How safe is the sport of soaring today

(Tom Seim) wrote in message . com...


For whatever reasons you removed yourself from an active pilot status.
You have alluded to safety margins below your personal minimums. This
is indicative of a pilot recognizing their limitations. I don't think
that you witnessed a tragedy and then had a vision, totally out of the
blue, that the sport was dangerous beyond your expectations. I think
your doubts were there all along and the accident merely forced you
into admitting what you were always thinking in the back of your mind.

As always, these are my opinions and your conclusions may differ.

As I never reached "active pilot status", removing myself wasn't a
possibility. Flying a glider and being a pilot are two different
things, I chose to fly, I also chose not to become a pilot.

Almost all of my flight time came far after seeing the first two
crashes, I realized the dangers long before I ever decided to try.
The third was the instructor I had been flying with, that had little
to do with with my decision. My decision was based mostly on
realizing that when the planes were hangared for the winter, it meant
another bunch of money for ground school, (again), at least several
hours of dual in the spring (again), and another trip into downtown
Milwaukee for the written, (again) which I will not do.

My limitations are what ever I choose to push myself to, or what I
deem worth pushing myself to. Absolutely no different than any other
human on the face of this earth. YOu confirmed what I thought, but
don't pride yourself on overcoming "limitations" that I could not. In
any 24 hour period, were you to try to follow me, you would soon find
who is limited and who is not. The only limitation I found was the
time limit that I was willing to devote. Once it was exceeded, it
became something I chose to drop. Partly my fault, partly time
working against me. makes no difference, time and money limit
reached, end of saga.