Glema,

As the wife of a Lancair pilot (flying since 1999) who has seen many friends and acquaintances lose their lives in aircraft,  I have to agree with Jeff.  If we just push the information under the rug and ignore it, a pilot may lose valuable information that could save his life.  At one gathering of pilots, my husband and I were commenting on an incident that happened with our aircraft that we felt was identical to what had occurred to Dave Hickman of the High Performance Aircraft Training Company.  Dave did not survive, my husband and his passenger did.  Another person in attendance shushed us, saying that Dave’s widow was sitting in the group.  Mrs. Hickman immediately spoke up and said, no, please, continue on, I want someone to learn from any mistake that might have been made.  While it turned out that the problem was extremely similar, though not exact, what my husband did to correct the problem and continue flying was invaluable information to the other pilots in attendance.  If we can’t learn from others mistakes, errors or poor judgments, in any arena, we are all doomed to failure at some point.  If you watch Air Emergency (which Pete Zaccagnino suggests might not be a good idea for me, since I have some fear of flying), the show provides valuable information to other pilots who watch in hopes of avoiding a similar circumstance.  Should it be taken off the air because it could offend someone who lost a family member or friend on one of the flights depicted?  This is not said sarcastically or critically, just as a question, so please take it as such. 

 

I guess I have been under the assumption that the LML is a private site for those Lancair builders and owners who contact Marv and ask to be put on the email list.  If anyone who receives the LML finds it offensive, they only need to ask Marv to remove them so that no further emails come to their mailbox.  I am sure over the many years that Marv has graciously handled the LML that people have come as a new builder to the Lancair community or gone with the sale of their aircraft. 

 

As Jeff points out, the information on the accidents is in the public domain.  Because of the rash of crashes, it is imperative that we determine what the causes are in order to find a means of correcting the problems to keep our pilots safe.  Most spouses of the pilot (assuming they are non-pilots themselves) do not read the LML.  Perhaps what you are seeking is an “off-switch” to the deceased pilot’s website to protect the spouse.  Marv could easily delete a deceased pilot from his email list to assure that emails do not go out to survivors, however I think it would be a terrible disservice to the pilots to take away their discussion of incidents or accidents because of the valuable information gleaned in the discourse.  Many pilots lives here on the LML have been saved already from information learned from the more well-versed pilots in this fantastic domain.

 

Susan Brunner

IVP fearful co-pilot and supporter of my husband, Pat

Who has nearly 800 hours in this quick little bird

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of vtailjeff@aol.com
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 11:25 AM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Re: LML

 

Glema,

I appreciate your comments but must respectfully disagree with you.

As long has man has been flying pilots have been discussing the accidents that arise. The altruistic purpose, of course, is to prevent future accidents. Without that discussion, how can aviation safety be advanced? How can anything be advanced without open discussion? The discussion of the accident ranges from notification to speculation to informed discussion. There has never, in my opinion, been any disrespect shown to the family or the decendent. Have our Lancair accident pilots been careless? Yes. Have they been reckless? Yes. Have they negligently killed others? Yes. You only have to read the NTSB accident report about the February 2008 Oregon Lancair ES accident report to read about two non instrument rated pilots who filed an IFR flight plan and departed into IMC conditions where they lost control of the airplane killing all three aboard. Were they good people, loved by their families? Yes. Do we as a group want this kind of reckless behaviour to continue at peril to our own flying privileges? No.  Should we only discuss this privately in private emails? C'mon... it was all over the national aviation press last month when it was released by the NTSB.  Sweeping it under the rug will not make this community safer. In my opinion, a good healthy respectful discussion will make our community safer. I am sorry for those men and their families --but their decisions got them to the accident site. If they had abided by the good recommendations espoused here by many others --they would be alive today.

In nine years of participation I have not seen one widow comment on this website-- not one.

There are too few Lancair owners and builders to divide up into different forums.

The LML forum is in the state it is in today not because of the people who do participate but because of the ones who don't. Too many lurkers and not enough participants!

Please jump into the forum!

Very Respectfully,

Jeff Edwards






-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Keighan <scottekeighan@sympatico.ca>
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Sent: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 5:01 pm
Subject: [LML] Re: LML