Well you could argue in favor of the glider pilot that he may have tried to stay south of the published path. Comparing Steve’s GPS map with the AIP, it seems that Steve flew an extended base over both of these rivers – the Lippe in the north, and the Datteln-Hamm-canal in the south – while the published base-to-final turn of 06 stays well north of the Lippe, east of the northward bend of the Lippe or the lake, respectively. So, in theory, the GPS path of the glider would not have touched the published path.
That doesn’t make flying there and at that altitude any better.
Well. When steve called final, he should be way ahead of the TMG, but was in fact more or less right above him. It would be interesting to hear the TMG pilot’s version of this and see his exact path.
Jacko wrote:
Yes, looking at Google Earth I would say that the green corridor north of the river and canal are definitely not a “congested area” of the city of Hamm. In that strip of land I can see a lake, a park, some fields, a sewage treatment farm, the airfield, and the King’s Bootshaus hotel, but that’s about all. But this GE image may be out of date and it may all be houses now. Have a look and see what you think:
I suppose it depends what you call a ‘congested area’. Article 255 of the ANO 2009 defined a congested area as being ‘any area of a city, town or settlement which is substantially used for residential, industrial, commercial or recreational purposes’, I’m pretty sure Germany will also have a similar definition, haven’t found it yet.
So, bearing in mind that the harbour is used substantially for shipping in goods, that there are boat houses for rowing clubs, that the path along the canal is packed with pedestrians and cyclists, you can argue that the canal is substantially used for recreational, commercial or industrial purposes. The same can be said for the lake and fields, especially on a day like Sunday when people were out in their droves walking the dog / pushing the pram / sailing model boats.
With regards the pictures on Google Earth – they are from 2009 so out of date, some of the locations you are referring to also now include additional housing, a large car dealership has extended his inventory storage area into that green strip plus some additional allotments have been created. At the same time, walk ways have been created for pedestrians who want to wander along the canal or for anglers to go fishing, but it is true that there is still a marked ‘green corridor’ splitting Hamm into ‘north and ’south’ on the western approach to Hamm Lippewiesen because we still want a place to be able to put down safely in case of EFATO after taking off on Runway 24.
To say that this corridor is the justification for allowing low flying is a bit far fetched……
LeSving wrote:
Well. When steve called final, he should be way ahead of the TMG, but was in fact more or less right above him. It would be interesting to hear the TMG pilot’s version of this and see his exact path.
His statement over the radio was that he was flying at 500 feet or so parallel to the Lippe, practicing low flying ‘as required by his club’. He confirmed he had no intention of landing at Hamm. He didn’t make any statement as to why he never made any radio calls, especially not when he heard me calling base and final 06. As I previously said, I’m sure that he took off on a westerly runway and simply didn’t realise that Hamm was landing the opposite direction, thus putting himself into conflict. His confirmation bias led him to believe Hamm would be landing from the east and wouldn’t be a factor. Indeed, had he just said that, I would have said ‘fair enough, we all make mistakes, let’s learn from it’ but unfortunately he didn’t…..
