Andy,
The 80 figure was given to me in good faith, and I repeated it as such. Could I have verified this number from a 2nd source? Sure, but the actual number isn't the crux of the matter. Would you feel any different about the Nephi operation if the number WAS 80? I doubt it. Are my concerns alleviated if I knew the actual number was 65? No. Anyway, we all agree the true number is 65. So let's JUST MOVE ON - this is beating a dead horse.

Bruce raised an interesting question: is a meet of 20 gliders inherently dangerous. The only meet that has no risk of a glider-glider mid-air is a meet of one. Raise it to two and now the risk is non-zero. Sound ridiculous? Hardly, two gliders flying out of Arlington, WA, had a mid-air resulting in one fatality. So as the number of gliders flying in the same airspace increases, so does the risk of a mid-air. That is just common sense that, I think, we can all agree on. The point of contention is that risk acceptable or not. That gets down to a judgment issue. Some people think that just because nothing bad happened there was no, or little, risk. That is just, simply, not true.

Bruce inspired me to do a little research. In my former life as a research engineer I always put a lot of effort into getting as much information on a particular subject before trying fashion a solution. So I started gathering data on glider-glider mid-airs (there are also a few glider-power mid-airs, but this is a different problem). Part of the problem of gathering this data is it is a bit tedious. The FAA ASRS database found no such incidents, so it is of no help whatsoever. The NTSB accident database is very limited in finding such incidents because a mid-air is not a searchable criteria. You basically have to look at EVERY reported accident involving gliders. I did, however, find some glider mid-airs by going thru the fatal glider accidents (I quit after 2007 due to lack of time). I found more such incidents by doing a Google search ("glider mid-air accident"). I came up with 13 glider-glider mid-airs (remember, this is not an exhaustive search) What was glaring about what I found was a disproportionate number of mid-airs involving contest flying; 11 of the 13. Contests represent perhaps 5% of total glider hours flown, yet a majority of mid-airs occur during contests. The World gliding contest is particularly bad (5 out of 13). If you calculate the number of mid-airs per 100,000 hours flown contest flying dwarfs other types of events on a risk-based assessment.

I also went to the Soaring Safety Foundation for guidance. I was stunned to find that the SSF has NO database whatsoever. This is a glaring deficiency on their part. I propose that the SSF create a database of ALL glider accidents that is searchable by all phases of glider flying. The Albuquerque Soaring Club did an excellent analysis of glider accidents in New Mexico (http://www..abqsoaring.org/misc_file...Accidents.doc). This level of analysis needs to be done on a national basis.

I feel strongly about safety and do not apologize for it. If I can prevent a SINGLE accident, fatal or otherwise, by my actions it is WORTH IT for the abuse I have taken here (and make no mistake: some people here have been extraordinary abusive, but I don't give a damn).

Best regards,
Tom