[magentabluesky]

Yours truly at Dockweiler -1978ish. Never high enough where I could not jump and with a helmet on. That glider flew better (more control authority )in the control bar than in the swing seat.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Awesome picture. I didn't realize that the Dockweiler "ridge" had been so rough in the early days. My experience only goes back to December of 2003.

I hope you'll be there on May 23rd, 2015. Let's start getting the word out!!!

http://ushawks.org/otto44/

[Frank Colver]

Dockweiler "ridge" used to be higher. When they built the bike path they took it down. If you were to climb up from the beach you would cross over the top and then descend the back side before getting to the highway. The descent on the back side was down to the present level of the ridge. There were also gulleys cut in as shown in the photo.

I loved Volmer Jensen's story of soaring the ridge in his VJ 23 and making his turn, each pass, over one of the gulleys where there was a couple making out. They would look up at him each time he was making his slow turn over their heads.

BTW - I consider Volmer's 45 minute flight at Dockweiler to be one of the great hang glider accomplishments.

Frank

[JoeF]

On May 18, 2015, Davis was asked in PM to admit BobK to a topic again, as GH is being permitted to attack BobK. GH is very confused about matters that are beyond his veil; it would be journalistically fair to let BobK bring in facts and perspective on balance. One-sided skewing by GH should be balanced by items from others; BobK is well prepared to provide missing facts. Let's see if Davis will open again.

[JoeF]

May 19, 2015.
No move yet by the Oz publisher to allow on-balance retort to the stream of attacks by GH over BobK.
We are still waiting for such positive leadership to occur in Oz Report. It is not too late for Davis to serve well.
A PM reply was given to my request.
My take: unsatisfactory yet.
I replied urging fair table setting.

Waiting ...

[Rick Masters]

I wouldn't waste my time telling OZ Report junkies how important they are.
They marginalize, trivialize and distort important issues with a juvenile "fight club" mentality.
Let them "stew in their own juice."
They are irrelevant to the US Hawks.
If you can build a positive alternative to the USHPA, the US Hawks Forum will attract the kind of people you are looking for.

[JoeF]

Members of the Oz Forum,

If anyone wants an answer as to whether we should "split the USHPA in two" … just read the whole of this topic on Oz Report and a few others on this Oz Report forum. It should be obvious to anyone … that the split is already here.

On one side are people (you know who you are) who feel it's great fun to deprive someone of flying because they took a stand against injustice and spoke up for a woman who was seriously injured due to the grossly negligent paragliding instruction supported by USHPA.

On the other side are people who believe that hang gliding pilots should not be pawns of a national corporation, and that hang gliding pilots have a right to speak about what they believe in both public forums and courtrooms.

The difference between those two cultures could not be any clearer.

I know the people I want to stand with, and I know the people I want to share an association with. Take a look at what's happened in these topics and make your own decision. Then join us on May 23rd to celebrate the birth of the man who gave us flight … and the people who will continue to do so.

We're building a new future for hang gliding at the US Hawks.
Come join us at http://ushawks.org.

==========================================

[JoeF]

Ben,

1. If you want HG to best survive in USA, then severely separate HG from PG while fully concentrating on HG.

2. My dreaming had some impact on US HG. Your flow somehow seems with a low dream quotient. Dreaming does not exclude practicality. Absence of dreaming just might stifle progress in practice potentials. Please do not presume you know my dreams. You are not expected to know, but I dream of NEXT HG with considerable open text, even while chronicling hang glider history. One of my dreams is a HG realm in the USA that is very safe, very open, and fully in line with F.A.A.; such implies from calculations here that HG will distinguish HG from PG starkly----------and sooner than later. I dream of the day when PG will be injury-free and fatality-free; but that won't and cannot occur unless PG commits to high-altitude aerial launch and high-altitude-aerial PG flight termination, which the industry and practice and org-set seems to have next to zero interest, but I continue to deliberately design toward such a day; such all implies a going away of the common PG recreational sport as practiced and institutionalized.

3. I played some role in the error of hugging PG; I am joining others who want HG to thrive; such involves now recognizing the error of PG recreational sport and forming a clear distinction between the two very different activities. Ben, you will find nothing in my text that urges taking away PG choosing; but you could find text that wants people to be well informed of the risks of PG. Firm mechanical appreciation of the PDMC would be included in the awareness program. I hope that the remnants of PG realm will 100% inform the public of the risk spectrum of PG. Meanwhile, get PG into perspective and get PG fully distinguished from HG, so HG does not sink with the collapse that is already underway and won't go away, despite your rosy continued hug of PG. PG will collapse itself without any help from me or others.

4. My negotiations with the F.A.A. pointedly affected HG being respected by F.A.A. as something to be exempted from pilot certificate and medical review and craft certification. The balance was that HG would strive to be relatively not seen on incident scoresheet.

5. Self-regulation is not dependent on a failing monopoly of u$hPa. Self-regulation has solutions that do not even need any private failing corporation. Self-Soar Association was self-regulated and still is. I am self-regulated and meet the F.A.A. spirit and F.A.R.s.

6. The very rating system that you speak of may be importantly causal in injury and deaths as pilots lower their self-regulation while carrying external badges; more careful study is needed to see what happens to human behavior when badges are worn for gatekeepers.

6.1 It is not proven that worship of third-party insurance promotes safety; it might turn out when all is known that such worship brings more injury and death than if the worship was not lived. More study is needed on this question.

6.2.

7. Operating procedures are public domain matter. Ever they may be improved. Openly show for all in the world the best operating procedures possible; much work on this matter is in front of us. Hide not even one operating procedure. Ever test the procedures and obtain improved procedures. I find no HG patenting of HG procedures. Write the best procedures that you might; share it for critique openly; then write up better procedures when they are found; share such openly. Here is a recommended PG procedure: always launch from a high-altitude aerial launch (never from soil); always terminate a PG flight while at high altitude; never fly a PG over a HG.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I wouldn't waste my time telling OZ Report junkies how important they are.
They marginalize, trivialize and distort important issues with a juvenile "fight club" mentality.
Let them "stew in their own juice."
They are irrelevant to the US Hawks.
If you can build a positive alternative to the USHPA, the US Hawks Forum will attract the kind of people you are looking for.

I mostly agree. There are people there who don't want an alternate association, and they're more than welcome to stay with USHPA. The people founding the United States didn't try to drag all of Europe in here with them. The process was self-selective of those who were fed up with the status quo of corrupt monarchies. Those who were happy to live under Kings and Queens stayed, and those who weren't didn't. I hope the same will happen with the US Hawks, and I will be very happy to belong to that group of pilots.

The biggest value in the Oz Forum (and other public venues) is letting people know that we're working on providing choices in the HG world. That presumably fits in with assertions by Davis that the Oz Report is a news publication about hang gliding. An alternate to USHPA is certainly news!!

[Bill Cummings]

Moderator's Note:

The content of this post has been removed at the request of the poster.