Rick Master's wrote:
Why must the numbers grow so large and never stop? What the hell is going on?
It's all about selling "easy freedom". It's about marketers lulling people into a false sense of security and continuing to sell their (very profitable) product. They have, and hold, the high ground because they have all the pretty pictures in (once) Hang Gliding magazine. And, for a good while now, how many other free flight soaring publications around the world?
Somebody figured out how much certain people craved having the freedom to enter the sky with what was, once upon a time, only air framed hang gliders. This somebody had a parafoil wing that was lighter, easier to begin learning on, as well as easier to store and transport. It could be "pushed" as safer (to the gullible ignorant) than the well known to be dangerous "hang glider". They could have these canopies sewn up in third world countries for next to nothing and sold at retail markup for a 300 - 500% profit over their cost. It was a gold mine ripe for the picking as long as the myth, that, having evolved from a fundamental aviation safety device, it would always be safer compared to one of those historically proven death traps (i.e., hang gliders). Inflatable canopy marketers figured out how to make a myth of easy freedom out of whole cloth (literally).
Rick, the only way to beat them at their own game is to "mass market" the truth. A serious documentary film including material such as interviews with (more or less healthy) soaring parachute collapse victims and/or those they have left behind. Obviously, it would begin with a little (very authentic) history and then work its way into the revealing of the sales hype/myth. Honesty would be critical. Include interviews with active soaring parachute occupants detailing how much they focus on deflations, then interviews with hang glider pilots asking how they deal with deflations (Oh, . . . wait, they never occur in hang gliders??!!). Cut to sections where a narrator reads news reports on PG collapses, injuries and fatalities. Explain, as has been the subject of the last few posts here, how a soaring sport aircraft that includes an air frame can reduce injuries and death. A person simply can't fly a crumpled up piece of cloth.
Heck, much of the audio commentary for such a documentary could be taken straight from this blog!
If something like this were done at all, a
quality job should be done. The project could/should be entered into one or more major film festivals such as Sundance.
I think that one of the ways to save hang gliding is to tell our TRUE story as well. That could easily be done in the process of such a documentary.
Time to start raising money and finding a director. I wonder if Ken Burns is available?
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