Tom,

 

Thanks for your input and I will try to consider my tone--  it is awfully hard to convey in tone an email but I will try.

 

Yes, I agree that everyone makes mistakes. Some admit it and few like Don Barnes last year even descibe what they did wrong so that others may not make the same error. (Thanks Don, you are a BIG MAN in my book). Others post messages about errors of judgment without telling the audience how they can avoid the same hazard. Others see no error in their mistake but use the forum to brag about how they "cheated death". Its these last two categories that should not go unanswered by us. What went wrong and how can we avoid it?

 

Unfortunately, we are not peers in the world of aviation. There are weekend fliers and professional pilots on this list. There are folks with little time in their Lancair to guys with over 2000 hours in Lancairs. There are brand new private pilots with 200 hours to professional pilot ATP's with over 20,000 hours. Yes, we are brethren in the air, but we are not peers. For many here this flying stuff is a hobby-- for others it is a profession.

 

It is relatively easy to learn to fly an airplane. The mechanics of piloting are not that hard but, it takes a lot of time, experience and training to fly one well and safely. It takes decades of experience to learn be a good PIC-- to exercise good judgment when things go south. Unfortunately, as a goup, Lancair pilots do not exhibit good judgment.  We kill 15-20 people a year in these things. Some are very good friends of ours. We need more discussion of how to fly these things safely-- not less.  

 

Regards,

 

Jeff