http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2034
HG Future ?
Sam Kellner - 2015/07/30 02:44:25 UTC
Future?
Yes sometime I wonder too. I'm doing all I can to grow
HG into the future..
One platform launch fatality at a time. Reminds me a lot of your local wildlife conservation efforts.
Last year a group of PG pilots came to Southwest Texas and
extended the Will Gadd world record. 360?mi
I believe the HG record exists here also, 475mi
, and has since '92, most of Larry's 300+mi flight was over Tx..
Preserving for the future, saving the seed stock of HG at Dockweiler and similar sites is all well and good. It is serving a purpose.
Now, if you want to
grow the sport into the future, why not focus on where the world record flights are routinely set.
Because for Rick Masters hang gliding is about running off the earth into the sky and he doesn't need any help. PERIOD. End of story.
And if you/we want to grow US Hawks Hang Gliding Assn. .............................................................Miles and miles of Texas
Otherwise, I recall what Rick said about becoming a sewing circle.
I recall what Jonathan said about The Jack Show being a mutual masturbation society.
Frank Colver - 2015/07/30 03:35:11 UTC
I maintain that it doesn't take much skill to safely fly a hang glider.
Unfortunately there aren't any programs or instructors who teach those skills. They're eternally focused on teaching students how to land safely in narrow dry riverbeds with large rocks strewn all over the place.
Some HG pilot's egos may want to argue with that fact but it is a fact.
Pilots who have ego's aren't pilots. They're Orion Price caliber douchebags. Listen to what Mike Barber has to say about risk. Make sure to compare it to the crap Accident Review Committee Chairman, Very Experienced Tow Administrator, and Ace Stunt Landing Instructor Mitch Shipley spews.
If one has learned to launch, land...
Define...
Gil Dodgen - 1995/01
All of this reminds me of a comment Mike Meier made when he was learning to fly sailplanes. He mentioned how easy it was to land a sailplane (with spoilers for glide-path control and wheels), and then said, "If other aircraft were as difficult to land as hang gliders no one would fly them."
...landing.
...control pitch, and control roll...
Best done upright with hands on the downtubes at shoulder or ear height.
...they could safely fly, under the right conditions, any site that is used for hang gliding.
Assuming they're connected to their gliders just after launch - which they always will just prior to launch.
What is needed beyond those abilities is good judgement and that is not measurable except in small doses.
What takes pilot skill is to maintain or gain altitude in weak lift or do significant XC flights in less than ideal conditions. Nether of which are directly related to being able to fly a site safely unless it requires utilizing lift to reach the only landing zone (I personally wouldn't fly that site).
Nobody does. Those sites don't exist. And if they did they wouldn't for long.
So if we have to have hang ratings they should only require demonstrating skill at launching, landing, and controlling pitch and roll (doing coordinated turns and counteracting turbulence).
I can see two ratings: Learning Basic Hang Gliding Skills (as described above) "LBHGS" and Hang Glider Pilot "HGP". So there you go US Hawks - your HG rating system has been defined.
What about mandatory ratings revocations for tow pilots?
Frank Colver, rating:HGP
Bob Kuczewski - 2015/07/30 05:20:56 UTC
Great thoughts on all sides.
1. From all the sides Emperor Bob permits to post, anyway.
2. Wow. Trying to remember the last time anyone on The Bob Show had a thought that WASN'T great. The Kellner Mirror was one of my favorites.
3. So you're totally cool with Rick's mandatory revocations upon conviction of felony scooter towing. Big fuckin' surprise.
Thanks.
Don't mention it, Bob.
Here's my 2 cents...
I suspect what will govern our policies more than anything else is...
...Emperor Bob and anything he feels like saying at any given moment - as per the past five years minus two weeks.
...the reality of what it will take to allow our US Hawks members to fly at sites like Sylmar, Crestline, Torrey Pines, Funston, Point of the Mountain, Henson's Gap and so on.
In other words... Go fuck yourselves, flatlanders.
In some cases, that will be direct negotiations with land owners, and in some of those cases they that will require some sort of protection of the land owner from liability. There may be many ways to address those concerns, but I suspect they will have an impact on how we certify our members.
Any way Emperor Bob wants. First and foremost - no unrepentant child molesters. Duh.
The shortest path would be for the US Hawks to use exactly the same ratings and standards (or even higher) as used by USHPA.
So maybe you're gonna tighten up on u$hPa's definition of just prior to launch? Which for the past 34 and a quarter years has been when the fuck ever.
How 'bout weak links? Gonna mandate much safer ones?
That makes it harder for us to be turned down - especially by governmental agencies which are not supposed to show favoritism. The farther we deviate from those "established practices" the harder of a time we'll have convincing land owners to allow our members to fly.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=463
Davis Straub's "Oz Report" Conflict of Interest
Bob Kuczewski - 2011/03/09 02:33:49 UTC
This is going to sound cold, but I believe people have a right to make their own choices. I don't want a "nanny state" where anyone is telling me what I can and can't do ... for my own good. The sport of hang gliding would surely not exist if that thinking were carried to its logical extreme. There's something bred into all living things that urges them toward taking some degree of risk in their lives. Those who want to forbid that risk are essentially snuffing out the human spirit itself. I can't support that. I do support information. I support good information. I support exposing bad information. But I don't support dictating what anyone can or can't do. The fundamental principle of economics (and evolution) is two words: "people choose".
So much for the human spirit and all that really cool risk taking - like we saw at Jean Lake four months and three days ago.
This discussion is very good because it brings into sharp focus what the US Hawks needs to be.
A mutual masturbation society with total contempt for all flatlanders.
We can be a forum.
Just like the Jack and Davis Shows.
We can be an advocacy group. We can have our own hang gliding magazine.
Gonna have a monthly accident reports section the way Robert V. Wills and Doug Hildreth used to?
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1081
Platform towing /risk mitigation / accident
Sam Kellner - 2012/07/03 02:25:58 UTC
No, you don't get an accident report.
Just kidding.
But if we can't give our members the ability to fly their favorite sites without being members of USHPA, then we'll have fallen short.
And fuck Tad and his ability to fly his favorite sites. He's an unrepentant child molester AND a flatlander and Emperor Bob has decided that he couldn't be a member because The Bob Show needs to be a safe place for all its many zeros of people of varying ages to visit.
I can't say that I'm happy with that answer, but if anyone else has a shorter path to widespread allowance of our members to fly those sites ... please let me know!!
Yeah, let Bob know. 'Cause he's still the only individual capable of putting anything down in black and white. Just shy of half a decade and still going just as strong as he was on Day One.
You seem to be pretty comfortable in that mode of communication.
