I went for a walk on the Braes Bayou trail, and a big green military helicopter flew by overhead, reminding me of an incident at the Soaring Club last weekend. Two (2) of these big green machines thundered through at less than 1000′ of altitude right across our Field.  Club members looked out of hangar doors and up from mowing the grass and over from the sun shelter on the south end of the Field. Fortunately there were no gliders on tow or landing.  The rest of the afternoon people asked each other, “Did you see the Apocalypse Now moment?”

Legally gliders have right of way over powered aircraft. That isn’t much help after a helo or a bizjet turns a sailplane into confetti.  So the soaring community is avidly interested in new cockpit collision avoidance technologies, and especially those that don’t weigh much.  In Soaring Magazine this month it’s mentioned that some people are even developing an aviation collision avoidance app for smart phones!