Cheating Death?

As a student pilot I pay a great deal of attention to the posts about the friends that are lost Soaring. I also read the accident reports of previous mishaps, and try to study them, so that I can learn from others unfortunate situations. This most recent accident that is being discussed on the newsgroup has me concerned. It appears that he was an excellent safe proffesional pilot with thousands of hours of experience. One post replied... 'big sink, not voodoo'. So my novice question is, if I'm not doing anything fancy, no major cross country trips, not soaring in the mountains.....how dangerous is our sport? Or more pointedly, can I just be soaring along, in fair weather conditions and get hit by 'big sink' that I will not be able to escape safely? Thanks in advance, and it sounds like this person was one heck of a guy, and my sympathies go out to the family and friends.

There's no such a thing as 'big sink threw me up to the ground' except maybe in mountains or/and wave. If you hit sink strong enough, the worst you'll get is an outlanding. Then, it's just an outlanding, with the techniques and risks of any outlanding. You decide how much risk you want to asume. If, as you said, you just fly in plain, 'soaring along' in fair weather and keep a good lookout doctrine and your eyes open, mind working at all times, chances are pretty good you'll never experience an accident. Just don't fly in gaggles, keep your outlanding options always open, and in an emergency fly the aircraft first. Look outside. Think before acting. Check your aircraft. And look outside. Ah! And look outside!!!

Jose Manuel Alvarez.