wrote:
I can't understand your rudeness 'R'. I believe you haven't been on a
same situaiton than I am. I have flown almost everywhere and I have
flown numerous competitions plus I have been instructing since 1992.
So I believe I am qualified to fly glider just fine and write about
it.

I am not sure if you guys understood my consern.What happened to those
extremely skillfull pilots ie Geoff Loyns? can the same thing happen
to my other friends or myself. Is it worth trying the thin ice
anymore?

That who said that soaring is not dangerous is wrong. You can get
killed without your own reason. You can just thermal on a 10 footer
and some one who is joining the lift, hits you from behind. Maybe he
didn't see you at all. That has happened numerous times. Luckily most
of them has survived, few didn't.


The only reliable way we have to determine how dangerous is soaring is
to look at the statistics, and at the qualifications required of and
supplied by the people whose flights make up those statistics.

We know something about many of the rare failures to have a safe flight,
and little or nothing about the thousands of safely executed flights,
and one could be expected to have understood that quite well before the
question was asked. Therefor we can only conclude that the questioner
does not really expect to get a solid answer.

Does he want reassurance? He has it from those who have said in effect,
"Go out and fly as safely as you know how, and you will be very safe."

Does he want a reason to seek a more mundane pastime? He has it from
those who have listed the many threats, expounded upon the uncertainty
of life in general, and wondered at the occasional loss of a highly
experienced and proficient pilot.

The greater curiosity is why those brave and hard-working tow pilots do
what they do. The dangers are at least as great, and the satisfactions
far less obvious.


Jack