[dhmartens]

I saw a rescue video last year or so where SDFD said Torrey rescues had dropped from (estimated)64 down to only 4. So there have been saftey improvements, or they are doing their own rescues.

This has not gone unnoticed by LA rescue at all of the "training" SD rescue gets.
SD rescue has honed their ability to provide fast rescue and transport to minimize injury and now LA is jealous.

SHGA asked to participate in mock hang glider rescue
http://shga.a2hosted.com/forum/phpBB3/v ... f=2&t=5878

Past discussions with L.A. Fire Dept Chief Ward have resulted in their invitation to participate in a training exercise using 2 or 3 hang gliders and hang glider pilots as rescue victims.

This will be a great opportunity for our club to receive great recognition for our contributions to the community.

I'm looking for volunteers for this Saturday, June 9th event, possibly at nearby Hansen Dam Rec Area. I need 2 volunteers for each glider for set up, breakdown, victimhood, and possibly technical advice to the rescuers.

Windsports will provide the busted up gliders and harnesses and helmets if necessary.


A big problem in San Diego is Home price affordability and lack of hang glider storage at the flight park.
Paragliding is the only alternative for renters.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/02/millenn ... homes.html
"..
By comparison, millennials can afford just 10% of the homes in Dallas, 13% in Boston and barely 2% in San Diego."

Sylmar offers hang glider storage
http://www.shga.com/gliderStorage.asp

Hang glider storage should be written into the RFP.

Doug,

the Watchers of the Skies.

[Bob Kuczewski]

From the Oz Forum discussion about the recent Torrey paragliding deaths ...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=58866&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

Yo! Billie,

This thread is about PG accidents at Torrey Pines.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=58866&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=21

Lets review some of the deceased HG pilots , that checked out on the Torry cliffs :

*D Wells -- late 70's dies on an Owl
*AJ Larcon -- died doing acro just south of launch
* That old guy ? died landing on the North face at Torry
* Then there was that HG Comp pilot from Rio (?) ,that met his end 
landing on the torry golf coarse.

That's 4 pilots that i know of ... 

Bille cites 4 hang gliding deaths at Torrey since the 70's. That's less than one per decade. These are the paragliding deaths that I know of at Torrey since just 2012:

     - Pamela Hargett
     - Glenn Johnny Peter Bengtsson
     - Raul Gonzalez Valerio

That's 3 in 7 years. If you extrapolate that to the roughly 50 years that hang gliders have been flying at Torrey you would expect to have had over 21 hang glider deaths in those 50 years. But Bille can only recall 4.

This isn't a scientific review, and there are many other factors to be considered, but on the face of it, these numbers show a paragliding death rate 5 times higher than the hang gliding death rate at the same flying site.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Just published today in the San Diego Reader:

Is self-regulation working at Torrey Pines Gliderport?

https://m.sandiegoreader.com/news/2019/jul/17/feature-self-regulation-working-torrey-pines/

[wingspan33]

To all US Hawks -

I just checked the comments below the Reader story that Bob links to above. Everyone should read the article and the comments. Even post a comment of your own!

BTW - There's not one comment that indicates that Air California Adventure Inc is doing a good job. The exact opposite is the case. I haven't got time now, but I, or someone else, should cut and paste each of the comments into a post to this topic. Well, okay, here's the last one by Logan -

LoganR July 17, 2019 @ 8:10 p.m.

Unfortunately, I think the basic premise of the article comes from deliberate misinformation: “Is self-regulation working at Torrey Pines Gliderport?” The simple fact is that Torrey Pines Glider port is in fact NOT self-regulated. Like many public lands, the regulation authority has been given to private parties to profit at taxpayer expense.

The quote given in the article -

“It’s up to us to self-regulate. As paragliding and hang gliding pilots, we have a
national association, and that is really the governing agency of how we self-regulate.”

The “National Association” which has a unique monopoly on public lands is known as USHPA, or the United States Hanggliding and Paragliding Association”.

The monopoly USHPA holds on most public lands is explicitly prohibited by: 49 U.S. Code § 40103. Sovereignty and use of airspace: SEC.306. In exercising the authority granted in, and discharging the duties imposed by, this Act, the Administrator shall give full consideration to the requirements of national defense, and of commercial and general aviation, and to the public right of freedom of transit through the navigable airspace.

(1) SEC. 308. (a) No Federal funds, other than those expended under this Act, shall be expended . . . . There shall be no exclusive right for the use of any landing area or air navigation facility upon which Federal funds have been expended.

(2) Before the introduction of Paragliders; the association was known as USHGA, or the United States Hang Glider Association .

(3) The idea that this is the governing agency is explicitly prohibited under FAR 103 “The USHGA's self-regulation program lacks the legal authority to enforce requirements to ensure the safety of others. There is no requirement for any hang glider operator to be a member of the USHGA.”

(4) USHPA is quite simply not a “self regulating” body of hang gliding and paragliding plots, they are a private club. The FAA is the regulating body, USHPA takes advantages of unlawful monopolies to extort money using the perception of legitimacy.

(1) https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/40103
(2) https://www.ushpa.org/page/mission-and-history
(3) https://www.usua.org/Rules/faa103.htm
(4) http://forum.hanggliding.org/viewtopic. ... ublic+land

Forgive me Logan for my edit job. I hope it helps get your EXCELLENT points across.

[JoeF]

Good suggestion, Scott. Here is what I posted there:

Have recreational use of the park be fully isolated from commercial interests. Anyone using the implied airspace is to follow posted rules formed NOT to favor commercial interests, but formed to respect flight per FARs. FAR 103. The City for parks is to favor open recreation not private profit.
===================
Instructor queried if as instructor he missed something: "going over in his mind whether or not he missed something." Instructor, you missed fully informing the pilots about the PDMC, I bet; those high aspect ratio collapsible canopies should not even be flown at such proximity to terrain.

=========================================
In a different article on a different topic, the NYT had a headline that I read; I am not sure why upon reading the headline, my mind went to SD and the ACA. Must be telling of something ... Headline: "Robert Morgenthau, the longtime Manhattan district attorney who was the bane of mobsters, crooked politicians and corporate greed, died at 99.
Sunday, July 21, 2019 11:37 PM EST" Robert? Will a similar headline be for our Robert K. when he is 99?

[Bob Kuczewski]

Craig just shared this video with me:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GWug_wrsJ8c



Lt. Rich Stropky (Marine Safety Lieutenant, San Diego Fire Rescue Department) begins the misinformation campaign at 12:24 into the video. Notice how he makes every effort to make the pilots sound more experienced than they were.

One of them was an experienced pilot, so once you get a certification you can come and fly at the Gliderport without checking in and you're certified to do that. The other one was getting an advanced certification for the second level of um paragliding. And apparently what happened was the student individual was heading southbound and made a turn, a hard right turn, right in this area where the flag is and ended up running into the other flyer that was in a northbound direction. They became entwined and they started to fall.

Reports from the Gliderport are saying that the higher elevation paraglider was still had air in it but was in a braking type of configuration so it wasn't really flying forward and it was just falling straight down and they both fell about 75 feet.

        :

The more experienced one is from San Diego?

That's correct.

And then the other one was getting his certification or advanced ...

It's reported to me that it's like between 20 to 25 flights were already completed of the student individual. And it's an advanced type of certification I understand.

        :

Where does the investigation go from here? Is it done by the life guards or by fire or does it go to a different agency?

The medical examiner is going to be taking the lead on this investigation and the support from San Diego P.D. is always a key element to that, and any involvement the life guards have and the fire fighters on scene will have will help contribute to that investigation.

        :

How rare of an accident is this?

It's uh ... we have frequent ... not not frequent accidents, infrequent accidents. I don't recall the last time that two gliders became entwined with each other. Sometimes there's some turning errors and they might nick the cliff with the wing and then have a pretty rough landing or something. But this is not frequent.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Also, Bill's points from March 13th, 2019 at 9:22 pm were excellent:

Having first hand knowledge about the military and paragliding connection it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find that San Diego, the Torrey concessionaire, and the military have a sweetheart training arrangement.

I believe that's the most likely source of the City's refusal to provide oversight. I believe someone is playing "the Homeland Security card" in one form or another and that's keeping all the City Council folks from speaking up.

It would explain away Robin M, council woman Bry, and the entire City council's aloofness and contempt for the public's legitimate call for oversight.

I believe this is absolutely correct. A military or Homeland Security connection explains everything including Lt. Rich Stropky's continual misinformation campaigns (see previous post).

But in the interest of public safety the concessionaire should be stripped of any training of the recreational public.

I agree with this as well. But if they were to stop training the unsuspecting general public, then how could they hide the training of any special ops personnel? They would still need to make all training appear to be recreational as a "cover story" for what is likely going on.

Fairness for access has been lost for the foreseeable future at the Torrey flight park so the best way to stop the death cycle is to protect the public from this concessionaire by any means possible.

Amen.

Bill's thoughts also explain this video:

https://youtu.be/YI4TXL-XCPE


That's a 2017 video of me playing the December 7th, 2010 San Diego City Council meeting video back when Lorie Zapf had just been elected. The new Councilwoman Zapf spoke up about her husband being a tandem pilot at Torrey Pines Gliderport. Apparently she hadn't yet been briefed that any Gliderport discussions were off limits. The more senior Sherri Lightner shut her down with "The issue is well in hand". It wasn't "well in hand", and two pilots (Glenn Bengtsson and Raul Valerio) later paid with their lives due to the lack of oversight by the City of San Diego.

In this video (back on December 7th, 2010), Councilmember Sherri Lightner told Councilmember Lorie Zapf "Our office would be delighted to talk with your office about this". I'll bet they did. Lorie Zapf never said another word about the Gliderport during her entire 8 year term in office. Zapf's husband was a tandem pilot. That's about as rare as it gets. And yet in 8 years Lorie Zapf wouldn't meet with us even one time to discuss the Gliderport?

The issue was well in hand alright ... but in whose hand?

[Craig Muhonen]

The issue was well in hand alright ... but in whose hand?

It seems to me that the "under "hand" has always been the one(s) that sign the "covert contracts" behind closed doors and "mute" any one who would speak up. "Black listing" is the way of these so called "public" organizations, and it has worked for ever. Bob, you and the core team of "rebels" that became US HAWKS in 2010, have been "nibbling" at the edges of the issue, but I think that it's time that "we" (I think many pilots (and also the taxi cab drivers..ha) , old and new, support you on the issue of TGP and ACA) should put all the public information that has been gathered (shout out to Margie) into the realm of the "legal". Where there is an open process of "Opening statement", the body or "story", the custody of "evidence" , the "closing", then a decision by a "jury", and then.... .wait for it..... .a counter claim, which will sink the "tallons" of the Hawk, and the pincers of the "lobster" , deep into their backsides. Fighting fire with fire only makes more fire, pouring from the AiR TANKER of TRUTH on to innuendo , lies, and misimformation, will
drown out the noise of the "blacklisters", and "mute merchants".
The "Evidence chain" and the "custody of evidence" is most important.

Submitted with water......... .craigplumbcrazy

[Craig Muhonen]

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... rrey-Pines

This pattern of "bullying" has been going on for almost 20 years.
The heavy "hand" of ACA and Jebb has unfortunately influenced city council.

u$hpa and $afety and un$crupulou$. Hmm.....

ACA site rules are so ambiguous, (head on: stay to right, North bound glider has ROW, converging : glider on right has ROW, overtaking: pass on the cliff side. All turns to be made away from cliffs, slower glider has right away, yield to the right) and only 1 "flight director" for how many gliders in the air at one time??? you've got to be kidding! SOMETHING must be done. Things will not change until the citizen fighters unite.

Why not separate gliders into days and times, ????? It's a win win for all.

Lawyers of family's should step up and do pro bono work against ACA. And step up to run against Summer Stephan who has been DA for two years.

Submitted by puzzled

[eagle]

This all started with a take over of Torrey Pines Gliderport under false pretense

The David Jebb Accident/ Murder of Many (instructor)
A San Diego Police cover up

SDPD City Corrption.jpg (35.6 KiB) Viewed 5405 times

IS IT CLEAR ~
It's a Murder/ Public Extortion Case still in operation today

He tried to kill me too, make it look like an accident
Yet another story and cover up, that proves the 1st one

We are still paying them while under a threat and personal loss
We still have a Negligent racketeering operation, run by our City & the Jebb Crime Family
We have lost our public freedom to use our historical park

YOUR FRIEND