Mark said:
14 years later, nothing has changed.
There are other essential non ops/airworthiness things that have never been
done in the same timeframe also.
My little hobby horse and specialty, won’t bore the list.
Chris
From: Mark Newton
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2014 4:06 PM
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Competition licenses - the emperor has no clothes
On Sep 2, 2014, at 3:48 PM, Paul Bart <[email protected]> wrote:
Thank you for a detailed and logical post. Frankly I do not think I would
take issue with most points you make. I simply think my personal experience is
different. I am not a member of any other flying organisation so I cannot
compare.
That’s fine, we all come from different backgrounds, and different things are
important to all of us. That’s one of the points I was making.
For those of us for whom “the freedom of flight” is important in the manner I
described, GFA has literally nothing to offer us - indeed, its very existence
is an impediment (the CASA GPL would likely be very different if GFA had not
been involved in it)
The fact is that I do not see that GFA impedes what I want to do, nor what a
majority of glider pilots I personally know (a limited sample) do. Does a level
2 instructor impedes my flying, not in the least, do I feel in any way
"supervised"? Not in the least. When it is my turn to run the day, do I
interfere with any of the solo pilots? No.
It’s not a question of interference, that isn’t the point.
You cannot take responsibility for rigging a glider, because GFA seems to be
saying that its trained certificate holders lack the alacrity to perform that
task without someone else looking over their shoulder and countersigning.
When you are running a day, you are on an undefined, open-ended legal liability
hook for any accidents or injuries they suffer. Could you have prevented an
actionable event by preventing a launch? Even if you couldn’t, could an
insurance company’s lawyer paint a picture that says you could? You might not
even know those other pilots, but you’ve “taken charge” of their operation. Do
you know what that means?
And anyone who isn’t an instructor should feel “in any way supervised” because
that’s what the instructor’s actual job is. Everyone is under supervision. All
the time.
I don’t know how to describe how oppressive that is for the group of pilots for
whom “freedom of flight” is important; how much the knowledge that you can
never be so well trained or well skilled that you can be trusted to command
your own aircraft can suck the enjoyment out of the sport — When that’s
precisely the expectation held by pilots in literally every other aviation
discipline I’ve ever come into contact with.
I can remember 14 years ago, one of the very first aus-soaring messages I ever
read was Mike Borgelt making the entirely reasonable observation that it is
impossible for a L2 Independent Operator to legally fly his own self-launching
glider out of his own private airfield, because the act of rigging it requires
another GFA member to be physically present to countersign the maintenance
release.
14 years later, nothing has changed.
How is that possible? That renders the entire L2 Independent Operator rating
worthless. How pathetic is it that so much time can pass without such an
obvious regulatory defect being closed?
So the only time I feel as a second-class aviator is when i hook into a 6 kt
thermal and I know that Alan Barnes would be doing 8 :).
That’s just Imposter Syndrome. Alan Barnes knows Ingo would be doing 12. :)
- mark
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