ORIGINAL: J_R
As I suggested before: schedule a day before the event to do maidens.
That kind of approach was tried before, for Frank Tiano's ill-fated "get your waiver the day before the event starts" fiasco. Here's the problems:
(1) The required experienced personel are frequently only at the event during the sanctioned days. Whlie you can easily convince the newbie who needs help that he should take an extra day off work, those from whom he needs the assistance can't reasonably be expected to just keep taking lots of unpaid leave.
(2) If I'm understanding this right, the AMA suggests we should have a sanction in order to provide landowner protection - is that about right ? If so, then having a non-sanctioned day before the event suggests asking the landlord to forgo protection. If he's willing to do that for one day, he's probably willing to forgo it for the whole event, in which case we just rendered sanctions pointless. What am I missing ?
Sanction an extra day if you please. It may be inconvenient, but not nearly as inconvenient some family having to schedule a funeral.
Clearly you simply are not reading what I wrote multiple times. Compared to the scenario in which the AMA would permit a maiden in the middle of an event if the CD simply removes himself momentarily, my approach makes the funeral MUCH less likely ... so why would you rather eliminate the approach that has less risk, and keep the one that allows more risk ? For the life of me I simply can't figure that one out.
Even in the earliest or lastest hours of an event, there are more people present than would normally be present on “just another day”.
Beg to differ, most strenuously. You evidently haven't been at some of the clubs I've flown at. SCCMAS club in Morgan Hill, is on public (county) property and is frequently inundated with members of the public on "just another day" ... the club is right next to the freeway, so attracts qiute a lot of "gawkers" who see the models as they drive by and come by for a closer look ; then there's an extremly popular bike / jogger / pedestrian path that runs down the right-hand side of the club (about 800 ft from the runway maybe ?), so loads of cyclists, rollerbladers, horseback riders and walkers stop by the club to get their mid-way refreshments and some entertainment; on the left hand side, about 700ft from the other end of the runway is a hole in the ground that has become an environmental attraction, with a viewing platform built by the county off the end of the runway for the birdwatchers to stand on .. and there are often parties of 40 or 50 of them out there ; etc., etc; etc. - to say nothing of the 100 or so members that are out for a day's flying or spectating with their families. Most of the events that I've attended peter down having to a mere fraction of that number of people around within half an hour to an hour after the MC announces that the event is over for the day and closes the snack shack etc.
Next - these rules apply only to sanctions, correct ? So then please explain to me why you are concerned about the funeral that may occur at a location that is not an AMA site and is simply sanctioned for a few days, but not equally concerned about the funeral that may occur at a location which is an AMA chartered club's site and no sanction has been obtained for the event which still takes place in front of thousands of spectators, and still has a maiden take place after hours. Why is one of these funerals more important to you than the other ?
Gordon
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