[TadEareckson]

I didn't mock anything. I just posted two very recent quotes from this forum from two people on it regarding this issue.

And, for the record, I don't think there's anything very goddam funny about it.

[miguel]

Testy, aren't we.

This line that you added to your message mocks the dead pilot whether you intended to or not.

It also greatly detracts from your credibility.

[TadEareckson]

Testy, aren't we.

Totally and permanently.

...to your message...

That was not MY message. That was RICK'S message. MY message is for EVERYONE to follow the freakin' regulations and do the freakin' hook-in check...

Brian McMahon - 2011/10/24

Once, just prior to launch.

Christian Williams - 2011/10/25

I agree with that statement.

What's more, I believe that all hooked-in checks prior to the last one before takeoff are a waste of time, not to say dangerous, because they build a sense of security which should not be built more than one instant before commitment to flight.

...not more than ONE INSTANT before commitment to flight EVERY TIME so that we stop having horrible, needless, easily preventable tragedies like this every couple of years or so.

...This line that you added...

It's not MY added line. It's a DIRECT QUOTE from Preflight and Hangcheck Sam from right above.

There is not ONE PUNCTUATION MARK in that post that's MINE.

This line that you added to your message mocks the dead pilot...

Goddam right it does.

It also greatly detracts from your credibility.

It's a QUOTE. And I'm hoping it will greatly detract from the credibility of the Rooney harmonizing idiot who composed it. That's PRECISELY why I quoted it.

[miguel]

Try one of these and chill for a bit.

I have seen the smilies associated with death or injury from you before. It is both unnecessary and counterproductive.

[TadEareckson]

(One more time.)

Which is my POINT.

THEY'RE *SAM'S* SMILIES! NOT MINE!!!

So please address further comments to the author of the text and leave the reviewer out of it.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I believe Sam was mocking Tad ... and not the unfortunate pilot.

Tad's subsequent pairing of Sam's smilies with the description of the fatality only proves that Tad doesn't understand how to get his message across without offending people.

But did anyone need more proof of that?

Anyone?

[TadEareckson]

I'm a little confused here.

1. You believe that Sam was mocking Tad while Tad was addressing the issue of trying to get Hawks to do a better job of implementing a "just prior to launch" regulation than the sewer of the existing organization has ever bothered to do so that we can cut down a bit on the split skull and terrible suffering stuff.

2. Sam has absolutely no interest in and/or understanding of the issue, no message beyond "Preflight and Hangcheck" and endorsements of people with bashed up tandem passengers and dead students, and his sole purpose in posting was to be offensive.

Freedomspyder - 2009/02/14

Tad,

I've found your posts on both hook-in checks and releases very interesting and well thought out.

Best of luck dealing with the Oz Report forum cult and its leader.

3. But TAD doesn't understand how to get his message across without offending people.

Oh well, I guess having a good message and getting it out to some people while offending others - or even...

ZackC - 2011/08/12

I'd rather have the best hang gliding instructor in the world than the nicest, even if the best was a total d*ck.

Helen McKerral - 2011/10/30
South Australia

There have been threads about hang checks and hook in aplenty, and I actually use the tight hangstrap used by a rather notorious poster, whose style was irritating but whose message was sound. You use this technique - the lift and tug - IMMEDIATELY before launching, EVERY time.

... offending people WHILE getting a good message across - is better than being a total waste of space - or worse.

P.S. As far as I'm concerned, you mock somebody who's trying to prevent reruns of the dead pilot, you mock the dead pilot. (Hence the pairing - but I'm a little surprised that I should need to explain that.)

[Free]

I believe Sam was mocking Tad ... and not the unfortunate pilot.

Tad's subsequent pairing of Sam's smilies with the description of the fatality only proves that Tad doesn't understand how to get his message across without offending people.

But did anyone need more proof of that?

Anyone?

Tad understands what he chooses to understand and he chooses to ignore most everything else.
I give him points for being correct on a few things but sadly the things he is wrong about, (though convinced he is right) negate expending much energy in defending the narrow focus where he is correct.

Not to do with Tad, but this is reason I've lost interest in even generally supporting hang gliding lately. The world is in flames and the whole country is in la la land of escapism and denial. Hang glider pilots are probably in a deeper level of the same.
A better hg organization may just be rearranging the deck chairs as our ship is sinking.

Hang glider pilots, like the public in general, don't care much about bolts and nuts of things until their ox is gored.
Attention spans for details and the devils within them are just too strained by the efforts of living.
Work, eat, sleep, escapism.

As long as there is access to sites and beer in the cooler, excuses, rationalizations, denial, derision, greed and self interest rule the roost and there isn't much impetus to look under the hood.

Tad wasn't always so anti-social. I remember how long he tried to get his points across, and put up with all kinds of ignorant attacks on Davis Straub's commercial blog, until he finally blew his cork.

Tad made a couple crude rebuttals and that gave the yellow journalist Davis Straub the reason he needed to ban him. The rest is history.

It's a shame that people with a driven energy and knack for understanding weaknesses in certain safety processes are shoved aside by tribe mentality, to the actual detriment of the tribe.

Tad makes some good points but has a bad delivery. He can't see the problem and for others, it's all they can see.
In the big, big picture it probably doesn't matter.

Warren

[TadEareckson]

You try to fix what you can and hope that the approach gets applied to stuff that actually matters on some measurable scale.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Notice:

I've created a special poll topic to discuss the US Hawks Hook-In Verification policy. The poll is at:

    Building the US Hawks
        US Hawks Hook-In Verification Poll

Let's please continue any hook-in related discussions in that topic so this one can focus on Special Observer as its name suggests. Thanks to everyone for participating in all of these discussions.