[Bob Kuczewski]

Great quote from Mike.

If USHPA were a hang gliding organization, this picture would have been sent to every member every month:

HGRatings1996_2017.png (92.02 KiB) Viewed 5371 times

That chart is shameful ... and it reflects what we've seen first hand here at Torrey Pines.

[Rick Masters]

As we've discussed many times here on the US Hawks Forum, when paragliding gradually got a toehold in the firmly established USHGA, they began proselytizing paragliding and converting newbies who would otherwise have pursued hang gliding.
As they gained greater influence and presence on the BOD, schools began to train greater numbers of PG than HG.
When it was seen that PG produced greater income in a shorter time, it was the ruination of all our years of work to bring HG into the mainstream.

But the PG proved to be a Trojan Horse.
None of this had anything to do with the quality of flight, safety, ethics or skill.
It was all driven only by economics.
The paraglider was the lazy instructor and lazy student's dream machine.
Less for more.
Much, much less as USHGA gave up its long fought battles for safety to herald in the dangerous but lucrative paraglider.
And let's not forget its idiot cousin, speedflying...

The solution has always been within reach.
In the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, BobK is one of the few who acted to save our sport, which is why I am here.
There is only one thing to do.
Form a national hang gliding association dedicated to recreational hang gliding - and start over.
It worked before.
It can work again.
Make it simple and it will last.

And can I say something about the Foundation for Free Flight?
The inmates are running the asylum at FFF.
They were conceived to support free flight.
They could have supported all forms of free flight but they had a philosophical brain spasm that would make Plato blush, and decided they would only support groups that were flying all kinds of free-flight aircraft all at once.
That's stupid.
So now an organization that believes its free-flight wing is safer than the others and doesn't want to dilute its efforts or place itself at liability risk is somehow outside the FFF's purview?
What??????
What happened?
People need to rethink what the hell is going on.
Did anybody else besides me notice that paragliding essentially made a HUGE raid on the FFF savings account to keep the crippled USHGA ne USHPA afloat?
Now in this BOD note it says that the FFF doesn't save any money - its purpose is to give money away.
Well, they lived up to that, didn't they?
They hardly have any money left!!!!!!

[Rick Masters]

Vermont regulators discuss failure of four Vermont RRGs
https://players.brightcove.net/819002453001/BJQQDtMCe_default/index.html?videoId=5535632356001

[Rick Masters]

Forum post by the current president of the United States Hang gliding and Paragliding Association:

"Rick Masters is a fool with an agenda.
He knows that his stats are misleading and incomplete.
There are other better sources which have been cited.
Virtually all incidents are a result of the pilot doing something wrong.
Collapses rarely just happen in benign conditions."

        -- Pmurdoch, “Re: Rick Masters and Mythology of the Airframe," Paragliding Forum, posted 27 Sep 2011 at 11:00 p.m.
            http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=42084

The site that paraglider operator Pmurdoch is referring to in his post:
Mythology of the Airframe by hang glider pilot Rick Masters
https://web.archive.org/web/20120321165848/http://www.cometclones.com:80/
Note: This website was closed in the middle of April 2012 during data collection. All numbers are lower than current data.
It was closed when the code was copied in an attack by paraglider operators to draw off Google searches from Mythology of the Airframe to this ad hominum attack site:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120202235207/http://www.cometcrones.com:80/
I realized then I was wasting my time trying to save the lives of paraglider operators and I was just going to get to watch them die.
Since then, no paraglider operator has ever asked me to restart the site.

Rick, are you sending in your collection of deadly incidents?

To the USHPA?
Not likely.

What changed?
What brought about the sudden 180-degree turn in reporting incidents?
It looks to me that they got caught by their insurers in their paragliding safety coverup and it cost everybody.
As you know, I have little sympathy for those hang glider pilots who are stuck with financing spiralling paragliding insurance rates.
You dance with the devil, you get burned.
The only thing to do now is to start over with a new national hang gliding association dedicated exclusively to recreational hang gliding.
And let paragliding fend for itself.

[Rick Masters]

Paragliding injuries and deaths are epidemic in Europe. This news report from France is instructive:
http://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/nouvelle-aquitaine/correze/accident-parapente-chaumeil-correze-1345799.html
---------------------

... lorsque la voile d'un parapentiste s'est brusquement repliée sur elle-même au niveau du lieu-dit du Puy-de-la-Fournaise à Chaumeil en Corrèze... Des accidents de parapente, dont certains mortels, ont régulièrement lieu sur le massif des Monédières, les sapeurs-pompiers de Corrèze recommandent la plus grande vigilance aux pratiquants de cette discipline.

...when the sail of the paraglider suddenly collapsed on itself at the place called Puy-de-la-Fournaise in Chaumeil Corrèze... Paragliding accidents, some of which are fatal, regularly occur on the Monédières mountain range. The Corrèze firefighters recommend the greatest vigilance to the practitioners of this discipline.

---------------------
The sport of hang gliding is not mentioned.

[DaveSchy]

As I told Dweebus Blob (in the early 90's), including paragliding in USHGA would kill the sport, and that is why sport parachuting was wise enough to say no to their inclusion.
Pointing fingers won't re-kindle what at one time, we all thought would be as big as skiing.
However...
hang gliding was diminished to the present unsustainable levels by...
the U$HPA itself!
By:
Ridiculous dues
Stupid membership rules
the requirement that Observers have an on line presence (ref to Loopy Schleppston and the Most Grotesque Forbinculator)
Speed flying
and last, but most... paragliding!
Recently, I spoke with a past member who had a "number" in the 600's who suggested that any pilots with a number under, maybe, 3,000, should have a no cost lifetime membership because we have supported the club faithfully for half our lives.
A great idea, but too late.
U$HPA has killed itself.
Enjoy that open bar and watch the death spiral, "Bored".

[SamKellner]

Enjoy that open bar and watch the death spiral, "Bored".

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