By Sherri Zickefoose, Calgary Herald September 5, 2011 8:03 PM
CALGARY — The death of a Calgary glider pilot and another man, whose aircraft collided mid-air, may have been caused by sun blindness.
Keith Watson, a 50-year-old Calgarian, died Saturday near Invermere when his sailplane collided while in flight south of Invermere, B.c., shortly before 3:30 p.m. Saturday, according to Columbia Valley RCMP.
The other pilot, Ray Perino of Kelowna, B.C., also died.
RCMP are investigating the cause of the fatal crash, but fellow Calgary pilot Mel Blackburn says it appears glare from the sun may have caused the two gliders to touch wings.
“One of the questions we had was, could this have been avoided? I know myself from experience from flying into the sun (that) you’re largely blinded. The other glider would have been flying out of the sun and they simply didn’t see each other,” Blackburn said.
“Had one been 10 feet higher or lower, this may have never happened.”
Watson, a well-known sound technician, had a vacation home in near Invermere and enjoyed the well-known sailplane culture there.
He lived in Calgary with his elderly, widowed mother.
Blackburn, also a member of the Canadian Rockies Soaring Club, remembers Watson as having an adventurous spirit.
“He was very passionate about flying. He learned very quickly. He mastered the sport quickly and went on to simply enjoy it.”
Colliding sailplanes are a rare occurrence, according to Phil Stade, executive director for the Alberta Soaring Council.
“It’s very infrequent. I’ve never heard of a crash of this particular nature. We have very few collisions between gliders,” he said.
Glider pilots have specific training requirements.
“We teach our students from the first day a lookout technique that we really drill home as a primary issue in every flight. Before we even move the controls to turn, we look under and over the wing. You stop and look carefully, all before we do the turn. It’s a technique that’s established during the training program.”
Stade said there are about 120 glider pilots in the Calgary area.
Mounties say the two planes were gliding in the same thermal lift and at one point clipped wings. The pilots lost control of the planes and crashed into the side of Mount Swansea.
Invermere is about 275 kilometres southwest of Calgary, just across the B.C. border.
Source: http://www.calgaryherald.com
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