On Saturday at Chris Thorps GFA safety seminar at Archerfield I gave a demo of 1 inch blue confor memory foam. Some people there obviously did not know about confor foam and recently a friend of mine is a southern state was involved in a ground loop in ASK 13 caused by long grass catching one wing and other wing gaining extra lift and whole glider lifted in the air. He was dumped from about 1metre leaving him with injured back for 2 or so months. He knew nothing of confor foam' and did not have same. Glider was all but undamaged.
Here is the link to confor foam http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/conForFoan.php?clickkey=5944 It does cost $US23.50 for BLUE PAD 1 inch think (is all you need for protection) and post per pad will be say $20 but that is minor to injuries it may prevent. Personally I will not sign a form 2 unless the glider is equipped with confor foam or they get a long talk that they have to order it NOW. We wear seat belts in gliders and cars always so why not have confor in all gliders we fly and costs a lot less than a parachute and is equally important I believe. $50 is the cheapest one off insurance policy you will ever buy in gliding. If you want more proof go to the BGA web site for article on its use and the front cover will be a photo of a Swift glider crashing and pilot walks away. The video or is it a series of still photos of the crash. Thanks to Jenny Ganderton most of the gliders at Keepit have confor in almost all gliders. Personally I think GFA should mandate the use of confor instead of highly recommending it but at least that is a start.. Ian McPhee
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