I don't have anything to add about the accident in question, which was
clearly a colossal lapse in airmanship, of mammoth proportions. But I
do think Skydell's approach to the article was admirable. He
recognized that there was a huge bug in the piloting software in his
head, marvelled that such a bug could go undetected for so long, and
questioned whether the bug was fixable. We all have some bugs in our
internal software, propably not as big as his, but we should take a
similar approach to debugging ourselves when we make mistakes.

I've read many articles in Soaring over the years by idiots who flew
perfectly good gliders into trees with the spoilers open or some other
such thing, who write up accounts of their great adventure, subtley
pointing to extenuating circumstances which caused their normally
superior piloting skill to fail them, and proudly describing some
decision they made which saved them from an even greater disaster.
While nominally admitting error, these accounts usually have an element
of "these exact set of circumstances that lead to my accident were
somehow unique in a way I couldn't have been prepared for, and so I
must share them with the world" hidden underneath. I did not detect
this undercurrent of excuse making in Skydell's article.



MS wrote:
Does anybody have anything to say about the accident described in
Soaring magazine concerning a pilot who could not land to a stop on a
6,000 foot paved runway or the parallel dirt runway to the South?

I know this sounds very judgemental and I don't ordinarily make
negative comments about an accident, but holy cow, if I couldn't make
a 6,000 ft runway with or without spoilers, I'll quit the sport. I
believe the private pilot PTS states the applicant has to land and roll
to a stop within 200 ft of a predesignated spot. Most students can do
that every time prior to solo. I fly at an operation with a 4,000 ft
runway where we only use 1/2 for landing and the other 1/2 for launch.
Even new solo students don't need the full 4,000 feet! I know the
pilot got the gear and spoiler handles mixed up, but good grief.

Also, what's with the dumbass "high parasitic drag approach"?
Spoilers and slipping works fine. If you can't hit a 6000 ft runway
from 350 ft on final with spoilers or a forward slip, choose another
sport. The high parasitic drag approach described in the article does
not sound like a stable approach to landing.


The article should be renamed "Is conservative safe? YES, but bozos
who blame their instruction/instructors for being clueless are not."
He mainly blamed his conservative instruction and instructors instead
of admitting he was not thinking properly that day. I can't believe
his instructors went along with that attitude. He must have a problem
with freezing up and tunnel vision if something goes slightly wrong and
he can't salvage the situation he got himself into.

Flame away if it makes you feel better, but nothing will change my
mind.