On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:57:36 -0700 (PDT), Brad
wrote:

A couple of thoughts:

1) Did I see Moffat cutting the tips off of his Open Cirrus and gluing
on tip extensions? Was this a certified glider? if so, was it ok to
make field mods like that back then?

Not only Moffat's ship was modified, Gleb's was, too.

Here's the story about George's Cirrus:
http://www.classicsailplane.org/Cirr...t/cirrus23.htm

3) Is competition really as filled with broken gliders as we saw in
the video?

Not today anymore - although I know of a recent one in Europe where
quite a few gliders were damaged. But I'm pretty sure that nowadays
pilots tend to convert 500 ft into a safe outlanding instead of using
Moffat's method of getting another 7 miles...


But:
Competitions taking place in mountains are very, very dangerous - the
fatality rate of Grand Prix's that took place in mountains is
devastating in my opinion (3 top pilots killed within the last 2
years). There have also been quite a couple of fatalities in the last
years in competions that took place in the Alps (Switzerland, Rieti).



Andreas