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So what happened? Let's listen in as Ryan tells us all what's wrong with the sport of hang gliding:
Ryan Voight wrote:I believe ADAMANTLY that the failings of the sport to thrive are almost entirely due to poor instruction techniques and practices.
Well then, if the entire sport is plagued with poor instruction techniques and practices, then shouldn't Ryan's school have flourished? Shouldn't Ryan be running the most successful school in the world and turning out more new pilots every week while the rest of the sport flounders?
Ryan even produced this great introductory video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
The video does an excellent job of showing how students are coached through picking up the glider, running on flat ground, and eventually launching and landing from a small hill. It reminds me of my own training progression back in 1978. It also reminds me of what I've seen by instructors from coast to coast for decades. Is that the "secret" that's somehow going to save hang gliding? Really?
Let's see what else Ryan has to say ...
I moved on, I’m done teaching, and very done trying to help USHPA. Hang gliding isn’t even that big a part of my life anymore… I sold my T2, and just have one glider now, a Falcon. Saturday was my second flying day in 2019…
What!?! Here's a second generation hang gliding instructor and second generation USHPA Board member who knows the secret of teaching and was running his own school in one of the best flying sites in the country ... and now he's "done teaching"? He's "moved on"? What could have possibly gone wrong?
Ryan seems to want to blame "USHPA", but Ryan *is* USHPA. He's as close as we have to "hang gliding royalty" in this country. Both Ryan and his father have been extremely influential in creating the "USHPA" that we have today.
The sad fact is that Ryan and his jokester father are exactly what's wrong with USHPA. They've been calling the shots for their own business interests for decades now. The wreckage all around them is theirs. They own it.
Neither Ryan nor his father Paul would support the reforms needed to turn USHPA around. Neither would support open voting by the USHPA Board. Neither would support separate divisions for hang gliding and paragliding. Neither would support balancing the Torrey Pines Soaring Council. Neither would support a hang gliding club at our most famous flying site. Neither would support due process for pilots. They both sat idly by while Mark Forbes and Tim Herr called the shots.
And now Ryan Voight steps forward with a training video as if that's all that's needed?
Let me be clear. Ryan Voight and Paul Voight and the majority of the USHPA Board have driven the sport of hang gliding into the ground for their own self serving reasons. There has been too much interest in the business of hang gliding and not enough interest in the sport of hang gliding. Ryan Voight is the poster child for this epidemic, and he's gotten what he deserves.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... 1&start=20
