I haven't really seen this kind of outright hostility, but I can see the potential. I
think the main thing that's happened in the
last 5 years is a big influx of people flying EPP combat planes with cheap radios.
The cost of getting into the hobby is pretty low
right now.
Now, don't get me wrong: I have several foamies and I love to do combat. I also have
a couple glass lead-sleds that I like to fly.
Conflicts often seem to happen between groups that do one thing, and not another. I
think there are a lot of newer fliers out there
that have flown nothing but EPP. Now, I'm not saying this about all EPP-only fliers,
but I think this can lead to a lack of respect
for what kind of damage a plane is capable of doing. For example, if you never really
have to worry about cracking up your plane on
landing, you may never develop the skill needed to make a good approach and soft
landing, simply because you don't need too.
OTOH, you have some people who hate the foamies and fly only scale or lead-sled ships.
Those people resent the fact that the
foamies are taking up space on their hill. I've seen more then one case of a fast
glass ship being flown low through furball to
intimidate the combat fliers. Of course, this is incredibly stupid, because if the
fast plane hits a foamie down low, there's a
good chance that the glass plane will get knocked out of control and lawn dart into
the ridge.
I suspect that most of us actually fall in the middle, and fly all kinds of planes.
The problem is when you get one group that
dominates the slope for hours at a time. IMO, the best and most fun way to go is to
take turns and fly only one kind of plane at a
time. Back in the Anabat days of slope combat, we would fly our fomies for a while,
then everyone would land and we would fly our
fast glass ships for a while, and so on. It worked very well, but again, that was in
the days when anyone who flew combat also flew
some other type of glider as well. I don't know how feasible that would be today.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I rarely reply to RCSE messages by responding to the entire mailing list, but
> I felt that the issue brought up recently by Paul Klissner was an important
> one.
>
> Paul is concerned that there is "no concensus or regard or forethought about
> where to stand and land whatsoever" at his local slope site. Paul also went
> on to say that he defines weekends at Coyote Point as "the time when all the
> self-proclaimed experts stand in the landing path talking about wind
> direction and rotor and how if a glider makes noise that means it has drag."
>
> I have flown at Coyote Point and many other slope sites all over the United
> States, and in the past 5 years I've noticed a big increase in conflicts and
> accidents at slope flying sites. The incidents I have witnessed include the
> following:
> a. one cuncussion
> b. several collisions between lead-ballasted combat planes and spectators
> that have resulted in injury
> c. flyers refusing to keep an area clear so a novice pilot may have a few
> passes at the landing zone.
> d. throwing rocks at glider because someone is mad at the pilot
> e. intentionally turning on a radio that is on the same frequency that is
> being used by another pilot
> f. a fist fight
>
> I hadn't witnessed any of the problems in the proceeding list untill about 5
> years ago. Rather than discussing what factors are to blame, I'd like to have
> RCSE list members suggest solutions.
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions the RCSE group might come up with
> regarding the problem.
>
> - Steve
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