[Bob Kuczewski]

Hi Neil,

When you say "From Day One" ....

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You're not exaggerating one bit!!!

It remains an honor to have you posting to our forum. Thanks!!!

[wingspan33]

I just stumbled on this section of the US Hawk's web site! WOW! My first glider was an EipperFormance Flexi Flier 17 foot standard. That was back in 1975. My next two gliders were the EipperFormance Flexi Flier II then the Flexi Flier III. In 1980 I switched over to Wills Wing and got a Raven.

But, I still have my original Flexi Flier manual. I'll have to see about copying it and posting it here.

I truly never knew that Dick Eipper was so connected with the beginnings of the USHGA. It's great to find that out.

PS - I still have the sail to my original Flexi Flier and could rebuild its frame if I ever wanted. Kind of odd being a (small) part of history.

[Rick Masters]

On August 15, 1973, Dick Eipper celebrated his 27th birthday “with a leap from the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii to establish a new world record for altitude drop and distance in a hang glider. Using a Flexi Flier, a rogallo-type hang glider of his own design, Dick jumped from the 10,012-foot level and dropped a record 8,362 feet while travelling 9 ¼ miles cross-country and staying airborne 19 minutes 39 seconds.
-- "Death Valley Birdman,” Sailplane & Gliding, Oct-Nov 1973

[JoeF]

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See and read full article: Air Surfing: A nervy new sport by Penny Nicolai
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In Nov.1972 issue of PM:

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[Bill Cummings]

Thanks and please keep it coming.

[Steve Penny]

My Name is Steve Penny, I was a good friend of Dick Eipper's and was the first Secretary and Member #3 of the Southern California Hang Glider Association we founded one night in 1971 in the loft where Dick was making sales. I had grown up with the Torrance Beach Cliffs as my playground before the houses were built where I first saw him fly, and Dick was about 4 or 5 years older than me so everything he was doing I thought was really neat!

I helped him build and launch some of his first kites out of bamboo held together with hose clamps and 6 mill clear plastic for sales - and launch them from the Hollywood Rivera Cliffs to see what worked. Like what's become a well known shot of Dick (who was always barefoot) in the Bamboo kite with Steve Wilson to his left who later ran Eipper-Formance - and I think Chris Parker steadying the tail just as he was going airborne.

https://barcelonaonthreewheels.files.wo ... jpg?w=1200

And Dick got my girlfriend he had a thing for after I moved north to go to college in Santa Barbara later that year!

Dick was an amazing soul with a calculated madman's streak that was so inspiring to me as a teenager at the time! I remember him wearing his Superman tee shirt and trying out the prone position suspended from his back for the first time rather than sitting in a chair as we had done previously - and what a rush it was for him to be flying with his arms out prone like Superman!

He was so creative and forward looking - the excitement in his eyes when he got a new idea that would seize his imagination that looked like he was looking way past the mundane world most are rooted in that made him such an exciting role model for me that egged us all on to greater heights - pun intended!

I also remember him taking a bad accident - if I recall correctly breaking his leg - but having an important demonstration of the new business he was trying to "get off the ground" with his latest model that he didn't want his injury to show.

He had a very bad limp, trying his best not to show it, that I always wondered if he would ever get over pushing his luck stressing it again before it had really healed. I can still see the look in his eyes trying to extinguish that pain!

Definitely had a madman's maniacal edge to him with a wry smile and glint in his eye I'll never forget!

And, I will never forget that night in 1971 Joe Faust saying how important our numbers would someday be as the founding members, mine being #3 as the Secretary at the first meeting after Dick #1 and the VP #2 - Joe #5 - just as Joe said the founding members of the American Glider Association coveted their numbers who were checking us out to see what these crazy kids were doing with these early hang gliders!

Almost 50 years later, Joe's sense of history was right on - and seeing this posting tonight about Dick's #1 leadership roll we all admired so much inspired me to remember that night - and Joe's comment as well!

Thank you for all the love and effort you've put into this organization and keeping the faith of what's made all our hearts soar!

I know Dick's spirit's soaring like it did in life!

Steve Penny

[Steve Penny]

And to add one confirmation of fact to Neil Larson's previous post - yes, I remember clearly when Dick Eipper got the job at Blue Water Sails and how thrilled he was to have a place to work on his projects after work at the loft in Lomita, California where we held the first meeting of the Southern California Hang Glider Association in 1971. This was when he was living in a small studio in the back of a house in Redondo Beach, but was often working till very late at night at the loft. The loft with a real floor and sewing machines was definitely a huge step up for Dick after working on the grass in the backyard of the Redondo Beach studio building hang gliders from bamboo, hose clamps and duct tape!

And yes, like me at the time, I can't ever remember Dick wearing shoes! All the photos of him are barefoot, even on the cover of Popular Mechanics Magazine in 1972. This was when we took great pride being able to prove we were surfers by being able to pick up dimes off a linoleum floor with our bare feet! And our aim flipping bottlecaps! These were "Must have" skills if you were a surfer in the South Bay in 60s and early 70s!

I remember showing up at his studio one afternoon dressed in a suit after doing something formal and him just cracking up saying "I don't have any clothes anywhere close to that!"

I then moved to Santa Barbara and built hang gliders from swamp grass I cut in the marshes behind the airport and bound them together with hose clamps like Dick working at night on the floor of a laundromat at UCSB for my building space - but never came anywhere remotely close to Dick's achievements being such a visionary in this sport! He was always such a forward looking out of the box thinker that has been such an inspiration to me - and had a thing for my girlfriend I was so glad he connected with I remember us talking about and cracking up about in our last conversation after I left the South Bay and moved to Santa Barbara!

Steve Penny

[Bob Kuczewski]

My Name is Steve Penny, I was a good friend of Dick Eipper's and was the first Secretary and Member #3 of the Southern California Hang Glider Association we founded one night in 1971 ...

Welcome to the U.S.Hawks Steve!!!

And, I will never forget that night in 1971 Joe Faust saying how important our numbers would someday be as the founding members, mine being #3 as the Secretary at the first meeting after Dick #1 and the VP #2 - Joe #5 - just as Joe said the founding members of the American Glider Association coveted their numbers who were checking us out to see what these crazy kids were doing with these early hang gliders!

Almost 50 years later, Joe's sense of history was right on - and seeing this posting tonight about Dick's #1 leadership roll we all admired so much inspired me to remember that night - and Joe's comment as well!

And after 50 years, Joe is still flying. See his recent flights from just this past Tuesday in the "Dockweiler RHG Diary" topic. 

Thank you for all the love and effort you've put into this organization and keeping the faith of what's made all our hearts soar!

I know Dick's spirit's soaring like it did in life!

Steve Penny

Thank you Steve. It's great that so many pioneers of hang gliding are willing to share their history with the rest of us.

[JoeF]

Welcome Steve
https://www.delta-club-82.com/bible/634-deltaplane-bamboo-bomber.htm


Image: Steve Wilson is on left of image. Dick Eipper is pilot best guess, but Parker is claiming to be pilot. One is guessing Mark Toler to be tail pushing. Not sure.

This year Steve Wilson met up with Mike Koman (Das) at an Hawai'i farmer's market.