Yes, I know that you don't like the fact that they show up when
accidents occur

Last Sunday we had Dan Criswell (camera man) and Drew Petrimoulx (reporter) from WFTV in Orlando show up
at Quest Air after the accident. They came from Orlando so they arrived long
after everyone had left, the hang glider pilot in a medical helicopter. There
was nothing to see by that time. Dan and Drew had been listening on the scanner
and we were the most interesting thing on it. Apparently that was true for most
of the day as they spent a couple of hours with us.

Both Dan and Drew were personable, friendly and interested in what was going on
at Quest Air in general. I went over and talked to them after I saw that their
van was here. I saw Dan doing a bit of filming, but what was there to see?

I spoke on camera about the accident and about hang gliding at Quest and in
general. Later Mitch Shipley did a longer interview in the control frame of the
tandem glider (hey, with his shirt off). Since WFTV didn't put the video of
Drew's report up on their web site, I have no idea of what Dan presented on
camera or whether they used any of the video that I sent to them. Lauren and
Paul Tjaden got to see it and Paul told me that basically it was very positive.

I got the bright idea of offering Dan a tandem flight or taking a flight up in a
Dragonfly to get a bird's eye view of Quest Air. Dan called his production
manager who said that he couldn't go. Something about insurance. Dan was up for it.

Mitch was at first reluctant to be interviewed or speak with Dan and Drew but
then saw it as an opportunity to get some good news out. We both later agreed
that what are you going to do, they are here, there is going to be a story about
the accident, how could you make it any worse?

I see the presence of the TV press (and newspaper people, if they exist any
more) as an opportunity. They are likely not coming out to visit when not much
is happening (say, just a competition). So get over the fact that they are out
there now and see this as an opportunity (if the press is friendly and open).

It is not going to help our cause if you act resentful and unhelpful. Your
feelings are not the fault of the press people who are there now. You are not
dealing with an institution, you are dealing with the people in front of you.
Treat them in the manner that you would wish to be treated. Maybe you'll be
surprised.

The press is every where these days. There are millions of "citizen reporters."
If you don't get the story right, they'll get it wrong. For example,
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=17092 . This story was almost
completely false.

The story reported (in text) here:
http://www.wftv.com/news/23501281/detail.html was also incorrect (even after
we spoke over a two hour period), but because I had a bit a rapport with the
reporters, and their business cards with their email addresses, I was able to
quickly get the report rewritten and corrected. Drew wrote to me that he didn't
report the incorrect information on air.

I also had a video file from the pilot's helmet cam (GoPro Hero HD) view of her
flight. It would have shown what she saw as the accident happened, confirming
what the witnesses saw. It would not show the pilot, of course. Unfortunately,
the camera turned off when the helmet hit the ground (I presume). This causes
corruption of the file and I was not able to view it.

Dan, who has a GoPro and is a big fan of the camera, offered to use his software
to try to recover the file. He stated that if I gave him the file, he would not
use it unless he got explicit permission from the pilot's family (again, the
video wouldn't show the pilot, or their injury) so I trusted him and gave him
the video. He was not able to recover it. He received permission from the
pilot's husband to use the video, but again, he was not able to recover it.

I spoke with Scare, and he said that it would be possible to recover some of the
file, but not the last bits of it, which really were the only interesting parts.
So at the moment I am not working on it.

I hope to see Dan and Drew back at Quest Air for a tandem flight from Mitch or
Dustin.

It is the policy of the Oz Report (well, it's my approach) to report accidents
as soon as possible. Accidents make up a very small part of the "news" as
reported in the Oz Report. I'm not out there listening to the scanner.

I am not interested in reporting the pilot's name. The pilot's name is only
reported if it is germane (say Adam Parer's reports on his tuck and tumble). I
am only interested in making a report that helps the hang gliding community by
reporting on the reasons for the accident, so that pilots can learn from others'
mistakes. I'm not here to gloat over others' mistakes.

In this case we were able to quickly determine the cause of the accident because
we had very experienced eye witnesses. The cause of the accident was something
that pilots have total control over and have the opportunity to deal with.

The Oz Report is the premier hang gliding press. I have been reporting on hang
gliding for fourteen years now. I do a lot of thinking about my responsibilities
and take them very seriously. Everyone should be aware by now of the fact that
the press landscape has changed greatly over the last fifteen years. I am aware
that many people haven't figured that out yet.

There is now a lot of self reporting in blogs. I link to them so that you can
have easy access to many different points of view. I hope that the Oz Report
will continue to evolve as technology and society changes.