by Rick Masters » Tue Mar 08, 2016 11:19 am
At the end of the 1970s, the USHGA took ultralights under its wing much the same way it adopted paragliding in the 1980s. The intent was somewhat noble. These people were dying like flies and USHGA wanted to give them survival pointers and help them organize into a coherent self-management entity. They were also buzzing our launches, sometimes flying dangerously, sometimes drinking. They didn't hang out with us - they hung out with each other. It wasn't really a good fit at all but there was a tremendous amount of money in it - especially for our own manufacturing base of hang gliding companies. A lot of us recreational hang glider pilots watched this with skepticism, and then growing apprehension, as power commercialism threatened to dominate the magazine articles and advertising, making us fear that ultralights would consume hang gliding and take over our association.
Go take a look at the May 1981 issue of Hang Gliding Magazine to see what I mean. It had become pretty clear that we were going to lose our organization if we let this continue so a lot of pilots started raising their voices in protest. Here are a few of those letters to the editor:
It is now obvious that the honorable task which the USHGA took on several years ago, that of shepherding the ultralight powered aircraft craze through its infancy, has been successfully accomplished. The time is overdue for the representative organization of those who practice the art of hang gliding, the USHGA, to regain its focus and return exclusively to the pursuit of its original purpose. Two powerful factors are working to estrange the USHGA from its defined path. The first is economic. The market potential for small powered aircraft is much greater than for hang gliders. Predictably, the hang gliding industry is rushing to fill this need. Caught up in this rush are a great many of those who are responsible for guiding hang gliding through the years to its present astounding level of accomplishment. Now blind with enthusiasm, they tend to pressure the USHGA down a different road. The second factor has to do with the desires that motivate people to fly. Powered ultralight aircraft provide the pilot with unlimited airtime and unlimited mileage. The majority of pilots have no desire for engineless flight. Even hang glider pilots are turning to powered flight in droves. Screaming through the sky, motors snarling scant inches from their heads, they choose their destinations at will and claim they are hang gliding with engines. Blind with enthusiasm, they would take the USHGA with them. It is indeed a sorry day that I must remind the members and officers of the USHGA, and the staff of its publication, Hang Gliding Magazine, what hang gliding is. Hang gliding is the simplest form of flight. Our wings are light and maneuverable. Micrometeorology holds great meaning to us. We challenge the wind to games of skill. When we win, our rewards are airtime, distance and tremendous exhilaration. We desire the serenity of the sky. We are a breed apart.
Get power out of the USHGA or get the USHGA out of hang gliding!
-- Rick Masters
I am really tired of people trying to be considerate about this whole powered thing and I want to come right out and say what real hang glider pilots think of power people. We consider you power people to be a crass collection of of scum-suck rat-bags – a conglomerate of weak, lazy, fat and ignorant leach heads whose only brain functions are uncontrollable muscle spasms. Your type is easy to spot; all you have to do is start one of those noisy, rude and smelly little chain saw motors in a crowd and look for the guy who is salivating uncontrollably as visions of buzzing sporting events and spoiling hang gliding sites pass before his gin-glazed eyes. Well look, damn it, we've had enough. The last three surveys taken of the hang gliding community have all agreed. We don't want you. Get out. Take your nasty, loud and obtrusive machines to Nebraska and crop dust the sugar beets, consider voluntary euthanasia, but get out.
-- "Sky-man"
The July issue offered another letter sharing our opinion:
At the last OCHGA chapter meeting held on 5/14/81, a vote was taken concerning the inclusion of powered ultralights within the structure of the USHGA. The result was a unanimous 35 votes against the inclusion of any powered flight systems. As a group we recognize the tremendous potential that powered ultralights have, however we feel very strongly that their political and social needs will contrast sharply with those of the hang glider pilot. We have fought many battles concerning our image and we are finally receiving some much-deserved respect and understanding. The USHGA is our professional organization and we will not allow another "newborn babe" to ride into the spotlight on our worn coat-tails.
-- Stephen Fry, President of the Orange County Hang Gliding Association
But also in the July issue came a opposing response from Woody Cahall, who later would become AOPA Vice President of the Pilot Information Center. But in his letter to the United States Hang Gliding Association, Cahall neglected to mention that he was an Eipper ultralight dealer from New Jersey:
I emphatically disagree that the USHGA is losing sight of its goals. Powered ultralights were born through the efforts of respected hang glider pilots and are a family more closely related than other categories of aircraft. Due to the insight of the USHGA staff, it is inevitable that all concerned will benefit through a greater sharing of technology and expertise. To Sky Man, Sabey, Masters and others, let's not obscure the love of flight in a fog of hatred. There is no place for such petty foolishness.
-- Woodrow W. Cahall
Looking back on Cahall's accusations of "hatred" and "petty foolishness" against pilots trying to preserve our gliding and soaring organization, I was struck by how similar today's invective by soaring parachutists in hang gliding and paragliding forums is when directed against the few who continue to oppose the pollitically correct fait accompli of paragliding being combined with hang gliding.
It's not a done deal. If pilots decide that they no longer need to shoulder the heavy baggage of parachuting and wish to return to recreational hang gliding, the situation could quickly reverse. America was built on competition. Competition results in better products at lower prices. When you see the USHPA (illegally) kicking out a member for daring to compete, you have seen the writing on the wall.
- Form a national hang gliding association for hang gliding -
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