Ha Ha... Love the comments.

"Here comes the safety police..."

Gump

Can't say "what if his engine quits"!

I was looking for ridge lift.

But what if the wind stops

If the enforcement folks at the FAA can manage to get a N number off that video, I would assume there would follow unwanted 'repercussions'......?
I don't figure the rules for the glider folks to be drastically different than powered.
Also they (FAA) could check the trail logs and see who was up there recently and hunt down other photos from the hikers.....
Just depends on their (FAA's) workload and motivation and if there are leads to follow.....
I would be livin' on pins and needles for the next few months if I were that glider pilot.

lc

Littlecub..Judging by the hikers accents I don't think you have to get too 'concerned' about the FAA...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1a5_1268631566

Some more fun glider flying. Ridge soaring nice and low from the cockpit.

Littlecub..Judging by the hikers accents I don't think you have to get too 'concerned' about the FAA...

Sorry
Accents? I heard mumbling...
Too many pre-headphone & intercom airplanes, guns, high speed drilling n' milling, laying hammer to steel, and too much Rock n' Roll that you could 'feel' in the '60s/70s.....

The consequences are real...
lc

Edit for clarification. HS is abbreviation both for high speed and high school.

I looked up the contest number, it's a guy from Austria. FAA not involved, European authorities probably a lot more lax on this sort of thing on a remote mountain top in the Alps than if it was buzzing a street in a city. Probably a "no harm, no foul" incident on all levels. This particular airplane is a motorglider (Antares electric self-launcher), so it would be hard for the pilot to argue he needed the lift over that mountain to maintain controlled flight if they did go after him.

I had to face the FAA once about 30 years ago for buzzing people in a glider. Made a high speed "contest finish" at California City, not seeing that there were two people walking behind a parked airplane. As I went by they walked out from behind the airplane and were faced with a 140 MPH sailplane going by at eye level, and the guy's wife jumped back in horror only to fall into a puddle of wet dirt, ruining her outfit. Her husband was a glider instructor, who promptly wrote an absolutely scathing letter to the local FAA GADO office, and they hauled my ass in with great glee. 90 days in the cooler!

Ive been "buzzed" by airplanes more times than I can count working on radio towers, everything from 2 gliders playing follow-the-leader around me, to a phantom flying figure-8's between 2 towers 1/4 mile apart, and staying below the tops of both towers (140 and 165 foot tall towers). The best buzz job I've recieved so far was an A-10 that blew the dust off the hood of the ford pickup I was driving. It always adds a little fun to the day. The only time I thought I was in danger was a helicopter pilot hovering by my tower taking photos of me, he apperently didn't realise it was a guyed tower and his rotor arc was less than 5 feet from a guy wire. He left when I threw a 3 pound hammer at him.

A few years back a friend of a friend's 2nd cousin reportedly returned to the Carson Valley with lots of extra altitude and so flew north up the spine of the Carson Range (east side of Lake Tahoe) to enjoy the view of the lake. He saw an orange spot on a rock outcropping far ahead on the rim trail near Genoa Peak, so pushed over to have a closer look. He flew by the hikers doing close to VNE (146 knots) and pulled up into a chandelle for a return pass. I'm told he got no closer than maybe 100 feet. Now below ridge, but with lots of speed, he easily pulled up to clear the ridge and head home. All the while thinking to himself how cool it would be to be on the ground like that to see a spectacular high speed pass - - glider makes a sound like a jet aircraft but without the engine noise.

Next morning he gets a call from a friend working at the local glider FBO. Friend tells him, "There's someone here who wants to talk to you!". He is now really worried. Friend puts a Belgium fellow on the phone who says he and girlfriend were on the rock outcrop. Hapless glider pilot asks him if he's upset. Belgium fellow (who turns out to be a power pilot) says, "Oh no! The lake, the trees, the clouds, the sky! You were the ICING!!"

In the OP video, that was way too close. I can see coming over a ridge and getting really close to people you don't expect to be there. But today, with cell phone video so prevalent, strafing strangers is just asking for FAA trouble. That said, I'd love to be straffed like that.

Not that it is really important, but I would hate the Austrian ZF competior to get tagged with this. That glider us not an Antares. Stop the video around 1:40 and you can see it is 2-place. The Antares is a single seater. The rec.aviation.soaring folks think it is an ASH25 EB28.

Tom

Recent RAS post -

> One more possibility - Steve Fossett bought a highly modified
> ASH25M from Walter Eisele - one piece canopy - it was flown by
> Fossett and Terry DeLore from Ely, NV - that glider is now owned
> by DeLore and kept in NZ but flew in the US for a few years prior
> to Fossett's untimely death - Ralph "Woody" Woodward

This was Terry DeLore's as far as I can tell.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terry-De ... 6291508491
(Scroll down a bit)

I may be in error, but I looked up "contest number ZF" on Google and it led me to an OLC page where that number was listed as an Antares from Austria. I have no idea if there is an American ZF and an Austrian ZF. Sorry if I accidentally promoted bad info. Looked like it could have been the Alps or parts of the Sierra to me.

Bill VB

Yes same result I got from my RAS inquiry
Terry Delore's glider an ASH25M Used to be partners with Steve Fossett video probably taken in New Zealand hence the accents.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terry-De ... 6291508491

The terrain & accents are New Zealand...Austrian Alps look different.