Bad day for a CD

| Seems to me that if everyone knows that the tow plane is 0n 39, then it is | their responsibility NOT to come out with 39.

Obviously at least two people didn't know that the tow plane was on 39

-- the contest directory and the guy who shot it down.

This suggests that the tow plane frequency wasn't advertised before the event. Or maybe they just forgot.

| All SWRA events I attended had reserved frequencies for the pace planes.

That's a different situation. In that case, the pace plane will always be flying in every single race. A tow plane isn't always needed for a sailplane event.

As long as it's made clear in the literature describing the event, so people know beforehand, then I don't really have a problem with completely blocking out a channel. Still, I wouldn't suggest doing it unless absolutely neccesary.

(Still, noting what channel(s) the tow plane(s) are on in the contest flyers and such seems prudent. If your frequency conflicts with the tow plane, then you're likely to not get to fly much, if at all. I've never been involved in a `serious' contest, but I've been to a few fun flys (complete with contest directors), and they wouldn't flat out deny the use of a specific channel unless there was no other way.)

| An intelligent person would not use those.

Intelligent people make mistakes too. Or are you suggesting that the contest director wasn't intelligent?

i didn't see the original thread, but i'll jump in here both as a tow pilot, glider pilot, and power pilot of big noisy expensive aerobatic airplanes. our tow plane is on ch 50, and that fact is well known. however, if we need run into a conflict we have crystals and modules (jr 8103) to change channels. but there is a larger issue, and that is what steps the CD took to ensure that everyone knew about channel conflicts. what we do at every event - sailplanes or power aerobatics - is to print a list of pilots and channels doing a sort in Word, and then at the pilots meeting, make sure everyone (1) confirms their frequency, and (2) gets to see who else is on the channel. also establish the rules for turning on - is a pin required, ama card, etc. we are often dealing with several thousand dollars of airplanes, and we can't leave to chance something that is relatively easy to address. the cd is responsible for the event, but the folks attending need to make sure that the cd is doing what he can to avoid problems. don't be passive! and if the CD doesn't do it, then do it yourself - the plane you save may be your own.