In the Austin American Stateman this morning.

On Oct 13, 4:09*am, tienshanman tienshanman.
wrote:
sisu1a;743304 Wrote:



*http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...s-his-ride-on-...

"I think it's like a coffin — with a view," * * * facepalm.... * *
-
well, other than comparing gliders to vessels of death within the
first 10 lines it's a kinda good article *:/ * * ...OK, I can see the
line "you feel like a god" seriously irking many readers (especially
in the Biblebelt), and the line "sometimes you have no choice" ,after
talking about landing in treetops or water- ya know, from 'when the
rising air pockets are scarce'... really makes gliding seem very
haphazard. *Luckily it ends all jolly with Neal Armstrong selling him
a glider, but jeez... is it really that hard to figure out what NOT to
say to a reporter?

Is there any kind of do's and don'ts handout or published guidelines
the SSA has, to help keep people from making comments like this when
feeding reporters information intended for the general public? If
there's not, rule 1 is not dragging death into the subject, seriously,
unless you reporting on an actual death... Steering clear of any and
all religious references should be second- just waaay too easy to
offend people there.

-Paul

Seems to me that the
really good cross country pilots don't fly like they do without
taking some pretty big risks - sometimes. I may be on weak ground here
because I am definitely not in that league.
tienshanman

I think you are on somewhat weak ground.

Soaring, and especially XC, is the art and science of doing something
inherently dangerous in a way which is inherently safe. Skill and
knowledge makes it safe to do some pretty spectacular things without
taking risks. Spectacular things look risky to those who don't know
the reasoning behind them.

If someone does in fact take 'pretty big risks' they're going to come
up snake-eyes sooner or later. With a wrecked glider or worse,
they're probably out of the sport.

If something feels risky, good pilots back off and figure out another
way to do it without the risk. Soaring is as safe as you care to make
it.