[DaveSchy]

It seems like insurance being picked up by Lloyd's for a new organization, will be easier to obtain than managing and controlling our sites. With non-USHPA insurance and recreational statutes we have a clear path forward.
But the genie is out of the bottle regarding managing access to our sites and I am thinking about that. We have to avoid sites becoming just more Dog Mt-esque cliques.

Meanwhile, wind velocity is the de facto segregation of our sports, agreed! Floaty gliders and tiny bags blur the lines.

It's easy to say "find new sites and control them" but even here in the land of abundant clear-cutting it's difficult at best. Plus, our old sites are inherently less dangerous because we are familiar with local phenomena.

Maybe the best path is to end run USHPA and their worthless RRRG by going to the landowners directly.
Any savvy landowner should easily see the difference between Lloyd's and state statutes' liability protection versus the ineffective and illegal scheme being pushed by USHPA, to no one's benefit but their own!

In my opinion, our old club really gave us a MGF
(Malevolent Greedy Flimflamming) to the detriment of safety, access and compatibility for both sports . .

[Craig Muhonen]

Yes, go directly to the land owners.

I was just the plumber who could fix stuff and was in the background when TAF was formed and they did exactly that, go out into town and talk to the landowners about who they were and what they were going to do.
Before 1972 they, and many friends, had been driving, hiking and launching from some pretty crazy mountain tops and landing in town park or even main street. usually a 2 or 3 hour treck up for a 10 minute glide down, which drew a crowd every time they flew.

image[2305843009824679195]5.png (505.24 KiB) Viewed 1049 times

so everybody was excited to see the prospects of getting it together to open up Gold Hill as a launch site.
When Joe Zoline accepted TAF's proposal, all he said was, "just don't ware your ski patrol jackets when you fly these crazy contraptions". ha..

This model that they used,
talking to people, organizing TAF, get the backing from USHGA, getting the contracts with LLoyds and the ski area, took work but it
set in motion a whole new era of "Professional" Hang Gliding, not only in Telluride but other areas as well.
These H4 sites were well directed and if you were not an H4 rated pilot you were not able to fly here until you were.
This was not a training hill, that is until the late 80's when PG started flooding in and completely crowded out the Hang Gliders
and calling themselves Hang Gliders to boot.
Then the concessionaires, charging for "training" and selfie rides in tandem paragliders, brought more and more, and the money, well it was absurd.
You run a big risk when you put money and piloting in the same sustenance.

Rick said it best once, when he said, "Hang Gliding is being murdered by a bunch of gamblers flying tree condoms".


This same model could be used today by HG clubs to break away from the flailing USHPA scheme, and bring back the LLoyd's way of supporting Professional Hang Gliding.
No Foundations, 501's, clubs or associations, just a simple business model made up of single pilot, foot launched machines, and the whole incredible history of what they do.
If USHPA folds and there is nothing in place, site management will be a bigger problem than it already is, but back to going out into the community, making a new pack with them, and promoting Hang Gliding.


A proposal to all Hang Glider pilots not in the commercial business.
It is all about writing up "articles of organization" and putting a name to it.....any ideas?

LLC, Website, LLoyds, memberships, and off we go.

H0

[Craig Muhonen]

What is a Colorado PLLC? Unlimited owners (aka "members") allowed.
Better for max flexibility in how you manage and run your business; board of directors not required

A Colorado PLLC is a limited liability company (LLC) formed specifically by people who will provide Colorado licensed professional services. LLCs in general are businesses registered with the state that consist of one or more people—called LLC members—who own the business. Like other LLCs, PLLCs protect their individual members from people with claims for many (but not all) types of financial debts or personal injuries.

Note: Unlike the majority of other states, Colorado's LLC Act doesn't include provisions specifically for LLCs that will provide professional they hate professionals services, nor is there a separate PLLC Act. Also unlike almost every other state, Colorado's corporation laws do not specifically include provisions for professional corporations (PCs). U$hpa's power grab in Colorado. (A few other states largely base their rules for PLLCs on pre-existing PC laws.) Instead, the legal basis for PLLCs in Colorado—as well as for other forms of so-called professional service entities—derives from the state's various laws regulating professions and occupations (Title 12 of the Colorado Statutes).

I think Telluride Colorado should be at the starting point for any push to replace USHPA, because of the many H4 sites that could be taken back into HG. It was bad for the new TAF to get Hang Gliding banned forever, just because TAF didn't want to pay the much higher insurance rate, at one of the most respected flying sites in the country, now in the hands of billionaires, and with the best safety record too.
Too bad TAF was now all PG's with no one to push back on them. till now finally. A fix would be for an HG LLC to renegotiate with the ski area to let Real Hang Gliders with full backing from LLoyds, back into the air. Who would not want to see this?
As a pilot in my younger years, when I watch Paragliding I don't see much piloting skills and they have paying passengers and some of the stuff they're doing looks downright crazy dangerous, and maybe an "illegal exhibition".
An interview with Luigi at TAF would be quite interesting but he is hiding out.

There would be a lot of push back from the progressive left who are 95% paragliders if they fly, but now they can't fly from Gold Hill any more, maybe that's a blessing. USHPA is eating itself and a bunch of angry "guys".


Excerpt from Rick Masters on substack Feb 2023.
“Global paragliding fatalities were approaching 800 deaths in 2010. I was greatly concerned. I don’t like to see anyone die. As a pilot, I especially don’t like to see pilots die. If they do, I hope they had a fighting chance. I was only offering advice from my years of freeflight experience in order to save their lives. I was unprepared for their shockingly immature, ignorant, clownish, unexpected and overwhelmingly pathetic response. They cried about my website: Mythology of the Airframe - titled after their inept refusal to recognize the obvious safety benefits of an airframe surrounding the pilot in a crash. They cried about my advice on Paragliding Forum. Boo, hoo, hoo”.

Below are 49 “word salad” untrue and and angry posts, some on PG.org, about "wanker" Rick from USHPA’s so called leaders and their sheep membership. Boy do they hate and fear him.

"It's horrible. My eyes are bleeding! It should be banned!"
(C'est horrible, j'ai les yeux qui saignent. Ça aussi ça devrait être interdit!)

"Your acceptance of Rick Masters as an authority on paragliding, apparently without taking the time to learn anything about him, or talk to any people who are actually involved with the sport—we are all concerned about safety—is pretty disappointing."

"Rick Masters, whose aim is to stop people paragliding, because of his mistaken view that the lack of a rigid airframe necessarily makes paragliding unacceptably dangerous."
"The 'airframe' bulls*** is just that."
"Paragliding, one of the most dangerous sports in the world?????
Be serious."
"Paragliders have got much safer over the last 20, 15 and 10 years."
"His statistics are likely bull****.
Surely not down as much as he indicates."
"Unabomber!"
"His fundamental argument - that an airframe is always safer than a canopy - does not stand up to closer inspection statistically or theoretically. He ignores the fact that collapses are recoverable. That even torn canopies can still fly."
"2010 - 48 death, doesnt mean ANYTHING."
"Rick is a complete wanker."

"Ridiculous trolling."
"Ricky doesn't like PG."
"Like a religious zealot, he is not interested in facts or discussion unless they support his rigidly defined position."
"fu**ing lunatic."
“Doing more harm than good to our sport."
"Rants."
"Oh dear, is he still going? ...maybe doctoring those links so that they're not real, clickable links wouldn't be a bad idea."

"Nothing says crackpot like pointing out on your own website all the people who think you are an idiot!"
"Rick has no understanding of what is going on."
"Uninformed claptrap!”
“Not useful data, just a collection of quotes, news-links and other associated cobblers to provide a list which he uses to backup his 'already made-up' mind.”
"Cherry picking to support an argument."
"Rick Masters pontificating."
"Hate site."
"A pointless list."
"A programmed response."
"Rubbish."
"Preconceived ideas."
"Neglects the whole picture."
"Incomprehensible nonsense."
"A partisan attempt to discredit."
"The interpretation is totally nuts."
"Unbelievable."
"The level of stupidity is unbearable."

"We all are gonna die. Everything what we do, walking on the street, driving a car, brings us to possible death."
"A huge cover up about hanggliding safety statistics in the US."
“Although these deaths remain socially unacceptable, they are well into the average range of other sports with a risk."
"So much dedication with nearly religious fanatism put on such a secondary subject is suspicious."
"You could make the same website about fatalities of people killed by hammers."
"He will never make a useful contribution to Paraglider Safety."
"A collection of nastiness."
"An utterly pointless discussion."
"You could say the same about motorcycling."
"Drivers are in far more denial about the risks they are taking everytime they get behind the wheel, than we paragliders are everytime we launch."
"The same air that will collapse you on launch in a paraglider will give you sticky wing in a hang glider. The range of outcomes is the same."
"Where are these complacent pilots that you speak of so knowledgeably?"

Even the unelected president of the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association chimed in:
“Rick Masters is a fool with an agenda. He knows that his stats are misleading and incomplete”.
He actually said that!! A fool.

“Virtually all incidents are a result of the pilot doing something wrong”.
“STOP THIS NONSENSE NOW”

Fear and loathing, why?

it's not nonsense for a pilot and a father to want to show (when they'll watch it) mothers the facts, and to possibly save lives, but this is the USHPA AI team that is pro PG which is ok, butt...time for a HG AI of sorts.

Rick seems to have a Dan Gryder, Juan Browne approach, and he IS a US Hawks forum "core," among other things.

H0

[dhmartens]

Paragliding has an advantage with material sciences. Hanggliding material sciences is being supressed by ufo coverup. Paragliding has the benefit of 50 years of hang gliding mistakes. We are working on hang gliding material sciences and AI design. There is currently no money in it but we have a foothold.

[Craig Muhonen]

Here I go;
By the late 80's, PG's had filled the skies over most mountain towns in the world because ski area owners promoted, and had been allowing snowboard riders, and then Paragliding riders to ride "unchecked" on the mountain and use the lift system by buying a ski pass.
The gates were opened and Alpine skiing had to suck it up, but these people were neither alpine or skiers, and brought with them a "politic" of bulling their way in because there were so many of them. Good people all I guess and "so they say".

Rick Masters wrote;
May 5 - "I have come to the conclusion that the future of individuals to practice free-flight is being threatened in a very big way by commercial tandem operators".

I saw the liberal town of Telluride with it's Miners and Skiers and Hang Gliders "in the air" every day, be taken over by the most progressive left factions, and snowboarders and the ushpa paragliders and concessionaires prevailed, it happened pretty fast.
The "Torrey Model" was used over and over because of the big money in city councils.
The new president of the Telluride paragliding Airforce even ran for city council.
That's how they did it, "Blitzkrieg". But now they've been found out and had their insurance canceled,
so HG can use this mistake to, "fly back in". I think most ski areas would love to have individual new contracts with HG, and if so could expand to other Historic H4 sites.




This short clip should be mandatory to watch by families before deciding to fly (or be flown by) a paraglider.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjPmpocQurE


RM wrote;
"No one could be this stupid.

Correction: Thousands of people are this stupid.
It remains unbelievable to me that that so many people bet their lives that they will not be killed by a simple thermal. This is a bad bet. Thermals are a natural and common occurrence in the atmosphere. It is impossible not to encounter them. Contrast this incident with a hang glider pilot in the same situation. His sail, supported by an airframe and capable of withstanding several Gs of negative load, cannot collapse or lose the airfoil shape that allows it to fly. The hang glider pilot senses the lift, turns and banks, and joyously rides the thermal into the sky.

Why would anyone chose to fly a paraglider when the risk is so extreme and clear? Why would anyone choose the risk of becoming a helpless human falling from deadly altitude over the joy of secure freeflight? The only answer is that soaring parachutists are delusional. They create a false reality and eagerly share it among themselves until they are ultimately crippled or killed. The ones who are not yet crippled or killed blame those who are for being poor pilots. Anyone outside the sport is castigated for stating the obvious.

May 5 - I have come to the conclusion that the future of individuals to practice free-flight is being threatened in a very big way by commercial tandem operators.

A report comes today that a tandem PG pilot launched with a passenger when he was not secured by his leg loops. Fortunately, he executed a quick 360 turn and safely landed at takeoff. Last week in Canada, a commercial HG pilot launching from Woodside killed his passenger when she fell from 300m, apparently due to not being correctly hooked in. Upon landing, no doubt distraught, he pulled the video card from his camera and swallowed it, capturing the rapt attention of the mainstream press. On April 1, both pilot and passenger were killed on a paraglider in the French Antilles. Little information has been released about this accident, although the pilot was the FFVL representative to the Antilles. This terrible tragedy follows on the heels of the death of another young woman in Brazil, also on a paraglider, who slipped from her harness and fell to her death just south of Rio de Janeiro. In this case, just like the Woodside incident, the video evidence disappeared. As if this wasn't enough, a power paraglider pilot gave a ride to a skydiver in Oregon on the same day as the Woodside accident. Against FAA regulations, and during a time of intense condemnation of skydiving from tandem flights by the USHPA, the pilots executed a skydive from a tandem PG and the skydiver was killed when he deployed too low. Incredibly, the video camera evidence also disappeared in this accident. Due to the apparently willful decisions of the free-flight segment to destroy themselves and their sport"

They came with an attitude of "I am invincible" and talked everybody into thinking they're cool.
I'm sure this "invasion" of "free riders" to mountain slopes, came all at once and everywhere and everybody saw it, but could say nothing, or be called a "Paraphobia".

All my job as a skier was to, "keep my butt over my boots, and drive the bus", nothing else mattered.
A Hang Glider keeps his butt under his "boots" and drives the bus, nothing else matters.
All my job as a plumber was "get back to work".
That's what has to be done now, a "bus" full of Hang Gliders.

What would make this clip go viral? The risk must be shown, not talked about.

How could any mother let their kids do this parachute thing?

[/quote]
she is the taxpayer who will have to pay along with the rest of us.
Better idea if you want to fly would have been to just by a Hang Glider and become a certified Pilot, life is hard.

Seems lagit until it's not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_54IfyAGj8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_JiRp54IfyAGj8


If the idea is right the support and money will come.

If you want to see what one man can do, check out what Leo has done.
Good videography is important and money to be made there.

Rebuilding Tally Ho, he bought it for a dollar.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... JI89Us_jMw



H0

[Craig Muhonen]

About the same time they stormed into Telluride and maybe Torrey.
BY RONALD B. TAYLOR
AUG. 9, 1991 12 AM PT
TIMES STAFF WRITER

They're "Flocking".
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

How did Kells build paragliders?

[dhmartens]

To be clear the current material sciences is favoring paragliding. Ushawks is providing oversite on the death rate of any entity associated with speediglideing. The paragliding wing is inferior and needs additional training to remain safe. I will later provide video of time travel to November 1973 Igstadt Germany if there are any doubts. Until then fly safe and fly far.

[Craig Muhonen]

Cheap foreign made silk garments with strings, possibly made by slave labor, as opposed to hand crafted American Made Steel, no comparison.

Paraglider "selfie rated instructor pilots" who practice illegal exhibitions without a permit, as opposed to Hang Glider "master rated Instructor pilots" who actually carve turns, and run the nose, no comparison.

[Craig Muhonen]

Never Fly A Hang Glider-too much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkPchORtTdw&t=156s

This pure HG music video I think, should be "hacked" into the paragliding media,
over and over (could it be?) just like they hacked or co-opted into Hang Gliding.
Any pilot who listens and watches this video has to be inspired by the resonance of it and the words fit perfectly. John is a Master.

[dhmartens]

We are working on this.