Cockpit video recording -- the time is now.

On 10/1/2018 2:06 PM, Steve Koerner wrote:
I'm sick and tired of reading about glider crashes and never knowing what
actually happened. We badly need to be able to learn from the misfortune
of our soaring compadres.

I'm "all-in" on the sentiments of both the above sentences. Have been since
well before I took my first lesson (1972). With the sentiments below...not so
much (and I'm being politely kind, here).
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The obvious answer is that we all have a camera mounted over our right
shoulder that will simultaneously monitor the scene out the front canopy,
monitor the panel instruments and monitor the pilot's flight inputs. Such
a camera would be effective even if operating at a low frame rate --
perhaps something like 5 frames/sec. With today's technology such a unit
could be quite small and the cost would be reasonable. The camera
automatically goes on when flight is detected and off when flight stops by
any of several easy detection means. Flight video would be logged to a
micro SD that is looped over after some number of hours: 10 hours, 24
hours, whatever.

The only technological challenge would be making such a recorder fireproof.
The latest horrible crash did ignite an incinerating fire. But fires are a
rarity in glider accidents. Step one could be a video logger that does not
necessarily address fireproofing.

Just because something may be an "obvious answer" doesn't make it universally
good. "Technology as panacea" isn't...as the history of aviation continues to
make abundantly and intrusively and expensively clear.
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How can we make this happen? Clearly individuals will not be highly
motivated to go out and buy one since they are unlikely to personally
benefit from their own camera. It needs to be somehow mandated. I would
hate to look to the government for a mandate as it would take too long
among other issues. How about a mandate from SSA? Contests? Clubs? OLC? or
tow operators? Every glider needs to have a video logger running on every
flight.

One other sociological factor would be that there not be discrimination
allowed on the release of the data. The data needs to be available for
anyone and everyone to analyze upon its retrieval. Pilots, attorneys,
widows, government entities and insurance companies should not have say in
that matter. We need to think up a good solution to that. Maybe the pilot
doesn't actually own the logger and media. Maybe the SSA owns the logger
and leases them on condition of data availability upon any reportable
accident.

No more mysteries! We need to know what is causing our accidents so we
have a chance to fix the problems.

My knee-jerk response to this "flagpole idea" is, "Surely you jest!"...but I'm
pretty certain you don't.

Personally, the engineer in me finds many mysteries are also life's joys, a
philosophical rabbit hole I won't enter just here and how, beyond noting that
sport soaring contains *many* such enjoyable mysteries. Meanwhile, I'm OK with
the risks...known, conjectured, and unknown. Draconian "solutions" (and devils
ALWAYS lurk in the details) have no place in a voluntary, self-funded,
sporting activity containing very little "overall societal risk," and
undertaken by a minuscule percentage of humankind to boot.

Respectfully,
Bob W.

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