[Bill Cummings]

Howie, I bumped this thread to the top where you could find the uncontrolled sites we were talking about. I added the new training site I found last weekend. So after reviewing this post click on earlier pages within this thread.
I bought the map and can now direct pilots to the VLR West Face (275 deg.) Training Hill on BLM Land. (100' high)
Starting from the Hwy 60 at the turn off to Gray Hill go 7.6 miles west on Hwy 60 to Socorro County Rd. 52 and turn SSW.
Just after crossing the VLA RR tracks in a mile and a quarter starts BLM land on each side of the dirt road. Start towing SSW here for
about a mile and a quarter where it enters State land.

Darn. A tow rd, with no fence, trees, poles, wires to hang yarn on..PNG (868.51 KiB) Viewed 10647 times

If you are going to the HG/PG, VLA, West Face (275 deg. 100' high) Train Hill the turn off is left 8.89 miles from Hwy #60.
Take the primitive two wheel drive road about 1,600 yards to the top.

HG-PG Training hill 100' high 10 mph. Takes wind 275 deg BLM.PNG (608.6 KiB) Viewed 10647 times

Remember! No off road motor vehicle travel is permitted on BLM land. Only pull off so as to not block the road.
The tow road and the shallow hill is the best I've ever been to.
Nothing but grass out front for miles and miles.

Found a new training ridge that faces 275 deg..PNG (646.98 KiB) Viewed 10647 times

[Bill Cummings]

Tow road. No USHPA membership required. BLM land on either side. 1.22 miles long. (Stay on existing roads.)
For complete detailed directions click on the RGSA Club thread on the US Hawks website then scroll down to the Gray Hill thread.

Look ma, No USHPA!.JPG (85.15 KiB) Viewed 10615 times

_____________________________________________________________________________

Tow Rd. yellow line W of Gray Hill..JPG (39.51 KiB) Viewed 10615 times

[Bill Cummings]

Volcanic Peak, 376' agl, Face 025º, .02mi Long
The ideal wind direction is 025º
High point is 4,742' msl.
On Google Earth the tower location is:
32.177916º
-107.204110º
I would think that this site's ability requirements might be H2 or H3 and P1 or P2 but Hadley Robinson should give us his opinion.
Launch is near the base of the tower at 4,650' msl.
The closest landing zone (LZ) is at 4,366' msl at a 5/1 glide to the northwest of the tower.
The soaring ridge line is 0.2 mile long.
There is a power line to the north west the goes up to the tower.
For a short way there is a road that follows the pwr line that can be used for retrieving the pilot.
The mountain is on State land so permits may be needed for recreation. This will need further investigation.
Below I made a Snipping Tool capture of Google Earth:

Volcanic Peak.JPG (84.06 KiB) Viewed 10491 times

The yellow line is the soarable ridge face.
The two parallel red arrows show the wind direction 025º.
The red line to the northwest is the power line but the road following the poles disappears part way up.
Access is by way of the Afton railroad crossing to the east southeast.
From Las Cruces it takes about an hour of driving to do the 35 miles to the tower.

[Bill Cummings]

Exit 116, tow road, NW of interchange on county Rd. through BLM land.
25 miles west of Las Cruces New Mexico (USA)

Bill on final Exit 116 10-27-16 photo by Robin Hastings.JPG (11.04 KiB) Viewed 10488 times

Tow Rd. @ Exit 116, Interstate 10, New Mexico, (USA).JPG (54.54 KiB) Viewed 10488 times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmsiOr5vOrs

[Bob Kuczewski]

For the record, Bill's post above was not posted today (June 14th, 2018) as the date now shows. I'll explain later...

This topic was started to document sites that either don't require or do require USHPA membership to fly. It's closely related to a similar topic recenty started by Frank, but this one had gotten lost in history. The moderator control panel has a button to "Bump" a topic (which means bring it to the top without adding another post). I didn't have much to add (otherwise I could have "bumped" it just by posting), so I clicked the "Bump" button. I rarely do that, but since there was a lot of interest in the topic of insured/uninsured sites, I decided it was worth it.

Then I began wondering how the "bumping" worked. I know that each forum is sorted by date (most recent topics first), so I was curious at how "bumping" a topic moved it to the top of the list. So I checked the date on Bill's post (above) and found that it had been changed from the original posting date (a few years back?) to today's date!!   

Oops. No more "bumping" for me!!   

With Frank's permission, I'd like to duplicate his original post in this topic. Frank's topic was somewhat diverted by me over "political" concerns, and his post probably belongs here with the rest of the collection.

[Frank Colver]

Yes, please duplicate it here. I had forgotten all about this topic already being on the forum, probably because the sites shown were not in my vicinity of SoCal so my interest and memory were not triggered.

Frank

[Frank Colver]

Non-insurance SoCal sites launch & land

These SoCal sites are reported to be non- USHPA required sites for launch and land. Some may require avoiding and landing outside of USHPA controlled LZ's. I can't personally vouch for the accuracy of this information but it came from a reliable source - as they say in the media.

Frank


OPEN LAUNCH & LANDING SITES

USHPA insurance not required as far as has been determined

Source anonymous

Towers Launch site, Sylmar. The site is now open. Non-USHPA won't be able to land on SHGA property but this presents no safety considerations, other than the launch site is considered more difficult than the Kagel Mtn. launch site.

Avenue S 1200 ft. vertical easy H3 ridge soaring or sled rides. Moderate Santa Ana wind site. Weak thermals. (only flyable in late fall, winter, and early spring in Santa Ana conditions) 2 wd drive can make it.

Parker Mtn. 1000 ft. vertical soaring ridge in light santa ana's. Large landing area. Often promoted as a H4 site due to proximity to mtn pass (venturi) and accelerated winds during moderate santa ana wind events. 4wd required

Avenue L. 600 ft. santa ana ridge soaring site 30 minutes west of Avenue S. Low range, high clearance 4wd required.

Pine Flats 3000' vertical very near Crestline/Marshall. Large landing areas last I looked, can confirm on Google Earth. Probably 4wd required.

Soboba 2000 ft. approx. Flyable all year in onshore winds. Accessible but near 1 hr. drive to launch from lz and 45 min drive to launch from 5 Freeway in Beaumont on back side of mtns. 2 wd access.

Soboba 600 ft. easy access service provided by site owners, mostly for speed wing paragliders but easy bench up to top of mtns most late afternoons. Large landing areas. 2 wd drive access

Mentone 1000 ft. plus thermal site south east of Marshal about 15 miles. Big LZ. 2wd drive access

Ord Mtn. 1000 ft. thermal site in Hesperia, CA (Mojave Desert 20 miles north of Crestline) Good XC site with lots of good landing areas 2wd vehicle access

Blackhawk Mtn. 2,000 ft. approx thermal site on the north side of the San Bernardino Mtn range, just north of Big Bear Lake. 4wd required

Chief's Peak, Ojai. 2000 ft. approx thermal site. 2wd access by FS permit secured by Andy Beem or other locals.

Bates Road. Wonderfully simple 300 ft. ridge much like Torrey Pines with big open beach to land on.

Rincon Ridge. 1000 ft. sled rides to nice beach. Near Bates Rd. and accessible with permission of paraglider land owner who's friendly to HG's.

Elsinore - both launch sites.

Horse Cyn.

Laguna Mtn. Great xc site w/ vertical over 2000 ft., strong summer thermals.

Otay Mesa, near San Diego.

La Salina Baja. 1 hr. south of San Diego. Fun and excellent ridge soaring 1000 ft. cliffs.

Cantamar Sand Dunes, Baja. 45 minutes south of San Diego

[Frank Colver]

It should not be interpreted from my listing of non-insurance / regulated flying sites that they are in any way superior, or even equal, to the popular sites in SoCal. There are reasons why places like Sylmar, Crestline, and Torrey have become popular and ultimately came under USHPA insurance control.

As can be noted by some of the descriptions of the various sites shown in the list, some may be difficult to access and or fly and anyone seeking to expand their flying site experience should do so with as much knowledge as possible about these sites. In the early days of modern hang gliding we drove all over SoCal looking for places to fly. The result was finding places like Sylmar, Crestline, etc., plus other less desirable sites. Some of which may have only been flown once, others, like the ones on the list have been flown less frequently than the popular sites, often because they are less desirable for various reasons. Some on the list I can say I enjoyed flying on a regular basis until they became popular and crowded, like Elsinore and Soboba. I personally enjoyed flying the less popular sites because I didn't like crowded launches and skies. For other pilots, the group of other flyers is one of the things they like. To each his or her own. I will admit it is very nice to have at least one "wind dummy" there. "Looks good, you go first".

I would like to see additions made to this SoCal list and even expanding it into Central and Northern CA uninsured sites. I hope this list is useful to those wanting to fly the less crowded, but maybe more difficult, skies of SoCal.

Frank

[Rick Masters]

In the early days, we hang glider pilots were constantly bemoaning the sites we were losing due to paranoid actions of the State or landowners.
"You are forcing us to fly from more dangerous sites," we would say.

Today, we hang glider pilots are constantly bemoaning the sites we are losing due to paranoid actions of our national hang gliding association.
"You are forcing us to fly from more dangerous sites," we say.

[SamKellner]

No u$hPa

Texas 1200 Prentice35.JPG (83.93 KiB) Viewed 9928 times