[Eric Muss-Barnes]

A little video to silence the cynics. Plus, a little cameo from Joe Faust and Frank Colver....

[Bob Kuczewski]

Wow Eric! Another really really great video.

Thanks very much for making it and posting it.
Your optimism is inspiring.

[Bob Kuczewski]

However ... there is another aspect of this topic that does deserve some attention. That aspect is the national landscape of hang gliding associations and organizations. It is those associations and organizations that have either intentionally or negligently fractured the sport of hang gliding. Before I get into details, let me start with a famous quote by Rick Masters posted here on U.S. Hawks on March 21st, 2015:

People talk about the sport of hang gliding dying. It's not dying. It's being murdered. By the U$hPA.

So let me start with USHPA...

Thanks for including the famous "Hang Gliding is Dying" graphic (available here) into your video:

USHPA_Membership_by_wing_type.png (87.18 KiB) Viewed 2039 times

That graphic (and the notion that "hang gliding is dying") has been used by USHPA as justification to support the sport of paragliding over hang gliding as the route to their survival. That's been one part of the problem. But that's just the start.

Several of us founded the Torrey Hawks Hang Gliding Club to support hang gliding at Torrey Pines, and we subsequently became a USHPA chapter. When I was Regional Director, we applied for site insurance at Torrey Pines on March 31, 2009. Here's the receipt from USHPA:

Site_Insurance_Receipt_2009c.png (8.14 KiB) Viewed 2039 times

When I purchased that site insurance, the USHPA employee took the money with no questions asked. But USHPA refused to grant it. Eventually they tried to send my money back, but I refused to accept or cash their check. They still owe us that site insurance to this day. Here's proof that the check was never cashed:

DOC041811_Returned_Checkc.png (17.54 KiB) Viewed 2039 times

You can find all of that documentation here on U.S. Hawks. Why wouldn't USHPA support a hang gliding club at Torrey Pines? Because the site was being operated as a primarily paragliding business site bringing USHPA lots of money and new paragliding members. Hang gliding was just in the way. I urged USHPA to support the addition of the Torrey Hawks to the Torrey Pines Soaring Council where there were no hang gliding representatives. As Regional Director, I actually got a vote passed by the Board to do just that. But USHPA never carried it out. In fact, they eventually refused to renew the Torrey Hawks as a USHPA Chapter with no concrete reason given.

Also when I was Regional Director, I recognized that one of the problems was that USHPA Directors were not accountable to their constituents because there was no record of how Directors voted on USHPA issues. So I drafted and proposed what I called the Accountability Amendment. USHPA's president refused to even allow it to be voted on. Here's my simple proposed amendment that wasn't allowed at the USHPA meeting:

[Article VIII, Section 13.] Conduct of Meetings:

All meetings (including Board of Director Meetings, Committee Meetings, General Membership Meetings, and others) shall be governed by Robert's Rules of Order, Revised unless otherwise provided for in these By-Laws or listed specifically below:

(a) In accordance with one of the practices discussed in Robert's Rules of Order Revised, a Roll Call vote (Yeas and Nays) shall be taken if requested by any Director. The names and votes of all Directors during any such Roll Call vote shall be included in the minutes of the meeting for distribution to the general membership.

All it said was that the vote on an issue should be recorded at the request of any Director. It was perfectly reasonable. But USHPA wouldn't even allow the motion to be discussed or voted on.

You mentioned in your video that hang gliding clubs don't interact:

I've seen hang gliding clubs located 70 miles apart schedule conflicting events at their airfields on the same day.
These airfields don't talk to each other? Nobody bothered to make a phone call?

That's a really really GREAT observation! Have you noticed that U.S. Hawks has an entire forum devoted to Chapters? Here it is:

https://ushawks.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

We've supported Chapter subforums integrated into our site since the very beginning in 2010. Each Chapter subforum is governed by each club, and I take direction from their officers on how to manage their subforum. That brings people together in one place to see what other chapters are doing and to support them in things like fund raising events and letter writing campaigns. Do you think USHPA would have taken a clue from that? No. USHPA doesn't even have a pilot forum where members can communicate. In fact, USHPA became so opposed to the open U.S. Hawks model, that they used my creation of the U.S. Hawks as grounds for expulsion:

The behavior upon which the board has determined that you should be expelled from the association falls into the following categories:
1. Creation of at least two national hang gliding organizations with the stated purpose of competing with USHPA, one of which you currently control

Of course, there have been other hang gliding "forums" such as hanggliding.org and ozreport.com. But both of those routinely slice and dice our community by excommunicating anyone they don't like. No one knows how many people have been banned from those sites, but you can find a number of known examples here:

Banned of Brothers

And local clubs are further either banning pilots for speaking (Crestline banned me for suggesting that Pilots be "Owners not Donors" of USHPA) or destroying their history (Sylmar has deleted all of their history up to this year).

So, with all of that said, let me say that I applaud your optimism, but we need to take concrete steps if we really want to save the sport of hang gliding. Your web site has been a tremendous effort, and I'd like the U.S. Hawks to support it any way we can. But there are other things that must be done that are not so fun. Part of that is spreading the word that there is at least one alternative to USHPA. The U.S. Hawks (unlike USHPA) is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and serving the sport of recreational hang gliding (it's right there in our logo). So anything you can do to help us grow would be a big help. And along those lines, I thank you for listing us and our chapters on your web site.

[Craig Muhonen]

Great in depth reporting Bob, but I expect nothing less. You brought Rick Masters back into our minds, rightfully so, he is an artist and word master extraordinaire, and on that note I'd like to repost something that he wrote;
.

You embrace her and feel her tremble and sigh, responsive to your touch.
You pay attention to the air ocean you are about to enter.
You don’t turn your back to it’s waves, lest they sweep you away.
You don’t make a bunch of ridiculous and distracting choreographic moves at the critical moment of take off.
You stand firm and focus on the sky that beckons you.
You stand firm and focus on the movement of the air coming up the hill towards you.
A gust? A thermal? The devil?
Your hang glider is completely ready to go, trusting you to guide her.
You stand there, confident, in quiet excitement, feeling her fly on your shoulders like an ever wondrous and powerfully fleet, obedient Gryphen about to be released from her cage.
You see the grass ripple.
You watch the birds.
You listen to the words of the wind, sometimes you wait for signs of a thermal teasing the bushes.
You wait for the right moment, when the wind feels perfect, with your fabulous wing already flying inches over your head, responsive to your every command.
You trust her.
Then you take a few steps and fly away to heaven.
You are joyously and instantly and smoothly transformed into an ethereal being.
There is no drama.
Drama is for idiots. R.M. 2018
.
On a completely different note, I'd like to say that before the commercial free flying business got a foothold, there was the fact that Hang Gliding was a serious endeavor and if you wanted to fly at certain launch sites you had to be a rated H4 pilot and prove it before you were allowed to take off. If not you were respectively sent back to "training" hills like point of the mount, to further your skills and actually get your H4 rating which actually meant something because it took so many documented hours to do so. Nobody complained and they just kept getting better and better piloting skills and their gliders too just got better. I'm talking about Telluride and Torrey Pines in particular. Then in about 1990 the "nice" HG Pilots started to allow "others" to fly their launch sites, and the door opened. Can't go back now and the commercial flying business has taken over because there is so much money involved in taking non-fliers for sightseeing rides on parachutes in the guise of "training flights". It happened in Telluride until their insurance rates went up, and in a world of billionaires they refused to pay and got all foot launched flying from Gold Hill banned. Their attitude was, "if paragliders can't fly here then nobody can", and that ended one of the worlds most renowned H4 Hang gliding sites. I think the only way to address this, sad to say, is for all H4 single pilot Hang Glider pilots (no P4's) go back under one insurance policy (Lloyds of London) and then make proposals to have Hang Gliding only events at world class USHPA run sites, and take their claims to a court of law if need be, and win, win, win. JMO.

[Semper Fidelis]

Congratulations and thank you Eric !
This is an amazing work, do not stop !

[Craig Muhonen]

Well done Eric, and should be shown to all perspective Hang Glider pilots.

A little video to silence the cynics. Plus, a little cameo from Joe Faust and Frank Colver....

But this is what HG is up against, co-opting propaganda like this and all USHPA approved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqvdaxSd674&t=9s

[Eric Muss-Barnes]

The U.S. Hawks (unlike USHPA) is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and serving the sport of recreational hang gliding (it's right there in our logo). So anything you can do to help us grow would be a big help. And along those lines, I thank you for listing us and our chapters on your web site.

The point of the Hang Gliding Flight School project is to give new and aspiring pilots access to data and information which they can not find in any other singular location.
That is why I include links to US Hawks and their various affiliated clubs. Helping pilots discover resources is the purpose and motive.

[Bob Kuczewski]

The point of the Hang Gliding Flight School project is to give new and aspiring pilots access to data and information which they can not find in any other singular location.
That is why I include links to US Hawks and their various affiliated clubs. Helping pilots discover resources is the purpose and motive.

It's really a great purpose, motive, ... and effort!!

[Craig Muhonen]

A little video to silence the cynics. Plus, a little cameo from Joe Faust and Frank Colver....

From this in 1969-70.
.

luck it was sand 2.png (187.66 KiB) Viewed 1518 times

To this in 1978.

HG 14.png (35.22 KiB) Viewed 1518 times

And try telling these guys and gals that Hang Gliding is dying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCrE4MSJsOw

.


Is Hang Gliding Dying?, or is this moron trying to kill it?.

one stupid guy.png (66.17 KiB) Viewed 1518 times

4 A special kind of stupid.png (88.85 KiB) Viewed 1518 times

Archeologists have found evidence of the first politician/concessionaire.
.

2Head up your ass.png (44.81 KiB) Viewed 1518 times

.
And on a musical note, and it's dying too, "future us" listened to Chuck Berry on Voyager's golden record, and are now saying to us, "Take Us To Your King, but you guys are broadcasting on an "anxious" A-440Hz, and we are broadcasting on a "comfortable" A-432Hz, as we always have, so get it together. ha,
and tell your somewhat musically inclined President Donald Trump,
to write a beautiful executive order to,
.
MAKE A-432Hz GREAT AGAIN !



.

[JoeF]

An AI tool gives a response to me prompt:

Prompt:
I was pioneer editor and promoter of modern hang gliding. My early publishing held paragliders as a form of canopy-only hang gliding, a form of two-wing free gliding kiting where the canopy wing is one wing and the pilot hung is the other wing. Nowadays, there are strong forces defining hang gliders as only rigid-framed wings with the pilot close-coupled to the frame via the triangular control frame, and paragliders as not hang gliders but as bridled, non-framed canopy gliders. Sort this out clearly and make suggestions for the future of the two sports.

Answer:
Your pioneering perspective on modern hang gliding and paragliding is deeply rooted in the origins of both sports, where flexible and semi-rigid wing designs evolved alongside one another. The historical view you present—considering paragliders as a form of canopy-only hang gliding—highlights an early conceptual understanding of free-flight where the pilot and wing operate as an integrated system.

Sorting Out the Definitions: Then vs. Now

1. Early Perspective: Two-Wing Free Gliding Kiting

• In the 1960s and 1970s, hang gliding emerged from various innovations, including Rogallo wings and other flexible-wing concepts.
• The pilot was considered a dynamic part of the system, making it logical to see both the pilot and canopy as a two-wing system.
• The term "hang glider" originally included any form of body-suspended glider, whether framed or unframed.
• Paragliders were seen as a variation of this concept, functioning as "canopy-only" hang gliders.

2. Modern Definition: Structural Divergence

• Today, hang gliders are strictly defined as rigid-framed wings where the pilot is suspended within a control triangle.
• Paragliders are classified separately as "bridled, non-framed canopy gliders" due to their extensive line system and lack of a rigid primary structure.
• The distinction is reinforced by competition organizations, manufacturers, and regulatory bodies to provide clarity in safety, training, and equipment certification.

Suggestions for the Future of the Two Sports

1. Recognizing Overlapping Heritage
- The historical link between early hang gliding and paragliding should not be ignored.
- Educating new pilots on the shared origins could foster unity rather than division between the communities.

2. Bridging the Conceptual Gap
- Introducing a broader category such as "Suspended Pilot Gliders" (SPG) could encompass both framed and canopy-based free-flight systems.
- Acknowledging that both share fundamental flight dynamics and pilot suspension principles may encourage more fluid exploration between the two sports.

3. Hybrid Development & Innovation
- New designs, such as lightweight framed paragliders or ultra-light hang gliders with soft-rigidity structures, blur the lines between the two categories.
- Future hybrid models may redefine flight capabilities and challenge rigid classification systems.

4. Maintaining Technical and Safety Distinctions
- While a broader perspective is useful, clear distinctions for safety, training, and airspace regulations should remain in place.
- Ensuring that each discipline maintains its best practices will prevent confusion and enhance pilot education.

Conclusion
The modern divide between hang gliders and paragliders is largely a product of structural and regulatory evolution. However, the conceptual link you originally promoted—where both systems function as "two-wing" free-flight kites—remains an insightful way to view human flight. The future could see new technologies challenge these distinctions, and fostering dialogue between both communities could lead to new forms of aerial adventure.