[DaveSchy]

At the core of the growing number of US Hawks, the death spiral of U$HPA, the RRG mess, site insurance and the FAA is:
SELF REGULATION.

Self regulation was:
the founding concept of the (now dead) USHGA
a large reason for the FAA allowing us Part 103 exempt status
a reason public and private land owners allowed fee free access under outdoor recreation laws
the closeness and respect we felt to our fellow pilots
the exchange of safety, weather, site and technique information
(I am sure there is more)

U$HPA chose to follow the money, regulate and attempt to secure their dwindling membership via the waiver, site insurance and the disastrous inclusion of collapsing aircraft, and ABANDONED our tradition of self regulation in favor of self promotion, growth (like cancer), control and restrictive access policies. By consciously abandoning self regulation and including ownership of the RRG by every member, Part 103 may already be violated. Make no mistake, U$HPA is dying, quickly, and only by their own greedy hand. They KNOW IT! Paying some lawyer $200,000 to try to fix it with an RRG will not work, in the long run.

Paragliding is far too dangerous to be folded into hang gliding. Since paragliding has been marketed as an easy to learn thrill ride, it will not grow (grow, grow, grow) if it is allowed to be self regulated. Thus, U$HPA becomes more fascist and stubbornly refuses to awaken to the truth they once embraced, and then turned away from. U$HPA is a paragliding club.

Faced with renewal of "insurance" (which is really an underwritten bond), site stewards would be better off re-negotiating access using our proud history of self regulation and liability EXEMPTION via state outdoor recreation laws. Public land is "owned"... by the public, not the agency. Self regulation and outdoor recreation IMPLIES no insurance, no lawyers, no liabilities or expensive attempts at monetizing access to every being's sky and the occasional consequence of pilot error.

Ignoring self regulation has led to the current sad state of divisive politics (even at launch, where, as pilots, our focus is mandatory), rising costs, decreasing protection for land owners, a thin and vanishing veil of insurability, and a possible new look at Part 103 by the feds.

I am hoping people think really hard about self regulation when asked to negotiate, when asked to "renew", when asked to "save free flight" by sending MONEY (isn't THAT an oxymoron?).

As mortality creeps in, for those of us taking the long view, I believe in the cyclic nature of things. (I have flown hang gliders every year since 1976, when I was 24).

That brings us full circle to... the US Hawks!

We already have every thing we need, and we do not need to incorporate, or insure. We need to educate, spread the word and maintain absolute separation from the greed of uncontrolled growth (cancer) and unnecessary regulation.

We need to take back our precious sites, find new ones, and always, always remember and honor those founding members who made this all possible.

[JoeF]

[Bob Kuczewski]

Let's make it happen.

[Frank Colver]

When I switched from hang gliding to foot launch hot air ballooning I felt the sting of FAA regulation and oh how I missed the freedom of the hang gliding I had left behind.

Frank Colver

[Bob Kuczewski]

From forum.hanggliding.org:

"FLY LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW" - WORDS OF WISDOM FROM AN ELDER

By miraclepieco-  Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:05 pm

The following was written by an original founding member of a venerable USHPA Chapter who has a long-term perspective (40+ years) of how the sport of hang gliding has been managed since it's inception. I did not author this so don't blame me, however I do think it's important for newer pilots (those with less than 20 years in the sport) to consider where we came from and thus where we're going:

It’s no secret that I was never a fan of USHPA’s mandatory national insurance scheme. There were two basic reasons for that; I believed it will be detrimental to growing or even maintaining our sport and the statements made that insurance would, “save free flight” and that over 200 sites nationally were “at risk” were knowingly false - made to scare pilots into donating $2 Million to fund the insurance company run largely by USHPA’s “leaders”.

Sadly, as many believed, our sport has been irreparably harmed by this costly and grossly false scheme.

Individual instructors ending their schools. Established large flight schools who were previously profitable - for 20 years! - have closed their doors for ever. Why? The burden of insurance demanded by USHPA has proven to be wildly too expensive to justify continued operations.

Our sport is dying. USHPA in their myopic determination to maintain control of our sport, and thus their bureaucratic existence, has destroyed hang gliding instruction across the Country.

The major HG schools still in existence (Wallaby & Quest) are eventually going to fold under the burden of continued declining students with simultaneous increasing USHPA & RRRG fees & costs.

Owners of Cloud 9 in Northville Michigan, Lisa & Tracy Tillman are selling their entire school, lock-stock&barrel. Why? Tracy told me, “insurance costs are ten times higher while providing one quarter of the coverage.”

Cloud 9 was the first PSA certified school in the Country. Tracy & Lisa have been active pilots from 1976 and at the BOD level of the sport, but their lice’s were not heeded by USHPA leadership, who insisted on a focus on competition coverage funded by instructors and schools.

At the same time USHPA did nothing to rein-in the accident rate of PGs which remain the excessive. “At a greater rate than the Vietnam War causualty rate.” Tracy says. “No insurer will cover that kind of casualty or accident rate.”

If this trend continues, and it can only accelerate, USHPA and it’s RRRG mandatory national insurance scheme will very shortly be the end themselves, if not HG manufacturing.

While the loss of USHPA is of little consequence IMHO, the destruction of HG schools will lead to the loss of HG manufacturing, and that will be terrible for the foreseeable future of our sport.

My advise: Buy as new a glider as you can. Buy a second for spare parts. Buy plenty of down tubes. And fly like there is no tomorrow.

Because for USHPA, there isn’t.

You may ask yourself, what can we do to save HG? Keep on flying. If you have the knowledge and skill and patience, and gear, teach new HG pilots to fly!

USHPA has made itself its own worst enemy. It has killed itself. But that doesn’t mean that HG is dead... it will simply return to its roots, hopefully to re-grow and renew itself just as it began the first time 40 years ago!

Individuals will spring up to teach new students, new pilots and we’ll find new sites if necessary and continue to fly established sites where we can.

A post script to this story is that Tracy and Lisa Tillman are now teaching general aviation and towing sailplanes at their home site in Michigan - profitably, without the demands of insurance and the USHPA! Tracy tells me that there is still One 914 Dragonfly tug and numerous Hang Gliders for sale listed on Hang Gliding.org. Although he is wistful about the loss of Hang Gliding in the flatlands he is encouraged by his now well-established aviation instruction...he too foresaw the collapse of USHPA and begin his broader aviation activities years ago.

Dave Palmer

Dave Palmer's assessment is excellent.  

However, Tracy Tillman's plight in hang gliding is due (at least in part) to his own actions on the USHPA board of directors. He participated in USHPA's long history of bad decisions. I don't know if he participated knowingly or out of ignorance. The result has been the same.

[Bob Kuczewski]

By the way, there's a poetic justice postscript to the Tracy Tillman story. When Tracy folded his business, he sold off his gliders. Two of his Condors (a 330 and a 225*) were purchased by a U.S. Hawks board member, and they're now being flown at Dockweiler by some of the founding members of USHGA (and others) ... with no USHPA membership required.

Thanks Frank!!  

* Corrected from 250 to 225 per Frank's subsequent post.

[DaveSchy]

Thanks to all.
It is very comforting that people like Dave Palmer have come to the same conclusion as I have. I am re-posting his hanggliding.org post from yesterday to 2 local email lists.
It's happening, guys!!!

[eagle]

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[Frank Colver]

Must be accurate at all times (remember I'm an engineer). The 2 Condors from Cloud 9, now flying at Dockweiler Beach, are a 330 and a 225, not 250. They are like new so they should be around for a long time.

Frank C.

[Bob Kuczewski]

It is very comforting that people like Dave Palmer have come to the same conclusion as I have.

The conclusions were so similar that I was wondering if "DaveSchy" might have been a psuedonym for Dave Palmer. Great minds do think alike.   

I am re-posting his hanggliding.org post from yesterday to 2 local email lists.
It's happening, guys!!!

Spread the word as far and wide as you can. I believe USHPA could go under at any time from their mismanagement. It would be good to start establishing an alternative based on recreational use statutes and the principles that you and Dave have expressed so well.   

a 225, not 250

Thanks for the correction. It's been noted and corrected.