In the late '70s, Airlines began to examine why certain accidents occurred.
They came to the conclusion that Cockpit culture needed to change.
Thus were born courses like "Cockpit Leadership and Resource Management"
Or CLR. It is now often called CRM for "Cockpit Resource Management"

It changed the premise of Airline Cockpit management from "The Captain is
always
right" to " The Captain is responsible for the final decision but will
gratefully accept
any and all input from any source to help him/her arrive at the safest
decision".

It was a remarkable event and, in my view, is responsible for the avoidance
of many accidents.

To do this Airline Pilots had to learn and embrace the difference between
critique
and criticism. Criticism is personality based and can be perceived as a
personal
attack on an individual. Critique, on the other hand, is situation based
and can and
should be based on events as they happened and how to learn from them.

As Steve suggests, it is better to critique than to criticize.

In the instant case, the question is, could Ted have landed at his intended
Airport
on his intended runway without thermal intervention? If the answer is yes,
then
ergo, he was not too low. If the answer is no, then ergo, he should
reevaluate
his decision making process. In any case, sharing the event with us
benefits all
and no one here should forget the difference between critique and criticism.

It has been my experience here that most do know the difference and I, for
one,
am thankful for that.

Allan


"Steve Hill" wrote in message
...
Ted,
in my humble opinion you are doing one of the healthiest things you can
do for yourself for your long term survival as a sailplane pilot. Expose
your mistakes and share them. As a cross over hang glider pilot, I have
made
all sorts of small mistakes, I like to think I learned from most of them.
...Snip...