[Frank Colver]

It's way past time for USHPA to speak factually about the "elephant in the room" that is stomping on PG pilots

Every PG pilot and potential PG pilot needs to be honestly warned, by USHPA, that if they fly in anything other than smooth air, they will be playing a high stakes gambling game that is no respecter of pilot skills. A paraglider has several potentially fatal aerodynamic failure modes that are not related to manufacturing quality of the aircraft or skill of the pilot.


The above statement should appear prominently in every issue of the USHPA magazine.

Frank Colver

[Rick Masters]

Every PG pilot and potential PG pilot needs to be honestly warned, by USHPA...

This has outraged me for the past eleven years.
BTW, how do you tell what kind of air you'll be flying in before you're in it?
I haven't learned that trick, yet.

Anyway, you're expecting change from soaring parachutists who think a canopy collapse is a safety feature.
How do you think that vote would go, Frank?
Or do you think there'll be four hang glider pilots and three soaring parachutists on the USHPA Board of Directors to provide a sane outcome?

[Rick Masters]

Paragliding Slaughter
If anyone is interested, there have been 43 people killed on paragliders across the globe so far in 2018 - that I know of, anyway.
I always find a lot more, later on.

"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."
        -- Unelected President-to-be of the USHPA Paul Murdoch when asked about my paragliding fatality numbers in 2011

BTW, Parapaul, a list is not a statistic.
I learned that in grade school.
Also, there is no better source of global paragliding fatalities than mine, even though the list is incomplete.

So Frank, are you going to persuade this guy to warn people about the dangers of unsupported fabric airfoils?        

[Frank Colver]

Of course!

F

[Rick Masters]

Maybe you can break the ice by saying you took paragliding lessons from Marge.

[Rick Masters]

A little more information on our friend, here.

    Flavio had just spent 3,500 Euros on a new two-parachute harness and an 'acrobatic' paraglider because he wanted to do the idiotic tumbling maneuver that all soaring parachutists think is real cool.
    Unlike actual pilots on air-framed aircraft, they are unable to do real aerobatics on a parachute because the "wing" doesn't have enough kenetic energy to do that kind of thing.
    They have to, instead, rely on the kenetic energy and mass of the pilot to do this stupid rotating trick, which is not a loop.
    Since they have to resort to tumbling in leiu of anything else other than wingovers, they all tell each other its cool and they all believe it.
    As a pilot, I just want to mention again how idiotic it is. Its not cool. Its really stupid and really dangerous. Okay?
    IMO, the closest analogy to tumbling for a real aircraft is doing a Lomcovak.

So Flavio buys this new equipment to be cool and "safe," too.
    I mean, what could be safer than two parachutes on a paraglider?        
    Then Flavio goes out and starts tumbling.
    But first he writes on his Facebook page, "Maybe it's time to put my head in order and give up the risk."
    At the top of his tumble he runs out of momentum and falls straight down, into the canopy below him.
    He's all wrapped up. He tries to chuck out his two parachutes to be safe.
    But they get all tangled up.
    SPLAT!
    No more Flavio.
    Too bad. Flavio would have made a great cross-country hang glider pilot.
    Except he wanted to be cool and hang out with the cool kids.

"Over and over, I've heard comments from PG pilots who are interested in HG as a crossover possibility, but put off by the attitude and posturing of some in the HG community. Such as Rick Masters and Rodger Hoyt. If you act like a bunch of arrogant, sneering elitists, you'll attract a few like-minded souls. The rest of the crowd is going to hang out with the cool kids, flying paragliders.
    -- Mark Forbes, USHPA Director and Insurance Chairman, 2011

There you go: I'm the problem. A sneering elitist with a footlaunch aircraft that won't collapse, flys faster and farther than a pokey parachute and does real aerobatics.        

"This sort of divisive crap is the LAST thing we need." -- MF

That there's a real problem in the USHPA when people speak out honestly, is the problem.
Go ahead, Mark. Show us how cool you are.
We can't wait.        

[Rick Masters]

Paragliding        June 25, 2018
http://dai.ly/x6mqwcg
Rescue teams call in a military chopper to airlift a critically injured soaring parachutist from a mountainside.

[Rick Masters]

Paragliding
Uh-oh. The Korean Consumer Agency is investigating paragliding - particularly commercial joyriding - within South Korea and is not happy with what it is finding.
http://kca.go.kr/brd/m_32/view.do?seq=2213&srchFr=&srchTo=&srchWord=&srchTp=&itm_seq_1=0&itm_seq_2=0&multi_itm_seq=0&company_cd=&company_nm=&page=2
Good thing there is no commercial joyriding in the United States, huh!
You lucky paragliding instructors!        
The FAR 103 saved your butts. Right?
All those new paragliding students. All those waivers.
They go right on the USHPA list of active pilots. What a deal.

[Rick Masters]

July 11, 2018
Another heavy Brazillian paraglider!
On May 19, a soaring parachutist from Brazil was arrested at Spain's Valencia Airport when customs authorities discovered over 15 lbs of cocaine stuffed in his paraglider.
http://www.levante-emv.com/sucesos/2018/05/21/sorprendido-valencia-7-kilos-cocaina/1720906.html


Now about the same amount of cocaine has been discovered smuggled into a French airport - Bordeaux/Mérignac.
"The passage of the baggage in the X-ray machine reveals 'suspicious masses'," said the regional director of the customs of Bordeaux. "The paraglider was thus opened and examined in depth. Inside, the agents discovered six packages of cocaine. This is the largest cocaine seizure since 2010 at the Mérignac airport."



Whatever happened to the good old days when Brazillians smuggled their cocaine in hang gliders?    


                                                        "Jeez, I'd rather die than carry this heavy paraglider!"

Also, before you arrive at the airport, you girlfriends of Brazillian paraglider pilots should probably take a closer look inside the heavy paraglider he asked you to take to Europe for him.


She don't lie but he do.

Bad To Worse: Cocaine In Brazil Is Filled With Lots Of Other Junk Too
https://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/bad-to-worse-cocaine-in-brazil-is-filled-with-lots-of-other-junk-too
Cocaine, for instance, is mixed with antithermics, caffeine, anesthetics, and even vermicides typically used to kill intestinal worms. Phenacetin, a forbidden antithermic and anesthetic, was found in 35% of all cocaine samples. In 11% of it there was also levamisole, a vermicide used for animals.

This could be good news if your house guests are Brazillian paragliders.        

Pass the Coke. Pass the barf bag. Pass out.

[Rick Masters]

July 14, 2018

Greenpeace protester flies paramotor with banner at Turnberry Hotel, Trump's presidential venue in Scotland.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-44832919

"There are armed assets protecting the president - both from the US Secret Service and ourselves and the Met Police, who offer a close protection function as well. And there's no doubt anybody who breaches security around him puts themselves in grave danger," said a Scottish policeman, shouldering a tweet-seeking missle. Unfortunately, no egg was found.

Hope we don't find out that hang gliding is banned within 150 miles of the president for the next 6 years!