I had a bird strike at 3,000 feet. Is that too low to the ground for
your definition of safe operation?
-Ben
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Mike....
I sent the remarks out to try and illustrate the over-reaction that we get when
anyone mentions full-sized aircraft. I think I've succeeded. I don't condone
flying models near full size planes or anything similar (road traffic, for
example) and I don't think there's anyone else out there who would. On the
other hand I also didn't like the tone of the original post for several
reasons, one being that it even went as far as to threaten violence against
someone for no particular reason at all except a percieved violation of their
rights.
You have fallen into the trap, I believe, of moving from the specifcs of this
incident to an irrellevant generalization. I haven't seen foam wings collide
with aircraft but I've seen them hit other vehicles and they don't seem to do
noticeable damage. They're likely to scare people, though, (that's bad enough)
so you keep them away traffic. Skydivers are a completely different situation
-- there's much more energy involved. (There was an incident in Spain a while
back where a skydiver took out a sailplane killing themself and the sailplane
occupants.)
Another point I was making -- and I believe this really is important -- is that
sometimes people do things in planes that are probably not wise. It doesn't
always result in an accident but it increases the probability that one will
occur. Often they don't realize that they're doing this until something else
happens and they find they're in deep trouble. In this case if someone's doing
an approach to an airstrip that not only requires coming very close to a ridge,
close enough that something like a bird (or a foamie) is likely to scare them
to the point where they could lose control of the plane then maybe they should
think twice about doing such an approach. I know this is a vague assertion but
I believe that many of the accidents involving GA planes are caused by pilots
getting into situations that are just a little beyond them and its usually done
incrementally (ridge OK, bird OK, ridge+bird not OK). (My sources, such as they
are, are the NTSB accident database and comme
ntaries about selected incidents -- I'm not very interested in piloting planes
but I am interested in why they crash.) (Modellers can also get into this type
of incremental situation but the consiquences are usually just embarassing!)
Anyway, I'm going off the air, back to model sailplanes..........the quiet
life......
Martin Usher
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