Killing the flagman at US Contest

The natural human reply to suggestions of change is to say ' we always did
it this way without a problem.' All very well until someone is killed or
seriously injured, then the lawyers get involved.

In UK we happen to have developed procedures using a dedicated radio
frequency for launching a competition grid. It works, and we can launch
100 gliders in an hour apparently safely (the local collision risk is
another matter, but that's dealt with in other ways).

I wouldn't want to be able to say 'I told you so' in the near future.

At 03:34 02 July 2014, Steve Koerner wrote:
Mark - please don't interpret that I'm complaining about how Moriarty
conte=
st was operated. Not at all. Moriarty was run fantastically well and
I'm
=
very appreciative of that. =20

My issue is generic to all US contests where there's a flagman stationed
in=
front of the launching gliders and that seems to be most contests these
da=
ys. Any person given that job will assuredly become complacent about the
h=
azard after a few hundred gliders have whizzed by without incident. The
ha=
zard is insidious most particularly because it's rare. My issue is that
it=
really won't matter what kind of self preservation instinct someone has
wh=
en there's 50 feet of wing arcing directly towards him at 30 or 40 MPH.
Th=
at really can happen. We need to change the scheme before someone gets
cre=
amed.