Killing the flagman at US Contest

On Wednesday, July 2, 2014 4:58:26 AM UTC-5, pete purdie wrote:

The natural human reply to suggestions of change is to say ' we always did it this way without a problem.

Last year my local CAP glider program had a number of bored teens to keep engaged so they put a cadet just in front of the tow plane's right wingtip.

I hear you Steve. Valid concern for sure. For some reason I thought that I had read some guidelines in the SSA Contest section of the website recommending at least a 30 degree cone ahead of the glider without people in it. Maybe 45 degrees. Now I can't find that after a short search. Maybe someone else remembers where I saw that. I recall it was in response to the Parowan accident. For a 200 foot rope that would correspond to the flagman at least 115 feet off to the side of the towplane.

On my aborted takeoff at Region 9 in 2013 I was headed right for the corner of the ramp and the runway where the flagman was standing. Crosswind, CG hook, I was heading towards the flagman and the towplane was heading down the runway.