Here's an interesting update to this story. Linda Salamone and Mark Fruitiger have both been off to the Santa Cruz US National HG comp. Mark was acting as a tow pilot and Linda was competing.
While they have been gone, RAF has been unable to do any towing - 'cause Mark is their tow pilot. And since the loudest voice in RAF is Linda, and she's absent too, basically no RAF tow or general flying messages have been posted to the Elmira/Binghampton email group. Sometimes silence is truly golden. And, all of a sudden, the Elmira email group is free of RAF towing "spam". Too bad it's only temporary.
Indeed, very few recent, serious flight related messages have even been posted to the RAF Google group. Given these circumstances it becomes quite obvious who is actually "in charge" of the RAF media and flying "machine". Cut that head off, even temporarily, and the (RAF) body falls silent. It's sad to think that so many local (Rochester area) pilots are so dependent on two "loud" personalities. It's also pretty evident who it was who was pushing the hardest for spending a huge chunk of the (long accumulating) RAF treasury on expensive tow equipment. Most/many comps these days employ towing and it's good for a competition minded pilot (Linda) to be able to keep current.
Clearly, other local pilots do also appreciate the ability to go out for a day of hang gliding via towing. I wouldn't wish to diminish that fact. After all, most of our local sites are between 600 - 800 ft high. A nice tow takes you to 2-3 times that height. That gives the average pilot an advantage toward getting a soaring flight. For at least this reason it can't be helped that towing activities will detract from certain pilots' interest in hill flying. I wonder what % of local pilots will end up more or less abandoning hill flying?
Personally, I think there is space for both ways to get into the air. But it's not quite right when towing is effectively shoved down a flying communities' collective throat. And, in the next week or so, I'll bet that the RAF (Linda Salamone and Mark Fruitiger) tow promotion campaign resumes full force.