Re[2]: sad news

[rs54263]

>>I think it is a serious mistake to try to 'legislate' common sense.
>>Let's keep the freedom in our 'free flight' sport.

The basic principles of government that our country is founded on can
be summarized as:

1) It's free country, so you have the natural right to do anything that
you want to, *as long as you do not infringe on anyone else's natural
rights*.

2) Society/government is established to protect the natural rights of
it's citizens.

3) Society/government is empowered to enact (and enforce) laws in order
to protect itself and it's citizens.

In general, a government should enact a minimum of legislation, going
only as far as is necessary to protect it's citizens.

So, in the question of "legislating common sense", the question that
has to be asked is this: if we allow a certain behavior, will this
behavior have a detrimental effect on our [hang gliding] society as a
whole, or will it adversely affect other members of our society? If
so, than said behavior should be prohibited.

It is this basic question that allows (and obligates) us to establish
rules for our flying sites, in order to prevent the actions of
individuals from jeopardizing the availability of those sites for the
entire community.

Spark makes a good argument; there may not be enough benefit in
requiring full-face helmets to justify the loss of individual freedoms
that such a rule entails. Yes, we're in the public eye during a
fly-in, but I seriously doubt that most of the general public is going
to pick up on the fact that "that one pilot isn't wearing a full-face
helmet!" and walk away thinking "What a dangerous outlaw he must be!".
Our "competition" is of such a casual nature, that I don't see that the
flying involved is inherently any more dangerous than flying on any
other day. Our victories are measured in 1/10 of mile at the most -
not in feet or 1/100 of a second.

As much as I support the spirit of Matthew's suggestion, there are
probably other, much more significant, things that we could be doing to
improve safety within the club. And, while we certainly *should*
encourage the use of full-face helmets (and set a good example for the
rest of the HG community), I'm not certain that passing a helmet rule
for the Fly-In is really a good thing to do.

~Ralph