[Bob Kuczewski]

US_Hawks_Chapters.png (100.85 KiB) Viewed 4815 times

[SamKellner]

What the Flock

[Rick Masters]

It would be good strategy for USHPA chapters everywhere to join the US Hawks.
This costs nothing to do and takes very little time. Contact bobkuzcewski (at) gmail.com
At the very least, it would make USHPA pay more attention.
But it also offers a fall-back option for recreational hang glider pilots.
If the USHPA should run into serious difficulties in their attempts to be all things to "freeflight,"
and should they fail in the areas of tandem "instruction," schools, competitions and parachuting insurance,
the US Hawks could provide a base for recreational hang glider pilots to regroup and start over.

The foundation of the US Hawks is recreational hang gliding.
We are opposed to the direction commercial and special interests unrelated to recreational hang gliding have taken our sport.
We do not believe all types of freeflight belong under the same roof.
We believe the potpourri of liabilities added on to the original USHGA over the years is directly responsible for the current situation.
We believe 3PL insurance is in many cases unnecessary and redundant, and should be considered a last resort, not a prerequisite.
We have seen pilots trained by other pilots often become better pilots than those trained by formal schools.
We believe Observers and Special Observers are vital to training, pilot safety and advancement.
We are concerned that the rising fatalities in our sport are related to the rising cost of formal training.
We recognize and assert that hang gliding is a form of recreation guaranteed to U.S. citizens.
We love competitions but don't believe they need to be a formal component of recreational hang gliding.
We respect FAR 103 and we are appalled at the tandem profiteering that has resulted in so many injuries and deaths.
We recognize that hang gliding is a dangerous sport. It is not for children.
We know what parachutes are for and that is why we each carry one for emergencies.

-- Form a national hang gliding association --

[wingspan33]

I think the South Central New York Hang Glider Pilots Association (SoCenNY HG Pilots for short) is the newest addition to the US Hawk's "flock". Dare I say that I'm responsible? Maybe, but Bob K also gave me a lot of encouragement.

One of the reasons for this move is because a local long term (35 years at least) flying site (located in a public park) has been described by a local non-government body as now no longer open as a flying site. Village government officials are also reflecting this "policy".

I only know about this because of my personal receipt of a certified letter (sent by the above mentioned non-government body) which includes inappropriate accusations and falsehoods which they have have used to arrive at their decision (although they have no technical/legal authority to act in such a way).

One of the improper and incorrect accusations is that, by flying at the site, hang gliders (i.e., hang glider pilots) are illegally (under Federal and State law) harassing a long present pair of mating bald eagles.

This conclusion is based on, at the very least, exaggerated, misinformation. But a Publicly Posted Notice links ALL hang glider pilots as intentionally acting to illegally harass our National Symbol. I see that as defamatory not only to myself, but to the general character of any and all hang glider pilots (excluding those who may actually enjoy illegally harassing bald eagles! ? ? ?).

In researching the issue I've been informed (over the phone and by email) by an official with the NE Regional Headquarters of the US Fish and Wildlife Service that as long as (obvious to he and I) non-motorized hang gliders maintain a 330' horizontal and vertical buffer from the nest, then hang gliding flight from Mossy Bank Park would not be in violation of any Federal (or probably even State) laws. Such a buffer is easily maintained at the flying site in question.

I'm interested in getting the local press involved (Newspaper and TV) so that they may appreciate how the act of banning hang gliding actually violates what the National Symbol is meant to represent - Our personal Freedoms and Liberty as citizens of the US! And that local hang gliding activities in no way endanger living examples of our National Symbol.

Any US Hawks member who feels that my goals are proper please join me on the SoCenNY Forum. I'd also encourage any of you with specific questions to send me a PM. Perhaps a few phone calls can be made by interested parties to the local press encouraging them to be present at the up coming Village of Bath, NY Board of Trustee's meeting. Contact info for Village officials can be found here - < http://www.villageofbath.org/contact/ >

More in a while -

[wingspan33]

It would be good strategy for USHPA chapters everywhere to join the US Hawks.
This costs nothing to do and takes very little time. Contact bobkuzcewski (at) gmail.com
At the very least, it would make USHPA pay more attention.
But it also offers a fall-back option for recreational hang glider pilots.
If the USHPA should run into serious difficulties in their attempts to be all things to "freeflight,"
and should they fail in the areas of tandem "instruction," schools, competitions and parachuting insurance,
the US Hawks could provide a base for recreational hang glider pilots to regroup and start over.

The foundation of the US Hawks is recreational hang gliding.
We are opposed to the direction commercial and special interests unrelated to recreational hang gliding have taken our sport.
We do not believe all types of freeflight belong under the same roof.
We believe the potpourri of liabilities added on to the original USHGA over the years is directly responsible for the current situation.
We believe 3PL insurance is in many cases unnecessary and redundant, and should be considered a last resort, not a prerequisite.
We have seen pilots trained by other pilots often become better pilots than those trained by formal schools.
We believe Observers and Special Observers are vital to training, pilot safety and advancement.
We are concerned that the rising fatalities in our sport are related to the rising cost of formal training.
We recognize and assert that hang gliding is a form of recreation guaranteed to U.S. citizens.
We love competitions but don't believe they need to be a formal component of recreational hang gliding.
We respect FAR 103 and we are appalled at the tandem profiteering that has resulted in so many injuries and deaths.
We recognize that hang gliding is a dangerous sport. It is not for children.
We know what parachutes are for and that is why we each carry one for emergencies.

-- Form a national hang gliding association --

I can't agree more, Rick!

Hang glider pilots make up a unique community. A community that strives to achieve the identical kind of freedom as our Nation's Symbol is meant to represent! Freedom and Liberty!

Recreational hang gliding holds the very essence of our National spirit. I think that spirit needs to be reborn!

Our female bald eagle right here in Bath, NY. The Spirit Lives!

[Rick Masters]

ENCOUNTER WITH THE DEVIL
My experience with eagles is that if they don't like something your're doing, they are likely to let you know about it.
I would seriously advise any hang glider pilot to give nesting eagles a wide berth.
They have no enemies, being at the top of the food chain, and are therefore fearless.

In my twenties, before my hang gliding started, I would skin coyotes killed on the Owens Valley highway for their pelts.
Very early one morning before dawn, I spotted one laying in the median and pulled over.
I walked over to the poor little fellow, freshly hit, still warm, dead as a door nail and not a mark on him.
And the hair stood up on the nape of my neck. I wasn't alone.
There was a rustle in the sage and a long, loud hiss. Then another.
From out of the darkness two shadows approached me, standing about a yard high.
I realized there were two immature golden eagles confronting me on the ground.
They had claimed the coyote and I was interfering with their breakfast plans.
As they shuffled into the headlight glow, I could see the thick feathers on their legs, like pants, and below, the sharp, flexing talons.
Standing upright, with all their feathers puffed out to intimidate, they hissed at me with loud exhalations of breath.
Their eyes glowed with raw hatred, their heads moving slightly side to side like rattlesnakes.
They opened their wings about halfway and raised them toward me as if to shoe me away.
There was no fear. None at all. I was certain that if I'd been their size, they would have attacked me.
I was so surprised and fascinated that I didn't move. I froze, still as a post.
I was hoping the moment would last and I didn't want to risk pissing them off even more by moving.
Suddenly they turned away, and beating their great wings laboriously, ran and lifted off into the darkness.
Lewis Follansbee, the ornithologist from the university in the passenger seat, had watched the whole thing.
"That was the first time they had ever encountered a human," he told me.


On this day in 1979, I inadvisedly launched into Sierra Wave conditions from the White Mountains.
Although the wind close to the slope was turbulent, several hundred feet out it became glassy smooth and very lifty.
Able to fly as fast as I wanted in my Spectra Zodiac, I turned south toward Bishop.
Not far from Chalfant, a mature Golden Eagle joined me, watching me intently just off my wingtip.
We flew for about five miles like this, then I returned north and lost him.
Hang gliders were relatively new in the Owens Valley at that time, only 14 months after the first XC-Classic was staged from Gunter by Don Partridge.
The eagles seemed more curious then than in the ensuing years.
I like to think that when they finally realized we weren't a threat and we weren't food, they lost interest.

Years later, I mentioned this to Larry Tudor (or perhaps it was Jim Lee) and he told me about a hang glider pilot somewhere who had been attacked by an eagle.
The big bird had flown right up to his control bar and latched onto his arm with its huge talons and began tearing at him.
The pilot, terrified and in considerable agony, couldn't get the bird to let go.
In fear for his life, he resorted to beating the powerful yet fragile creature to death against his uprights while his glider dove out of control.
When he landed, the talons, even in death, were locked so tightly into the flesh of his arm, he had to cut them off with a knife to free himself.

[Bob Kuczewski]

... and crown thy good
with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea.

America the Beautiful, the Bald Eagle, and a group of hang glider pilots working to restore our freedoms to fly ... patriotic indeed.

There are a lot of coincidences in this topic. For example, Scott was the first person to join the US Hawks after the HGAA fiasco. It seems fitting that his informal yahoo group (which actually predates the US Hawks) should grow up to become the club that finally spans the nation for us. Thanks Scott!!

It would be good strategy for USHPA chapters everywhere to join the US Hawks. This costs nothing to do and takes very little time.

That's exactly the message we should strive to spread. Freedom requires the ability to choose, which in turn requires that there be choices - viable choices. That's what's been needed in this sport and that's what each of us can work toward in our own ways. Scott stepping up to turn his long time discussion group into a US Hawks chapter is another way that Scott has helped bring us one step closer to freedom ... from sea to shining sea!!

[JoeF]

Hang gliding flow has been a help to birds.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Aside from the amazing flying, the dynamic cloud formation at the beginning was ... stunning!!!

[Rick Masters]

I made the time lapse before I launched at 5 pm, if I remember correctly. To illustrate how hard-headed I was at the time, on my way through Bishop, I stopped by Bill Dodson's and asked him to come fly with me. But he refused to come along. "I don't want to see you die," he said, or something to that effect.

After I launched and made the pass down to Bishop with a Golden Eagle, I flew back in front of launch and Tim shot that last bit where I entered strong lift (2000+ fpm) and quickly climbed to 12,000 feet. At that point I began to spiral, putting in as much slip as I possibly could. To my surprise, I could not descend at all but I could maintain my altitude in the breathable zone. I did not want to fly west because I knew there might be a rotor set up, although there was no rotor cloud, and I did not want to drift eastward and get blown over the White Mountains. So I continued the spiral through sunset and into darkness. I watched the stars come out and gradually the wave lift diminished. I landed in the headlights of my old Scout at Don Partridge's ranch.
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    Gravity wave clouds occur within a stably stratified layer of air, that is, a layer resistant to convection. A rising cumulus tower, impinging on the underside of a stable layer of air, can set gravity waves in motion. Another common source of gravity waves is cross-mountain flow. In either case, air forced upward into a stable layer quickly becomes colder than its surroundings (it becomes negatively buoyant). Gravity acts to pull this air back to a level where its temperature matches that of its surroundings, but the air overshoots its mark, sinking lower and becoming warmer than its surroundings. Positive buoyancy then brings the air back up, continuing an oscillation that only slowly damps out. These oscillations occur while the air has a horizontal component of motion. Often the crests of the gravity waves are marked by clouds and the troughs by cloud-free air. Sometimes the wave crests form long, parallel bands of clouds perpendicular to the wind direction, and separated by cloudless bands of roughly equal width.

    Orographic lee wave clouds present a perfect example of this process. Given adequate moisture, a cloud will form near the crest of a mountain range as the prevailing wind, blowing perpendicular to the range, is forced up and over the barrier. Up- and down-oscillations in the flow downstream of the range often result in multiple, elongated lines of clouds at the crest of each wave. These cloud lines may extend tens of miles downstream, and chinook and related winds can cause such formations. One of the more famous regional lee wave clouds is the Sierra Wave, which forms over the Owens Valley, just east of the high Sierra. Related to this type of cloud is a rotor, which spins on a horizontal axis between the mountain range and the lee cloud formation. A rotor can spell disaster for aircraft of all types and sizes due to the associated extreme wind shear.
http://www.weatherwise.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2014/September-October%202014/extraordinary_full.html