Rotormouse
Junior Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2005
- Messages
- 128
- Location
- Cornwall, UK
- Aircraft
- G-BVDJ Cricket gyro
- Total Flight Time
- 112 hrs fixed-wing, 200+ gyro, & too many to remember on gyro-glider
Wrong yet again, Phil. Gyro-gliding continued until 2012, and only ended then because a greedy bar-steward told me a pack of lies to get the airfield to himself.
Phil has a very negative attitude to anything he can’t relate to, or that doesn’t fit within his dogma. A good instructor (like Vance) is open to ideas that could improve safety and benefit students, not make sweeping statements with no knowledge or experience that it can’t be done and won’t be done. Absolute rubbish! A proven method, there’s no reason why gliders or boom trainers can’t be updated and operated to a professional standard today. What do you want an airport for? All that’s needed is a reasonably level bit of open ground and a nice bit of wind. Fly one first, then your comments may have some credibility.
Accidents will always happen, unfortunately. The only way to be one hundred percent safe is to stay inside and never leave the ground again. This glider accident killed my mentor – a veteran gyronaut and the most experienced gyro-glider instructor in the country. He and our friend died because of complacency and arrogance. They died because the boss of the school that operated that glider, put a sunroof salesman in charge of maintenance when neither of them had a clue about what they were doing. Error compounded error in an accident chain that remained unbroken when every opportunity to stop it was missed. When my friends also failed to catch it, the final link was in place and they paid the ultimate price.
Using this example to try and blacken the use and great benefit of gyro-gliding is a new low, even for Phil. Take four head bolts out of a Cavalon or an MT – you’ll get the same result when the rotor assembly flies off. All those fancy instruments and operating handbooks won’t save them. Sick of this constant negativity and prejudice towards anything pre-2006. The ‘new’ ways aren’t working out so good either, so why not take the best of both worlds and don’t deprive students of any opportunity to become better pilots. Give them all the tools, after that it’s up to them.
Phil has a very negative attitude to anything he can’t relate to, or that doesn’t fit within his dogma. A good instructor (like Vance) is open to ideas that could improve safety and benefit students, not make sweeping statements with no knowledge or experience that it can’t be done and won’t be done. Absolute rubbish! A proven method, there’s no reason why gliders or boom trainers can’t be updated and operated to a professional standard today. What do you want an airport for? All that’s needed is a reasonably level bit of open ground and a nice bit of wind. Fly one first, then your comments may have some credibility.
Accidents will always happen, unfortunately. The only way to be one hundred percent safe is to stay inside and never leave the ground again. This glider accident killed my mentor – a veteran gyronaut and the most experienced gyro-glider instructor in the country. He and our friend died because of complacency and arrogance. They died because the boss of the school that operated that glider, put a sunroof salesman in charge of maintenance when neither of them had a clue about what they were doing. Error compounded error in an accident chain that remained unbroken when every opportunity to stop it was missed. When my friends also failed to catch it, the final link was in place and they paid the ultimate price.
Using this example to try and blacken the use and great benefit of gyro-gliding is a new low, even for Phil. Take four head bolts out of a Cavalon or an MT – you’ll get the same result when the rotor assembly flies off. All those fancy instruments and operating handbooks won’t save them. Sick of this constant negativity and prejudice towards anything pre-2006. The ‘new’ ways aren’t working out so good either, so why not take the best of both worlds and don’t deprive students of any opportunity to become better pilots. Give them all the tools, after that it’s up to them.