Neil Lawson of whiteplanes, died yesterday

Dear All,

I hear from my Italian friends at the Junior's WGCs that the famous
soaring photographer Neil Lawson has died yesterday.
He was standing on the roof of his car, to get better pictures of the
finishing gliders. One of those gliders caught him.
The pilot involved is a British team mate, Ian Craigie. He has been
arrested.

Very sad news for the whole gliding world, for his friends and
relatives.

He will be missed

Aldo Cernezzi

Incident at Husbands Bosworth - 9 August 2005
OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM THE BGA REFERENCE THE INCIDENT YESTERDAY.

On the afternoon of 9 August, there was a collision between a glider
and a man, adjacent to Husbands Bosworth airfield, where the 4th FAI Junior
World Gliding Championships are being held.

The pilot was not physically injured but the other person, a member of
the gliding community, was injured and taken by air ambulance to Queen's
Medical Centre, Nottingham. According to Leicestershire Constabulary, he was
pronounced dead on arrival.

The incident is under investigation by the police and by the
government's Air Accident Investigation Branch. The event organisers and the
British Gliding Association are assisting these teams in their
investigations.

We understand that formal identification of the body has not yet taken
place.

The incident site has been cordoned off by the authorities and, as a
result, flying at the airfield is currently suspended.

Pete Stratten, the BGA Chief Executive said: "Our thoughts are with
everybody affected at this sad time."

At 10:06 10 August 2005, 2cernauta2 wrote:
Dear All,

I hear from my Italian friends at the Junior's WGCs
that the famous
soaring photographer Neil Lawson has died yesterday.
He was standing on the roof of his car, to get better
pictures of the
finishing gliders. One of those gliders caught him.
The pilot involved is a British team mate, Ian Craigie.
He has been
arrested.

Very sad news for the whole gliding world, for his
friends and
relatives.

He will be missed

Aldo Cernezzi

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/l...re/4137234.stm

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/

In the course of selecting a photo for the poster which advertised the Pilot
Performance Survey at the 2005 SSA convention, I had occasion to correspond
with Mr. Lawson and, when the bank charges for a wire transfer proved more
than the fee for the photo, to speak with him at some length. His knowledge
of our sport was authoritative, his photographs elegant, informative and,
importantly properly archived with complete and appropriate accompanying
information, all qualities that differentiate a consummate professional from
the ranks of the hacks and the amateurs.

A good part of his work will be preserved in "Sailplane and Gliding". Never
the less, there must be many important but unseen images in his archives. I
hope that some way can be found to keep his oeuvre together and accessible
for the sake of his memory and the history of our sport.

Raphael H. Warshaw
Claremont, CA


"Andy Blackburn" wrote in message
...
At 10:06 10 August 2005, 2cernauta2 wrote:
Dear All,

I hear from my Italian friends at the Junior's WGCs
that the famous
soaring photographer Neil Lawson has died yesterday.
He was standing on the roof of his car, to get better
pictures of the
finishing gliders. One of those gliders caught him.
The pilot involved is a British team mate, Ian Craigie.
He has been
arrested.

Very sad news for the whole gliding world, for his
friends and
relatives.

He will be missed

Aldo Cernezzi

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/l...re/4137234.stm

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/

Yet another finish gate accident.

There is a better way (GPS)

Time to stop living in the past.

Condolences to yet another family,

JJ Sinclair

At 10:06 10 August 2005, 2cernauta2 wrote:
Dear All,

I hear from my Italian friends at the Junior's WGCs
that the famous
soaring photographer Neil Lawson has died yesterday.
He was standing on the roof of his car, to get better
pictures of the
finishing gliders. One of those gliders caught him.
The pilot involved is a British team mate, Ian Craigie.
He has been
arrested.

Very sad news for the whole gliding world, for his
friends and
relatives.

He will be missed

Aldo Cernezzi

Condolences to all affected by this tragedy.

But, JJ, tell me how a correctly performed contest finish at 50 ft
(per current SRA rules) and per FARs (no overflying of people, man-made
objects, reckless, etc) has direct relevance with this accident?

By your logic, takeoffs should be done away with (ref groundloop that
hit and injured spectator at Tonopah) at contests, too.

And how do you know it was a finish - it could have been a pre-arranged
photo op after the finish, coordinated between the photographer and the
pilot - that went horribly wrong. Not the first time that has
happened.

Sorry, you are on the wrong soapbox this time. Take a deep breath and
go fix a glider or something.

Kirk
66

To a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail.

Well, Kirk, the first poster said the pilot was finishing. He also said
the pilot was arrested, why? Because he committed a homicide. That's
right he was responsible for the death of an innocent bystander. This
tragic loss of life occured because the junior pilot was performing the
prescribed finish maneuver. He was flying the finish gate because
that's what we do, we sanction it, its in our rules.

The local authoraties did their job, they arrested the guy responsible
and the competition was suspended.

How many more finish gate accidents must we endure before this
outmoded, unneccessary and proven unsafe finish gate is abolished and
replaced by the mandatory GPS finish cylinder?

You really don't want to argue that the pilot wasn't operating his
aircraft below 500 feet (not in the act of landing) and that he wasn't
within 500 feet of a person, do you?

JJ Sinclair

wrote:
Condolences to all affected by this tragedy.

But, JJ, tell me how a correctly performed contest finish at 50 ft
(per current SRA rules) and per FARs (no overflying of people, man-made
objects, reckless, etc) has direct relevance with this accident?

By your logic, takeoffs should be done away with (ref groundloop that
hit and injured spectator at Tonopah) at contests, too.

And how do you know it was a finish - it could have been a pre-arranged
photo op after the finish, coordinated between the photographer and the
pilot - that went horribly wrong. Not the first time that has
happened.

Sorry, you are on the wrong soapbox this time. Take a deep breath and
go fix a glider or something.

Kirk
66

In article .com,
"JJ Sinclair" wrote:

You really don't want to argue that the pilot wasn't operating his
aircraft below 500 feet (not in the act of landing) and that he wasn't
within 500 feet of a person, do you?

I really don't think you could argue that a touch-and-go or missed
approach to a runway or airfield in active use means that you are "not
in the act of landing".

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 02:25:34 UTC, Bruce Hoult wrote:

: In article .com,
: "JJ Sinclair" wrote:
:
: You really don't want to argue that the pilot wasn't operating his
: aircraft below 500 feet (not in the act of landing) and that he wasn't
: within 500 feet of a person, do you?
:
: I really don't think you could argue that a touch-and-go or missed
: approach to a runway or airfield in active use means that you are "not
: in the act of landing".

If all the competition finishes and beat up I have seen were "missed
approaches", some serious retraining is needed in the competition
pilot community.

Ian