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It is written: One could, but one would probably also be wrong....One could surmise that the author hadn't heard of the 200 foot rule either. LOL! Mike Valentine, being the practical and thinking person he was, probably foresaw that to lay great stress on an arbitrary figure would possible cause most people to miss the point entirely - something which many of the well intentioned contributors to this discussion have demonstrated with exceptional skill. This 200 foot rule is a classic example of the old adage that "Rules are made for the guidance of wise men, and the obedience of fools". Wombat and a couple of others in this discussion, notably Kevin Roden, have more correctly pointed out that notwithstanding the 200 foot rule, sensible, and therefore safe flying in shared thermals is essentially a product of airmanship. Indeed I will suggest that it is one of the most crucial and important aspects of true airmanship. If your technique in sharing thermals keeps you at all times no closer that 200 feet and six inches from others, but causes those in other gliders concern, fear, or sheer terror, you have a long way to go in this area. Leigh touched on a very interesting point when he reflected on the thermalling parameters of his Super Grunau. Allow me to expand. How should everyone behave in a thermal which contains (say) his Grunau, Bernard's ASH-25, and a club ASK-21 on passenger flight, all with different flying speeds and pilot aspirations? This is quite possible at my home club. The only thing which we might not expect is someone in a hang glider to be part of the equation. Lets throw one of those in too. Suddenly the magic 200 foot rule gets pretty low on the list of priorities does it not? Which is where it should have been right at the start. There is much more to safe and considerate thermal sharing than a concentration on an an arbitrary measure of distance dreamed up somewhere by a doubtless well intentioned committee. For mine, the concept of "see and be seen" carries much more weight. Finally, since the name of Mike Valentine has been mentioned in this discussion, perhaps I can relate a story which he told me once about the judging of distance. Mike, in one of his earlier lives was enjoying the more pleasurable aspects of his then job as a supervisor training air traffic controllers. At the time he was flying circuits at an airfield somewhere in (probably) some superannuated military jet with an Indian co-pilot (It would be wouldn't it). Mike commented at the time on the fact that his Indian friend seemed to judge his round out and landings very well. The reply? (In Mike's best Indian accent) "Oh yes - my instructor always told me to start the round out when at the height of two elephants!" Which raises the question as to whether Indian glider pilots might measure their separation in thermals by "x" elephants? I hope not. A thermal filled with imaginary elephants is not a comfortable thought. Regards, Terry ;-) |
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