There has been some intense discussion over the last few days here in Piedrahita and online. The flavor of those discussions is quite different, partly because the CIVL has only given selective information so far to the public. The text below gets a bit dense but I hope you find it interesting and I promise some photos at the end.
First I should say that I hate seeing people get hurt or killed at competitions or free flying, or cycling or climbing mountains. The first fatality I saw at a paragliding competition was not actually part of the competition. It was a free flyer doing sloppy wingovers in front of a launch at 12,000'. It really was terrible, even though it had no direct connection to the competition. It has likewise been very sad to witness the friends of the two fallen pilots mourning this week.
On the other hand those of us here have noticed that the outside world seems to have received an incomplete picture of goings-on here. Much of the attention has focused, understandably, on the two fatal accidents and the experience level of those pilots. However, the decision by CIVL was almost certainly made based on analysis of all of the serious incidents. I haven't seen the reports, but it has become clear over the last two days of mourning that there are a significant number of pilots here who don't have the hours on 2-liners to handle them safely in this environment. There are even some who are on a 2-liner as their first comp glider. These facts were not clear to us when we voted to continue the competition. Knowing it now I understand the decision by CIVL, even though I don't like the way it was made and announced.
There is a feeling among many of us who have been flying 2-liners for hundreds of hours without incident that we are being unfairly tarred as reckless and the gliders painted as death ships. I could understand that conclusion if the first competitions with many 2-liners had unusually high incident rates. But a whole season went by without seeing that, at least in the meets I was at. That could actually be part of the problem. Initially we were quite nervous about the new gliders and gave them a lot of respect. But lately it seems that pilots have gotten used to the idea of 2-liners and we have seen pilots going from serial gliders to 2-liners.
If we are to make changes to improve safety it's important to know the facts and not make assumptions before trying to design cures. Part of the problem we see here is an unintended consequence of the last attempt at a safety cure. It began last year when CIVL decided something had to be done about competition safety and started a process that resulted in complex new rules - essentially a quasi-certification procedure for comp gliders. This meant that the manufacturers only made this time-consuming certification (with a few exceptions) for the most in-demand gliders, which were 2-liners. This meant that competitors mainly had to choose between EN D and 2-liners. They could either be competitive or not at all competitive. There was no choice to be somewhat competitive on a 3-line comp glider. This had the unforeseen consequence of pushing some number of pilots to fly a 2-liner for the first time.
It is a whole other question whether serial gliders should be the future direction of the sport. I won't address that now as it's been well gone over elsewhere and I want to get some sleep before going flying tomorrow.
Oh yes, here are some photos from the two tasks and practice day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshcohn/sets/72157627003416283/
Josh
First I should say that I hate seeing people get hurt or killed at competitions or free flying, or cycling or climbing mountains. The first fatality I saw at a paragliding competition was not actually part of the competition. It was a free flyer doing sloppy wingovers in front of a launch at 12,000'. It really was terrible, even though it had no direct connection to the competition. It has likewise been very sad to witness the friends of the two fallen pilots mourning this week.
On the other hand those of us here have noticed that the outside world seems to have received an incomplete picture of goings-on here. Much of the attention has focused, understandably, on the two fatal accidents and the experience level of those pilots. However, the decision by CIVL was almost certainly made based on analysis of all of the serious incidents. I haven't seen the reports, but it has become clear over the last two days of mourning that there are a significant number of pilots here who don't have the hours on 2-liners to handle them safely in this environment. There are even some who are on a 2-liner as their first comp glider. These facts were not clear to us when we voted to continue the competition. Knowing it now I understand the decision by CIVL, even though I don't like the way it was made and announced.
There is a feeling among many of us who have been flying 2-liners for hundreds of hours without incident that we are being unfairly tarred as reckless and the gliders painted as death ships. I could understand that conclusion if the first competitions with many 2-liners had unusually high incident rates. But a whole season went by without seeing that, at least in the meets I was at. That could actually be part of the problem. Initially we were quite nervous about the new gliders and gave them a lot of respect. But lately it seems that pilots have gotten used to the idea of 2-liners and we have seen pilots going from serial gliders to 2-liners.
If we are to make changes to improve safety it's important to know the facts and not make assumptions before trying to design cures. Part of the problem we see here is an unintended consequence of the last attempt at a safety cure. It began last year when CIVL decided something had to be done about competition safety and started a process that resulted in complex new rules - essentially a quasi-certification procedure for comp gliders. This meant that the manufacturers only made this time-consuming certification (with a few exceptions) for the most in-demand gliders, which were 2-liners. This meant that competitors mainly had to choose between EN D and 2-liners. They could either be competitive or not at all competitive. There was no choice to be somewhat competitive on a 3-line comp glider. This had the unforeseen consequence of pushing some number of pilots to fly a 2-liner for the first time.
It is a whole other question whether serial gliders should be the future direction of the sport. I won't address that now as it's been well gone over elsewhere and I want to get some sleep before going flying tomorrow.
Oh yes, here are some photos from the two tasks and practice day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshcohn/sets/72157627003416283/
Josh
Thanks Josh for that explanation. For us pilots reading about the tragic events and the outcome of the competition it is good to have some better insight in what is going on. Have some great flying days before heading home! Peter
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