Desperadoes

[Guest guest]

" carondeen " wrote:

> Move, you must move, to stay is to die, if you want to live, you

must move, period, to say you cannot move is to agree to die. To

blame this, your death on someone else, your uncaring landlord, or

the government, is to give up your only power, you have the power

to live or die.<

I'm sure it must be equally difficult for people who have not

yet " hit the wall " and crawled outside through a blizzard of snow to

gasp for breath in their freezing car to believe " Mold Desperadoes " ,

as it is for us to understand why the unenlightened cannot learn

from our experience.

We " Desperadoes " have seen people who can stay alive in

circumstances that would kill us in short order, so it's apparent

that individual tolerance varies to the extent that the " desperation

index " must be adjusted to each persons personal survival

requirements depending on how far their situation has progressed -

and so must the advice.

Unless I see indications of definite proximity to " hitting the

wall " , I find it is usually counterproductive to tell people to " run

for their lives " because it will be rejected as inappropriate, and

perhaps a bit overstated.

This is just as it was in Hang Gliding, as people who possessed

an " Intermediate rating " and were not under instructor supervision

would often take the fact that they hadn't crashed yet as evidence

that they were in control and flying properly, meanwhile,

experienced pilots nearby would shudder in horror as they watched

the glider " mush " and respond slowly to massive control input

on " downwind to baseleg " in a classic tipstall scenario. The

advice " More airspeed or die " , usually elicits a rejection, no

matter how accurate. So the drill was to give a warning they could

relate to, that explained a confirming detectable sign of impending

disaster: " When the glider becomes hard to handle or becomes

unresponsive to control input, it represents a lack of airspeed, and

when you are that close to the ground as in a landing approach,

stall recovery before ground impact is unlikely " . Even an

inexperienced pilot knows that a glider isn't supposed to " mush " and

be hard to control and this would gain their attention that perhaps,

they really should take heed. Full stall Faceplants from a hundred

feet can really ruin someones day.

So, for people who are trying to 'wing it' in a bad place, I just

say that, as far as I can tell, when your skin burns, rashes appear,

especially on your ankles, inability to regulate body temp within

customary limits, and cold sweats break out - and your face and ears

turn red.... you are right there on the edge!

Prepare for impact.

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