite angry. Ditto for the owner of the said unfortunate animal, and our man too, as he was also a farmer and could well understand and share how disappointed everyone was at how things had turned out. There was a much earlier incident which came close to the gravity of this event and could have been a total wipe-out. It happened before I took up gliding, so I relate it as I was reliably informed; well it's as reliable as any gliding story told at the bar after 10:45pm - and that's sufficiently factual for most of us, is it not?It seems that one of our (then) younger members decided to do his circuit downwind leg low and fast for a change (code for a beatup). The line of his chosen flight path over the adjacent paddock had a small flock of sheep quietly grazing in just the right (or wrong) place. Now most people probably don't know this, but when sheep are startled - as they seem to have been by this feat of aviation initiative - they jump, sometimes sideways but often upwards as well, and sometimes to a surprising altitude. (It's possible that there are some kangaroo genes in sheep, or perhaps it's a trait learned from association with our national fauna emblem over the past two hundred years or so - I don't know, and I digress anyway.......).However reliable and sober (at the time) witnesses report that sheep were seen jumping almost as high as the Ka6, so it must have been quite a run. There were no collisions however and our man landed back on the field full of exhilaration and to the admiration and awe of nearly all present, only to be greeted by a rather sombre CFI who was extremely interested in, but by no means appreciative of this particular example of circuit planning. The pilot was reportedly put back on dual in the Kookaburra for a few weeks until he solemnly swore on the GFA MOSP that he would never do such a silly, irresponsible, (also exciting and daring) thing ever again. (Personally I think what really annoyed the CFI was that he was also given to doing the very same thing - but usually only on the hangar flight - and this young upstart had stolen his thunder for the day ......) Be that as it may, some forty plus years on we now know how stupid this really was. Really informed readers may know that when a sheep engages in a sudden and involuntary response such as that reported above, they sometimes ... well ...er... they.. .. they sometimes break wind - if I may put it that way. Some speculate (and Mr Attenborough would, I suggest, agree) that this adds usefully to the overall height of the leap and that's why they do it, but I've never attached much weight to that school of of thought. The real problem here is that we now know that such gaseous byproducts contain substances (methane amongst other nasty toxic stuff) which are extremely harmful to the atmosphere and contribute significantly to global warming. Is it possible that this one flight produced the trigger to set off the chain of events causing the global warming trend which so pre-occupies some people these days? Well I hope not, but consider the mess that gliding would be in if it could be proved, and this was somehow leaked to the media! We need all to be sworn to secrecy on this one; and there's to be absolutely no beatups over sheep from here on in - OK?! This sort of thing has got to stop.Then there was the time that one of our blokes nearly landed the Kingfisher on the club cat who was most diligently minding his own business with his own somewhat different understanding and use - albeit equally urgent - of the exact same aiming point as that selected by the Kingfisher driver.But that's another story altogether.Regards,Terry:-P _________________________________________________________________ Shout your Messenger buddies to the movies http://www.livelife.ninemsn.com.au/compIntro.aspx?compId=4590
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