[Rick Masters]

USHPA hang glider pilots should count the potential liability exposures in this video
as they contribute to their RRG to provide liability coverage to paragliders.

USHPA hang glider pilot on hanggliding.org:
    Only you know if you are a free-loader or if you carry your own weight. Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if the world in general, and your community in particular is better off with you or without you? If you are an active hang glider pilot in the US, then USHPA is part of your community. Do you contribute to your community and your world or are you a leach? Genuine self respect is something you have to earn. You earn it by contributing more to your society then you take from it. That is what makes you respectable. You can lie, and put on a front for other people to make yourself look respectable when you are, in fact, not. Or you may contribute vastly, and secretly. Nobody but you, really knows if you are respectable or not, and you cannot lie to yourself. If you want to look at yourself in the mirror and have genuine respect for who you see, then don't let other people carry your weight.

Now bend over, grab your ankles and prepare to say, "Paragliders? I never saw this coming!"    

[JoeF]

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Sweet and smooth, but yet missing much, JD. So many points, it will take time to face. Ken caught the Eipper error. Others, a point at a time. Large matters get into trouble when laconically oversimplified in quick summary wipes. The depths of impacts of mixing PG with HG (H) in one org continue to take much more effort than one post; the losses will be shown to be extensive for the PH marriage. H will continue to be injured by PH marriage. H will win best for H by profound focus on H; there is so much yet to do in H beyond the vanilla run.

Airthug, I have been flying paragliders since 1954, but almost all has been done keeping my body out of the PDMC. And I remain doing so nearly daily. I also fly hang gliders nearly daily, rarely missing a day. Now about 60 years of such.

My professional works: http://energykitesystems.net My service spectrum: http://joefaust.org In calm I continue forwarding the World Hang Gliding Association, the World ParaGliding Association, and World Wing Running Association. As JD noted, I did publish the 36 issues of Low & Slow. He did not mention the long run of my publishing Hang Glider Weekly, Hang Glider Business Weekly, LIFT, and Upper WindPower. He missed mentioning my founding and service for: K.I.T.E.S.A. (Kite Information and Technology Exchange Society of America); founding the first international hang gliding association Self-Soar Association; co-founding the first USHGA with Bob Luthardt; co-founding the second USHGA wherein I assigned #1 to D. Eipper; founding the first Hang Glider Manufacturer's Association and supporting the second more robust HGMA. The studies of PG, atmospheric helicities, PG facts, all seem to match to support for avoiding the PDMC, if one wants to have people alive and whole. The gliding kite system with high-aspect ratio canopy wing holding a human as rider, sometimes pilot, at the low wing loadings practiced in PG sport and PG recreation for launching and landing faces the PDMC regardless of the "mastery" of the person hung from such wing; the sure frequency of helicites that will surely intersect to cause hurtful falls (death and severe injury) at a rate that forms for me a situation that cannot be forwarded in good conscience. All the happy floating-gliding above the PDMC may tend to blind the industry and participants from the PDMC met twice, at least, for each and every flight as generally practiced and promoted. The death and severe injury record is knowable to a high degree, never completely; but what is known is very stark. Dare to study the matter.

Start:

"It makes little difference whether or not pilots injure or even kill themselves. It really does not. What matters is whether we keep third parties protected from our errors."

Buy into that philosophy, if you wish. I choose not to hold that philosophy. Rather, I have deep care whether or not pilots injure or even kill themselves. And whenever leadership moves, it is my hope that choices are made to lower the deaths and injuries of pilots, riders, and falling humans. My writings early on helped to bring on the unfortunate PH marriage; I argued carefully how PGs are a form of hang gliding; the welcome mat was robustly argued; the common terms have distinctions being made; but mechanically the PG is a type of hang glider; and hang gliders are types of paragliders; but all such invites one to distinguish types by wing integrity under natural helicities and turbulence; bifurcation occurs when considering integrity of wing when needed within PDMC. The PDMC was not then well appreciated. With thorough studies, experience, and evidence, the PDMC became much better appreciated. I became a researcher and developer for ways to avoid having the human body within the PDMC while one flew PGs only significantly above the PDMC; but the methods involved in all such have almost no following; rather the industry remains stuck in PDMC, the PH orgs remain stuck in the PDMC, the PG schools remain stuck in the PDMC.

The merits of H focusing on H in dedicated H orgs will be a topic that may be interesting or not to H pilots. H orgs may still have interface with any and all other aircraft means and ground-based things. Focus in org does not mean having no intersection with other non-H realms; rather a focused H org can focus on how H will interface with any other non-H realm or entity. An H org easily can be seen to have some need to have non-empty interface with commercial passenger aircraft, with general aviation, with kite boarding, with city buildings, with schools, with skateboarders, with bicycling, with powered foot-launch aircraft, with PDMC PGs, with non-PDMC PGs, with snow kiting, with energy kiting, with AWES (airborne wind energy systems), with balloons, with toy kiting, with land owners, with ... any other entity that could be influenced by H activity or that could influence H activity. H has much on its potential plate. There are H wings yet to be developed; there are many niche H activities yet to be forwarded. Building the H culture could bring on good relations with pilots of all other aircraft, ground craft, and water craft. Focusing on H does not need to spend energy on getting into other people's business; that is, focusing on H can fill the agenda: just put all one's assets of time, money, thought, research, development, writing into H matters (recall that an H matter could be interface with millions of other realms and entities). H will see many kinds of wings and things in the airspace; that does not mean H orgs need to be in bed organizationally with all those other wings and things. Dilution of focus can be chosen or avoided; each to his or her own. Dilute H into PH marriages, if one wishes. Or go for H focus. Both are living and doing; both will subsist in for foreseeable future; invest as you wish--no problem here. My personal aim is to be a part of building awareness, so pilots have informed choices; do they know well the impact of their choices? There are natural consequences to marriages.
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Pause ....
Back:
JD, you missed entirely the LOVE VIRUS. The "love virus" care to pointedly love H. Loving H can occur without spending a dime on your fear virus. Rather, gentle, methodical, and focused attention on H is occurring for some. "Promote, protect, and serve recreational hang gliding." That is a mission of love H. Such love is an option. No need to characterize anyone who does something beyond the love-H realm. Have at whatever; no problem here.
Different are issues of fair play, justice, facts ... that involve hang gliding flows. Support untenables, be unjust to a hang glider pilot or any person, and be ready for some resistance. Support blindness to a constant craft-use mode that kills and maims via PDMC, then expect some resistance; build a commercial culture around a non-H PDMC disaster, then expect some H resistance from those wanting to focus on H. Have org defects that counter H focus, then expect resistance and change. If a PH marriage proves less good for H than H focusing, then consider change; if the P sticks and hurts, then simply go for H unmarried to P. The conduct of the yet most populated org and its formula combine to have my profound no-confidence vote; all my energies are now to be spent on conduct and formulations that have a robust H focus fully distinct from the un-united u$hPa. ( Lower case u for un-united; lower case h as the org is no H focuser; lower case for "a" as the org has been against good members in an unjust official manner; large P, as the P world saturates the realm there.)
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Pause ...
Back:
By F.A.A.: Airmen, do not injure others or their properties.
Now, when falling like a wet rag balled up, there is chance of hurting oneself, others, and others' property. Avoid such. If the RRG embeds the PDMC PH marriage to a slowing of the H focus and to the detriment of H, then H pilots may well perk up and decide some changes. It is up to the H pilots holding the H-love virus as to what they will do.
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Pause...
Jonathan and I worked as a research team to find W. Simon
of 1908 importance regarding triangle control frame on battened SS foot-launch hang glider of weight-shift control with pilot hung behind the control frame in a sporting meet ... with W. Simon even having some legal protection over the A-framed simple flexible-winged hang glider.
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Pause ...
Let P regulate itself. And receive consequences of such.
Let H regulate itself. And receive consequences of such.
H, let not thyself be governed and manipulated by a P-PDMC saturated leadership.
H, spend H coin and H time on H. Focus.

There is yet much work to be done to distinguish H from all non-H activity. Failing to get the distinctions will have H suffer the rub of non-H activities. I want H to have its H-focused relationship with the F.A.A. and other entities without admixture with PDMC P, snow kiting, ice kiting, water kiteboarding, land buggy kiting, general aviation, commercial aircraft, ballooning, powered-anchored towed manned kiting, tandem winging, parasailing, powered aircraft, rockets, gunnery, archery, etc. Let H stand on its own. H, be H.
Failure to distinguish H will have H carry the P reputation culturally, mechanically, legally, socially. Mixed liabilities won't be fun. Confused development won't serve H. Confused text won't serve H. Confused voting won't serve H.
Let x be a P fatality; here is what is known (incomplete list) :
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ... and counting as we text ...
Each P-riding human life had family and friends attached; each life had potential cut short. Society did not get blessed by the unfulfilled potential. The above x series does not include severe injuries, only full deaths. Let P stand on its own as it faces governments. H, do not go down with P.

=========
(part of a discussion at hanggliding.org)

[Rick Masters]

JD wrote:
"It makes little difference whether or not pilots injure or even kill themselves. It really does not. What matters is whether we keep third parties protected from our errors."

John Donne:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

Robert V. Wills, first chairman of the United States Hang Gliding Association's Accident Review Board
“We must have your help in recording all prior fatal accidents all over the world.
We can no longer afford to have people guessing out loud on how many fatalities there have been.
If we fail in our responsibility to establish a reliable central data bank on hang glider accidents,
we are going to look like a happy-go-lucky band of daredevil adventurers to some politician or judge
and you may one day no longer be able to soar free as a bird, regardless of what our true safety record may be.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20120321165848/http://www.cometclones.com/

Joefaust (talk) Wikipedia 16:15, 4 October 2011:
Right now there is just exactly one entity that is collecting best data points for the fatalities of paragliding; he does it better than any national org; he is striving to collect the data points with several methods. He does not run fancy statistical tools over the raw data, as he is not an expert statistician; he is a collector of raw data points; he is getting skilled at describing how the data counts are incomplete and bringing forward notes about those incompletion processes of which he is becoming aware. A first level of very primitive statistics is to simply tally under described categories; he is making an attempt at that. And noteworthy in the world of sport paragliding, he yet has no other entity doing as complete a job as he is doing. Mr. Rick Masters. His personal interpretation prose, aerodynamic comments, and asides should not prejudice appreciating the data-point collection and tally under defined categories; if he tallys incorrectly, anyone can tell him and he will count again: 1, 2, 3,...,67, etc. No problem. Those wanting derivatives and denominators and advanced analysis are welcome to use his counts with their own denominators for dervived statistics. But preventing the noteworthy counts from being known serves no good purpose.

Paul Murdoch, now President of the USHPA:
Rick Masters is a fool with an agenda. He knows that his stats are misleading and incomplete.

USHPA "representative" and Paragliding Forum moderator James Bradley in print
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2014/jul/19/criticism-paragliding-safety-criticized/
"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."

I don't see much hope for this bunch that has taken over the USHPA.
I do not understand why any hang glider pilots would stand with them.

Joe, here's three more x's to add to that list:

On Wednesday, 20 Jan 2016, in addition to Linda McLeary breaking her back on a paraglider in Coasta Rica, three other PDMC daredevils died in collapses:
- in Mexico, Johonser Josten from Norway.
- in Columbia, Gerulis Juergen from Germany.
- in Brazil, Adalmir Peixer.

Thanks for being one of the few pilots who recognize what is going on and what must be done if we ever hope to correct hang gliding's self-inflicted ongoing disaster. Hang gliding cannot assume the burden of liability of a separate extreme sport with more than three times the overall accident and fatality volume of hang gliding and have any chance of success.

(Note that the RRG is not possible without paragliding filling 2/3 of the pot.)     

- Form a national hang gliding association. -