Helmet - Legal or Not?

[jeff55v]

... and a rulebook thicker than a sausage-sub turd. OH YEAH... and DOT is no longer legal - Eat Me!!

Alex

Alex, Anyone who has never met you might get the impression that you are not a rational person. Quite the contrary, you have a very down to earth perspective on our sport. I find myself agreeing with you about 90% of the time. You speak your mind and you don't sugar coat your opinion. I hope to always be on your "list of friends".
Keep it up Alex!

[Smitty]

Well, I don't know him, Jeff, and can't form an opinion of his rationality because I can't make out where he's coming from or what he's trying to say.

Alex, I am suggesting that it is unfair to an unpaid, volunteer inspector or referee to put him at any extra and unnecessary risk of being victimized by the lawyers. The people who hire the lawyers in these cases are, it's sad to say, primarily members of the racers families. As an example of what can happen, there might not be any more air races at Reno because of the lawsuits brought by the families of race-fans and racers who were killed in a freak accident last year. I hope you got to see a race there; it was a great show.

Nobody, other than the legal profession and those folks who see a lawsuit as their chance to cash in big, likes the situation, Alex. For starters, the costs of our insane legal system raises the price of manufactured products so much that they become uncompetitive overseas. Many of our corporations started outsourcing work to China largely because they don't have to pay ruinously high medical insurance costs for overseas workers. The stratospheric rise in medical costs are not so much due to the big malpractice awards that we read about in the papers, but mostly because at every level and sub-level and micro-sub-level of the medical system, people at risk of lawsuits are having to cover their behinds. When I was learning to weld, the instructor pointed to the regulator on an oxygen bottle and commented that the identical regulator (except chrome-plated) was being sold by the manufacturer to medical establishments at about four times the price welders paid, and that was because of the liability insurance costs.

So, I don't know what the connection is in your mind between hippies (and I was a Goldwater campaigner in '64, which as far from a hippie as it's possible to be) and staying under the radar of award-hungry lawyers. But you might want to talk to a doctor, a machine-shop owner, a welder who builds trailer hitches, or many other non-hippie folks who have to buy business insurance and engage in particular practices to further cover their behinds, and ask them about what real life is like.

I didn't invent the system, I detest the system, but I have to cooperate with the system to avoid being bleeped by it. And it has nothing whatever to do with "hippies".

[ram95]

Smitty.. that's exactly my point, ie we're volunteers. I'm an inspector as well. I'm also a flight instructor. I've been teaching plumbers, welders, CEO's, attorney's and some hippie-types how to fly airplanes for the past 40 years.... during which time my butt has surely been hanging out in the breeze. I want rules to be based on legitimate need. And then, I want them to be written simply and concisely, and not so's I need a lawyer to interpret the wording for me. If you get to see Barry before I do, tell him the Mad Russian says hello.
Alex

[krazy karl]

Reno

The Reno Air Races are a go this year to the best of my knowledge. I understand business stepped up to cover the overhead which was lost last year due to cancellation of the main part of the event.

Boat Races in Sparks (Reno Metro Area) are also on, much needed exposure. Put it on your schedule.

kk