US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

Hello Lakeview Hawks.

Thanks for all of your effort with the festival of free flight. I enjoyed the visit and the flying.

Bob Kuczewski

Hi everyone! Its 100 degrees!!! The winds are coming from every direction.....I am trying to get the Lakeview Hawks happening so I (we) can get more flyin' lessons from the ground year round instead of just annually. I miss you.
I loved our party at Jims this year. It was interesting to meet some of the pilots that have since retired due to injurys in the sport. This is such an extreem sport full of compassion!
The clubs not getting much response from our local Lakeview population. In fact, I had some opposition from our chamber, odd, huh? Im still keeping my wings spread. We'll update as best we can. I Love you all!! Namaste, Sara Jean Martin

Hi Sara!!!

Welcome to the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association!!

As you can tell, I'm having fun playing with the forum settings.

I'm glad you found your way to the site. Please feel free to check around and let me know what you think!!

Maybe you can help me debug it ... in other words look for problems and let me know.

Also, let me know what the US Hawks can do to help your local chapter. Have you picked your officers yet? I can't remember the status of that.

Please write back when you can!!!

Bob K.

redsagebear wrote:Hi everyone! Its 100 degrees!!! The winds are coming from every direction.....I am trying to get the Lakeview Hawks happening so I (we) can get more flyin' lessons from the ground year round instead of just annually. I miss you.
I loved our party at Jims this year. It was interesting to meet some of the pilots that have since retired due to injurys in the sport. This is such an extreem sport full of compassion!
The clubs not getting much response from our local Lakeview population. In fact, I had some opposition from our chamber, odd, huh? Im still keeping my wings spread. We'll update as best we can. I Love you all!! Namaste, Sara Jean Martin

I am trying to get the Lakeview Hawks happening so I (we) can get more flyin' lessons from the ground year round instead of just annually.

The clubs not getting much response from our local Lakeview population. In fact, I had some opposition from our chamber, odd, huh?

It also seems odd to me that there would be a problem with this club idea.
Sounds like a fine idea to me.

Maybe Mark Webber, can give us a clue to the problem as he also seems to have some misgivings about this.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18722

Mark, can you fill us in, please?
What really is the problem here?

Warren

Free wrote:It also seems odd to me that there would be a problem with this club idea.
Sounds like a fine idea to me.

I agree. Mark has done a great job of building sites and running events at Lakeview. He's also established a great relationship with the local Chamber of Commerce. So I'm also surprised by his resentment of the Lakeview Hawks which would build on that work.

Mark, can you help us here? Thanks.

I agree. Mark has done a great job of building sites and running events at Lakeview. He's also established a great relationship with the local Chamber of Commerce. So I'm also surprised by his resentment of the Lakeview Hawks which would build on that work.

Mark, can you help us here? Thanks.

Mark Webber replies on the 'Ministry of Truth' forum via the "Range Voting Fiasco" thread
http://www.torreyhawksforum.org/viewtop ... c&start=15

Mark replies:
I am not a member.
Ralph Hyde is not a member.
John Blacet is not a member.
Jules Gilpatric is not a member.

There is not a training hill in Lakeview.
There is no instructor in Lakeview.

I do not need any help maintaining any of the current sites that I have,
Have you heard anyone complain (other than Sarah)?

Sarah is a transient that comes through Lakeview in good weather because her family lives nearby, she likes to stir up trouble and watch the dust settle.
I am NOT going to make any of the meetings. (Mark Webber)
================================



This still doesn't answer the question, what is really going on here?
Mark, could you please comment here instead of the censored forum?
Warren

Here's my reply to Mark (from the Torrey Hawks web site) ...
=======================================================================

wild_high_mark wrote:I am not a member.
Ralph Hyde is not a member.
John Blacet is not a member.
Jules Gilpatric is not a member.

Why not? Is there no benefit to having a hang gliding club in Lakeview? Or are you just mad that Sara stepped up to create it?

wild_high_mark wrote:There is not a training hill in Lakeview.
There is no instructor in Lakeview.

I do not need any help maintaining any of the current sites that I have,
Have you heard anyone complain (other than Sarah)?

I don't think Sara was complaining. I think she was excited about the idea of actually starting a hang gliding club and having more regular events centered around hang gliding and possibly getting someone to become an instructor or to open a training hill. I don't see a problem with that. Do you?

wild_high_mark wrote:Sarah is a transient that comes through Lakeview in good weather because her family lives nearby, she likes to stir up trouble and watch the dust settle.
I am NOT going to make any of the meetings.

Isn't that what David Jebb would have said about you?

I see a young person who's excited about the sport. She scraped together the money to fly with David Beardslee twice in two years, and she was willing to step up and be part of a new club. Do you really want to throw water on her for that just because she's not up to your standards? I see a chance to help give her some guidance and to help her be part of a sport that she obviously finds exciting. I'm challenging you Mark (and the other local pilots) to figure out a way to use her energy rather than rejecting her. Can you do that?

Thanks.

I appreciate the support here on the hawks sight and I'm working toward perfect peace. Anyone have a used beginner glider? I'd like a new one, any good sights you could turn me on to? My new phone number is 541-417-2039.
Sara Martin

redsagebear wrote:I would like to conclude this post by saying we are still looking for members that are interested.

I'm still interested in being a member, and I called Dave Beardslee last night and he wants to be a member as well. So that's three of us. Do you remember who the other members were? Let's get them involved.

Here are some of my other thoughts (and advice)...

As the Lakeview Hawks gets itself going, there are a few important questions to ask:

• What goals do the Lakeview Hawks want to accomplish?
• What resources do the Lakeview Hawks need to accomplish those goals?
• What time frame is reasonable to accomplish those goals?

Of course those questions also bring up a couple important historical questions:

• Was there ever a hang gliding club in Lakeview before the Hawks?
• If there was, then what happened to it?

Given that Lakeview seems to be a pretty good hang gliding location, the answers to those last two questions might be particularly important to the viability of Lakeview Hawks. Maybe there was a club and it just couldn't sustain itself? On the other hand, maybe there never was a club because no one ever thought to start one! Maybe you're the first!!

Either way, I think the best way to get started is to set a few simple goals and see how to get there. Here are a few simple goals that might be attainable (these are just my suggestions):

1. Hold one hang gliding meeting or event every month with at least 5 people attending. Try to set a regular date if you can. For example, the Torrey Hawks hold what we call our "Second Sunday" fly-ins on the Second Sunday of every month. I show up there every month, rain or shine, to hang out with anyone else who shows up. I send out an email reminder notice about a week in advance. The Lakeview Hawks could do something similar. Since you've actually got multiple flying sites, you could, for example, visit a different site every month. If you're pretty sure there's going to be someone flying, then you could advertise it as an outing to "come watch the hang gliders fly" at this month's selected flying site. It might end up being just a hike with no flying, but that starts bringing people together, and that's part of your goal.


2. Start building and counting members. You should have a list of all of your members and try to add one or two each month. Since the annual festival draws a lot of pilots, you could start with those who've attended in recent and past years. They many not be "local" but they will have an interest in helping to support your sites. If you don't charge for membership, many of them may want to be members just to show that support. That starts the networking that will help you find even more people to build the club.


3. Begin looking for leaders who are well respected in the community. For better or worse, you still don't really have much of a reputation as a hang glider pilot. That won't stop the club by itself, but it does make it harder for people to respect it. So ask well-known local pilots (and even non-pilots) if they'd like to take a leadership role in the club. You might even have to find a new president to help the club gain respect from the locals. You may have the energy, but you may need to team up with some others to make faster progress.

Most of all, you want the town of Lakeview to see the Lakeview Hawks as an asset. You want to show that you're doing good things for the people who fly and even for the people who don't fly. I think your ideas for education are great, but until you get more advanced pilots willing to help, you may have to stick to more "menial" outreach efforts. You could, for example, put on a "Lakeview Hawks" T-shirt and just go out cleaning up a local park. Just picking up trash off the street shows a willingness to be a positive part of the community ... and it's something you can do on your own without anyone's approval or permission. Eventually, someone will join you, and then you're on your way.

Of course, if you had resources ($$$) you could do all kinds of other things like advertise in the newspaper, throw extravagant parties, and buy hang gliders for show and tell. But since you don't have lots of money, then you'll have to get by with a more grass-roots effort. But sometimes that's more fun anyway.

Whatever you do, try to be fair and honest in all of your interactions. That way, even if the club fails, you will have gained some new friends and a greater respect in the community. You will also be growing as a person as you take on this endeavor.

I hope that helps,
Bob Kuczewski

redsagebear wrote:Wow, I just visited our sight, and I thought this problem was not quite as intense as it is. I would like to clear up the fact that I am not a transient and my family has no restaining orders on me! I would like to have a better chance to talk to Mark and Ralph. I was hoping for a much different reaction, but they have verbalized an indifference.

Mark Webber just doesn't like women... any more.
He might have liked them in the past but his nose is sure out of joint now for more than half the population of the earth. Mark seems to be a proud member of the Women Hater's Club of the World!

Al Bundy would be proud..



http://www.torreyhawksforum.org/viewtopic.php?
t=7577&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Mark takes a pass *on* women, not *at* women..

"Bob, I am 55 years old and ALL the problems in MY lifetime can be
attributed to females.
I am currently single, retired, and happy that I live ALONE.
I "discovered" this sport that is almost all male (hang gliding).
And NOW you want to "challenge" me to "rise above my lifelong
accumulated knowledge" (in other words, be unhappy)?

PASS!"
Mark Webber, Women Hater's Club, Lakeview Chapter