[Bob Kuczewski]

HGAA: Call for Leaders and Founders

It's coming up on the 14th anniversary of the U.S. Hawks founding, and I thought it would be nice to add a bit more about our history.

The U.S. Hawks really started out on hanggliding.org in June of 2010. At that time, it was becoming more and more obvious that USHPA was not an organization representing pilots ... and certainly not an organization representing hang gliding pilots. USHPA had continued to back the paragliding business at Torrey (despite its impact on hang gliding and recreational flight) and had just manipulated yet another Regional Director election by changing the rules during an active election ... while voting was still underway. That was the last straw for me and quite a few others.

On June 4th, 2010, I published the following open letter on hanggliding.org:

HGAA: Call for Leaders and Founders

I suspect there might be enough interest in creating a new national flying organization that I'd like to put out a call for Leaders and Founders who would like to be a part of defining and shaping such a new organization.

At this point, I don't want to put any constraints on the form or purpose of that new organization. Instead I'd like to simply gather people together to discuss the possibility of actually forming such an organization to be announced more formally on July 4th, 2010 (U.S. Independence Day).

I am asking for people willing to participate as either Leaders and/or Founders. I see Leaders as those willing to actually take on some of the work (whether it's building a web site, or investigating insurance, or serving on the Board), while I see Founders as people who don't have time for a leadership role but want to put their own names on the list of those who supported the first phase of this new organization.

Finally, since this organization is in its first phase, it's hard to say who will actually support what we end up with. Maybe I won't end up supporting whatever comes out of a month of discussions. So being a Founding member is not an obligation to support the organization forever, but simply a statement that you would like to support the effort to discuss and define that new organization. Anyone who signs up between now and July 4th, 2010 will be considered a Founding member and will retain that title for as long (or short) as they want it.

If there is enough interest, then I think we can do this. If there isn't, then this will finally tell me that as well.

Sincerely,
Bob Kuczewski
June 4th, 2010

That simple letter started a beehive of activity - both for and against the proposed association. There were several highly active topics quickly created on hanggliding.org to discuss different aspects of the newly proposed association. Some pilots began joining and volunteering both time and money. Others were busy trying to shoot holes in the idea. The association soon had a name: HGAA (Hang Gliding Association of America) and a web site (hgaa.org). From June 4th through about July 4th of 2010 things looked very optimistic for the new organization.

But there was trouble on the horizon, and the hidden agendas of several participants soon became apparent. There were, of course, the regular USHPA loyalists who felt that it was blasphemy to even suggest an alternative. Fortunately, the USHPA loyalists were pretty easy to spot, and that made them less of a threat to the HGAA. It was the wolves in sheep's clothing that we didn't really anticipate. In particular, it was some of the HGAA's supposedly strongest supporters ... who ended up killing it.

The story of the HGAA's death is fairly well documented on the U.S. Hawks. It was a pretty big deal at the time, and several of us worked hard to capture the facts and screen shots of what was happening (while Jack Axaopoulos ("sg") was simultaneously attempting to bury it). You can read about it on several topics in our forum.

But what had not been well captured was the initial excitement and optimism of the HGAA. It wasn't just a few disgruntled hang gliding pilots complaining about USHPA. It was a thriving and active effort to build a better association to support the sport of hang gliding. That's the story that was buried by Jack Axaopoulos back in 2010 ... and ever since.

Fortunately, there remains enough digital evidence (Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine": June of 2010 and August of 2010, among other sources) to recreate a good portion of that history. So I recently made an effort to restore the original "Call for Leaders and Founders" topic that was started with my previously quoted post on June 4, 2010. You can find it here:

      https://ushawks.org/HGAA/Call_for_Leaders_and_Founders/

Note that if you follow the two "Wayback Machine" links (June 2010 and August 2010), you'll find the same topic page (because it had the same topic number of 17525), but the original (June) topic was in "Hang Gliding General" but by August Jack Axaopoulos had moved it to (buried in) "The Basement". This reflected Jack's attempt to kill the HGAA when he realized that it might have been a threat to his monopoly on hang gliding communications.

[Chris McKeon]

OK, I am not an Active Pilot. But I have Flown for Quite a while. I remember when Hang Glider Pilots; "Gave away our organization. I mean with the advent of paragliders on the scene wanting to fly at flying sites that were pioneered by hang glider Pilots. I mean We hang glider Piot's should have helped paraglider pilots develop their own Flying Organization. Heck Hang Glider Pilots had to Devell lope a Flying organization from scratch. During the: {Take Over} of USHGA By Paraglider Pilots was so wrong.

OK I am a busted up Broken-Down Predator Pilot. I do not see why simply because of the fact that Paraglider Pilots have the right to take over an organization - USHGA Simply because of the Fact that They have More Pilots than Us Hang Glider Pilots.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I do not see why simply because of the fact that Paraglider Pilots have the right to take over an organization - USHGA Simply because of the Fact that They have More Pilots than Us Hang Glider Pilots.

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. Without constitutional protections, the majority in a democracy can vote for anything. The majority can vote to kill the minority. That's why the Constitution has a Bill of Rights.

USHGA had no equivalent to the "Bill of Rights", so when the majority of pilots became paraglider pilots, they could vote in whatever they wanted.

[Chris McKeon]

I for One, I tried to sway our USGA's Electorates back in the Eighties When USGA by means of the sheer numbers of Paraglider Pilots were first allowed to join our organization. Then We were Slowly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Paraglider Pilots. Bob is correct, we feel like Sheep, Ugh!

[Bob Kuczewski]

I for One, I tried to sway our USGA's Electorates back in the Eighties When USGA by means of the sheer numbers of Paraglider Pilots were first allowed to join our organization. Then We were Slowly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Paraglider Pilots. Bob is correct, we feel like Sheep, Ugh!

There was a fellow on hanggliding.org who had this in his signature line:

"Hang Gliding must be represented by an organization that cannot survive without it"

That's why we built the U.S. Hawks.

[Chris McKeon]

OK the way that I see it. These {People| Who are bent on controlling our organization, do so with nothing in our constitution that empowers their actions. On this I could be wrong for our "Rites" under the constitution are always being challenged to interoperation. This is why I just love those Flying sites, "Those launches up in the Sierras" I mean where One Launches their Hang Glider is the Only Place where a HG Pilot must fear be Controlled from Flying from some corrupt Police Employee. Isn't that the case down at Torrey Pines?

[Bob Kuczewski]

OK the way that I see it. These {People| Who are bent on controlling our organization, do so with nothing in our constitution that empowers their actions. ... Isn't that the case down at Torrey Pines?

Yes, and Torrey Pines was "ground zero" for what eventually became the paragliding takeover of USHGA.

By the way, I just noticed that the first usage of "US Hawks HGA" (U.S. Hawks Hang Gliding Association) was posted to hanggliding.org on June 8th, 2010. That was just over two months before we actually founded the U.S. Hawks on August 13th, 2010.

That post is no longer available to the public on hanggliding.org, so I can't post a link to it. It was in a topic titled "Call for Leaders and Founders" where I began looking for people to start a new national hang gliding association. But my post is still available here:

       https://ushawks.org/HGAA/Call_for_Leaders_and_Founders/Leaders8.html

At that time, we were proposing names for a new national hang gliding association. I had collected all proposed names and included them in my post. I added "US Hawks HGA" to the list as one of my own contributions. In the end, I supported "HGAA" (Hang Gliding Association of America) because I felt it was a better name. However, the HGAA was completely controlled by Jack Ax who effectively killed it at birth by banning several key founding members.

Anyway, I was pleased to find that early reference to the name U.S. Hawks Hang Gliding Association. At the time of that reference, I was very much dedicated to what became the HGAA. But when Jack Axaopoulos destroyed it, the U.S. Hawks seemed like a good alternative. The HGAA (under Jack Axaopoulos and John Wright) is now long dead ("hgaa.org" is currently used by the Hazel Grove Agricultural Association), but the US Hawks is still alive and well.