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.

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.' All very well until someone is killed or

seriously injured, then the lawyers get involved.

How fast we forget. Tonopah, Nevada, July 16 2002:

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/br...LA231 &akey=1

Steve is completely right. There is NO need for someone in front of the launch, and any procedure that uses someone in that position should be changed.

Again, as a tow pilot, I would much rather look directly at the glider I'm about to launch than rely on someone else to relay the signal. In a contest, I really only need to watch the rope for slack - it's up to the glider pilot to be ready or release!

Keep it simple and put the responsibility in the hands of those directly involved: the tow pilot and the glider pilot.

Kirk
66

Don't they both have radio?

At the 78 worlds , my wing hit a TV photographer,as I was landing on the
runway, injuring him seriously. He had
walked out to get a better shot. I was leaving room for a glider landing
behind me. It certainly shook me .
JMF

At 12:50 02 July 2014, kirk.stant wrote:
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.' All very well until someone is killed
or

seriously injured, then the lawyers get involved.

How fast we forget. Tonopah, Nevada, July 16 2002:

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/br...LA231 &akey=1

Steve is completely right. There is NO need for someone in front of the
launch, and any procedure that uses someone in that position should be
changed.

Again, as a tow pilot, I would much rather look directly at the glider
I'm
about to launch than rely on someone else to relay the signal. In a
contest, I really only need to watch the rope for slack - it's up to the
glider pilot to be ready or release!

Keep it simple and put the responsibility in the hands of those directly
involved: the tow pilot and the glider pilot.

Kirk
66

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.

And at the Tonopah contest. He was not a flag man, but an airport worker that had been asked then told to move farther back. But he felt he knew better.

I always thought that having someone "on point" - ahead of the towplane - was not primarily to relay signals from the wing runner but was done to monitor the area behind and out of sight of the wing runner for anything that could interfere with the launch and to stop the launch if that happened. I've only seen this happen once in my fifteen years of soaring though and when you come down to it if this was really important you could just have a person stand behind the wing runner to monitor that area.

It's SOP at my club when we have enough people at the field to have someone to do it. It has occurred to me that it does introduce the possibility of the person being hit my the glider or towplane if one of them swings exceedingly badly (to the left in our case) but has this ever happened anywhere? We have a very wide grass field and almost never have any significant amount of crosswind component so our experience probably isn't typical.