Hi Bill and Sam,
Thanks for the offer of money, but you can save it for another good cause. I sent the email message above and then I went to Torrey to fly. As I was setting up my glider, I made a point of going right up to Robin (with my video camera as a witness) and telling him that I was going to fly in spite of his "suspension". He had no response, so I set up and I flew.
I'll be posting pictures and a few more comments later, but for now, I want to share what I got back from our USHPA President Rich Hass. I had called Rich in the morning before going to Torrey to see if he had called Robin regarding the incident as he had suggested he might do. He didn't answer so I left a message. When I got home from flying tonight, here's the message I found in my "in box" from Rich Hass (who also copied Robin Marien, Ken Baier, and Jeremy Bishop in his message):
Rich Hass, USHPA President wrote:
Bob in response to your earlier voice message today, I want to set the record straight on a couple of points:
Almost a month ago when we spoke, I offered to to call the concessionaire IF you were willing to make some compromises in an effort to improve relations and get along. You wanted to think about it. Later, you said focusing on site insurance was more important and further discussions on intervention were dropped AT YOUR REQUEST.
* I did make insurance-related calls on your behalf to confirm availability of site insurance under the same terms as it is available to other chapters.
* Your message today implies that I agreed to call Merian on your behalf. Not the case, as noted above.
* You claim you've tried every (including working through USHPA RD's) to resolve your situation. This isn't the case. You claim to have a few days of suspension before you are allowed to fly Torrey again. It seems clear to me you are trying to provoke an incident, which is quite the opposite of working to resolve an issue.
* If you persist in creating a confrontation at Torrey by ignoring your suspension today (as you said you intend to do), you are on your own.
Your issue with the concessionaire is of your making and so far as I can tell, there's no role for USHPA to play in resolving things. You've tried (once again) to tie this issue to what you believe is a lack of representation on the Soaring Council. These are entirely separate issues. Your approach to problem solving only illustrates why you get so little cooperation from anyone in the flying community.
My suggestion is, serve out the remaining suspension and then sit down and try to find ways to work with people; not against them. Further attempts to blame USHPA for all your problems only make you look foolish. Time to grow up.
Rich
Here was my response to Rich (send just this evening):
Bob Kuczewski wrote:
Rich (cc/bcc others),
I went to Torrey today and I told Robin that I was flying in spite of the suspension. If he wanted to call the police he was free to do so, and I was ready to take the matter to court. He backed down.
We also had visitors run with Little Hawk. Nothing was said.
Sometimes you have to stand up to bullies to back them down. That's a lesson that you (and Ken Baier) could learn from.
Rich, USHPA (and you) have had yet another chance to show that you stand up for pilots and you've failed again. You are showing your ignorance to say that the Soaring Council should not be involved. The Soaring Council has a long history of reviewing incidents that goes way back before I came along. But Jebb had dismantled that function and Robin's been pandering to the Soaring Council Representatives to keep them from taking action. That's the lesson to be learned. That and that USHPA is good for nothing when it comes to pilot's rights against bullying concessionaires.
By the way, it was ironic that we (myself and other members of the Torrey Hawks) stood up to Robin today (and won) while you were writing me a letter telling me to back down. So much for your "good" advice.
The fact is that I flew today because of MY approach and NOT because of yours. So who's approach is working ... and who's is failing?
Bob Kuczewski
I think the last line is probably the most important. People like Rich Hass remind me of
Neville Chamberlain who took the position of appeasing the Nazi government in the hopes that appeasement would avert war. But people like Chamberlain (and Hass) don't understand that bullies just want what they want. Bullies aren't backed down by conceding to them. In fact, that's what makes them bullies in the first place. So conceding to a bully just feeds (and reinforces) the bully's bullying. The only way to stop a bully is to stand up in their face and refuse to back down.
That's what we did today, and I want to thank all the members of the Torrey Hawks who were there to lend their support.
Thanks!!!
at Torrey, would probably charge you with illegal instruction conducted there also, or charge you some $ fee. 
