Good question
yr right - that is certainly a good question and I agree there is a cya operation going on.
You are also correct about AIRMANSHIP.
The coroner seems to have been bamboozled into worrying about radios, radio calls etc.
Nobody here would taxi onto a runway by just relying on radio calls or lack of receipt of one without having a GOOD LOOK would they?
Same with launching a glider. There is part of the standard pre-takeoff check called "OUTSIDE?" and the response from the person hooking on or running the wingtip is "ALL CLEAR ABOVE AND BEHIND", if that is indeed the case or "WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE LANDING AIRCRAFT etc " if it isn't. Most gliders have poor rearward visibility when the pilot is strapped in so the person outside assisting with the launch does this. If there is a line of trees obscuring a possible approach path???????
kharon, I agree completely about risk management.
Before that though it would be nice just to have distributed an objective report from the powers that be that an accident has occurred and the basic objective facts (see NTSB reports for example). Later a thorough discussion of the lessons to be learned. This doesn't happen in the GFA nowadays. Instead some new rules will be made which likely don't address the real issue.*
One bloke I know wrote an article about gliding safety for the official magazine after he had had a serious accident in a glider that easily could have killed him. It was very mildly critical of GFA policy and was knocked back for publication.
That is what you get when you have a heirarchical top down organisation that communicates in only one direction and doesn't consult. (Sound like another organisation we all know and love?).
LookinDown is confusing reams of paperwork procedures and manuals/cya with having a airmanship/safety culture. Bit like CASA really. Just check the accident record over the last decade, mate. Note the bad ones with instructors in the aircraft.
* here's a little story that happened a long time ago. There is a glider, the H201 Libelle that has a really neat and elegant aileron drive mechanism that is hidden entirely within the wing profile.
Unfortunately if you take them out of both wings at the same time and put them back swapped the ailerons work in reverse.
One of the type had this happen during maintenance. The bloke who later rigged it to fly it (and presumably did the Daily Inspection) was told he wasn't current enough to do a test flight so another bloke was whistled up. He jumped in and around 40 knots at liftoff when the wing was still firmly on the ground he released the towrope and did a nice cartwheel which wrote off the glider, fortunately without hurting himself. The third bloke to look at the wreckage (the pilot was complaining the ailerons didn't work) picked that they were working backwards.
So the fact that this could happen was disseminated (this was a long time ago) and steps were taken to require the parts to be painted red and green with matching marks on the structure.
What wasn't figured out was that clearly checks weren't being done properly.
Again, part of the pre takeoff check is to stand next to the cockpit before getting in, check for full and free movement of the controls and IN THE CORRECT SENSE. Full and free is checked again after strapping in.
So about 14 years later it happened again in Australia with similar results.
About 4 years after that I was strapped in to a glider in NZ when I saw the H201 Libelle in front of me have two attempts at taking off. In both the wing was firmly on the ground. By this time I was unstrapping and as the guy was being pushed off I asked if he wanted to go again in front of me. He said he's think about it so I asked if it had just had maintenance - yep just had a major re-furbish. We went over and I demonstrated the reversed ailerons. Kiwi glider pilots don't do checks properly either! The maintainer is supposed to rig the glider and check the controls properly too, in both countries.