Hi Doug, you may not fully understand. The use of a waiver does NOT force a site to shut out USHPA members. That's USHPA's monopoly protection decision. USHPA has an extremely anti-competitive insurance policy which invalidates coverage if any Non-USHPA members are flying at a site. Imagine if your auto insurance was invalidated by anyone driving on the road under a competing insurance company. That's crazy.

If the City of San Diego implemented a waiver, then USHPA would quickly modify their insurance policy or be out of business at Torrey. Note that all current USHPA pilots could also fly under the waiver, so no recreational pilots would be affected.



I won't be holding my breath.   

San Diego City Council from 25 years ago.

What a difference a quarter century makes!!

This 15 minute video is a condensed version of the nearly 90 minute San Diego City Council meeting held on February 7, 2000.

In August of 1999, La Jolla resident Bob Kuczewski had filed a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Petition in Opposition to the proposed 619/858 Area Code Split scheduled to begin in early 2000. Over several months, Kuczewski enlisted the help of San Diego Mayor Susan Golding, City Attorney Casey Gwinn, and the entire San Diego City Council in supporting his petition. The City's support was codified by a motion to oppose the subsequent 935 area code split and to support Bob Kuczewski's CPUC petition. Kuczewski's petition narrowly lost at the CPUC by a split vote of 3 to 2. However, due to Kuczewski's effort and his enlistment of the City of San Diego, the proposed 935 split was never implemented. Eventually, the 619/858 split boundary was dissolved, and both area codes are now available in the former 619 region. This was effectively the same solution that Kuczewski sought back in 1999 and 2000.



This is a colorized map of the proposed 619/858/935 area code split as it was presented in 1999:

Prior to 1999, the 619 area code covered all three colored regions. The proposed 3-way split would divide that 619 area into a small remaining 619 region centered around downtown (green), a northern 858 region (red), and a southern and eastern 935 region (blue). Kuczewski's proposal would have allowed all residents to keep their 619 area codes with new services getting the new area codes (858 or 935) as needed. Eventually, that's what happened when the CPUC dissolved the boundaries between the 619 and 858 regions. The combined numbers from the 619 and 858 area codes have been sufficient for that region since 1999, and the 935 code was not implemented.

Over a quarter century serving your community via keen discernment!
Thanks for bringing up this history!

Thanks Joe. That means a lot coming from someone with over TWO quarter centuries of serving your community!!

I had to chop that 15 minute video even further to show it to the San Diego City Council (today). Here's the 2 minute version:



And this is the City TV version of that video:

On Tuesday, December 16th, 2025, Joe Faust and I spoke at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting in Los Angeles. Joe went first:



Then I spoke:



Both of our speeches were very well received by the Board of Supervisors.     

Then we drove to Dockweiler beach for some hang gliding. During the drive, we monitored the progress of the San Diego City Council meeting. It turns out that we had just gotten to the Dockweiler parking lot when the San Diego City Council began taking up non-agenda public comment. Here's my non-agenda speech that morning:



Finally, with two meetings behind us, we had a nice day of flying and public outreach at Dockweiler Beach:

The City of San Diego
has the intellectual and moral capacity to do the right thing.
Unfortunately, not all cities consistently choose that path.
When collective decisions go wrong, it is the citizens of San Diego who bear the consequences.

A city is not isolated; it is connected to a state, a nation, and a world. Poor local decisions can ripple outward, affecting far more than those who made them. Justice in such matters may take years—or even generations—to fully emerge. Yet, in the long arc of things, all actions seem to settle into an equilibrium that ultimately reveals a greater joy and coherence. Our immediate choices are part of that larger flow.

May each of us be well, and may we be lifted by our wings. The year 2026 will find hang gliding in San Diego either diminished or strengthened. May San Diegans—and all stakeholders, wherever they may be—urge our civic servants to do the right thing.

Torrey Pines is not a question of safety or airspace — it’s a question of municipal policy choices.

Torrey Pines: the issue is monopoly, not flying

At Torrey Pines, the facts are clearer — and that clarity is what allows policy critique, not speculation.

What San Diego chose to do

Treat the gliderport as a concession

Award exclusive operating rights

Permit a for-profit monopoly

Back that monopoly with police enforcement

That’s a policy choice, not a necessity.

Comparison to other coastal activities is spot-on

Cities routinely allow side-by-side use where:

Businesses operate

Public recreation remains free

Safety rules apply equally

Examples cited are excellent:

Surfing

Kiteboarding

Sailing

Boating

Tennis courts

Even ski resorts (mixed free / commercial zones)

In all of those:

Businesses charge for services

Not for existence

The public is not excluded from the activity itself

Torrey Pines is an outlier.

NOT SOMETHING GOOD FOR SAN DIEGO CITY ....
So, San Diego, wake up and policy right!