[Rick Masters]

When I say "trash his reputation"

Quite a few people outside the US Hawks appear to be doing a pretty good job of that without any additional help.

[Bob Kuczewski]

On April 23rd, 2015 at 8:06 am (page 18 in this same topic), Rick Masters wrote:

The thing is, the insurers aren't going to know who to believe. They will, however, believe this: The USHPA can't keep its own house in order.

But worse, much worse, is the behavior of the tandem paraglider parachutists entrusted with children. They clearly endangered the children by engaging in canopy relative work within the PDMC above a public Beach while claiming to be providing "instruction." If the insurers should see this video, they will realize their actual exposure is far beyond what they had assumed. They will also realize they can no longer trust the USHPA.

And what happened to USHPA's insurance later in 2015? That's right, they lost it.

Rick has been officially elevated to "prophet status" in my book.

[Bill Cummings]

I would like to see someone submit the video with a clear, concise step by step analogy (of what is actually taking place)...

Have you seen this?
  Link removed pending establishment of fair use  
Brad Geary video

Can someone make a copy of the video before it is taken down.
Bob may have need of it in court.

Bob I claim prophet status too for my post above.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I would like to see someone submit the video with a clear, concise step by step analogy (of what is actually taking place)...

Have you seen this?
  Link removed pending establishment of fair use  
Brad Geary video

Can someone make a copy of the video before it is taken down.
Bob may have need of it in court.

Bob I claim prophet status too for my post above.

Bill, you've been on my "prohpet status" list since the day I met you!!

Seriously, what you folks are doing with the RGSA is super!!!  

[Bob Kuczewski]

P.S. I should warn both of you that you are scheduled for expulsion for interfering with our "non-prophet" status!!

[Bill Cummings]

P.S. I should warn both of you that you are scheduled for expulsion for interfering with our "non-prophet" status!!

"non-prophet" status!!

It took a little bit but I got it!

[Bob Kuczewski]

As hinted above, our entire web site has been threatened by Air California Adventures claiming that we are committing copyright infringement by linking to the pictures of gross safety violations contained on KiteStrings.org.

I will be working to resolve this because I believe those pictures and our links represent what is called "fair use" of those images. Stay tuned.

I also happened to look up the protections against prosecutorial abuse established in our US Constitution. Please read the 6th Amendment and make note of USHPA's violations of these protections in their "kangaroo court" expulsion:

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Please feel to post all the violations you can spot.    Have fun with this one!!   

[eagle]

Lol ~ While under a threat to shut Up

~ I'm Getting Confused ~

The Truth is a LIE.jpg (11.53 KiB) Viewed 7791 times

[Rick Masters]

...our entire web site has been threatened by Air California Adventures claiming that we are committing copyright infringement by linking to the pictures of gross safety violations...

We, the hang gliding community, are under instruction by federal authorities to regulate our sport.
There is not a snowflake's chance in hell of those photos or video being kept from the public.
In any court case, they would be recognized as evidence of wrongdoing on public land and in public airspace.
Not that it matters:
Linking to free web content is legal, says EU Court
BBC     14 February 2014
Websites can link to freely available content without the permission of the copyright holder, the European Court of Justice says.
...In a statement it said: "The owner of a website may, without the authorisation of the copyright holders, redirect internet users, via hyperlinks, to protected works available on a freely accessible basis on another site."
..."If the decision had gone the other way it would have broken the internet," said Susan Hall, technology lawyer at Clarke Willmott.
"The way we communicate online is predicated on sharing material, whether that's links to Robert Peston on Bank of England interest rates, decisions of the European court or pictures of otters who look like Benedict Cumberbatch," she said.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26187730

[Bob Kuczewski]

Great posts Eagle and Rick. Sorry it's taken me a year to read them. This was a painful topic for me in the past.

But in anticipation of presenting my expulsion as evidence against USHPA's continued monopoly control of our publicly owned flying sites, I decided to re-read this entire topic. It was a good exercise. Unfortunately, I did it on my cell phone ... and my eyesight might never be the same.



Around the time of my expulsion hearing, I was under considerable stress (lawsuits, unjust arrests, building the Hawks, ny regular day job, etc), but I did my best to respond to our US Hawks posts with any facts that I had at the time. However, in re-reading this entire topic, I found this post from Brian that I must have missed:

With another expulsion the person had a long record of problems which included many warnings from a local level before it came to an expulsion. I guess there must be a similar track record of Bob's infractions and warnings that finally led to this.

I'm sorry that I missed Brian's post (sorry Brian) because he made an excellent point that didn't get the attention it deserved. For all of the garbage that USHPA accused me of, you would think (as Brian suggested) there would have been a long long paper trail of warnings. They might look something like this:

Mr. Kuczewski,
It is our understanding that you've recently been involved with a number of pilots in founding the Hang Gliding Association of America (HGAA). Please cease and desist from any further involvement in that organization or we will expel you from USHPA.

Nope. I never got that message.

Mr. Kuczewski,
It is our understanding that you've recently been involved with a number of pilots in founding the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association. Please cease and desist from any further involvement in that organization or we will expel you from USHPA.

Nope. I never got that message either.

Mr. Kuczewski,
It is our understanding that you've been reporting problems at Torrey Pines to the San Diego City Council. You know very well that the Torrey Pines crew are among our closest cronies, so please cease and desist from any further public testimony or we will expel you from USHPA.

Nope. I never got that message either.

Now here's the real message that they didn't write ... because they couldn't legally do so:

Mr. Kuczewski,
We've seen your recent expert witness deposition testimony in the Hamby case, and it implicates our entire organization as being irresponsible in our handling of important safety matters. If you actually testify to these facts in the court case (as you did in your recorded deposition) we will expel you from USHPA.

That's the one warning they would have loved to have sent ... but couldn't. Instead, they settled the case (you can bet it was expensive) and came after me in retaliation.

So your point, Brian, was excellent, and I apologize that it took me so long to respond to it. Thanks for your long history here on the US Hawks.

By the way, in discussing the Los Angeles / Dockweiler matter, it dawned on me why USHPA listed my "starting a competing organization" first in their list. I always felt that was odd because it was such a blatant enforcement of USHPA's implicit monopoly. Why call attention to their monopoly by putting it first? But earlier today I was discussing this with a friend and I realized that the real reason for the expulsion was my testimony in the Hamby case. But if they only cited that one reason (or made it too prominent), it would have been an obvious case of retaliation. So they had to "dress it up" with a bunch of other stuff to hide their real motive.

After all, I'd been testifying before the San Diego City Council about Torrey Pines since 2008. Why no expulsion (or even a warning) in all those 7 years? I started both the HGAA and the US Hawks in 2010. Why no expulsion (or warning) in all those 5 years? But my deposition in the Hamby case was September of 2014. I was in court with the Torrey "workplace violence" persecution from November of 2014 until March of 2015 (when I was found innocent of all charges). That's when USHPA's insurance ended up settling the Hamby case and I suspect that's when USHPA got the hint that they would lose their insurance. And THAT's when USHPA fired their expulsion notice against me.

So I believe their real motivation for my expulsion was my testimony, but they "dressed it up" with all those other charges to bury what they were really doing - retaliating against an expert witness.

USHPA has become a disgusting den of crooks and liars. They need to be expelled from the sport of hang gliding.