I don’t see how I’m attacking a group that I’m asking for assistance from, so if I was I apologize – not my intent.

Many messages have been sent to USHPA/RRRG regarding our repeat offenders (that’s one of the responsibilities of my board position), but to date, no intervention has been deemed necessary.

As far as presenting all the facts – I have the pilot’s account of the incident, and I watched the whole thing from directly above, start to finish. I have gotten no other information from anyone that contradicts what’s in the incident report. I was just sent a text stating that the instructor was on launch and on radio with the student, but due to the LONG straight path the student flew directly to terrain and a LOT of time available to pipe up on the radio and tell that student to turn away from terrain, I’m at a loss on that. Up to USHPA or someone smarter than me to figure out what’s true.

I’m also really baffled by this continued “screw USHPA and RRRG and let them cancel our insurance and who cares if the site is shut down” attitude. I see a lot of complaining about safety issues (AJ, the approach pattern, HGs getting cut off, etc), but then hear from the same people that “don’t tell me what to do” thing. You can’t have it both ways. I feel like I’ve done what I could over the past year to improve our safety record, and better our relations with USHPA (since we’re one of the problem child clubs for obvious reasons), but am definitely ready to be out of club politics. I didn’t manage to move the needle so hopefully the next one in the chair will be better at it.

If anyone has any facts to add to the report, please send them in to safety@crestlinesoaring.org. Otherwise, let’s move the “future of the club” chit chat to another thread.