I wonder if anyone has addressed the "convenience" factor, and
if it might have been a player. I looked at the report and
screen grab pictures, so given the headwind and enormous size
of the airfield, it should have appeared to have been a "no
brainer" to just pull the dive brakes and land straight ahead.
That is, unless one overthinks it and decides that doing so would
mean a long ground retrieve back to the start point for another
launch. Could he have been thinking that he could just squeak out
a tight pattern so as to land back at the start point in order to
quickly get into the air again? I guess we will never know for sure.

I remember one instance back in the 1960's when George Moffat
was flying his SH-1 out of Wurtsboro on an "iffy" day. He got low
down by the sister glider field at Middletown and decided to land
there to get a re-light back to Wurtsboro. Being by himself with
no ground crew, etc, he decided to land just short of the take-off
staging area so that he would be able to launch from where he
rolled out and stopped. Except, George misjudged his approach
and wound up in the bushes just short of the runway. He had
also punched a good sized hole in the underside of one wing, so
he wound up having to get it trailered back to Wurtsboro to get
repaired. An example of very good pilot making a convenience
related decision that went wrong....

Thermalling low in order to avoid a retrieve or possible off-field
landing damage? -- a convenience factor from another thread.

Making an abbreviated pattern to avoid a long tow on the ground?
-- another possible "convenience related" decision?

We will never know for sure, but it is probably worth mentioning
during training for these types of events.

I did not know Matt W. and am not a knee-jerk fan of video watching, but I
*had* thoroughly enjoyed 2 or 3 of his videos prior to his saddening death,
and his joy of participation in soaring - and skill - was evident. Sincere
condolences to his family and friends.

+1 to the above post.

Like every other self-interested reader/poster in this thread, I can only
surmise what was in Matt's mind when he made the "turn now!" decision, but
"the dreaded convenience decision?" possibility appeared early-on in my mind.

Maybe I was lucky, but I was first exposed to "the dreaded convenience
decision" in my pre-solo days, after making ad admiring comment to my
instructor about how skillfully someone had taxied the club's 1-26 off the
active runway, stopping right outside the hangar door. My instructor
laughingly replied to the effect of: Yeah! Really nifty...when it works! We
then discussed it, natch, until he was satisfied I understood his point. Since
then, I've seen many a convenience decision that has NOT worked as hoped (as
distinct from planned, because many of them are - to be kind - ill considered).

Worse, I bent a landing gear attach bulkhead one time by indulging in my own
ill-considered "dreaded convenience decision"...sort of the reverse of the
decision facing Matt. I'd fallen out on a wave day, flown the gnarly-condition
pattern to land near from where I'd launched, then acted upon a
"short-final-inspiration (not!)." Rather than planning on landing at the far
end of the field - where I'd rigged and left the trailer, because that was
convenient to non-west-wind days which were the site's statistical norm - I
came in "inconveniently short" even though not planning a 2nd tow, then acted
on the late-appearing impulse to land longer. No big deal, save for the fact
the flaps in that ship were hydraulic, and thus not amenable to flap
reductions short of being more or less instantaneously being blown back to the
in-trail position. (Doh!) I was lucky I didn't suffer worse consequences from
losing full flaps at about 70' agl...

*Much* worse (in the sense of repeating a dumb "convenience driven" choice),
many years later I repeated George Moffat's convenience-driven mistake...in
benign conditions at a benign site...subsequently learning how to re-glass a
G-103's tail wheel boat. (Doh!) My lack of being "tuned in" that morning
amazes and dismays me to this day, some 20 years later...

Bob W.

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