Hello Fellow Torrey Hawks,

Tomorrow is our Second Sunday gathering at Torrey Pines. The forecast looks pretty good (if it's not raining!!), and the direction is predicted to follow the south-in-the-morning to north-in-the-evening pattern. But for most of the day (especially during the strongest winds) it will be a bit more from the south, so be careful on launch.

Here's the latest forecast as I'm posting this:

  Forecast Made on Sat Apr 09 21:37:04 2016 UTC  

Time	6a	7a	8a	9a	10a	11a	12n	1p	2p	3p	4p	5p	6p	7p	8p	9p	10p
Direction	130	130	160	160	160	220	220	220	230	230	230	260	260	260	290	290	290
Speed	9.0	9.0	6.0	6.0	6.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	14.0	14.0	14.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	8.0	8.0	8.0

I look forward to seeing you there!!!

The forecast held, and it was very strong for paragliding. There were no hang gliders flying, and it's hard to know if that was a result of the strong south wind component or other factors.

I was surprised to see Robin Marien's son (Max Marien) flying paragliding tandem flights. I thought USHPA had pulled his ratings resulting from his air-to-air intentional collisions with child passengers. Does anyone know the story behind that?

Anyway, here are some pictures from the day...


Winds were strong and crossing from the south:



Many of the paraglider tandems needed help getting off the hill in that wind:



Max Marein (Robin's son) was giving tandem rides one after another:







Max got a "push" start with some of his tandems:



Robin Marien spent much of the day driving all over the landing field in his golf cart (he could use to do some walking):



There was another cliff rescue, but this one was supposedly not paragliding related. I've heard stories that paragliding equipment is sometimes hustled away from accidents to make them "non-paragliding" accidents ... just rumors as far as I know ...





I happened to be talking on the phone with Wingspan, and I told him I'd take a "selfie" to remind him of his visit last year:



I hope to see you in May Scott!!

Bob,

I too wonder about Max Marien doing tandems at Torrey Pines. Especially considering that his U$hPa ratings were revoked some time ago. Have they been reinstated by the U$hPa? Or, is he doing tandems under the protection of his father with no rating whatsoever?

I would think that this could put the City of San Diego in a serious (potential) liability position. It could also put the U$hPa's RRG in a similar negative position. Unless they've put his tandem instructor rating back into place.

Somebody who could look this info up at U$hPa's member web site could make all this a lot clearer. I wonder if such a person is out there listening? PM me if you'd feel more comfortable communicating that way.

I don't really know. As you can imagine, U$HPA doesn't contact me when they do favors for the Torrey Conce$$ionaire.


Again, it's hard to say. Maybe someone should look up his ratings?


I agree with all of the above. It wouldn't surprise me if they quietly reinstated his ratings while publicly expelling me for the crime of reporting safety problems and testifying about them. U$HPA has an airtight whistle-blower policy: Expel anyone who makes a peep.


I would like to know as well. Please copy me on the PM.

It's one way or the other:

   - If Max is doing tandems without a tandem rating then he's in violation of the FAA's rules.
   - If USHPA reinstated his tandem rating while expelling me for testifying in the same case, then U$HPA's corruption is showing.

Knowing U$HPA as well as I do, I'd bet on the second.    But the first wouldn't surprise me either.   

I have gotten multiple contacts from people who've checked on his rating, and it appears that he currently has both an advanced instructor rating and a tandem instructor rating:



One person just called U$HPA asking about whether Max Marien ever had his rating suspended and was told that his rating was never suspended. Yet I was told that Max had his tandem rating suspended or revoked based on that incident.

There's clearly something fishy going on here.   

For those who haven't followed this closely, Max Marien and Brad Geary were both flying child passengers while they were engaging in a variety of dangerous stunts at Torrey Pines. These stunts included contact in mid-air between the two paragliders flown by Max Marien and Brad Geary while carrying child passengers. The stunts also included stepping on the top of the other wing and pulling down on the leading edge lines nearly inducing a frontal collapse. It's all documented on video, and you can see still images from that video here:

  [Link Removed Pending Establishment of Fair Use]  

This video would never have been known to anyone if it didn't also happen to catch the collision between two paragliding students and ended up being part of the evidence in the resulting lawsuit. It was my own participation in that lawsuit that caused USHPA to expel me because they continue to protect the grossly negligent behavior at that site.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The U$hPa waiver implicitly DEFINES tandems with minors as criminal child endangerment. Laws in California go along with that.

And the video of what Max Marien and Brad Geary did while flying, with child passengers, was a perfect example of pushing the already present risk of injury or death to the extreme.

I'm fairly certain that that video made its way to the U$hPa's old insurance provider. Considering that, it was Max Marien and Brad Geary who helped(?) cause the U$hPa's insurance crisis - NOT Bob K!

I think I'll give a call to the California State Police Headquarters to see if a person observing a situation involving child endangerment can file a report. Probably can since the victim is usually too young
to even be aware of the law - and the perpetrators are VERY unlikely to turn themselves in .