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As friends of Terry Spencer, we have read your last three pieces on Terry with special interest.? In fairness to Terry?s memory, we feel compelled to correct several factual errors in your articles as well as the implication you have made with respect to the severity of Terry?s spatial disorientation and on Terry?s character generally.
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You should know that collectively we have flown with Terry more frequently than anyone else.? First, Terry had one of the best record of safe approaches and landings of anyone I know.? In over four years of very active flying (we estimate that Terry had?over 175 tow flights and 400 mountain flights) he broke or bent a downtube only once before his accident at Quest and was not injured on that landing.? His reason for that bad landing was not due to moving his head too much and becoming disoriented, but that he was looking downward below his glasses and did not see the ground clearly enough to judge his altitude on final.? Second, from collectively watching several hundred approaches, we never saw him execute slipping turns during his approach.? To the contrary, his approaches were typically very conservative, and in our opinion, he had the most consistent safest approaches of any member of our club.? As far as we know, he was never told to stop executing spirals turns or other types of aggressive approaches.? Third, he did launch unhooked from one of our sites (not Woodstock) and was knocked unconscious ? but only for a minute.?? Not the 20 minutes that you were told.
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Several us were at the Flytec Championship daily briefings.? While Steve Kroop may have stated that at every meet pilots are told not to land in the launch areas and near the tug landing areas, the facts of the day of Terry?s accident were quite different.? The day of Terry?s accident, two of us landed next to you, as I recall, about the same time of Terry?s accident.? The three of us landed in a lane that was used by tugs and hang glider pilots for landing and for takeoffs.? Terry attempted to land in another space that also was used by other hang glider pilots for landing, and by tugs for take-offs.? While this does not mean that someone other than Terry is responsible for what happened to him, it does go to the point that Terry was not acting differently than many other pilots that day.
Another part of your report that is very troubling and needs to be rebutted is that Terry somehow failed to honor his word by not reporting a medical condition that made him unfit to fly or interfered with his safety.? Terry is not here to defend this accusation, and we believe we should respond on his behalf.? Terry may have mentioned to several people that he had become disoriented if he moved his head too much during an approach.? However, from watching many of his takeoffs, approaches, and landings, we believe he had adequately addressed any such issue and we do not believe that his ability to safely launch, fly, or land his hang glider was compromised or that him was not fit to fly.
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We realize that one could argue that any spatial disorientation he may have had rose to that level of impairment and could have played a role in his accident, especially with hindsight and an inability to find a definitive reason for his accident.? However, we note that neither the accident report you cited nor any one else to our knowledge had discussed this issue with a medical professional or had anything other than a casual conversation with Terry.? In our opinion, he did not have an impairment that prevented him from flying safely and Terry was fully qualified to participate in the competition safely.?
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Further, to our knowledge no one has blamed Quest or anyone associated with the flight park for his accident.? However, we did note that safety procedures could be improved by setting aside separate landing areas for hang gliders and tugs.
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Regarding the topic of personal responsibility, it is certainly arguable that Terry was at greater risk than other pilots, and that he knowingly decided to accept this risk in order to enjoy hang gliding.? Discussing this issue is an important safety topic, and perhaps someone will benefit from Terry?s?accident.? Many other pilots fly despite issues that may render them less fit to fly, such as not having current flying skills, poor eyesight, and susceptibility to injury, that impair their ability to fly safely.? However, in Terry?s case, we do not believe that he had an obligation to inform Quest of medical impairments.??
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Tom McGowan
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