[Phoenix]

Your sad poetry dude! http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/LonEvan.html

Myself I like http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084917/

Or you could just read the news!

Have a nice day, asshole!

[Spark]

Rest in peace, Mark.

[noman3]

[TomGalvin]

I wouldn't get too wound up guys. This smells like a forum spam robot. I'll look at the reminder of Mark's life as the silver lining to this internet cloud.

[rubixi]

Never knew about this until it was bumped. I took the time to read and learn about the pilot, the person, the event, and then do my best to internalize and learn as best as I can.

Thanks spam bot

[Phoenix]

A very sad thread indeed! Whatever can be said, was, by those who knew him best.
I only get poetic on the razors edge of life, that is why I respect about this
sky brother that I may or may not have known. Rest in peace, freind, we will remember you, as a Pilot and not a type of aircraft!

[ChattaroyMan]

My feelings go out to family and friends....

Being a returning pilot after a rather long absence from the sport I can attest to a few observations mentioned earlier. I'd like to think I can react as quickly as in my 20s/30s - not happening (I'll be 60 this year). I feel the response mentally is there - but translating into physical action just isn't as 'instant'. Also, being able to manage a variety of visual and kinesthetic experiences, juggle them and come up with an adequate plan 'on-the-fly', has been dampened. I now find I can over-focus on somethings and tune out others. That's not good if one of the "others" is the proximity to the hillside. I've done this when farting around with my own harness - finding myself further over the top of a ridge than I would have let myself go had I not been focused on my harness. In my instances of, what I'll call lack-of-total-focus, I've been (so far) smart enough to work on in-flight issues, such as the harness, when I have ample room to do so and being aware that I am not 20/30 any more.

What it boils down to is that if one does not know one's limitations they fly with a higher degree of risk. I'm doing my best to minimize risks so I'm also doing my best to objectively assess my own current abilities. It is an interesting dance getting older. We basically are who we are (in our minds) from when we were younger. I'm now dealing with a different risk set than 30 years ago. Then it was brashness and inexperience. Now it is confronting limitations that one really does not have a great burning desire to confront. Such is life. Being aware of limitations is one thing - acting accordingly is another. I'm doing my own best (which may not measure up to someone else's expectations) on how I conduct myself as a hang pilot. I want to keep flying - safely.

We have an interesting sport. It is very alluring and takes a high degree of thought processing - and as such has a large emotional component. Whenever any one of us gets hurt or worse it pains us all. Thank you everyone for all the comments on this thread. My deepest condolences to families and friends.

[liftlover]

This is an old post from 2008, some sick person bumped it to the top wanting "sad, sick poetry' SG, could you please put this back in the archives.