On Apr 11, 12:17*am, CindyASK wrote:
I find it too simplistic to conclude that both Geoff and Steve
expereinced "similar" weather simply because they impacted within 50 miles and
30 days of each other. *...
I find it difficult to believe that Steve would encounter "scary winds
and conditions" on a scenic solo flight which ended
at 9:30 A.M. *

I'd like to thank Cindy for her post, particularly for the key part in
terms of increasing soaring safety: "I agree with Jim and Martin -- we
should encourage establishing and heeding personal margins from
terrain based on expereince, recency, and conditions. Leave a little
extra room, for friends and loved ones. Big weather and big terrain
should encourage bigger margins of terrain separation."

Cindy, Jim and I have carried on a conversation that brought out some
additional information which Cindy did not take into account from the
updated NTSB reports

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?...3&ntsbno=SEA07....
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?...07FA231&rpt=fi

and which therefore should be related here. In particular, those
reports indicate that strong, gusty winds and turbulence played a part
in both accidents. There is a lot more relevant data in both NTSB
reports, but I'll let the interested reader get it straight from the
NTSB's mouth.

Martin