hang gliding & paragliding vol40/iss05 may 2010

Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero

www.USHPA.aero

MAY 2010Volume 40 Issue 5

$6.95

MAGAZINE STAFFPaul Montville, Publisher: [email protected]

Nick Greece, Editor: [email protected] Greg Gillam, Art Director: [email protected] Palmaz, Advertising: [email protected]

Staff writers: Alex Colby, Chris Galli, Steve Messman, Dennis Pagen, Christina Ammon, Mark “Forger” Stucky, Ryan Voight, Tom Webster

Staff artist: Jim Tibbs Staff photographers: John Heiney, Jeff O'Brien, Jeff Shapiro

OFFICE STAFFPaul Montville, Executive Director: [email protected]

Martin Palmaz, Director of Business Operations : [email protected] Jones, Information Services Manager : [email protected] Hollendorfer, Member/Instructor Services Administrator:

[email protected] Wright-Tafoya, Office Coordinator : [email protected]

USHPA OFFICERS & EXECUTIVE COMMITTEELisa Tate, President: [email protected]

Mark Gaskill, Vice President: [email protected] Rich Hass, Secretary: [email protected]

Mark Forbes, Treasurer: [email protected]

REGION 1: Rich Hass, Mark Forbes. REGION 2: Dave Wills, Urs Kellenberger, Bill Cuddy. REGION 3: Bill Helliwell, Rob Sporrer, Brad Hall. REGION 4: Mark Gaskill, Ken Grubbs. REGION 5: Lisa Tate. REGION 6: David Glover. REGION 7: Tracy Tillman. REGION 8: Jeff Nicolay. REGION 9: Felipe Amunategui, Hugh McElrath. REGION 10: Bruce Weaver, Steve Kroop, Matt Taber. REGION 11: David Glover. REGION 12: Paul Voight. REGION 13: Tracy Tillman. DIRECTORS AT LARGE: Dave Broyles, Leo Bynum, Riss Estes, Mike Haley, Dennis Pagen. EX-OFFICIO DIRECTOR: Art Greenfield (NAA).

The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association Inc. (USHPA) is an air sports organization affiliated with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), which is the official representative of the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), of the world governing body for sport aviation. The NAA, which represents the United States at FAI meetings, has delegated to the USHPA supervision of FAI-related hang gliding and paragliding activities such as record attempts and competition sanctions.

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine is published for foot-launched air-sports enthusiasts to create further interest in the sports of hang gliding and paragliding and to provide an educational forum to advance hang gliding and paragliding methods and safety.

SUBMISSIONS HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine welcomes editorial submissions from our members and readers. All submissions of articles, artwork, photographs and or ideas for articles, artwork and photographs are made pursuant to and are subject to the USHPA Contributor's Agreement, a copy of which can be obtained from the USHPA by emailing the editor at [email protected] or online at www.ushpa.aero. HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine reserves the right to edit all contributions. We are always looking for well written articles and quality artwork. Feature stories generally run anywhere from 1500 to 3000 words. News releases are welcomed, but please do not send brochures, dealer newsletters or other extremely lengthy items. Please edit news releases with our readership in mind, and keep them reasonably short without excessive sales hype. Calendar of events items may be sent via email to [email protected], as may letters to the editor. Please be concise and try to address a single topic in your letter. Your contributions are greatly appreciated. If you have an idea for an article you may discuss your topic with the editor either by email or telephone. Contact: Editor, Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine, [email protected], (516) 816-1333.

ADVERTISING ALL ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING INQUIRIES MUST BE SENT TO USHPA HEADQUARTERS IN COLORADO SPRINGS. All advertising is subject to the USHPA Advertising Policy a copy of which may be obtained from the USHPA by emailing the Publisher at [email protected].

The USHPA is a member-controlled sport organization dedicated to the exploration and promotion of all facets of unpowered ultralight flight, and to the education, training and safety of its membership. Membership is open to anyone interested in this realm of flight. Dues for Rogallo membership are $270. Pilot memberships are $75 ($90 non-U.S.). Dues for Contributing membership and for subscription-only are $52 ($63 non-U.S.). $15 of annual membership dues goes to the publication of Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine. Changes of address should be sent six weeks in advance, including name, USHPA number, previous and new address, and a mailing label from a recent issue. You may also email your request with your member number to: [email protected].

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING (ISSN 1543-5989) (USPS 17970) is published monthly by the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, Inc., 1685 W. Uintah St., Colorado Springs, CO 80904, (719) 632-8300, FAX (719) 632-6417. PERIODICAL postage is paid at Colorado Springs, CO and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER Send change of address to: Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine, P.O. BOX 1330, Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1330. Canadian Post Publications Mail Agreement #40065056. Canadian Return Address: DP Global Mail, 4960-2 Walker Road, Windsor, ON N9A 6J3

DISCLAIMER The publication of any submissions, articles or advertising in HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine does not constitute an endorsement of the authors, advertisers, products, services, apparatus, processes, theories, ideologies, opinions, advice and/or recommendations presented, nor does it constitute an endorsement of the authors or companies involved. The statements of fact and opinions as well as any product claims in the submissions, articles, advertisments, artwork and photographs appearing in HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine are those of their respective authors, contributors and advertisers and not of the USHPA. The USHPA makes no representation, express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, advice, opinion, recommendation, apparatus, product, product claims or process disclosed, in such submissions, articles, advertising, artwork or photographs. All individuals relying upon any materials published herein do so at their own risk. The USHPA is not responsible for any claims made in any submission, article, or advertisement. Advertisers may not, without USHPA's prior written consent, incorporate in subsequent advertising that a product or service has been advertised in a USHPA publication.

COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2010 United States Hang Gliding And Paragliding Association, Inc., All Rights Reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the United States Hang Gliding And Paragliding Association, Inc.

On the cover, Jeff O'Brien takes in Yosemite. Meanwhile, it's a launch party at Edwards, Lake Elsinore, California | photo by RC Dave Freund.

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

For change of address or

other USHPA business

call (719) 632-8300, or

email [email protected].

The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, a division of the National Aeronautic Association, is a representative of the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale in the United States.

by Ian Freemole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

by Jeff Cristol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

by John Fritsche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

by Christina Ammon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

by Jugdeep Agarwahl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

by Adam West, Jeff O'Brien & Chris Valley . . . . . . . . . . 36

EDITOR

PILOT BRIEFINGS

ASSOCIATION

AIRMAIL

FOUNDATION

SAFETY BULLETIN

CENTERFOLD

TANGENT

DISPATCH

RATINGS

USHPA STORE

PAGE 78

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SITE HIGHLIGHT

SITE HIGHLIGHT

SITE HIGHLIGHT

PILOT PROJECTS

N. CALIFORNIA CROSS COUNTRY LEAGE 2009

SITE HIGHLIGHT

Mt. Sentinel | Missoula

Gold Hill | Telluride

Hang Glider Hill | Bakersfield

The Flying Effect

Everyone is a winner

Glacier Point | Yosemite

10MAY

by Jeff Cristol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

AYACUCHOParagliding the Central Andes of Peru.

GALLERY

58

Chelan in the Spring. Chelan will host the 2010 Paragliding Co-Nationals, and North America Paragliding World Cup | photo by Doug Stroop.

Some postulate that the free flight culture of today resembles the surfing community of the 1950’s. It is possible to go anywhere in the coun-

try where a free-flight group exists and get dialed into a scene with only a minor inconvenience.

We take part in a sport but, in reality, when the flying season kicks into gear, it becomes a lifestyle we base our daily, weekly, and monthly schedules around.

Weddings of members in the flying community, for example, can’t be planned until the flying event cal-endar is released. Fashion is dictated by its practical-ity for flight. Free flight specific jargon like specking out, dusty, feet-per-minute, and coring up dominates our shared parlance. We read and discuss monthly free flight periodicals, web discussions, and current thermal literature theory books—all preparing us to congregate and search for the glorious flying days of summer.

Regardless of wing type, our communal culture, made up of a diversified group of individuals, is com-mitted to the search for the perfect climb, sledder, and acro lap and enamored with the life surrounding jour-neys in the skies.

No matter what aspect of the sport/lifestyle calls to each of us, we cherish the opportunity to harness the invisible waves that catapult us upward toward the clouds, to camp with our friends, to share ideas on meteorology, and to leave daily routines behind. This is flying. This is freedom.

USHPA’s magazine for May is focused on exploring flying sites, both classic and lesser known. Telluride, Colorado, Yosemite and Ant Hill, California, and Mt. Sentinel in Missoula, Montana, form a compilation of challenging Western destinations.

And, finally, the gallery in this issue is dedicated to David Barish, who died several months ago. Barish, Francis Rogallo, and Domina Jalbert all worked on NASA projects to design manned space capsule re-entry systems. However, Barish’s vision of slope soar-ing these crafts, and the community and culture that grew from such an amazing sport, was distinct. After the NASA tests, he took the Barish Sailwing on tour to various ski resorts and performed demonstrations for spectators, hoping his Sailwing would take off as a summer activity. It took some time, but clearly ski resorts worldwide are now dazzled with many flights throughout the summer.

Thank you, Mr. Barish. Your vision was incredible!

7

Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero8

EAST COAST AEROBATICSThe first ever East Coast aer-

obatic hang gliding meet will

take place June 10th through

June 13th at Highland

Aerosports in Ridgely, MD

in conjunction with the East

Coast Championships com-

petition. The primary pur-

pose of this event is to train a

cadre of judges on the east-

ern seaboard, and to show-

case the talents of east coast

aerobatic pilots. Thanks to a

very generous grant from the

Foundation for Free Flight,

and matching funds from

USHPA, we are able to bring

head judge RC Dave Freund

out from Southern California

to lead the judge training and

provide expert evaluations of

all competitive rounds.

Sport Class, or limited dif-

ficulty, entrants are encour-

aged to attend to help define

a working set of rules for

this new class of aerobatic

competition. Every sport

class flight will be carefully

watched and critiqued by an

open class pilot to provide

immediate feedback to help

safely grow the sport of aero-

batic hang gliding.

Total pilot and judge train-

ee numbers are limited to 10

and 7 respectively. Rounds

will be flown in the morn-

ings and evenings during the

calm air portions of the day

with a goal of having six total

rounds flown.

Competitor costs are $395

per pilot which includes

tow fees and smoke bombs,

pre-registration is appreci-

ated and encouraged. Judge

trainees are volunteers and

are responsible for their

travel, room, and board.

However, one aerotow per

judge will be provided daily.

Non-flying judges will receive

an equivalent non-monetary

gift. For more information

and to register visit http://

www.usaero.org and http://

aerosports.net/ or contact

Dallas Willis at dallas_willis@

yahoo.com

GOLDEN 3 RELEASEDGradient’s new intermediate

glider Golden3 successfully

passed certification in three

sizes (26, 28, 30). All sizes

have been classified with

EN/B LTF 1-2, and passed the

test flight procedure without

any problems. The result of

the test flights confirmed the

development team’s success

(Dupal/Sykora) in designing

an intermediate wing for a

wider range of pilots. The

small sizes 24, and 22, are

passing the certification

at this time. According to

Gradient the whole Golden3

range will be certified by

the beginning of the season.

international: www.gradient.

cx US: www.atlantaparaglid-

ing.com

SKYWALK'S CHILI2Two additional sizes of

Skywalk's Chili2 have been

successfully LTF09-B (1-2)

homologised: size L (takeoff

weight 100-120kg) and XS

(60-80kg).

Innovative 3-Line technol-

ogy and an aspect ratio of

5,67 points have allowed the

CHILI2 to advance into new

dimensions performance-

wise, at least in the 1-2 class.

Info: www.skywalk.info.

TTT GOES COMP WILDThe Tennessee Tree Toppers

are increasing opportunities

for our members to partici-

pate in fun competitions in

2010. The TTT have several

different formats planned,

and competitions spread out

over the entire flying season.

We intend to host the most

comprehensive competition

schedule in the nation!

There will be a monthly

fun weekend series, a race

to goal sprint series, an

open distance within the

Sequatchie Valley meet, and

of course another Team

Challenge! This is a total of 31

days of organized competi-

tion!

The TTT Weekend Series

was conceived to encourage

camaraderie and fun flying

for all our members. We

will host a fun competition

every second weekend of the

month from March through

November. TTT BOD meet-

ings are also held the second

weekend of the month and

members are encouraged to

attend.

The Weekend Series

will feature a full range of

events including spot land-

ings, streamer drops, and

total number of flights in

a day. There will also be a

cross country competition.

All events will have scor-

ing formulas and weighted

tasks posted so pilots may

choose to participate in

anything from landing skill

competition to XC tasks.

Competitors score points to

determine winners for the

weekend, and accumulate

points toward the Weekend

Series Champion at years

end. We will award winners

in XC, spot landing, streamer

drop, and even most flights in

a weekend.

All contests will be divided

into Rigid Wing, Topless,

Double Surface and Single

Surface categories. We’ll

have many out and back, tri-

angle and goal tasks posted

on a Google Earth map for

pilots to study. Values of

each predetermined task will

be posted. Pilots will log in

and report their flights to

a special program written

by Jeff Nibler for this series,

scoring on the honor system.

There will be cookouts

in the camping area after

Saturday’s flying so everyone

can hang out and share tales

of the day’s events. The TTT

Weekend Series will cost $20

to enter for the entire year!

More info: http://www.

sequatchiecompetition.com/

index.html, http://tennessee-

treetoppers.org, and http://

www.facebook.com/pages/

Tennessee-Treetoppers.

PilotBRIEFINGSNew | Improved | Buzzworthy

Phot

os: J

érôm

e Ma

upoi

nt ©

::: high performance

The Boomerang GTO is the highest performance glider designed by Gin that has been certifi ed. Like the world famous Ferrari GTO and Pontiac GTO – Gran Turismo Olomogato – means a race car that has been made street legal. The Boomerang GTO was designed with this concept in mind.

The GTO shares all of the great qualities found in the hugely successful Boomerang Sport; refi ned and direct handling along with excellent stability.

>>> Aspect ratio 6.68 for 77 cells ::: EN D

::: high performance::: high performance

GO FURTHER.www.gingliders.com ::: GIN GLIDERS USA - SUPER FLY, Inc - tel. 801.255.9595 - Email. info@superfl yinc.com

GIN10_GTO_USHGA8.375x10.875.indd 1 15/03/10 21:33:11


PENGUIN PENANCE I'd like to apologize for my April Fool's absurdity "Saving Al Gore". It wasn't nearly as funny as my Parawhaling or Paradonking adventures. And it was in no way meant to disparage environmental conservation. If anything, beyond pure absurdity, I was comment-ing on how a telegenic crisis tends to eclipse the little things we can all do every day to make a difference. Al Gore is an inspiring leader who has addressed the environmental crisis eloquently and unfailingly. I really would name a polar bear after him should I be honored with such a task. But no, I would never eat a penguin. I'll just go back to laying out the magazine and leave humor to the hu-morous in the future.

Greg Gillam, Art Director

AirMAILUSHPA NOTICE TO MEMBERS USHPA oc-casionally makes important changes to the Association’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) and other documents, especially documents used in the rating system. This column appears in the mag-azine to notify the members when impor-tant changes are made. Please review the latest documents in the Members Only section of the USHPA web site. If you have any questions about these changes, please contact your Regional Director.

PARAGLIDING INSTRUCTORSAND BEGINNER PARAGLIDER PILOTS

At the paragliding Instructor workgroup in 2009, the paragliding Instructors re-quested an addition to SOP 12-02 which was subsequently approved by the Board of Directors. The addition is as follows:

12-02.14(B)(1)(b) (Novice paraglider pilot requirements) Must have logged a

minimum of 25 flights above 299’ which require a landing approach.

Please read the appropriate sections of SOP 12-02, Pilot Proficiency Program.

INSTRUCTOR ADMINISTRATORSAND TANDEM ADMINISTRATORS

The FOI requirement in SOP 12-05 has been clarified. The FOI exam must be successfully completed prior to certifica-tion as an Instructor.

Please read the appropriate sections of SOP 12-05, Directors/Examiners/Observers/Instructors.

ALL MEMBERS

In addition to the changes above, there are administrative and documentation changes to SOP 02-02, SOP 03-03, SOP 03-04, SOP 12-02 and SOP 12-07.

Membership | Policy | Involvement

TheASSOCIATION

Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero 11

Parawhaling in 2008Paradonking in 2009

Fail in 2010


SITE PRESERVATION MADE PAINLESS Site Preservation might seem a topic that has gotten plenty of coverage in our magazine and websites, but no other topic hits home like the loss of a flying site. Nothing re-duces membership and the flying popula-tion like the loss of a place to launch and land. Site preservation should be, and is, a top priority and primary stated goal of The Foundation for Free Flight. While this might seem obvious, until you experience and interact with the Foundation, you might not realize the powerful ally you have on your side.

Flying participation in our little corner of the world was in a fragile state not long ago. We’d lost sites due to encroachment by housing, litigation fears, landowner turnover, as had other parts of the country. But we had not anticipated an advanta-geous situation that arose when aerotowing took on some prominence. At that time, we found ourselves sharing our flying sites in Ohio with other forms of aviation (at airfields). This was new for folks who were

used to launching and landing in remote terrain, with no neighbors. It became im-portant to create and solidify relationships not only with landowners, but also with our fellow non foot-launched aviators.

This has been a positive trend for site preservation. When we meet and cultivate friendships with aviators who are will-ing to share their site (airstrip), we have a stronger and better chance at preserving that site. By partnering with these aviators and the Foundation for Free Flight, we’ve been able to secure our home flying site for the foreseeable future. We worked out a lease arrangement at the Far View airport with landowners and fellow flyers (other light sport pilots). The one area where we were most in need of assistance was fund-ing, and the Foundation came through in a big way.

The process of applying for a grant and getting it approved is straightforward. You merely fill out the grant application, stat-ing your goals and needs. If your request is valid, the Foundation will work with

you to help you provide the documenta-tion needed to ensure fulfillment of your grant. For example, you must have done due diligence and made significant finan-cial contributions on your own before they consider your request. It’s important to start early, as the process is usually it-erative. We found it very easy and pain-less. Just keep talking and working with the Foundation, and they’ll guide you to success.

Some history will shed light on how we got to where we are now. In the late 70’s, when most were thinking about how to make ends meet, worrying about gas shortages, and other concerns of the day, a small group of pilots began meeting once a month. These pilots were mainly concerned with how to get more airtime, how to fly safely, and how to acquire more flying sites. In the shop of the now defunct CGS Aviation, the pilots of northern Ohio began to loosely organize into what would eventually become part of the Ohio Flyers Association.

Over the years, the concerns over air-time and site acquisition and preservation, never seemed to abate, but the list of flying

Preservation | Safety | Education | Competition | Competition Excellence

TheFOUNDATION by Ken Swarm

France Switzerland

Fly the Alpswith Todd Weigand and Luis Rosenkjer

June 2010

Italy

www.paraglidingtrips.com


sites stabilized. We managed to get per-mission to fly from a state park on Lake Erie (Edgewater State Park in Lakewood, Ohio) and established with the state the procedures to keep the flying safe, thus preserving the site.

Like many other groups in the flat areas of the country, we needed a means to get aloft without leaving the area for the week-end. So an effort to establish aerotowing locally was begun in 1983 by Jon Leak and a band of earnest volunteers.

In other areas of Ohio, pilots had also organized, started to procure launch sites, and begun to use aerotowing. These groups joined forces to become the Ohio Flyers Hang Gliding Association. The co-alition of the pilots in the state was used to help procure more sites, maintain them, and insure them via the USHPA. This secured a number of sites indefinitely and helped others to be opened.

One of those sites, Far View, a small grassy airstrip in Hiram, Ohio, was se-cured because of the support of the Ohio Flyers. Initially, the airstrip was only used by the aerotowing group based there, but, eventually, other forms of aviation began to use the field.

Powered paragliders showed up for a few years. An Ultralight/Sport Pilot in-structor moved in next door and set up an operation teaching new pilots how to fly. Ultimately, the popularity of these opera-tions provided the means to create a more formal arrangement with the landown-ers. We proposed an arrangement where the airstrip facilities would be secured for a fixed period of time and the landowner agreed.

Now all we needed was to acquire the funds to make it happen. Thanks to the generosity of the Ohio Flyers and Daedelus Club members, as well as support from the Foundation for Free Flight, we have as-sured the preservation of this site for the next ten years. A number of pilots freely donated additional funds individually.

The Far View site has given our flying group an operational base during the flying season. The grass runway is perched on the highest spot in the area. It’s about two miles south of Hiram College and one

mile east of the John Johnson Farm House, a Mormon historical site. Originally home to a crop-dusting operation of the 1940’s, it is now an active organic farm. Some of the pilots in our area actually used to play there as children.

The area is mostly farmland with roll-ing terrain and large wooded areas, truly scenic, and the surrounding airspace is very friendly to all types of aviation. There is an ultralight school across the street, and homebuilt biplanes and balloons are common sights in the evening sky. There is even an active parachuting operation about six miles north. Commercial air traffic is low, and we are well outside of the con-trolled airspace surrounding Cleveland.

Far View is the source of several hun-dred hang gliding flights each season. It is also the source of several cross-country flights for many Pennsylvania pilots who get pushed home by the prevailing winds. We have yet to have a 200-mile flight from this site, but several respectable cross-country flights take place each season, and a 100 plus miler is definitely possible—ask Pete Lehmann and Larry Huffman or some of the other regular XC pilots who fly there.

The Foundation of Free Flight, com-bined with the donations of pilots, has en-sured that this site will stay open long into the future. With their amazing support, we were able to secure access to this flying site for the next ten years. Not only were foundation members very encouraging of our project, they were readily available for technical assistance with the grant applica-tion process. I encourage anyone attempt-ing to keep a site open to contact them.

For most individuals the whole grant funding process is a mystery. The Foundation made the grant application a simple and straightforward process. We encourage you to contact them.

We want to express our deep gratitude to the Foundation and to the many generous pilots in our region for supporting our ef-forts to preserve this aerotow site well into the next decade. If you are in the area and have a current USHPA rating, you are wel-come to join us in the air. Contact one of the local pilots via the Ohio Flyers [http://www.ohioflyers.org/] for directions to our site and contact info. It is easily found on Google maps. Search for Far View Airport. It is designated 86D on the sectional.


2009 HANG GLIDING SUMMARY This month we summarize those accidents reported during 2009 that have not been described in earlier columns . It is almost a given that these eight reports represent but a small subset of the total number of mishaps actually oc-curring in 2009; the remainder represent many, many lessons lost to the community as a whole . If you experience an event from which others could learn a valuable lesson (and virtually every mishap qualifies in this regard), please report it . Better yet, consider sharing your experience by writing a “There I was…” story…and help others benefit from your hard-won experience .

Time of Year: SpringaccidenT SiTe: new YorkTYpe of Launch: fooT Launch

SummarY: A beginner pilot was poised to launch from the lower third of a 100’ train-ing hill. The beginner pilot had attempted a previous flight but with little success.

The conditions were very light, with winds around 3 to 4 MPH up the lower face of the training hill. The pilot launched into the 3 to 4 MPH wind, which was accom-panied by a light crosswind gust that lifted the pilot to 10’ to 15’ off of the ground. The pilot was used to ground skimming, and the sudden height may have taken the pilot by surprise. No control inputs occurred, and the crosswind gust turned the pilot to the right and towards the hill. The pilot reacted, turning the glider away from the hill. The glider continued to turn around, slowing down as it turned. The glider then mushed into the ground in a left turn. According to witnesses, the impact did not look severe. An instructor at the training hill was first to arrive at the impact location. The pilot’s left arm was hurting. According to the pilot, the glider bounced once, causing the pilot to lose the grip on the downtubes. The final bounce caused the pilot to swing towards the left side of the glider. The left arm was prob-ably sandwiched between the pilot’s body

and the downtube as the pilot’s body im-pacted the left downtube. Aid was given to the pilot in the form of two cold packs and a sling. The pilot’s family came and took the pilot to the hospital. There was no report on the injuries to the left arm of the accident pilot.

LeSSon Learned: The first flights that a be-ginner has that are not much higher than ground skimming height are some of the most dangerous during training. Those heights may not allow for complete correc-tion if the flight path is altered by errant gusts. The conditions for these flights should be very calm and, preferably, very early in the morning or quite late in the afternoon. This is to ensure that the sun hasn’t gotten high enough to start stirring up the atmosphere too much or is very low on the horizon, and the atmosphere is settling down. Minimizing the chance for gusts is key. These are the ideal train-ing conditions; it does not always go this way. Taking baby steps in your training is key to advancing slowly and deliber-ately, giving time to gather the experience needed for the muscle memory required to

Love Canopy Flight?Come Play with Us!

How big was it?

Analysis | Preparedness | Incidents

SafetyBULLETIN by Bacil Dickert, staff writer


keep the glider flying in the right direction with the right speed.

Time of Year: SpringaccidenT SiTe: caLiforniaTYpe of Launch: fooT Launch

SummarY: A pilot launched and soared along a ridge in thermals. The lift started fading and the pilot flew out to land in an RLF LZ. On an uphill final into a quarter-ing wind, a small strong thermal lifted the pilot’s left wing. The pilot has no memory past turning on final. One eyewitness claimed the left wing went completely ver-tical. Another eyewitness said that the ac-cident pilot had plenty of speed, but since the pilot’s hands were on the downtubes, there was no chance of recovery. The acci-dent pilot believes that if one hand was on the downtube and one on the basetube, an immediate correction may have been pos-sible to enable a more controlled bad land-ing. The ensuing crash broke a downtube on the glider. The pilot suffered a worse fate, suffering a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, a fractured shoulder, and minor lacerations of the face and shin.

LeSSon Learned: The accident pilot felt that the primary cause was getting hit by the thermal from the side, that had he/she been flying more into the wind, the land-ing may have been more controlled. That may or may not be true. However, take ex-treme care when landing in an LZ during springtime midday thermal conditions. Plenty of speed for control and flying di-rection into the relative wind is the best you can do. Having the maximum wing loading for your wing is something to con-sider. It provides more stability, something that helps when landing during midday thermal conditions.

Time of Year: SummeraccidenT SiTe: caLiforniaTYpe of Launch: fooT Launch

SummarY: The nosecone of a rigid wing came loose during a flight and seriously degraded the flying characteristics of the rigid wing. The pilot noticed the tail os-cillating back and forth and an increase in the sink rate. Unprepared for the altered flight characteristics, the pilot misjudged the turn from downwind onto final during

the landing approach, and ended up flying a base leg to the ground and landing nearly 90 degrees from the intended direction.

LeSSon Learned: The nosecone of all glid-ers is not just cosmetic; it is necessary for optimum wing performance. Serious de-grading of flight performance may occur if the nosecone becomes loose or detaches in flight. Ensure that the nosecone attach-ment is flight-worthy during preflight. If it is not, get it repaired before taking flight. It is not worth the risk of flying a wing that behaves completely foreign to the pilot, es-pecially in demanding landing conditions.

Time of Year: SummeraccidenT SiTe: new YorkTYpe of Launch: fooT Launch

SummarY: Pilot attempted launch with a high nose angle and wings not level. A weak run exacerbated an already bad situa-tion, and the glider mushed into rocks and bushes down the slope. The control frame was damaged. The pilot suffered bumps and bruises. The accident pilot had blown a launch at this same site five years earlier.


According to the pilot, that blown launch was due to a too low nose angle, causing the glider to get ahead of the pilot.

LeSSon Learned: Solid and consistent launch skills are perhaps the single most important flight skill in terms of safety. Habitually weak launches are a condition that no pilot should tolerate. Returning to the training hill and practicing launches with the correct nose angle and strong and aggressive runs are the key to building and maintaining solid launch skills.

Time of Year: SummeraccidenT SiTe: uTahTYpe of Launch: fooT Launch

SummarY: The pilot described the day as a beautiful one, with light thermals. Late in the day the lift started shutting down, so the pilot went out to land in the normal landing field. There was no wind in the LZ. The pilot saw that they were going to overshoot the intended landing spot, so the pilot made some turns to lose altitude. Even though there was no wind in the LZ, the pilot fixated on trying to turn into the normal wind direction. At a low altitude the pilot tried to execute a left turn into the nonexistent wind and impacted the

ground. The pilot’s left hand became trapped under the basetube and the mo-mentum from the sudden deceleration swung the pilot forward. The pilot’s hand was jerked from under the basetube, tear-ing the rotator cuff in the pilot’s shoulder and scraping the skin from the back of the pilot’s hand.

LeSSon Learned: Having flexibility in your landing approach is key for choosing the right approach for the conditions in the LZ. Being fixated on one approach is very risky and dangerous if the conditions demand a different, safer approach. Too many turns can distract the pilot and rob him/her of some situational awareness, namely one’s height above the LZ. The accident pilot also mentioned that he/she did not put his/her wheels on the basetube, and that he/she only had 4 flights in 2009. Having wheels available to slow the deceleration rate once the basetube met the ground could only have been a good thing in this situation. Being more current could have helped as well in the decision making pro-cess for the landing approach.

Time of Year: SummeraccidenT SiTe: nevadaTYpe of Launch: fooT Launch

SummarY: A pilot attempted to launch an ATOS at a site late in the day with con-ditions ranging from 90 degrees cross to blowing down the slope. Other pilots were present and elected not to fly. The other pilots asked if the accident pilot was going to set up and fly. The pilot said yes, and stated that he/she would wait for a lull before launching. The pilot launched into 90+ degree-cross conditions with a high nose angle. The glider mushed into the air, stalled and the right wing dropped. The right wingtip dragged on the ground for a short distance before the glider rolled left, almost to a wing’s level attitude. The glider impacted the tops of trees at the bottom of the launch and fell 80’ to soft dirt, barely missing a huge boulder. The pilot was discovered lying on top of the upside-down glider. The pilot suffered a mild concussion and several damaged ver-tebrae. The glider was severely damaged, with one leading edge completely crushed and completely destroyed. It’s believed that the tip struck the ground first and col-lapsed, keeping the pilot from impacting the ground at a much higher speed.

LeSSon Learned: The accident pilot had been flying for a very long time and has a lot of experience. The pilot had the habit of


showing up late and launching in less than ideal conditions many times previously, and getting away with it. Reinforcing bad habits is a dangerous practice.

Continually launching in marginal conditions with poor launch technique is a recipe for disaster.

Time of Year: faLLaccidenT SiTe: caLiforniaTYpe of Launch: fooT Launch

SummarY: A pilot attempted a flight from a 300’ hill. The flight plan was to launch, execute an S turn into the LZ, and land into the wind. The launch was fine, and the pilot executed the first part of the S turn. The pilot hesitated to complete the second part of the S turn, resulting in the pilot flying downwind with a high groundspeed. The pilot then attempted to turn into the wind towards the hill. The turn was completed at a low altitude close to the hill near a barbed-wire fence. The glider sideslipped, and the wing closest to the hill was impaled on a fencepost. The pilot “landed” relatively safely three feet from the fence, suffering only minor cuts on the arms and a bruise above the left knee. The glider got the worst of it (the best scenario), with a dented leading edge, two major tears in the sail, snapped luff lines, and a frayed side wire.

LeSSon Learned: The accident pilot stated that he/she had needlessly panicked after completing the first part of the S turn, from a combination of flying in higher winds than the pilot was used to and being at a lower altitude than expected. The en-suing turn at low altitude near the barbed-wire fence obstacle most probably did not have enough airspeed to combat the gradi-ent present near the hill surface. The wing closest to the hill entered a probable stall, resulting in the sideslipping of the wing onto the fencepost. Always maintain a healthy margin of airspeed and altitude above obstacles on the ground. Turning upwind close to the ground has the po-tential of stalling the wing closest to the ground, due to a wind gradient that exists close to the ground. A hillside can have a more pronounced wind gradient than flat ground, so be especially careful when turning upwind close to areas that may have a sizable wind gradient.

Time of Year: winTeraccidenT SiTe: new YorkTYpe of Launch: fooT Launch

SummarY: A Hang 2 pilot with less than 10 mountain launches and an hour of air-time launched from a mountain site with expectations of soaring for the first time. Prior to the launch, the observer recom-mended turning right into the crossing wind, towards the main LZ. The pilot ex-ecuted a good launch, flew out away from the mountain and experienced lift. The pilot did not turn to the right as recom-mended because of the conditions. The pilot allowed turbulence to turn him to the left, downwind and further from the main LZ. After some altitude was lost, the pilot realized that it was time to try to land. The pilot turned back into the wind to attempt to reach the main LZ, but could not penetrate sufficiently to enable the glider to reach the main LZ. Realizing this fact, the pilot then opted for a closer, still upwind LZ beyond two rows of trees. Off to the pilot’s left was an open field, but the pilot continued to try for the upwind LZ. The pilot realized that he/she could not clear the two rows of trees, and now he was boxed into a field ringed by trees on three sides. The pilot turned right to-wards a treeline, rather than left towards the middle of the field. The pilot flew into the trees at ground level, between two tree trunks. The glider suffered a broken lead-ing edge. The pilot escaped injury.

LeSSon Learned: The pilot was very eager to have a first soaring flight. The pilot did not obey the observer’s recommendation of turning right into the crossing wind. The pilot’s inexperience caused him/her to get into a very undesirable position in rela-tion to the main LZ, requiring decisions that were a bit above the pilot’s experience level. Inexperienced pilots must stick to the flight plan outlined by their observers. The observers are there to provide a plan that has plenty of safety margin to allow for a relatively low stress flight to occur. This is key to building experience and ef-fective decision making. Setbacks such as this incident in a new pilot’s flying career can discourage and in the worst case cause the pilot to quit flying. Not the desired result.

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FREEDOM FLYERS Christina Ammon talks to Icelanders Anita Hafdís Björnsdóttir and Áslaug Rán Einarsdóttir of The Flying Effect: Paragliding for Women and Freedom .

Seeing a woman in the sky some-times feels a bit like spotting a California Condor: they’re brave,

beautiful, and, well, sort of rare. Sure, it’s the “post-feminist era,” and women have broken through all sorts of glass-ceilings (at least in the western world). All the same, less than 10-percent of pilots are female—proof that, when it comes to flying, women are yet to bust through the inversion of gender inequality.

One day while para-waiting on launch in their native homeland of Iceland, pilots Anita and Asa asked the question: What gives?

In the way that conversations tend to meander when it’s blowing over the back, this question led to bigger, more abstract inquiries. Like: What is the relationship between freedom and flying? How do women in other countries view freedom? What does freedom mean in general?

To find out, Anita and Asa might have holed up in a library to collect boring

stats and study gender theories. Instead, they did what any pilots worth their GPS would do: planned a round-the-world paragliding adventure.

Along the way, they’d spark conversa-tions and give women the opportunity to communicate their views on freedom through words, photographs, videos and drawings. Anita and Asa’s findings would then be presented as an exhibition.

To fund this “adventure with a pur-pose,” they sold all their belongings and recruited sponsorship from UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women).

I first met Anita and Asa online. The Facebook profile for The Flying Effect was passed around, and I found myself scrolling through their blog, which fea-tures their itinerary, profiles, and discus-sions on topics ranging from the ethics of hiring women porters to the rights of widows in Nepal.

I was psyched to learn that The Flying Effect was visiting Pokhara, Nepal, at the same time I was. But I scouted the lake-side LZs to no avail; Anita and Asa were nowhere to be found. As it turned out, they’d been laid up with food poisoning. It wasn’t the most auspicious start to their two-year journey, and the irony of being chained to the bathroom on their “free-dom journey” wasn’t lost on them. But, soon enough, they were circling in view of Machapuchare with the rest of us.

I recently contacted them for a prog-ress update. They responded to my inqui-ries from the sunny beaches of Goa, India. There they were enjoying good health, morning yoga sessions, and some mellow

coastal flying.

Talk about your inspiration and the effect you hope to have.

We were inspired by the liberating feeling of freedom we experience in paragliding. We were also fueled by a passion for trav-eling. Through our discussions about the lack of women in the sport, the project almost took on its own life and showed us the way. We were curious: how do vari-ous people across the world experience freedom?

As women traveling the world with paragliders, we felt we had a great op-portunity to do this project, focusing on giving women a voice, and promoting our right to freedom everywhere.

So, what is freedom to you?

Ása: Freedom to me is to be able to travel the world, not to have any commitments that tie me down in one place, or debts that make me stuck in life. Freedom is to be able to live in the “now.”

Anita: I very much agree with Ása. Essentially, a mind free of worries and a body free of earthly boundaries.

It’s still early in your trip, but have you had some inspiring encounters?

On a paragliding site in Panchgani, India, we met India’s youngest paragliding pilot: a 13-year old girl who learned paraglid-ing when she was only ten! Shrikanta is a fascinating, focused young girl with big plans for the future.

We were invited to a dinner of real Indian curry at her parents’ house. We learned that when she was nine-years old, she swam 42 km in the Indian Ocean, setting an Indian record. Her story is one of many inspiring ones we plan to publish on our website.

Overall, we are quite surprised at how much is going on in Asia in terms of proj-ects to help women help themselves. For example, there is a trekking company in Pokhara run by three sisters who employ

PilotPROJECTSMaking a Difference

“I haven't missed any

of the things I gave or

sold for one second,

which tells me I did

the right thing.”

“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


and coach other women to be guides. We didn t́ really expect to find this sort of thing, and it’s very inspiring.

The biggest challenge?

Two months ago, the challenge was re-signing from our jobs, selling all of our belongings, leaving friends, family, and our comfort zone. But, looking back, these seem like baby steps. After hitting the road, the challenges have changed to include food poisoning, new flying sites and weather patterns, lack of “proper” bathroom facilities, exotic creepy crawlies, power-cuts, heat exhaustion, local pover-ty, tourist scams, seeing burning bodies. We never know what to expect next!

Our biggest challenge at the moment is time. We wanted to do so much and have so many ideas waiting to be realized. There are many women to see, sites to fly, photos to upload, blogs to write, and videos to edit. Maybe we should get better at planning, but we enjoy the freedom of the non-plan plan too much.

How did it feel to sell your belongings in order to fund this project?

Anita: My flat is very tiny, and I felt like I was suffocating in stuff. After a few cycles of getting rid of things, I decided to let it all go. I thought long and hard about whether I could part with old dia-ries, photos, books and favorite clothes. I concluded that I would allow myself to fill one small box of personal belongings for storage.

Everything else was sold or given away through Facebook, web-based classified ads, and, eventually, a yard-sale. Anything that didn t́ sell went to the Red Cross.

Letting go was easier than I expected. It was liberating-- like a weight had been lifted off my chest. But a lifetime’s worth

of accumulated things didn’t add up to much: just a one-way flight to Asia and two months of living costs.

Ása: I don’t think I am very attached to my things. One or two dresses I gave to my sister. Pots, pans, TV and old junk from the storage room was easy to sell. Books I found quite difficult to get rid of since they have been my passion since I was a little girl, so I stored some favorites in a box alongside some other things of sentimental value.

I sold my apartment to a neighbor for a very low price, due to the collapsed housing market. I didn’t gain any value from it, but not having to worry about fire, floods, broken windows, paint and constantly fixing something is priceless.

I haven’t missed any of the things I gave or sold for one second, which tells me I did the right thing. It is absolutely liberating and I feel freer not carrying this stuff around.

What are you “getting back”?

Freedom, fun, happiness and perhaps a little tan.

What would help?

People. Bits of advice and suggestions go a long way. Through meeting and talk-ing to local people and pilots from all over the world, we’ve found our way so far. If someone reading this article wants to share information regarding paraglid-ing sites and seasons, traveling, or tips on how to earn enough money on the way, we’re happy to hear it. Also, if you want

to point out inspiring women (pilots or not) to whom you think we should talk or have suggestions regarding our project, we would appreciate it.

Advice for pilots wanting to make a positive impact?

We’ve met many pilots over the past two months who have given up their “normal” lives to follow their passion of paraglid-ing. Some are on an extended holiday and some quit their daily job or work from the road. They don’t all know what will happen next, but what they have in common is the comfort of knowing that living today is more important than wor-rying about tomorrow. We think follow-ing your true inspiration, whatever it may be, is the most positive impact you can have.

What else?

Make your ideas happen now; don’t store them at the back of your head for another day.

It might not be an accident that a project like The Flying Effect was birthed in Iceland. According to

a recent study released by the World Economic Forum, that Nordic country has the highest gender equality index of 134 countries analyzed. Iceland also boasts the first woman in the world—Vigdís Finnbogadóttir—to be elected (and re-elected) head of state in a national election.

Their travels are already putting their good fortune in perspective. Anita writes,

“I’ve never had to worry about where my next meal would come from. I never had to console my mother or reassure her that my brothers, her sons, would return alive from a war. I never had to fight for my right to religion.”

The Flying Effect has a long journey in front of them. Upcoming destinations in-clude Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Slovenia, and France. They’d love to hear from you.

www .theflyingeffect .wordpress .com

theflyingeffect@gmail .com

“Make your ideas

happen now; don't

store them at the

back of your head for

another day.”


Site HighlightHANG GLIDER HILL | BAKERSFIELD

by John Fritsche

A few flying sites not far from Bakersfield, California, are awe-some and famous, like the Owens

Valley, Kagel, and Crestline. There are several other great mountain

sites even closer to Bakersfield—in the Tehachapi, Taft, Porterville, and Lake Isabella areas. These sites are unregulated

and pretty obscure, but many spectacular flights have originated from all of them. Relatively few pilots have ever flown them. If you contact me, I’ll be happy to tell you more about all of these places, but in this article I’d like to call attention to a little ridge site on the east side of town, actu-ally, within Bakersfield city limits. It has a rich history, will probably soon be closed to flying and, I believe, serves as a classic example of how and why many great sites get closed down.

Local pilots most often refer to this little ridge site as “the little hill” to differ-entiate it from the mountain sites that sur-round the city. Bakersfield residents have been calling it “Hang Glider Hill” for over twenty years. Maps label it Ant Hill, and that seems to be the name best-recognized by the few out-of-town pilots who know anything about the place. Ironically, para-glider pilots seem more inclined than hangies to call it Hang Glider Hill, even though it’s definitely seen far more use by paragliders than hang gliders over the past fifteen years.

A strange set of circumstances led me from my longtime Wisconsin home to Bakersfield in 1994. I had been flying for six years at the time, and I was a total air

junkie—far more addicted than I am now. Aerotowing had just come to the Midwest, making it far easier and more practical to hang glide there, but I couldn’t take the long, harsh winters anymore. I was also really poor and desperate for a job, so when I got an offer from Bakersfield, those strange voices in my head screamed, “Go West, young man!!!” The Internet was in its infancy, but I had heard and read that there was good flying to be had in Southern California.

Upon my arrival, I got a lot of puzzled “There’s always hope

that we can reopen

closed sites somehow,

someday…but not

when they’re closed

by development that

covers every possible

launch and landing

zone with houses.”[above] Hang gliders over Ant Hill. [below] John Fritsche airborne at the Ant Hill. Photos by John Stokes.


looks from Bakersfieldians when I asked about flying in the area, but a few people mentioned “Hang Glider Hill, out there by Hart Park.” The name certainly sound-ed promising. I couldn’t find any Hang Glider Hill on the map but Hart Park was there. It took a little exploring around the park to figure out where the flying site was and how I could get up to launch in my 1985 Oldsmobile sedan. It took longer to get in touch with the few local pilots and get introduced to what I came to consider

“the real sites” in the area—the ones in the Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, and Temblor Range. By the time I moved away thirteen years later, I really loved Hang Glider Hill, had some of my most memo-rable hang gliding and paragliding flights there, and was downright depressed at the thought of its getting closed down.

Ant Hill is 400 feet high and at 1000 feet MSL. It faces northwest, which is the predominant wind direction nine months of the year. The soarable portion of the ridge is usually only a quarter-mile long but, under ideal conditions, that doubles. It’s part of the Kern River Bluffs, which extend from Kern Canyon in the Sierra Nevada foothills west to Bakersfield College on the northeast corner of town. 400 feet doesn’t sound very high, but I’ve been several thousand feet over that hill many times, and several pilots have flown 20+ miles downwind. It’s probably best-known, however, for early evening glass-offs in which novices can safely rack-up their first hours of airtime. After a few paragliding lessons in 1999, I had a ball practicing the finer points of the sport at Ant Hill. Locals can often head out here after work to fly until sunset, ending their flights very close to their cars with an easy, low-stress top landing in a huge field that is free of obstacles.

If Ant Hill were an hour closer to LA, it would be cherished by hang gliding and paragliding schools in light winds, and swarms of more advanced pilots would soar it in the afternoon when steady winds in the 15-25mph range kick in. In the early days of hang gliding, I learned from local old-timers, it was common to see ten-to-twenty pilots at Ant Hill on a Saturday or Sunday. Even in recent years, big groups from the Kagel area have come over occa-sionally on post-frontal winter days, when strong northwest winds make the LA-area

mountain sites unflyable. Ant Hill felt like a very secure site until

about 2003. Until then, the launch, LZs, and full length of the ridge were crawl-ing with hikers and their dogs, mountain bikes, motorcycles, horses, and OHVs. RC sailplane enthusiasts could be found stand-ing on launch flying their models. I often recruited these folks to be my wire crew.

Although mostly private property, the whole far-east side of Bakersfield, en-compassing many square miles, was pre-dominantly open space and alive with the aforementioned activities. It was a giant playground! Most of the landowners didn’t live in the area and since it was probably too expensive and impractical to patrol and fence their properties, they turned a blind eye to us. As far as I know, the hundreds (probably thousands) of regular trespassers never caused any problems and never sued anyone. Many had no idea they were even on private property because there was no such signage.

Everything changed when a new water treatment plant was completed within view of Ant Hill. The insane real estate boom was in full force at the same time, and Bakersfield was rapidly growing. East-side property values skyrocketed, and the landowners began selling out to developers. Money talked and zoning changed. Huge, high-density developments were approved that will ultimately add well over 5,000 new homes to the once rural area.

The city council and planners thought this was a good thing, hoping it would slow the loss of prime agricultural land on the south and west sides of town (it didn’t). These officials didn’t, at first, realize how numerous and passionate the east side’s recreational users were.

Various conservation and recreational groups, including the small group of local pilots, began protesting. Some landowners suddenly wanted all of the trespassers, es-pecially the motorized ones, to disappear. Many felt that their rights to do as they wished with their land (especially the right to get rich by selling it to big developers) were threatened. Few of them seemed in-terested at all in preserving the open-space feel of the area.

City council and city planning commis-sion members met with property owners and anti-development group representa-tives. Ultimately the following basic agree-

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ments were made: Motorized recreational use of the area had to stop. Landowners and new residents did not want the noise, exhaust, or impact on their land. Police would patrol the area and cite motorized users for trespassing. But passive recre-ational use, including that by hang gliders and paragliders, could continue on unde-veloped properties. Several city council members pledged to prevent development of the most prized recreational lands by encouraging developers to preserve these spots with a parks and trails system in ex-change for more liberal development rights in other areas.

That remains the current situation. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of residential development close to Ant Hill. Some of it makes some old cross-country flying routes prohibitive, or at least trickier, but so far the launch, bluff, and top and bottom LZs are still intact. There is no sig-nificant guarantee that it will remain this way.

I’ve seen situations like the one at Ant Hill occur at several sites that I’ve flown in several different states, and I’m sure plenty of other sites that I know little about must be threatened by similar circumstances.

Although a couple of great mountain sites remain nearby, Ant Hill is a unique gem because it is so close to town, so safe for novices, so consistently flyable, and so user-friendly (i.e. no driver necessary). It’s one of the few things I miss about living in Bakersfield.

We all need to do what we can to secure our remaining flying sites from this type of development. There’s always hope that we can reopen closed sites somehow, some-day…but not when they’re closed by devel-opment that covers every possible launch and landing zone with houses.

John Fritsche is a bi-wingual pilot living in Lompoc, California . If you want more infor-mation about Ant Hill, he can be reached at: jfritsche2@juno .com or by phone at: 661-204-6875 . If you go to Google Earth, Ant Hill is located across the street from the California Living Museum, 10500 Alfred Harrell Highway, Bakersfield, California . You can also type in: Ant Hill, Bakersfield, California .

[left] Launching at Ant Hill. [opposite] John Fritsche airborne over Ant Hill.


Site HighlightGOLD HILL | TELLURIDE

by Jeff Cristol

I leave the launch first and find the air light and lifty. It is enough. Soon I am above my earthbound friends.

Both hang gliders and paragliders join me, frolicking to-and-fro above the rocky, tundra-covered ridge. It is the final day of the summer season, with winter and cold weather coming soon. But today is our day.

Hang pilots Craig Pirazzi and Kevin Smith join me over the high peaks. It’s light, but lift is everywhere. We follow the ridge as it drops and climbs, past golden sunlit spires. We circle close, sometimes laughing with each other, sometimes dancing with the ridge. Conditions feel

winter-like, but the air is smooth and kind.

Below us the others are still near launch, enjoying their piece of air, their time aloft. We continue back from Palmayra Peak, climbing again over Silver Mountain and Ophir Valley. This is a confluence of several ridges, but they come together randomly. The thermals reflect the ter-rain below, and it’s usually hard to get high here.

At least a thousand-over, we leave for the next row of mountains further back. Ballard and Wasatch sit due east of launch, but it takes an hour of fun flying to finally arrive. Low, below the summit, there is again enough lift where we expect it, ex-actly where we need it. After a short in-

“It just hurts to see

visitors not be able

to fly on the one or

two days they have

dedicated to Telluride.

Even if it takes more

than one visit to

catch it right, believe

me, it’s worth it.”


terlude over these peaks, we head across the valley. Once more we arrive below the summits, but we are at the house, and it provides. We bench up. Soon Mendota Peak is below us and the prickly San Sofia Ridge is our dancing partner.

It took hours to get here, and it’s now late. The sun is low over the La Sals and Utah. The day is closing, but we try our best to stay high and fly along the serrat-ed saw-blade mountains, flying into the wind. We make it just a short way; cross-ing Greenback and below Dallas Peak, I finally give up. Craig is not far behind; as shadows cross the valley below us, we head out to land. It is a perfect end to an-other summer season and a classic valley tour with friends.

FLYING SEASONS

Telluride, renowned for the scenery, the great skiing and summer festivals, is famous among pilots for spectacular flying. The views are awesome, with snowy peaks and yellow fall colors, but words fail to do justice to the beauty, so photos give the best description. A usual high cloud base, rugged terrain and beautiful flying from the 12,250’ site is simply huge. Living here, I am allowed to feel it’s the best flying site in the world.

“Best” of course is relative. What one pilot covets, another dreads. Visiting pilots often have horrible mountain weather and can only look up at the sky above the cliffs and mountains surround-

ing the town. Others pilots are intimi-dated by the high peaks and complicated topography. With launch at 12,250’ and the LZ in town at 8750,’ launches and landings are fast. Spring is often wet and windy, while summer comes with mon-soonal moisture. This leaves fall with the predictably best flying weather.

A small resort ski town deep in the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, Telluride is one-hundred-ten miles east of Moab, Utah, and about the same distance south of Grand Junction. Because it’s high in the mountains, weath-

[opposite] Shooting a Busch Beer commercial featuring paragliding in Telluride. [above] The peaks above Ophir. Photos by Jeff Cristol.


er is a big issue. Besides jet-stream winter winds, we also have long off-seasons when launch is inaccessible. We can’t fly no matter how good the day looks, be-tween the ski area’s closing day in April and the snow melt sometime in June. In October, snow closes the road to launch; then we wait for the ski area to open for Thanksgiving.

THE SITE

When we can get to launch, we are blessed with an above-treeline ridge with launch-es on either side. In the morning we take-off east on a steep and committing slope above three-thousand-foot cliffs. In the afternoon, a more gradual grassy slope just on the other side of the ridge allows less stressful departures on the west face.

Because the prevailing wind is from the west, the morning launch also entails launching and flying the lee while one climbs-out. Fortunately, climbing-out is usually straightforward, with a dozen likely thermal triggers and house thermals on the way down the ridge. You can’t see the LZ from either launch, which histori-

cally made this an H4 site. From the west launch, you must fly out and over the high Coonskin Ridge to get to town as well.

Sometimes pilots are fooled into launching west too early, before the sun has made it over to the west side. They launch into cool sinking air and land on the ski area. This is not only dangerous, but potentially causes us to get in trouble with the ski area that owns the launch and allows flying access.

Telluride Ski and Golf has been a great supporter of free flight for decades and allows us to fly the insured USHPA site with an annual contract. Needless to say, you must be a USHPA member and com-plete a ski area waiver. Pilots are also re-quired to get a Colorado Hiking Permit, a great deal at only a few dollars, which pro-vides search-and-rescue insurance. Our club website, tellurideairforce.org, lists pilot requirements and displays photos of launches and landing zones, as well as downloadable waivers and contacts and the obligatory weather links page.

Guide pilots from our club, the Telluride Air Force, are required for all pilots. Paraglider guide pilots can guide

for visiting hang glider pilots, though vis-iting hangies have a poor record of listen-ing to any advice that’s given. (Yes, it is hard to land a hang glider on the ski area, and, again, it risks losing our annual con-tract with the ski company).

In the summer most pilots fly Telluride with oxygen, at which time we have refill tanks at the bottom of the hill. Many San Juan summits top fourteen thousand feet, so a base at eighteen is only four thousand over the high terrain, which makes a very high base necessary for cross-country.

Hang glider pilots are still celebrating the town’s acquisition of the valley floor, where the Oops Field LZ sits, just outside of town. After a long legal battle, the town condemned the valley floor and, with an amazing fundraising effort, raised fifty million dollars to buy the huge landing zone. Many contributed, including the Foundation for Free Flight. (See sidebar).

Paraglider pilots often use the closer and smaller Pearl Property, the first field on the edge of town. We also have per-

[above] 95+ gliders on launch. [opposite] Can you feel the anticipation of the Gold Hill launch? Photos by Paul Voight.


mission to land in the town park, but it’s rarely used in summer when it’s filled with music festivals, soccer and baseball games. It’s easier to hit in winter as well, with groomed cross-country ski tracks and an area cleared for folding wings.

CROSS COUNTRY

When the flying is good—not too windy with a nice high base—we have great cross-country potential. With high peaks in every direction, there is always a ther-mal source to head for. Downwind is usually over the imposing mountains to the east. After a dozen miles, the deep Animas River Valley, with the small town of Silverton, must either be crossed or landed in. It’s a quick and easy flight but a long drive back around. It’s not diffi-cult to continue over yet higher terrain, and there are four-wheel drive roads with some traffic, but getting back gets more difficult. Creed is fifty miles away, just past the Bristlehead Butte flying site. A couple of ninety-mile flights have been made in this direction.

When you head south up the ridge,

you get to the Ophir valley. The open fields make a good LZ, but often pilots continue on a couple more miles, fly over Yellow Mountain and land on Lizard Head Pass, which is a wide open LZ, nice even for hangies. Flying to the north over the Sneffles Range and landing in Ridgway is another classic short cross-country that has been done countless times. It’s a bit longer than the flight to Silverton, but the retrieve is much simpler.

Nick Kennedy holds the hang glider site record, making it almost to Taos, New Mexico, after one hundred thirty-four miles and six hours in the air. On August 8th, 2000, I headed in an unusual direction to the southwest. I flew out of the mountains and into the desert in eight hours and set the Colorado PG distance record with a hundred-and- twenty-mile flight.

HISTORY

Hang gliding began in Telluride after Jeff Campbell learned to fly in Steamboat, Colorado, and moved to town in 1972. During the 1974-75 seasons, pilots from

around the state were invited to come to Telluride during carnival, and thus began the Telluride Air Force. The World Aerobatic Hang Gliding Championships were first held here in 1981 and ran con-tinuously through 1999.

At that time, we lost use of the main valley floor LZ and were left with a field that was sufficient for paragliders but not for most hangies on modern wings. In the mid-to-late 80’s, the aerobatic comp hit its peak with around three-hundred pilots. There were several paragliding comps as well as a mixed Airmen’s Rendezvous, but they were usually poorly attended.

One year we hosted one of only two points PG competitions in the US the entire season; only a dozen pilots showed up to compete. In 2003, longtime local paraglider instructor, Scott MacLowry, hosted the US Paragliding Nationals, with almost eighty pilots entered. For the second competition in a row we had a fatality, when Washington pilot Bruce Tracy crashed on Palmayra Peak. With daily reserve deployments, it became clear that Telluride was too big a venue for long, skinny comp wings. After the thirtieth-


something Airmen’s Rendezvous, the club lost enough momentum that no one put on a fly-in. We have tried to do simpler, organized fly-ins the last few years, but almost no one shows up, and, of course, if they do, the weather sucks.

THE PRESENT

The Telluride Air Force still has approxi-mately twenty members. A couple of them are tandem pilots and one is an instructor, Ryan Taylor, who is on the Telluride Ski Patrol. Someone in town acts as guide pilot for visitors, but it’s important to get in touch with them before arriving. We have a reliable vehicle for the shuttle to launch (private vehicles aren’t allowed by the ski area) and even a dedicated tow vehicle that rarely gets used. The desert is just a couple of hours away, where towing-up offers incredible views over Canyonlands, but it’s hard to drive out of the box canyon and leave our normal site.

I’ve been a little negative about the weather and pilots’ odds of flying, but I think all mountain sites share these condi-tions. Telluride is full of fun things to do if the flying isn’t happening. It just hurts to see visitors not be able to fly on the one or two days they have dedicated to Telluride. Even if it takes more than one visit to catch it right, believe me, it’s worth it. I was waiting on the Phillips Ridge launch near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and a new pilot was telling me about all the sites in the area. She asked about Telluride and I explained we only have one site. She ob-viously wondered how Telluride could be so good with only one site, until another pilot commented that with a site like Gold Hill, you don’t need any others.

Jeff Cristol is a tandem pilot and photog-rapher in Telluride Colorado . Through his company, he offers paragliding tours to such remote locations as Peru, India and Kyrgyzstan as well as to flying sites through-out the Southwestern United States . See adventuretourproductions .com for more information . Gold Hill is located at N . 37° 54 .246’ W . 107° 49 .320 .

THE VALLEY FLOORThe Valley Floor, Serious Fundraising and The Foundation for Free Flight

Just west of Telluride, an open expanse of wetlands and grassy valley floor

extends for miles. For decades this was the traditional landing zone for hang

gliders. Historically, the Telluride Air Force leased Oops Field (named after a

local cowboy, not the countless whacks taken there) for three-hundred dollars

a year. The expense was our biggest of the year. Ironically, the landowner was

the notorious Neal Blue, one of the richest men in the US and owner of the

military contractor General Atomics (anyone heard of Predator drones?). Here

was one of the poorest nonprofits giving our little pittance to the richest. In

trade, we could land there, so it was worth it, especially when no one else was

allowed on the field but cows.

When Blue threatened to develop the land, we lost access to it along with

hikers and skiers. Telluride decided to condemn almost six hundred acres,

using eminent domain, and a long legal battle began. After years of litigation

and one town vote that refused a compromise, the valley floor price was set in

a local court. The effort at times seemed impossible, but the small town raised

fifty million dollars. The Foundation for Free Flight gave ten thousand dollars,

one of its biggest grants, matching local pilots’ donations.

The traditional and safe hang glider LZ is ours, and the number of hang

glider flights outnumbered paraglider flights the last two summers. This is a re-

covery from what seemed like the end of hang gliding in Telluride, which makes

public ownership of the valley floor that much sweeter.

[right] Paul Voight over the Telluride ski area.


Site HighlightMT. SENTINEL | MISSOULA

by Ian Freemolephotos by Jeff Shapiro

The spring semester of my freshman year of college I knew for certain that I wanted to fly. I was living

on campus at the University of Montana, which sits snuggly against the base of Mount Sentinel, in Missoula. Mt. Sentinel is an iconic backdrop for the university and a bold feature of the skyline of the city of Missoula. Once I decided that I was going to learn to fly and that hang gliders were my wing of choice, my conception of Mt. Sentinel began to change. Instead of being an icon for the entire university and Missoula, Sentinel was now the symbol of my ultimate goal in flying.

Unfortunately, ordinary life conspired against me, putting my desire to become a pilot on hold. But the seeds of desire that had been planted were strong enough to remain dormant, patiently waiting to sprout at the right opportunity.

Flash-forward to a fall day: I was play-ing soccer with friends near the golf course on university fields, and out of thin air a gaggle of hang gliders began to descend and gracefully land. I slowly took leave of my friends and approached them with a slack jaw and glazed eyes. The pilot I approached introduced himself as Craig Johnson. He was a bearded, tattooed guy who flew a glider with a skull and flames on it. Despite the obvious (incorrect) ste-reotype, Craig graciously answered all my

questions about learning locally, includ-ing the expenses and time it takes to learn. Then he introduced me to his teacher, Jeff Shapiro, who gave me his card, after which I meandered back to the soccer game. My feet were on the ground, but my head was a mile high in the clouds.

The cold, dark grip of winter was slowly loosening by the time I called Jeff. We had an informative meeting where he gave me necessary paperwork and information. Jeff is such an easy-going, humble guy, es-pecially for someone who is so experienced and knowledgeable, that I committed to taking lessons before I left the house.

[above] Jeff Shapiro over Mt. Sentinel. [opposite] Jeff Shapiro helps Ian Freemole launch Mt. Sentinel for his first flight.


My lessons began at a local park in Missoula after the snow melted. It was a Saturday, early in the morning, and I was a college student. I should have been sound asleep in bed, recovering from the night before, but I was up and out of the house before sunrise. Braving the cold and frost in the early mornings on my weekends was actually my idea of a good time for several weeks. After a half-dozen lessons with Jeff by my side giving me sup-port, I was ready for my first altitude flight at Tarkio.

Tarkio is about a 40-mile drive west from Missoula on I-90. After arriving at the LZ, I began to feel nervous. On the ride up the mountain, I felt butterflies in my stomach as the elevation increased, but Jeff was right there, providing reas-surance by talking about the flight plan, conditions, and keys things to remember from training.

I was on launch, looking down the side of a mountain, when my brain began to second-guess itself. Was I really about to run off of a mountain with a giant kite strapped to my back? I closed my eyes and put the doubts to sleep by reviewing the general plan, the landing options, and the launch sequence. I picked a light cycle coming straight-in up the hill and yelled

“Clear!”I anticipated sensation overload, but I

didn’t know that it might translate into blacking-out for a few seconds. The next thing I remembered was Jeff talking to me, his calm voice transmitting experi-ence over the radio. That first flight was

everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be.

However, everyday life once again conspired against my plans to fly. It was summer, and I had to leave town to work fulltime. I needed money to be able to afford a hang glider and figured I would be able to fly on my days off. I gave it my best go for a summer, but ended up flying

only two or three times my first season as a pilot.

The following summer, I was so de-termined to fly more often that I stayed in Missoula and became self-employed, allowing me to cut out of work any af-ternoon when conditions were ripe and I could find an intermediate pilot to fly with me. I had an open schedule and a

“It was a long time

coming—my dream

of flying Mt. Sentinel.

There were many

obstacles and long

stretches of no

flying, but in the

end it was definitely

worth the effort.”

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hang glider; now I only had to coordinate the flyable conditions with the availabil-ity of intermediate pilots willing to skip flying Mt. Sentinel to go out to Tarkio. The scheduling dance had begun.

As the flying weather picked up, a small gang of regular Tarkio pilots emerged. Without the help and mentoring of Craig J. and Rick G., a couple of H3 pilots with H4 life experience, magic summer days at

Tarkio wouldn’t have been profitable. But these guys provided an unofficial mentor-ing program dedicated to ensuring that novice pilots would be given every oppor-tunity to fly. They actively cultivated and monitored my experience and ultimately helped me acquire the skills needed to fly Mt. Sentinel. Under their watchful eyes, I progressed from twilight sledders to evening glass-offs to being able to soar alongside them. I spent the best days of summer on that mountain, enjoying every bit of time and knowing there was nowhere else in the world I would rather be. Yet at the end of each magical evening at Tarkio, Mt. Sentinel came into view as I drove home, and I recalled my dream of flying off of it. When summer came to a close, I was happy I had diligently kept flying as my highest priority. I felt I’d had a great season!

Last spring I graduated from college and still had flying Sentinel at the top of my to-do list. I began heading out to


Tarkio again, flying every time the forecast looked decent, in hopes that by the end of summer I’d be ready for Sentinel. Midway through the summer, it happened. I had displayed enough skill and sound judg-ment to earn the rank of H3!

When the phone call came that condi-tions were light enough for an introduc-tory Sentinel sled ride, I couldn’t believe it. While getting my gear together and making it to the LZ, I felt as excited as I had for my first altitude flight. Fittingly, Craig was there and was the one who gave me a comforting walkthrough of the land-ing approaches and options. Jeff also was there; having him alongside me, talking plans and conditions, brought back the comfort I had experienced during train-ing.

The ride up the hill was exhilarating, with butterflies coming back to my stom-

ach, a feeling I hadn’t had since the days of my first flights. On top of Mt. Sentinel I set up and began to prepare myself for flight. The flight plan was straightforward. I knew just what I needed to do. The big-gest variable to flying Sentinel (other than the weather) is the fact that the LZ, lo-cated at a convergence of a golf course and sports complex, is sometimes constricted with people playing soccer. On this day it was wide open, which meant plenty of extra room for landings, and the wind was nearly dead.

Everything was in place and looking good as I walked up to launch, performed a hang check, picked a cycle, yelled “clear,” and launched. This was it—the flight I had been imagining for several years! From launch, I rounded the ridge and flew over the edge of Missoula from a premiere vantage point. Approaching the LZ, I began circling over the golf course, watching as ant-sized people stopped in place and stared up at me. At this point I began to realize I had reached my goal!

That first flight from Mt. Sentinel was amazing. It will live vividly in my memory for eternity. Since that flight, I have flown Sentinel a few more times. The last time I flew there I encountered addi-tional pressure from an ongoing game of soccer cutting the LZ in half. No prob-lem, I thought. I began my final approach and brought the glider down right in the middle of the primary LZ.

It was a long time coming—my dream of flying Mt. Sentinel. There were many obstacles and long stretches of no flying, but in the end it was definitely worth the effort. The journey was as exciting and enjoyable as reaching the goal, and it also gave me a group of friends who are sec-ond-to-none!

Looking back now, I see that I have played many of the roles that exist in the Missoula hang gliding community. I have been the spectator, the soccer player out on the edge of the LZ, the student learning how to fly, the new pilot, the driver, a Tarkio regular, University Club president, and, most recently, I have donned the role of new intermediate pilot. In this last role I look forward to continu-ing the unofficial mentor program. I’m eager and willing to take the next novice pilots to Tarkio so they, too, can achieve their flying dreams!

[above] Jeff Shapiro over Mt. Sentinel. [opposite] Jeff Shapiro helps Ian Freemole launch Mt. Sentinel for his first flight.


Site HighlightGLACIER POINT | YOSEMITE


by Adam West and Jeff O’Brien

I better get some of this down before it all fades. As Jeff said this morn-ing, “Dreams of Yosemite keep me

from slipping back into reality.” I must say, the whole trip had a dreamlike quality—intense, fleeting and other-worldly. Only fifty-seven hours passed from when I boarded the bus to leave for Yosemite to when I got back home to Berkeley. Fifty-seven hours to make memories that will be slow to fade and will bring a smile to my face when I think about them for years to come. It strikes me that life’s really valuable ex-periences are often contained in these small packets of time. Fleeting, intense experiences whose impact on one’s life far outstrips their relative length. I am glad I learned this lesson relatively early in my life: grab these opportunities with both hands, whatever the risk. I am lucky to have an understanding wife and good friends who collectively seize the

moment. This all began with my attempts to

get the “three amigos” back together for a weekend. Jeff O’Brien, Alex McCulloch, and I have had a history of “hang gliding epics.” Trips to obscure places with uncon-ventional flying experiences. I was in the states for work and hadn’t seen my Utah

flying mates for two years. After going back and forth for a month or two via e-mail, one day Jeff wrote to say: “Yosemite.”

It was an improbable call. Flying Yosemite is a rare privilege and a logistical

challenge. This is the only national park in the US in which flying is permitted. As you might expect, it is highly regulated. In order to fly there you have to coordinate the tricky balance of pilot’s schedules and

ratings, the presence of an ap-proved site monitor, a driver, vehicles and equipment, Yosemite Ranger bureaucracy, accommodation in one of the busiest national parks in the world, and, of course, the weather.

It was even more chal-lenging, considering who was involved. I was in Berkeley, jetlagged after having ar-rived from South Africa two days prior, with NO gear, my wife and our five-month old

baby. Alex was in Boulder, but scheduled to be on a flying trip (as an airline pilot) to North Dakota and beyond. It was highly questionable if he would be able to get off work in time to catch a flight to join

[opposite] The South Wall | photo by Jeff O'Brien. [above] Launch. [inset] Launch | photos by Chris Valley.


us. Neither Alex nor I held a current H4 rating from USHPA, which is required to fly Yosemite.

This is when Jeff stepped in to coor-dinate. He’d acquire demo gliders from Wills Wing, and a spare harness for me, along with peripheral gear. Jeff Shapiro over-nighted a temporary rating form to convert my SAHPA HG rating to a US one, while Alex managed to get his H4 rating in Colorado. Southern California pilots arranged for Greg Lawless to travel 1500miles to act as our site monitor for the weekend. (Big thanks to Greg for his time, resources, and food!) It was left to Alex and me to see if we could get ourselves to Yosemite by Friday night. I found out I could get from Berkeley to Yosemite via a

nine-hour-bus-and-train journey. Alex was going to try to fly into Fresno, hopefully in time to meet Jeff on the way through.

My bus pulled into the valley at 8:30pm on Friday night. I was met by Jeff, his truck loaded with gliders. We laughed at the epic nature of our reunion and headed to the campsite where I met the others and caught up with Jeff over a bottle of cheap red wine. Just like old times. Alex ended up being scheduled for a trip on Friday and eventually showed up Saturday, after an absolute epic involving unmention-able commercial flight ops en route, so he could get into the gate early enough to catch the flight to Fresno. He made it by seconds, leaving his laptop on board the plane. Nice one, Captain! From there he

rented a car and met us in the valley on Saturday afternoon.

Flying in Yosemite is tightly regulated. It is only permitted from Glacier Point and only for an hour a day. In order to fly there, you have to hold an advanced rating from the USHPA and have an approved site monitor with you from the Yosemite Hang Gliding Club. (http://www.yhga.org) The monitor radios park rangers at 8am for clearance to fly. Launches are allowed be-tween 8am and 9am, and all pilots must be on the ground by 10am. Normally the weather and clearance is a non-issue, but forest fires were burning in the park, and

[above] Sunrise behind Half Dome | photo by Jeff O'Brien. [below] Photos by Jeff O'Brien.

FLY YOSEMITEBy Chris Valley

Before you know it, summer will be here, and you’ll be taking part in

the numerous hang gliding road trips you’ve been planning since the start of

the new year. Maybe you set higher goals for this flying season and will com-

pete in a comp, or maybe you’re just pushing for your own personal best hang

gliding experiences...or...maybe...you’ll fly Yosemite.

Think about it. You get up before sunrise and drive up to Glacier Point.

Wiping the sleep from your eyes, you begin to set up your glider. You have a

feeling you’re about to do something extraordinary and with that comes ap-

prehension, but, at the same time, you know you’re ready for this moment in

your flying career. Whether you’ve just earned your H4 or had your H4 rating

for years, it is time to take the leap off Glacier Point in your hang glider. This is

your Right of Passage: the moment is yours to see Yosemite Valley from the air.

As a monitor for the Yosemite Hang Gliding Association, it is an honor and a

thrill to help you live the dream of flying Yosemite. Nothing beats walking you

out to launch while the morning tourist crowds begin to gather, many having

never seen a hang glider before. You are about to show them something

new—a hang glider launching off Glacier Point.

Our job as monitors is to get you out to launch safely and then get you

safely off launch! We may give you some last minute pointers, like getting that

hang-strap tight, or tell you simply to relax and enjoy the view. After that, it’s

your show. You pick up the glider, take a deep breath, lower the nose, take that

first step, and before you know it—you have a bird’s eye view of Yosemite Valley.

The once silent group of spectators behind you has now erupted into shouts of

jubilation and disbelief at what they’ve witnessed. You have just made their day

and may have inspired a future pilot!

A Yosemite site monitor gets to meet visiting pilots from all over the world.

Some people make flying Yosemite part of their annual road-trip trek around

the U.S. It is a privilege to be a part of your journey. Last year I had the op-

portunity to monitor Stan Boehm and his sons, Jason and Erik. This was Erik’s

first flight at Glacier Point and more-than-likely a first where a father and both

his sons flew Yosemite for the weekend. It was fun to be a part of their adven-

ture. Then, there is the first pilot I ever launched at Yosemite, Canadian pilot

Luc Maillux. Luc and I have become good friends as a result of our flying at

Yosemite and have met at various locations for some hang gliding and a beer or

two.

The Yosemite Hang-Gliding Association invites you to fly Yosemite in 2010.

Please check out our website: www.yhga.org for more information. We look

forward to seeing you!


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helicopters were working to contain the blazes. Smoke was thick in the valley. We kept our fingers crossed and were happy to be in pristine surroundings.

We got up at 5am and were on the road in the dark before six. On the way up, we passed a black bear with two cubs in the twilight. The air was crisp and cold, warm-ing by the minute from the sun, as we carried our gliders to the edge of the rim and rigged in the early dawn light. After rigging, we signed the waiver, had our li-censes checked, and received a pre-launch briefing. The steep granite slab launch faces east toward the rising sun with Half Dome directly ahead. A breathtaking vista. For most, it’s a life highlight just to take in the view. We got to launch right at it!

There were tense moments as the site monitor wrangled with the park ranger over the radio, requesting permission. Only with an understanding ranger and an eloquent monitor was the fire opera-tions captain convinced to let us fly. We efficiently donned our harnesses and lined up to traverse the steep granite face one at a time to launch. When it was my turn, I sidestepped my glider out along the face. You have to do this unhooked, which is a bit nervy. When in position, I hooked in; Greg gave me a hang check, cleared and I was off.

The early morning air was buttery and the valley spectacular in all directions. A 360 degree feast for the eyes. I saw Jeff ahead and below and after a tour of the valley, I met up with him next to a sheer granite wall. We traversed the immense face together for awhile, dwarfed by the immensity, getting a couple of photos as we flew. After breaking from our forma-tion, I was first to set up an approach. Jeff was seconds behind and beside me, and we alighted in the dewy thigh-high grass of the meadow. We’d managed to pull logis-tics together and had our flight. We were missing our third amigo, though, and hoped the fires and fire personnel would stay calm enough for one more morning flight.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the shade, swapping stories. We stopped by the base of El Capitan and had a look through a photographer’s telescope. He

was focused in on a climbing party 2000ft. off the valley floor, the leader blazing up the face barefoot! Alex had called to say he’d made his connection, and, before sunset, the three of us got caught up with a ceremonial swim in the crystal clear, cold Merced River.

The next morning’s light revealed the valley was full of smoke as we made our way up to launch. We were hoping for Alex’s sake that we wouldn’t be shut down by smoke or firefighting aircraft. We rigged in the shadow of Half Dome, accentuated with smoky yellow-orange dawn light. The scene was ineffable. When the site moni-tor called for clearance, the fire operations captain granted our request. The party was on and Alex would get his flight! We lined up without delay. Jeff was to launch first, with me immediately after him. The plan was to hook up again for some photo opportunities. Alex was going to go third and just enjoy his first flight at Yosemite.

Jeff and I took a tour of the granite spires on the south side of the valley pep-pered with giant fir trees. We glided over sharp fins thousands of feet high, just off the treetops. It’s inspiring to see such for-bidding terrain from literally a bird’s eye view. Arduous or impossible to view this terrain with human eyes any other way. Approximately 12 minutes later we found ourselves with feet on the ground, legs wet with dew from the LZ. We watched the rest of our mates make successful flights punctuated with great landings.

Our objective had been realized, but our journey was not yet over. We hur-riedly broke down our gliders, then the camp. Flash drives flew from hand to hand, transferring media from the week-end, hugs and smiles were exchanged, and Jeff gave me a ride out of the valley to the train station. As I gathered my bags, I spot-ted Jeff’s new flying helmet unused in the back seat. After a quick exchange, Jeff said,

“Yeah, I’ll never transition to that new helmet unless I get rid of this sweaty old thing.” I replied, “Well, why don’t you give it to me?” Jeff picked up the sweat-caked, scratched lid and said with a smile, “If you want this slimy thing, you can have it.” I saw Jeff peering at me from his rearview mirror with a wide smile as he drove away. I walked away toting my bags in the 105 degree heat wearing my new (stinky) full-face helmet.

[left] Jeff O'Brien snaps another classic.


AyacuchoParagliding the Central Andes of Peru

by JeffCRISTOL


As I watch the sun drop behind a nearby ridge, I happily climb into the back of an open panel truck half-full of locals. The truck drops us

at intersection at dusk where a group of weary look-ing people assure me that something will come along. Three old women sit sewing, backs against a nearby building, their feet reaching toward a tied up pig and a handful of chickens. I am dismayed when the women get up, shrug and wander off. It’s dark now.

Finally, our ride comes—a minivan, or “collec-tivo,” an apt name, for it not only describes the col-lection of humanity that packs in, but also the way the van stops in the road every few miles to collect the next fare. I toss my glider on top and find a seat. The farmers, who have been out in the fields working all day, emit an acrid smell of sweat that fills the van. The fumes irritate my eyes and keep me awake, like smelling salts, but the old man crammed next to me

(four in a seat) can’t stay awake and bobs his head on my shoulder.

It is impossible to count how many people are crowded in here, in addition to boxes of produce, bags of potatoes, bunches of greens for guinea pigs and small children wrapped in colorful mantas. The driver of this overloaded van takes the corners too fast; as we round one, he jerks the wheel in order to avoid a truck that lies on its side with the contents of its bed spilled across the road. Obviously, the truck driver lost control, hit the mountainside and rolled over. Everyone crosses himself, but no one suggests we stop to help or see if anyone is hurt.

After crossing a high pass, we start to descend into the city. The driver is going even faster now and waits to brake until already in the curve. Just a few miles from town, he pulls off the road, and we re-alize he’s fried his brakes. We unload to stretch as

[previous page] Flying above launch with other

pilots. [above] The author with his son at launch | photo by Ursula Cristol.

[opposite] Pilots wait for the morning thermals to

begin on Capanallo Launch | photo by Jeff Cristol.


the smell overwhelms us. He pours water over his brake pads, unconcerned with warping the hot metal. ( When you paraglide in Peru, adventure often starts on land. A several-hour cross-country flight can be easier than getting to launch or back.) The lights of the city below are just a few minutes away.

Ayacucho, Peru, a city of one hundred twenty thousand, sits at nine thousand feet above sea level, in a bowl surrounded by the high altiplano of the Andes, nine hours southeast of Lima. The drive from the coast is typically harrowing. After countless switch-backs, the road crosses the Abra Apacheta at 4800m (15,748feet). For hours the highway winds across high, barren and beautiful altiplano, mostly above 14,000 feet, finally dropping down to the city. Compared to other prime paragliding centers in the Peruvian Andes—Huaraz, Cuzco and Huancayo— all of which are at 10,000 feet, Ayacucho sits a little lower,


at 9,000 feet. Thinking of 9,000 feet as low elevation is a good way to start a paragliding trip to Peru.

Like much of Peru, the rich culture surrounds the visitor and is as much a reason to visit as the wild to-pography. My Lonely Planet Guide says Ayacucho “…is arguably Peru’s most fascinating Andean city after Cuzco and is well worth a visit.” Founded by the Spanish in 1539, there are supposed to be thirty-three

historic churches; in fact, there are many more.I first visited Ayacucho in 2002 on a paraglid-

ing trip, and, although we flew, we didn’t find the at-that-time-unknown launch. An American living in Ayacucho, who learned to paraglide in Lima, pio-neered the site a couple of years ago. May through October is the dry season in the Andes, during which time the coast has heavy fog that typically clears enough for good flying several days a week. Last summer the fog was thicker than usual and the coast-al flying awful, motivating the Lima pilots to visit the mountains.

In June of 2009, some pilots invited me to join them for a weekend in Ayacucho. Several Belgian pilots flying a site just above the city were logging great flights. I left Lima at two in the morning with a new pilot, Gustavo, and a Colombian pilot, Andreas, and his Canadian girlfriend, Laicie,. By sunup I was feeling sick. As we crossed the Abra Apacheta after the long climb from the coast, Gustavo drove fast on the winding road. By the time we reached Ayacucho, the sun felt strong, the air extra thin.

A dozen pilots, including the Europeans, gathered in the central plaza. Surrounded by colonial build-ings, couples walked hand-in-hand, and shoeshine boys looked for work. It seemed as if things hadn’t changed here for years.

In fact, Ayacucho has an infamous recent his-


tory as being the location of the base of the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. The Maoist radi-cal political group terrorized the country from the mid-eighties through the nineties. Up to seventy-thousand people disappeared or were murdered during this devastating time. While the Shining Path started as a pro-peasant land reform movement advocating for the rights of the common man, it soon spun out of control when opposed by the government. During what was essentially a civil war, the local population was caught between a military struggling to maintain control in the central Andes region of Peru and an armed insurgency that increasingly used violence in an attempt to destabilize the entire coun-try. Infrastructure, politicians, and even the tourist industry were targeted.

With the 1992 capture of the Sendero leader, Abimael Guzman, the movement was beaten; how-ever, the problems and inequalities which led to the movement still exist, and political and police killings still occur. The government blames recent events on narco-trafficing, but the situation is more compli-cated. While the civilian population for now is safe, clearly violent radical reformers are still interested in changing the status-quo.

A couple of weeks before my visit, a dozen police were killed just west of the city, in an area closer to the jungle and the drug trade. I promised my wife,

who is from Lima and follows the news, that I would refrain from flying in that direction on any cross-country attempts.

Since the millennium, more aid and attention have been given to the needs of poor farmers. While na-tional politics remain mired in predictable scandals, the infrastructure throughout the country is improv-ing. Countering these gains is the huge influence of the narcotics trade, since coca production is a large part of the economy. As poor campesino farmers take a bigger part in the production and refinement of coca, they are caught between a world economy that penalizes them because cocaine is illegal and the poor alternative of traditional farming.

This complex history is the canvas on which local Ayacuchanos go about their lives. Few tourists are aware of the depth of the problem or its possible con-sequences. For now, though, daily life is mostly quiet and safe in the high Andes.

In Lima, my wife Ursula gave me a tee shirt de-picting a coca leaf below the phrase, “La hoja de coca no es droga.” The coca leaf is not a drug. Bolivian President, Evo Morales, gave this phrase world prominence; as the first leader of his country with an indigenous background, he also worked with coca growers. The statement evokes the broader question of which drugs are controlled throughout the world, why and by whom. We joked that the shirt portrays

[opposite below] Light reverse launch above Ayacucho, Peru. [top, from left to right] Heading out on a XC, the altiplano too close below. Heading out over town. Flying above Ayacucho with other pilots. Photos by Jeff Cristol.


me as pro-coca in the drug war, which might save me from trouble if things ever get ugly.

As for the flying, during the weekend everyone had great flights. Thermals were mostly three-to-five hundred up, the sink rarely strong and the turbu-lence correspondingly mild. The land was beautiful, a checkerboard of small plots set across the hillsides. The campesinos (country folk from the Andes) speak Quechua as their first language, and women still dress in traditional clothes. Children wrapped in mantas are carried across their mothers’ backs. People walk along narrow paths with huge loads of straw on their backs. Wheat is threshed by hand on the top of hill-sides, and squat adobe buildings dot the landscape. All of this is spread out below the thermalling pilot. The factors that most make Peru a wonderful retreat for me, the romantic ideas that an average American tourist arrives with, are all well nourished.

Launch sits near the top of a hill named Campanallo, above Carmen Alto on the edge of the city. There is room for one glider cleared above the dirt road. It’s not unusual for pilots to either hit the road or the cactus growing on the far side, with the road directly below launch. Still, the launch is more than adequate and cycles regularly come up the hill.

On the glide to the city there are many thermal sources and chances to climb out. The landing zone closest to town is among piles of adobe blocks, aban-

doned roofless buildings and livestock. The main ob-stacles are high-tension power lines just uphill of this area. The tall towers are obvious, but the power lines cross the best landing approach.

Halfway down the road from launch is another big field also used as a landing zone. It makes a quick turnaround for tandems and is an option if you’re nervous about crossing the power lines. Though less used, the higher landing zone is safe and wide open, though less convenient if returning to town.

Take-off is on a north-facing hill (the sunny aspect in the Southern Hemisphere) at 10,800,’ a relatively low elevation for the Peruvian Andes. Remember, the pass on the way to the coast is almost sixteen thou-sand feet, and the high rolling altiplano is often over fourteen thousand. There are several nice topograph-ical features to fly over, a long ridge, and a couple of significant summits, all of which produce thermals.

The weekend was a huge success. Many coastal pilots had their best flights. A week later I planned to return with just my wife and our ten-month-old son, but an even larger contingent from Lima showed up, with fourteen pilots on launch one day.

Andreas, the dreadlocked “piloto biplaza de Columbia” with a great sense of humor, joined me for both visits. As we passed a church with open doors on Sunday afternoon, he noted that after two visits to Ayacucho, a city with thirty-eight churches, he

[above] Local children playing “Lets get tangled

in the lines” | photo by Jeff Cristol.


hadn’t visited one. He did do several tandem flights a day, mostly with volunteers at various NGO’s, some of which are orphanages (a result of the bloody nine-teen-eighties, the Sendero, and narco-trafficking).

I sought out some of the cross-country potential after several long flights around the hill. Generally, light winds prevailed from the east. The only paved road to Ayacucho comes from Pisco on the coast. It quickly winds its way up to a small pass at 12, 300,’ about 10km from launch, just downwind. Two days in a row I flew to this pass but didn’t commit to the valley beyond. Cross-country flying here re-quired more than just the 16,500’ height I’d gotten to. I needed knowledge of the surrounding area and higher thermals further away from launch. It frus-trated me to land, check my vario, and see I was still above 12,000.’

One morning in the busy streets of Ayacucho we came across women selling coca leaves from a cart in front of an old church. In theory, coca is illegal ev-erywhere in the world. However, the leaves are used in several ways—in tea, (which can be bought com-mercially processed into tea bags) chewed with a lime catalyst, or in ancient Andean ceremonies. The “pay to the earth” or pachamama ceremony involves ritual centered on coca leaves. The ceremony gives thanks for what has been provided by the earth and is an op-portunity to ask for future blessings. After a serious

flying accident in the mountains above Huaraz, Peru, a couple of years ago, I take these ceremonies seri-ously, if only as a reminder of the wonder and magic of free flight.

After eight days of flying above Ayacucho, I had four days of short cross-countries and over thirteen hours of airtime. I almost never reached the nearby cloud base and never sank out off launch. I flew often enough that I needed to refill my oxygen bottle and found the regional hospital happy to help. It was an interesting afternoon wandering through town to find the busy hospital (no taxis were running because of a typical work strike). The hospital was crowded with people, and it occurred to me what a bad idea it is to get hurt in remote areas of the Andes.

The Ayachucha paragliding club is named Pawasunchik, a Quechua word, though almost all of the members are Belgian. Pawasunchik means “let’s fly” in Quechuan; “pawa” means fly, “sun” let, and

“chik” us. (In Spanish it would be Volemos).I kept trying to get high enough to cross the alti-

plano and finally caught a good thermal away from the hill. It took me back up to almost 15,000.’ From this vantage point, I could see that I didn’t want to cross the ridge into the next valley, as I’d hoped. Instead, I followed a dirt road that eventually leads to Andehuaylas, one hundred kilometers away (and a daunting ten hours by bus). The road slowly climbed


from my last landing spot at 12,300’ and, once again, the ground came up much too quickly. Fortunately the entire area is wide open fields, allowing one to land anywhere.

Just a couple of hundred feet over, I found my first lift in fifteen minutes. I began turning, slowly gain-ing height and drifting along above the road. After twenty minutes, I had drifted to the end of the ridge and was seven hundred feet higher. The road turned west, into the wind, and I left for an obvious round mountain, once again above the highway, but beyond the scary valley that made me change course. I got over the small peak and found lift. It drifted back away from the road that now turned east. Another thousand over, I left for nice looking fields on track above the highway. Beyond these, the pavement dis-appeared into a tight canyon. Unless I found some extraordinary climb, this would be it.

I landed above the small pueblo of Angasmayo, around fifty km by road and maybe twenty-five km by air from launch. A family, complete with children, who were gathered around piles of freshly cut wheat, seemed unimpressed with my arrival. I finally flew beyond my ten-km mark, with a fun, challenging low save, and happily packed my bag for the hitch back. The adventure began again once I was on the ground. (I described the nerve-wracking drive back at the opening of this article.)

Pilots often ask me if Peru is safe. Like most places in the world, it depends what you do and where you go. While the political situation can change, for now the country is pretty stable and improving, much like Colombia. Mexico and Brazil are plagued with much worse crime and violence and that doesn’t keep pilots away from those destinations.

The Campanallo site is very consistent and has abundant and friendly thermals; the clouds form all around but almost never over launch. Cloud base is not much above the surrounding altiplano, but serious cross-country, while safe and challenging, is perhaps too challenging. Still, this ranks as yet an-other great flying site in the Andes of Peru. While not as big as the air around Cuzco or as scenic as the mountains around Huaraz, it’s a great place to visit and fly.

Jeff Cristol is a tandem pilot, photographer and videog-rapher in Telluride, Colorado . Through his company he offers paragliding tours to such remote locations as Peru, India and Kyrgyzstan as well as to flying sites through-out the Southwestern United States . See adventuretour-productions .com for more information .

[left] A woman threshing and winnowing wheat. [right] Heading for a sweet cumulous on a XC flight. Photos by Jeff Cristol.


by Jugdeep Agarwhal

The league seems to be getting better each year, with more and more pilots coming out. Despite being scuppered

by poor weather on the first meet of the year, the turnout was exceptional. October was crazy, with over 30 pilots coming out to the Owens Valley, despite the forecast for really bad weather. Even though the distances flown this year were nearly half that of previous years, the amount of fun pilots had was a gaziillion times more. Maybe it’s time to reflect on why.

We definitely have a pilot community that wants fly-ins that help push pilot skills and exploration of the local area flying sites. How better to do this than with your friends? It also seems that once pilots have found the league meets, they return. Maybe it’s the camara-derie, the flying, the informal learning environment, and/or bettering personal distances that keep folks coming back. With the goal of “a fly-in with a mission,” these league meets also provide a training forum for the larger sanctioned competitions.

As in previous years, tasks ranged from very modest to the positively, completely ridiculous. Early season tasks were short, sometimes less than 10 miles, but at the

height of the season distances were over the 100km mark. They were all challeng-ing in their own way.

Setting tasks has sometimes been dif-ficult, since the aim of the tasks is to keep even the most junior pilot appropriately challenged. The tasks are composed of three parts. The first part is set on easy course lines across easy terrain, with the

aim of ensuring that even the most junior pilot can experience the fun of competing without being overtaxed. The second part of the task is usually more involved, with perhaps a valley-crossing-or-two and more challenging terrain. This section is meant to test the more able pilots. The final part of the task is set up across more commit-

ting terrain, where the aim is to stay in the air to avoid a horrendous walkout. These legs are set to give the better pilots a run-for-their-money.

While the skill level for the pilots is clearly not equal, the competition is set up so that pilots only compete against their equally skilled peers. Hence, three categories have been set up: those flying

competition and DHV2-3 glid-ers (Category 1), those flying DHV 2 gliders (Category 2), and those flying DHV1 and 1-2 gliders (Category 3). This has re-sulted in a leveled playing field. One of the key objectives of the league is to give those pilots who cannot complete all 17 tasks an opportunity to win. So, similar to the PWC league, pilots’ final scores are determined by their scores for half of the tasks set, enabling a pilot to win even if he/she did not attend all tasks. Clearly, however, it is more ad-vantageous to attend as many tasks as possible.

Since this is really only a fly-in with a mission, registration costs have been kept to a modest $10-per-per-son per-race. For this amount, pilots get to compete and score in tasks that are scored in a manner identical to the scoring in bigger competitions. Non-competing pilots are always welcome, since this helps map out the air for the competing pilots.

Northern California Cross


Regular attendees have gotten into the swing of things, substantially reducing the task load on the organizer. They are able to download waypoints before the week-ends from the website, sign-in and pay each morning, submit GPS for scoring on Saturday evening, and email tracklogs for Sunday’s task. Using this procedure has resulted in a smoother running operation for all participants. Keeping track of pilots has been difficult, because of the large numbers. However, the buddy system, which allows pilots to sign-in their buddy as being safe, has proven to be a success. Then, the only issue is retrieval.

The dedicated website for all informa-tion for the league, (www.santacruzpara-gliding.com), has proven to be a great resource for keeping pilots informed throughout the season. The 2010 website has a section dealing with competition strategies that provides tips and tricks for flying in these league meets as well as the larger ones.

As in the previous year, scores are posted on the Leonardo website, (http://norcalxcleague.pgcomps.net/comps/), which gives pilots the opportunity to view their flights, download their tracklogs and play animations for the competition. In addition, Leonardo offers sponsors much higher profiles by showing logos on every webpage.

I have been running the league for five years, and one of the most rewarding aspects has been watching pilot ability progress over the years. For the first time since I assumed this position, we had an occasion when no pilots landed in the LZ, with all pilots leaving the valley. Because we had only one dedicated retrieve driver, the logistics of getting everyone back became very involved. League meets defi-nitely take over where formalized training stops, by providing pilots a chance to fly with, and learn from, very skilled pilots.

I am also pleased to see that Dean Stratton’s league, the Southern California Cross Country League, (www.usxcleague.com), has had a successful year. More leagues appear to be gearing up for 2010, with the Intermountain League and Oregon leagues well poised. It would be fantastic to see these leagues grow in the same way the Northern California League has grown. Maybe we could have a “league-off “at the end of the season to see which region has the best pilots!

With the 2010 season about to kick off, it would be great to see new pilots coming out to the league to see what they have been missing. Keep it fun. See you in the air!

PILOT STORIES: JAY GORdON:

My first season of flying the Northern California XC League was very exciting. Meeting a great cast of characters who all

2009 WINNERSCATEGORY 1

First place: Josh Cohn

Second place: Eric Reed

Third Place: Steve Young

CATEGORY 2First place: Jason Shapiro

Second place: Patrick Allaire

Third Place: Jay Gordon

CATEGORY 3First place: John Caletti

Second place: Reavis Sutphin-Gray

Third Place: David Ismay

219Total number of tracklogs

53Total number of participating pilots

4317.14Total kilometers flown

of all competing pilots

[above] Owens Valley launch | photo by Jay Gordon. [inset] Staying warm at Dunlap | photo by Peter Reagan.

Country League 2009

had something in common was cool. Even though tagging goal was not met the first or second season, there were many ben-efits from retrieving sky gods. There are some very talented XC pilots in Northern California, and the knowledge I gath-ered from them was quite rewarding. I chalked up the season as a great founda-tion for XC flying and was compelled to come back again.

About three-quarters of the way through the third season, I finally tagged goal. I WAS frustrated in the beginning of the season, almost making goal a few times. But I knew lacking patience and sound decisions would not deliver me to goal. So when I finally settled down and started being more patient, it all came together. I only made it to goal once this season, but knowing it’s possible by adding a little persistence will keep me coming back.

Now I can see the addiction with tag-ging goal, something paraglider pilots would only understand. I look forward to hanging next season with a very colorful bunch and tagging a few more goals.

PILOT STORIES: TIm O’NEILL

Sometimes the league meets provide a spe-cial kind of adventure. Since retrieves are not organized in the way that they are in larger competitions, occasionally making your way back to the LZ can be an exercise in logistics. Usually, some early landings occur, and those pilots generously drive retrieve for the other pilots. Sometimes the retrieve doesn’t arrive. Sometimes you see the best in people and really enjoy the process. It helps if you have good karma. That’s the way this weekend worked out for me.

The weekend had some of the SoCal crew joining the BAPA XC league regulars in Dunlap. The weather was stellar; great cumulus cloud streets indicated likely lift sources and very light west winds. The only overdevelopment was in the East, over the high Sierra, so it was not a factor. Perfect weather for XC.

The task on Sun. was a leg from Dunlap to Orosi, then up Hwy 63 to the 180 junc-tion, back to launch, then to the ranger station. Josh Cohn was very patient on

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EPIC PRIZES

2010 DATESwith provisional locations

POTATO HILLMarch 20th and 21st

April 10th and 11th: TDB

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OWENS VALLEYSeptember 25th, 26th and 27th

or

October 2nd, 3rd and 4th

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Sunday and waited for the gaggle to form before starting his transitions. He basical-ly ran a clinic for a few of us by throttling back. I was with him until a few km short of the Orosi turnpoint, when I managed to find a sink-hole that put me on the deck east of Orosi, 20+ miles from my truck.

Five minutes after getting to the road, a pickup stopped and the driver asked me where I was going. “North,” I said. He asked where I wanted to end up.

“My truck is at the Dunlap Community Center,” I responded. “Well, hell’s bells, hop in!” he yells, “I’m going to Dunlap myself . . . But I’m drinkin’ beer, ya OK

with that?” “SHEYA” I responded, not realizing how many had come before the one in his hand. We (his name was Dean) made a stop in Orange Cove for some kick-ass burritos, and he dropped me off at my truck 40 minutes later. It was an enjoyable ride and I made a new friend.

I must be living right, because this re-trieve could have been a four-hour fiasco. Instead, it was efficient, quick, and enjoy-able. If you are ever driving along and see a guy next to the road with a floppy hat, sunburned nose, big-bag, neoprene purse, and hard-to-read sign that says, “GLIDER PILOT NEEDS RIDE,” stop and pick me up. Your adventure will be part of mine. Hopefully you will enjoy your adventures as much as I do mine.

[above] East side of the Sierras watch the launches of the Norcal League Meet | photo by Peter Reagan.

GALLERY | DAVID BARISH

David Barish was born in 1921 in Passaic, New Jersey. Full of wanderlust, he frequently ran away from home and had adventures that he loved to retell throughout

his life. In 1939 he found a way to leave home permanently and see the world, training as a pilot through a government program established to expand the number of pilots available for the country’s needs. Afterwards, he worked as a flight instructor on Long Island. He became a co-pilot for TWA, flying transatlantic routes, and then joined the Air Force. Ready to join the war effort once he was trained as a fighter pilot, he graduated in the P-51 on V-J Day, the day Japan surrendered.

The Air Force then trained David at the USAF Institute of Technology, where he earned a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering and sent him to the California Institute of Technology where he obtained his Master’s and Professional degrees in theoreti-cal aerodynamics. Taking this knowledge to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio, he worked in the Research and Development division. He became a test pilot, flying modified versions of the T-6 training aircraft, and the P-47 and P-51 fight-ers, and an early model of the first jet aircraft developed for the Air Force. Leaving the service in 1953 as a Captain, he continued as a test pilot for Grumman Aviation flying amphibious aircraft. Once, while landing at a lake in Connecticut, he struck a newly-installed power line, flipped in the air, hit the water upside down and woke up in the aircraft on the bottom of the lake. He es-caped uninjured. Later, he worked as a consultant while develop-ing an idea for a new form of parachute that would allow much more control, a slower descent, and use far less material than the standard form. This would become the Vortex Ring Parachute, a patent for which was granted to him in July 1957. This light, flex-ible parachute consisted of four fabric panels rotating on an axis, like a helicopter rotor. It was developed in several sizes for uses as far ranging as delivering tiny payloads to landing space capsules. They are still in use by the American military today.

In the 1960’s Barish began working on a new design that ad-dressed the need for a high-performance gliding parachute. This would eventually become the Barish Sailwing, a lobed parachute with a rounded self-inflating leading edge. Originally developed in 1965 as a controllable method to return space capsules safely

to the earth, David manufactured a lightweight, smaller version for testing. Barish or his son, Craig, would attach themselves to this wing-shaped parachute that measured 44 feet across and run down a steep slope until the parachute’s canopy was lifted overhead by the air rushing against it – and lift the “pilot” off the ground. The successful first flight occurred on October 15th, 1965.

In the 1970s this new idea of flying from the ground using a wing-shaped parachute began to be referred to by those who witnessed it as “slope soaring.” It was thought that this would become a sport among the thrill seekers who already were jump-ing out of airplanes in an activity now known as sky-diving. Eventually the slope-soaring sport, redubbed paragliding, would flourish.

Other patents granted Barish include the Flexirotor, a flexible helicopter blade system -- and a series of vortex ring modifications, the latest in 2006. Constantly trying to perfect each of his aero-nautical inventions, Barish was frequently found towing para-chutes behind his personally modified automobile, filming and adjusting tailoring and suspension lines. His children learned at an early age how to safely hang out of a moving car window with a movie camera focused on a rotating or wing-shaped ‘chute.

In 2000, at the annual Coupe Icare international paragliding event in St. Hilaire, France, where he was honored for his contri-bution to the sport, Barish had his first tandem paraglide at the age of 79. In 2004, Barish was recognized by the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association with the Presidential Citation for his work, “In recognition of outstanding contribu-tions which have significantly enhanced and promoted the sports of hang gliding and paragliding in the United States.” In 2009, a reconstructed replica of his original design was flown before an amazed crowd in St. Hilaire.

His family announced his death, which was the result of Multiple Myeloma. Predeceased by two wives, Kavvy Kosunen and Frances Lyons, and two sons, Steven and Philip, David will be mourned by his third wife, Johanna Roman, and three chil-dren, Craig Barish of Manhattan, Dana Barish of Buffalo, NY and Wendy Barish and her husband, Michael Greenstein, both of Woodstock, NY.

David Theodore Barish, an

aeronautical engineer and inventor

who has been called the

“Forgotten Father of Paragliding”

died on December 15 in

New York City. He was 88.

An Interview with David Barish by Steve Roti

SR: As far as I know, nobody else was launching off hills with parachute-like aircraft in the 1960s. What made you decide to build and fly the Sail Wing?

DB: The slope-soaring Sail Wing was an outgrowth of the Sail Wing used for skydiving, which existed much earlier than the slope-soaring version.

NASA was looking for alternate means for recovery of their capsules, and it became obvious that something with higher performance than the skydiving version was needed. We de-veloped a higher-aspect ratio version and took it to Hunter Mountain in New York in September of 1965. The aspect ratio went up from 3 for the skydiving version to 5 for the slope-soaring version. There were other people involved in the development, including Dan Poynter and my son Craig. Slope- soaring was a way of testing out the higher-aspect ratio version of the Sail Wing.

SR: What educational background led you to develop the Sail Wing?

DB: I earned masters and professional degrees in aeronautical engineering from Cal Tech, graduating in 1950. I spent nine years in the Air Force as a pilot, including my time at Cal Tech. After the Air Force, the first parachute I worked on was the vortex ring parachute, from 1954 to 1957. In 1964 I really got going on the gliding parachute, as a result of work I was doing under contract for the Army.

SR: Is there anyone in particular who inspired you to pursue this form of aviation?

DB: My own interest led me into the gliding parachute area. Of course, Lindbergh inspired my whole generation.

SR: Were you aware of Francis Rogallo and the work he was doing?

DB: I was, and after we got into the NASA work with the higher performance version, we did a lot of our wind tunnel testing at Langley, where Rogallo was working.

Our work started out quite differently because Rogallo was interested in using metallic structures, and all of my work was without rigid structures. While we were testing at Langley one day, I glanced over my shoulder and saw Rogallo looking at the models we had hanging in the wind tunnel and taking notes. Of course, he followed quite a different path.

[previous page] Pioneering foot launched flight at ski areas in Catamount, 1964. [top] Newspaper excerpt.

[bottom] One of the Sailwing prototypes in 1966.

SR: Dan Poynter’s book, Hang Gliding: The Basic Handbook of Skysurfing, published in 1973, uses the term “paragliding” to refer to your activities with the Sail Wing. Do you know when and where the term “paragliding” originated?

DB: Not really. At the time we called it slope-soaring. Someone else originated the term “paragliding,” but I’m not sure who it was; it might have been Dan.

Interviewer’s note: A phone call to Dan Poynter verified his use of the term “paragliding” in the 1973 book, but he wasn’t sure where the term originated . Dan also mentioned that 1973 was right about the time when the sport of hang gliding standardized on using aviation terminology rather than sailing terminology . Paul Klemond informed me that NASA used the term “para-glider” in the early 1960s to describe developments such as the Rogallo wing and the Parasev (Paraglider Research Vehicle) .

In summary, it appears NASA originated the term “paraglid-er” in the early 1960s, David Barish invented the practice of foot- launching gliding parachutes in the mid-1960s, and the term “paragliding” was first used to describe foot-launching of gliding parachutes in the early 1970s.

SR: Did anyone else fly the slope-soaring Sail Wing?

DB: Yes, other people, including Dan and my sons, flew it around 1966 or 1967. My son Craig was in his teens and he loved it.

SR: You mentioned flying at Hunter Mountain in New York State. Where else did you fly?

DB: I’ve always been a skiing enthusiast myself, so I got the idea of taking advantage of the ski lifts. I was sponsored by Ski Magazine to travel around the country looking for the best ski areas for slope-soaring.

The best one I found in the East was the Stowe ski area. Unfortunately, the trails at Stowe were fairly narrow, and I wasn’t very skilled at staying over the trails and away from the trees, but I only had a couple of tree landings. I was discour-aged at the other eastern ski areas, because I thought there were too many trees. I went out West, but the weather wasn’t cooperative at the times I could get out to the slopes.

A notable aspect of the 1965/1966 time period is that I wasn’t aware of the advantage one could get out of thermalling, so I was always flying under calm conditions and not getting any thermal lift. It wasn’t until a few years later that it became obvious that I could use the thermals.

SR: What kind of response did you get from people who saw you out slope-soaring back in the 1960s?

DB: Well, there weren’t many people around; the slopes were mostly deserted at the times we picked to do the flying.

SR: What were your thoughts on the safety of what you were doing back then?

DB: We were young and foolish. But, in all fairness, I’ve never been injured on a paraglider, nor while skydiving.

SR: Is there any particularly memorable experience from your early slope-soaring flights with the Sail Wing?

DB: I’ve always tried to be pretty careful, and in those days we were using the slopes as a way of checking out the effects of changes in the rigging and the aspect ratio and the cloth we were using. Our flights were really engineering flights. We weren’t trying for spectacular flights.

SR: Did you have a vision for the future of recreational slope- soaring back when you were experimenting with the Sail Wing?

DB: Probably because of my ignorance of the effects of ther-mals, I didn’t really think about the amount of flying you could do. Again, that was largely due to ignorance on my part.

SR: Modern paragliders have advanced quite a bit in the last 20 years. Do you think we’ve reached the performance limits of paraglider wings, or are there still advancements ahead for the sport?

DB: There are still advancements being made, and they will continue to be made. I’ve continued working to explore the extremes of designs to see where we could expand the enve-lope. I fly a paraglider that is probably somewhat higher per-forming than most. I currently have a glider with a flat aspect ratio of 8. I think there’s still plenty of room for improvement in materials and aerodynamic shape.

SR: Where do you fly your paraglider?

DB: These are still engineering flights, and I have a training hill that’s adequate for that kind of testing.

SR: One instructor I know describes paraglider pilots as people who feel they are birds trapped in human bodies. Does that description apply to you?

DB: I don’t know if it applies to me, but I can certainly believe that it applies to a lot of other people. One is reminded of the old saw: “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are very few old, bold pilots.”

[left] David Barish ground handling one of his. [opposite, top left] David Barish looks into new developments at St. Hillaire, France. [top right] Comparing notes with Gin Seok and David Gibus at St. Hillaire, France. [below] David and Joanna Barish.


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ADVERTISERS There is a photo revolu-tion that’s in the mail, and GoPro HD is spearheading

the charge. Santacroce has sent in a dozen terrific shots from the little video workhorse over the last two issues. Many of the top instructors in the US are dealers for GoPro, so get yourself lined out and send in your best flying shots for the USHPA magazine. While the resolution isn’t exactly enough for a full page cover shot, or center spread, it certainly rings true when cropped. Top-notch photography is no longer reserved for those with massive cameras and the USHPA editorial staff is thrilled to see what gets submitted this year!

Chris Santacroce winding it down in Mexico | photo by Chris Santacroce.


SANCTIONED COMPETITION

HG April 17-MAy 23 Florida Ridge, La Belle, FL. 2nd Annual Rob Kells Memorial . AT Race to Goal XC .Register Dates: 12/15/09 - 04/17/10 More info: contact the organizer, James Tindle, at www.theflor-idaridge.com. New and seasoned comp pilots wel-come. Sport class participation encouraged.

PG MAy 2-8 La Belle, Florida, ECPC (East Coast Paragliding Championships) Florida ridge flight park, La Belle, FL. This USHPA sanctioned event is the only flatland PG race-to-goal comp in the USA designed for intermediate and advanced pilots who want to test their flatland flying skills. Entry fee: $275. This in-cludes retrievals. Tow fees are separate. Organize your own tow team! Tow operators needed. Contact: David Prentice (505) 720-5436, or email [email protected].

HG june 6-12 Ridgley, MD. East Coast HG Cham-pionship at the Highland Aerosports flight park. AT Race to Goal XC. Register Dates: 12/14/09 - 06/06/10. More information contact the organizer, Adam Elchin, at http://www.aerosports.net/ecc.html, or [email protected].

PG june 13-19 Ruch, OR. Rat Race PG Competi-tion at Woodrat Mountain. FL Race to Goal XC. Reg-ister: 01/01/10 - 06/13/10. More information contact the organizer, Gail Haley, at [email protected], or http://www.mphsports.com.

PG july 10-15 Chelan, WA. Chelan XC Open and PG Nationals. FL Race to Goal XC. Register: 01/01/10 - 07/10/10. More information contact the organizer, Doug Stroop, at [email protected].

HG july 19-24 King Mountain, ID. 2010 King Mountain Hang Gliding Championships. Located at King Mountain, in Idaho’s Lost River Range,near Arco and Moore, Idaho. Open Distance NTSS points awarded. Possible tasks include OD along specified routes, shot gun open distance, triangles, out and return tasks. Open, recreation, and team classes, drivers awards, raffle, trophies, educational semi-nars and more! Collectors edition shirts designed by Dan Gravage! Free camping, hot showers, break-fasts, BBQ’s, prizes, and tons o fun...PLUS some of the best XC flying the sport has to offer! For more information and registration forms, go to www.flyk-ingmountain.com OR call Lisa Tate (208)376-7914, [email protected].

HG August 15-21 Big Spring, TX. Big Spring US Nationals. AT Race to Goal XC. Register Dates: 12/14/09 - 08/15/10. More information contact the Organizer, David Glover, at http://2010BigSpring.blogspot.com, or [email protected].

PG August 28-septeMber 5 Sun Valley, ID. 2010 USA PG Nationals. FL Race to Goal XC. Register Dates: 12/14/09 - 08/28/10. More information con-tact the organizer, Michael Pfau, at www.usparaglid-ingnats.com, or [email protected].

HG septeMber 12-18 Casa Grande, AZ. Santa Cruz Flats Race. Francisco Grande Hotel. AT Race to Goal XC. Register Dates: 12/14/09 - 09/12/10 More information contact the organizer, Jamie Shelden, at [email protected].

NON-SANCTIONED COMPETITION

PG MAy 22-23 Nothern California. Northern Cali-fornia Cross Country League. 2010. The Cross Coun-try league is an informal series of cross country com-petitions running from March through to October held at flying sites within driving distance of the Bay Area. The league is set to help pilots of all abilities in im-proving their flying skills by flying set courses with other pilots. These are essentially a ‘fly-in’ with a mis-sion. For more information check out www.SantaCruz-Paragliding.com or email Jug at [email protected]

PG MAy 28-31 Salt Lake City, Utah. Utah AAA Paragliding & Hang Gliding Sprints–a development comp at the Point of the Mountain. The Utah AAA Paragliding & Hang Gliding Sprints, a race to goal competition for those who have little-to-no com-petition experience. $75 for four days. The Sprints resemble other race to goal comps, but with tasks set to ensure a high percentage of pilots make goal. Tasks designed to expand skills and are appropriate for most novice-intermediate pilots. Pilot develop-ment workshops conducted prior to each task cov-ering topics critical to race to goal competition fly-ing (race strategy, GPS, flying in gaggles, previous day analysis, individual coaching, etc). More infor-mation: www.AAAsprints.com.

PG june 26-27 Nothern California. Northern Cali-fornia Cross Country League. 2010.The Cross Country league is an informal series of cross country competi-tions running from March through to October held at flying sites within driving distance of the Bay Area. The league is set to help pilots of all abilities in improving their flying skills by flying set courses with other pi-lots. These are essentially a ‘fly-in’ with a mission. For more information check out www.SantaCruzParaglid-ing.com or email Jug at [email protected]

HG PG july 3-8 Chelan, Washington. The Chelan XC Classic is designed to be fun and challenging for XC pilots of all skill levels. Rather than having declared goals, pilots at the Classic choose their own tasks, and can fly straight-line distance, out-and-return or trian-gles. A pilot’s four best days of the six-day event are scored. PG pilots: a great site intro before competing in the Chelan XC Open or the Chelan PWC. Entry fee: $80 through April 30, $100 from May 1 on; includes a T-shirt and BBQ. If you want to be scored, but can’t make the whole week, $25 a day will get you in the competition. Payment by PayPal or check; more de-tails on www.cloudbase.org.

HG july 19-24 King Mountain,ID.2010 King Mountain Hang Gliding Championships.Located at King Mountain, in Idaho’s Lost River Range,near Arco and Moore, Idaho. Open Distance with new task for-mats added. Entry fee 100 dollars. Tasks include OD along specified routes, shot gun open distance, out and return tasks. Open, recreation, and team class-es, drivers awards, raffle, trophies, educational semi-nars and more! Collectors edition shirts designed by Dan Gravage! Free camping, hot showers, breakfasts, BBQ’s, prizes, and tons o fun...PLUS some of the best XC flying the sporthas to offer! For more information and registration forms, go to www.flykingmountain.com OR call Lisa Tate 208-376-7914 [email protected].

C A L E N D A R & C L A S S I F I E DDISPATCH


PG july 24-25 Nothern California. Northern Cali-fornia Cross Country League. 2010. The Cross Coun-try league is an informal series of cross country com-petitions running from March through to October held at flying sites within driving distance of the Bay Area. The league is set to help pilots of all abilities in im-proving their flying skills by flying set courses with other pilots. These are essentially a ‘fly-in’ with a mis-sion. For more information check out www.SantaCruz-Paragliding.com or email Jug at [email protected]

HG PG August 1-7 Boone, NC. Tater Hill Open. XC and race for paragliders and low performance hang gliders w/ concentration on new XC pilots. Handicapped scoring so everyone has a chance to win. More info: www.flytaterhill.com, or contact Meet Director Bubba Goodman at (828)773-9433. Registration opens March 15, $175 includes rides up the hill, retrieve, T-shirt and awards party Sat-urday night.

PG August 21-22 Nothern California. Northern California Cross Country League. 2010. The Cross Country league is an informal series of cross country competitions running from March through to October held at flying sites within driving distance of the Bay Area. The league is set to help pilots of all abilities in improving their flying skills by flying set courses with other pilots. These are essentially a ‘fly-in’ with a mis-sion. For more information check out www.SantaCruz-Paragliding.com or email Jug at [email protected]

PG septeMber 11-12 Nothern California. North-ern California Cross Country League. 2010. The Cross Country league is an informal series of cross country competitions running from March through to October held at flying sites within driving distance of the Bay Area. The league is set to help pilots of all abilities in improving their flying skills by flying set courses with other pilots. These are essentially a ‘fly-in’ with a mis-sion. For more information check out www.SantaCruz-Paragliding.com or email Jug at [email protected]

PG septeMber 25-27 or oCtober 2-4 Ow-ens Valley. Northern California Cross Country League. 2010. The Cross Country league is an informal series of cross country competitions running from March through to October held at flying sites within driving distance of the Bay Area. The league is set to help pi-lots of all abilities in improving their flying skills by fly-ing set courses with other pilots. These are essentially a ‘fly-in’ with a mission. For more information check out www.SantaCruzParagliding.com or email Jug at [email protected]

FLY-INS

MAy 1-2 Oceanside, Oregon A fun Hang and Paragliding event with over 30 years of history. See website for more info. More Information: Mark San-zone (503)292-1753, [email protected], or oceansideopen.com.

MAy 14-17 Jockey’s Ridge State Park, Kill Dev-il Hills, NC The Hang Gliding Spectacular and Air Games is a true example of what hang gliding is all about, fun! Originally named the 1st Annual Tactile Meet, the Spectacular has endured over 30 years of continuous years of fun flying, good times and the creation of life long friends. Competitors from all over will travel to Kitty Hawk Kites on the Out-er Banks of coastal North Carolina to fly, party and meet old and new friends! For more information vis-it the website, www.hangglidingspectacular.com. More Information: Bruce Weaver (252)441-2426, [email protected], or www.hangglidingspec-tacular.com.

MAy 21-23 Greer, South Carolina. South Caro-lina Springtime Fly-In, at Glassy Mountain near Greer, SC. Come and enjoy flying and competing (spot, duration, X-C, balloon toss, etc.) at this beau-tiful south-facing mountain. Plaques awarded to all 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers in all competitions (except balloon toss). $20 entry fee for competi-tion flying and $10 for fun flying. Fly-In T-shirts are available. Glassy launch is 1500’ AGL. Contact: Paul Peeples, PO Box 2121, Brevard, NC 28712; (828) 885-2536 (home); (828) 553-3777 (cell); [email protected]. Due to tree restrictions at launch, paragliders cannot be flown at this site.

MAy 29-31 King Mountain, Idaho. 8th annu-al “Spring Fling at King”. Cash prize for longest XC. BBQ, mild conditions in early spring, and a chance to meet new pilots. Open our link at www.kingmoun-taingliders.biz, or call (208)390-0205.

MAy 29-31 Ruch, Oregon. Join us May 29, 2010 at Woodrat Mountain for the 34th Starthistle Fly-in. The fabled event offers hang glider and paraglider pilots powerful thermals and a great party. Come to Southern Oregon Memorial Day weekend for three days of fun, food and flying. More posted soon! More Information: Don Fitch (541)821-4269, [email protected], or www.RVHPA.net.

MAy 29-31 Alamogordo, New Mexico. 2010 Memorial Day Dry Canyon Fly-In. The Rio Grande Soaring Association will host a Memorial Day Fly-In. Contests will include Spot Landing, Race to Goal, Bomb Drop, Duration and Open XC. Mini-mum H-3 and P-3 with mountain experience. Ad-ditional this year: Platform towing at the nearby Ala-mogordo Airport! Enjoy desert thermals with tall, cool mountains right at hand for family trips. Tro-phies, friends, a barbecue, good flying and a wel-coming community. Contest cost: $20. For addi-tional information, please contact Robin Hastings at (575)541-5744, or [email protected]. For forecasts and club information, check our website at www.rgsa.info. See you in the sky!


CLINICS & TOURS

MAy 1-2 Salt Lake City, Utah. “Get the Rust Off” Clinic. Kick off the 2010 flying season with Wings Over Wasatch and your fellow pilots at this FREE clinic! Our instructors will watch, evaluate and pro-vide feedback to any rated pilots looking to “get the rust off” and prepare for a great flying season. For more information visit wingsoverwasatch.com.

MAy 1-2 Utah. Tandem (T2 & T3) with Ken Hudon-jorgensen. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

MAy 5015 Salt Lak City, Utah. P2 Course: Point of the Mountain, UT. Now is the time to schedule your lessons. Super Fly offers lessons throughout the year but from May 5-15 we are gearing up to take a select handful from zero experience to fully qualified pilot in ten days. This is paragliding boot camp. Dawn till dusk, day after day. By the time you are finished you will have done everything up to, and including, advanced maneuvers over the water. No better team, no better time. Contact: [email protected]

MAy 6-7 Torrey Pines Gliderport, CA. Earn your T1, T2, T3 ratings with the tandem instructors at Torrey who fly the most tandems per year! More Information: Robin Marien / Gabriel Jebb (858)452-9858, [email protected], or www.flytorrey.com.

MAy 8-9 Salt Lake City, Utah. USHPA Instruc-tor Training. Join the ranks of other experienced and enthusiastic pilots who have become a hang glid-ing instructor. Successful completion of all require-ments is required for USHPA Instructor Certification. Re-certification participants are also welcome. For more information visit wingsoverwasatch.com

MAy 8-10 Torrey Pines Gliderport, CA. Earn your USHPA Basic/Advanced Instructor ratings with the Torrey team. More Information: Robin Marien / Gabri-el Jebb (858)452-9858, [email protected], or www.flytorrey.com.

MAy 13-16 Grand Junction, CO. Ridge Soar-ing Clinic at Otto’s Ridge and Reader Mesa. Enjoy hours of smooth flying and perfect your top land-ing skills with Parasoft PG. Details at http://www.parasoftparagliding.com/lessons/ridge _ soar-ing _ clinic.php

MAy 15-16 Salt Lake City, Utah. Tune Up/ Mtn. Thermal Course. Want to explore the mountains of UT, brush up on the latest techniques, have the flight of your life? Spend three days with us and we will help you to make it happen. Contact [email protected]

MAy 15-17 Sebring, Florida, SIV Clinic. Three day over the water maneuver training course. Contact: Da-vid Prentice (505) 720-5436, or email [email protected].

MAy 15-17 Utah. Thermal Clinic. Utah flying sites with Ken Hudonjorgensen. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

MAy 20-23 Utah. Cross-country competition clin-ic; a friendly introduction to cross-country flying with instruction from US and North American XC record setter, and 2005 US XC Competition Champion Bill Belcourt, and Ken Hudonjorgensen who held the xc record in Utah for 7 years and has won the Utah xc cup for 6 of the 14 years it has been run. All aspects of XC & Competitions will be covered. Utah XC sites. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

MAy 21-23 Yuba Lake, Utah. Maneuvers Course (SIV): Comprehensive Chris Santacroce style ma-neuvers session. Pay by the tow and take your fly-ing safety and skill to the next level. All experience levels welcome. We do maneuvers with our stu-dents as a part of their P2 program. If you have ten flights, you have plenty to enjoy and over the wa-ter experience. All levels of aerobatic/acro coaching are available. Yes, we are talking about SIV. Contact: [email protected] to get your free maneuvers prep DVD.

MAy 20-25 Over-the-water Maneuvers Clinics in Southern California with Eagle Paragliding. Amer-ica’s top all-around acro and competition pilot Brad Gunnuscio will be coaching with our state of the art towing set up. Visit www.paragliding.com , or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

MAy 28-30 Jackson Hole, WY. Tandem Paraglid-ing Clinic at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort pre-sented by Scott Harris. For more information call or e-mail (307)690-8726 [email protected]

MAy 28-30 Lake Isabella, CA. Build your confi-dence in your flying and maneuvers recovery with the Torrey crew. More Information: Robin Marien / Gabri-el Jebb (858)452-9858, [email protected], or www.flytorrey.com.

june 2-3 Tandem Paragliding Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, Cali-fornia. Classroom and practical training at our world class training hill. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

june 3-8 Over-the-water Maneuvers Clinics in Southern California with Eagle Paragliding. Amer-ica’s top all-around acro and competition pilot Brad Gunnuscio will be coaching with our state of the art towing set up. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

june 4-6 Instructor Certification Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, Cali-fornia. This three-day clinic is open to Basic and Ad-vanced Paragliding Instructor candidates, and those needing recertification. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

june 4-6 Jackson Hole, WY. Instructor Certifica-tion Clinic presented by Scott Harris, (307)690-8726 or [email protected]

june 1-5 Grandfather Mountain, North Caroli-na. Mountain to the Sea Morton-Rogallo Memorial Fly Over. In honor and memory of previous Grand-father Mountain owner and Hang Gliding Promoter, Hugh Morton and NASA Engineer and Flexwing In-ventor, Francis Rogallo, powered hang glider pilots from all over will come together for a five day fly-ing and camping adventure that will begin at Grand-father Mountain in western North Carolina, cross their beautiful home state and end at Kitty Hawk. For more information or ground crew volunteers, please contact David “Toad” Smith at (828)758-7590, or [email protected]

june 13-19 Lumby, British Columbia. Based at main landing zone at the Freedom Flight Park just one mile north of the town of Lumby. The Hang Glid-ing event will follow the very popular 5th annual “Lumby Air Races”, June 11-13 2010, which has al-ways been held in conjunction with Lumby Days and includes both Hang Gliders and Paragliders. Both competitions will be exciting triangle, rectangle and open distance races measured by GPS. For more detailed information and registration links for both events, please visit WWW.LumbyAirForce.com. More Information: Randy Rauck (250) 547-6841, or [email protected].

july 1-11 Villa Grove, CO. Duluth, Minneso-ta’s Skyline Sky Dogs & Minneapolis, Minneso-ta’s Northern Sky Gliders OLD TIMERS REUNION. These 2 clubs enjoyed relentless rival flyin meets in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s boasting some 300+ mem-bers. Everybody is now dispersed all over the coun-try after following their flying dreams. Let’s meet and fly together again -- come one come all - ev-eryone is welcome! For more info, [email protected], or (970)209-5212.

August 6-8 Maple Falls WA, Silver Lake Group Camp Ground. Black Mountain 34th Annual Hang Gliding Meet of the Canadian & American Hang Gliding Associations. "The Can Am". Come fly one of the oldest sites in the Pacific Northwest. Spot Land-ing, Speed runs, Fun Fly-in Potluck Saturday night. More information: Della Miller, (360) 421-6995

August 13-15 Silver Lake Park, Whatcom Coun-ty, WA. 2010 Black Mountain Fly-In is scheduled for the weekend of August 13-15. New event organizers and proceeds to support local site maintenance fund. Friday evening registration, pilot’s meeting Satur-day 10am. Potluck/BBQ Satuday evening and hosted breakfast Sunday morning. Fee for the weekend, in-cluding camping is $35. More Information: Jim Wag-ner [email protected].

August 14-22 King Mountain, ID. Annual Safari at the King Mountain Glider Park in Idaho. Awesome glass off and cloud bases at 18,000’. Hang Gliders, Paragliders, and Sailplanes all at the base of King Mountain. Campfires, potlucks, star gazing, hiking, mountain biking, and Fishing. Free Camping at the Glider Park just east of Sun Valley. See the pictures from last years Safari in our gallery. Call John at (208) 407-7174. Go to www.kingmountainglider-park.com for directions and more info.


june 11-13 Bear Lake, Utah. Wings Over Bear Lake. PG and HG aerobatics competition: Bear Lake, UT. Boat tow, over the water aerobatics at a world class resort. Cart launch and boat launch HG tows. Landing on a grassy beach. Contact: [email protected] for registration.

june 12-26 France, Switzerland, Italy. Experi-ence the Alps where it all began! Fly world famous sites everyday such as St. Hilaire, Annecy, Chamonix, Mieussy, Verbier, La Madeleine, Les Saissis and more. Join Luis Rosenkjer and Todd Weigand on an unfor-gettable tour to some of the most beautiful flying sites in the world! Luis and Todd have 11 years of combined experience guiding international pilots to the Alps. Fly from the Aiguille du Midi on Mont Blanc, launching at 12,000 feet and landing in Chamonix, 9,000 feet below! www.paraglidingtrips.com More Information: Todd Weigand & Luis Rosenkjer , or www.paraglid-ingtrips.com.

june 18 - july 5 Peru. Touching the Andes of Peru Tours. Join Jeff Cristol and Adventure Tour Productions for another paragliding tour to the An-des of Peru. This will be Jeff’s 15th trip to the high mountains of Peru where he intimately knows sites throughout the country. Please visit www.para-glideperu.com, www.adventuretourproductions.com/articles/touchingtheandes.htm and www.ad-venturetourproductions.com/articles2005/sacred-valley.htm to read about these adventures and for any questions or to reserve a spot. Contact: (970) 728-1754, or write [email protected].

june 19-20 Salt Lake City, Utah. Landing Clinic. Where better to practice landings repeatedly than the Point of the Mountain? This comprehensive clinic will involve evaluation and instruction of pilot landings at both Point of the Mountain sites and po-tentially a third location. Using video analysis par-ticipants will gain big insights into become a con-sistent and safe landing pilot. For more information visit wingsoverwasatch.com

june 19-20 Utah. Mountain Flying and learning how to pioneer a new site in Utah with Ken Hudonjor-gensen. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

june 22-24 And june 25-27 Lost Creek Lake, Southern Oregon. Maneuvers/SIV Clinic over beau-tiful Lost Creek Lake in Southern Oregon. Coached by Brad Gunnuscio and hosted by Kevin Lee. Brad is renowned for his excellent maneuvers coaching, was the 2008 USHPA Paragliding Instructor of the Year, and Ranked #1 US Pilot. Kevin was the 2006 USHPA Paragliding Instructor of the Year and has been passionately teaching others to fly Paraglid-ers since 1995. Join a perfect crew, have a great time, and come to understand your glider more in three days then most hope they could in a lifetime! Then stick around and fly famous Woodrat Mountain right here in Southern Oregon. More info: (541)890-7142, or email [email protected].

june 25-27 Lake Isabella, CA. Build your confi-dence in your flying and maneuvers recovery with the Torrey crew. More Information: Robin Marien / Gabri-el Jebb (858)452-9858, [email protected], or www.flytorrey.com.

june 26-july 4 Slovenia Tour. The perfect time, the perfect destinations. Chris Santacroce and Jeff Farrell along with local guides will show you some of the most incredible destinations. Contact [email protected] for details.

july 9-11 Salt Lake City, Utah. Aerobatics Clin-ic The third annual Wings Over Wasatch Aerobatics clinic is back! This year WOW will improve on this popular, action-packed weekend by including truck and/or boat towing. With 2500-3000 ft tows, par-ticipants will have ample opportunities to explore and perfect their maneuvers! For more information visit wingsoverwasatch.com

july 15-16 Torrey Pines Gliderport, CA. Earn your T1, T2, T3 ratings with the tandem instructors at Torrey who fly the most tandems per year! More Information: Robin Marien / Gabriel Jebb (858)452-9858, [email protected], or www.flytorrey.com.

july 15-19 Colorado Mountains Get out of the heat and camp with us at the 10,000’ launch and enjoy long scenic flights. Details at http://www.parasoftparagliding.com/lessons/mountain _ fly-ing _ clinic.php

july 17-19 Torrey Pines Gliderport,CA. Earn your USHPA Basic/Advanced Instructor ratings with the Torrey crew. More Information: Robin Marien / Gabri-el Jebb (858)452-9858, [email protected], or www.flytorrey.com.

july 29-31 Over-the-water Maneuvers Clinics in Southern California with Eagle Paragliding. Amer-ica’s top all-around acro and competition pilot Brad Gunnuscio will be coaching with our state of the art towing set up. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

August 1-3 Over-the-water Maneuvers Clinics in Southern California with Eagle Paragliding. Amer-ica’s top all-around acro and competition pilot Brad Gunnuscio will be coaching with our state of the art towing set up. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

August 11-21 French Alps Paragliding Tour with Eagle Paragliding. This flying location is amazing. Call 805.968.0980, or visit www.paragliding.com to get more information, and view the images from pre-vious tours.

August 21-22 Tandem Paragliding Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, California. Classroom and practical training at our world class training hill. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

August 26-28 Utah. Central Utah Thermal and XC Clinic with Stacy Whitmore, Ken Hudonjorgensen. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

6020


August 27-29 Salt Lake City, Utah. Wasatch Mountain Tour There are few states more synony-mous with world-class flying than Utah, and now with the WOW Wasatch Mountain Tour, you can ex-perience all of its greatness for yourself. All within 90 minutes of Salt Lake City, WOW will introduce clinic attendees to numerous sites with epic flying conditions via a guided tour. Flying fun at its best. For more information visit wingosoverwasatch.com

septeMber 3-5 Utah. Thermal Clinic. Utah fly-ing sites with Ken Hudonjorgensen. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

septeMber 4-6 Provo, Utah. Inspiration Ther-mal Clinic. Join Wings Over Wasatch for an in-depth instructional review of one of the best sites in the US. This clinic will cover the intricacies of flying In-spiration Point, as well as the various thermal tech-niques required at such a site. Open to all pilots, from those that have not yet flown “Inspo”, to those that fly it regularly and would like to increase their working knowledge of the site. For more information visit wingsoverwasatch.com

septeMber 6-17 India: Bir Billing, Dharamsa-la, Manali. Local instructors and guides in India.In-cludes transportation, accomodation, guide service. Novice/Intermediate/Advanced rated pilots. Side trip to Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama residence. The selec-tion of the sites and take off points will be made ac-cording to the skill and experience of the individual pilot. Questions about the trip’s itinerary, difficulty, transportation, accommodations, etc., should be ad-dressed to your trip leader Achim Hagemann, (808) 895-1690, or email: [email protected].

septeMber 9-14 Over-the-water Maneuvers Clinics in Southern California with Eagle Paragliding. America’s top all-around acro and competition pilot Brad Gunnuscio will be coaching with our state of the art towing set up. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

septeMber 16-21 9th Grand Junction, Colora-do Ridge Soaring Clinic at Otto’s Ridge and Read-er Mesa. Enjoy hours of smooth flying and perfect your top landing skills with Parasoft PG. Details at http://www.parasoftparagliding.com/lessons/ridge _ soaring _ clinic.php

septeMber 25-26 Utah. Mountain Flying and learning how to pioneer a new site in Utah with Ken Hudonjorgensen. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

oCtober 15-17 Owens Valley Thermal and Cross Country Clinic with Eagle Paragliding. Many pilots are sure to get personal bests. View photos and videos from our last clinic at www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

noveMber 5-7 Instructor Certification Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Bar-bara, California. This three-day clinic is open to basic and advanced Paragliding Instructor candidates, and those needing recertification. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

noveMber 8-9 Tandem Paragliding Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, California. Classroom and practical training at our world class training hill. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more information.

noveMber 9-16 &/or nov 18-25 Iquique, Chile. Join Ken Hudonjorgensen, and local guides. A great trip to what many pilots consider to be the best place to fly in the world, certainly more consistent than any place I have ever flown. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

noveMber 10-29 Iquique ,Chile. Join Luis Rosenkjer and Todd Weigand to fly the never end-ing thermals of the Atacama Desert! Soar endless sand ridges high above the Pacific Ocean, then land on the beach next to our 4 star hotel. As Chilean open distance record holders and Iquique Competi-tion Champions, Luis and Todd also have 15 years of combined guiding experience in Iquique! A vari-ety of trips for all levels, plus XC guiding, Acro dis-plays, and master kiting tips! The conditions are so good at this time of the year that we guarantee you will fly everyday or get money back! More Informa-tion: www.paraglidingtrips.com.

deCeMber 12-13 Thermal and XC Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, Califor-nia. This two-day clinic is open to pilots of all levels. The clinic includes ground school, and ground-to-air radio coaching in our local mountains. Visit www.paragliding.com , or call 805.968.0980 for more in-formation.

februAry 2-7 Southern Cal. flying trip. Join ken Hudonjorgensen on a trip to thaw out your bones and get your flying brain cells activated and ready for the new flying season. Phone (801) 572-3414, or email [email protected]. More info: www.twocanfly.com.

FLEX WINGS

a greaT SeLecTion of hg&pg gLiderS (ss, ds, pg) -HARNESSES (trainer, cocoon, pod) -PARA-CHUTES (hg&pg) WHEELS (new & used). Phone for latest inventory (262)473-8800, www.hanggliding.com.

PARAGLIDERS

paragLiding gear - Windtech Tempus, DHV-1, size Large, grey & gold, only 10 hours of airtime - $1200. Comes with stuff bag and original backpack (which has a few broken buckles). Flytec 6030 Vario - NEVER USED - new in box - $1000. Racer XC Har-ness, size L, with brand new Large Airwave Reserve - $500. 303-805-7536.

PARACHUTES

reServe parachuTe - Free Flight Enterprises. L.A.R.A 250 (equal to Quantum 330) 320 sq ft. Newly repacked & in perfect condition. Deployed once dur-ing maneuvers course. Always repacked yearly and never been used for emergency deployment. $500 (normally $625-$675 new retail). Call 719-244-2494.

SCHOOLS & DEALERS

ALABAMA

LookouT mounTain fLighT park - The best fa-cilities, largest inventory, camping, swimming, volley-ball, more. Wide range of accommodations. hanglide.com, 877-HANGLIDE, 877-426-4543, hanglide.com.

CALIFORNIA

airJunkieS paragLiding - Year-round excel-lent instruction, Southern California & Baja. Powered paragliding, clinics, tours, tandem, towing. Ken Baier 760-753-2664, airjunkies.com.

eagLe paragLiding - SANTA BARBARA offers the best year round flying in the nation. Award-winning instruction, excellent mountain and ridge sites. www.flysantabarbara.com, 805-968-0980

fLY aBove aLL - Year-round instruction in beauti-ful Santa Barbara! USHPA Novice through Advanced certification. Thermaling to competition training. Visit www.flyaboveall.com 805-965-3733.

fLY awaY hang gLiding - Santa Barbara. Best hill/equipment, glider shuttles up hill, tandems, sales, service, 20 years experience, Instructor Administra-tor Tammy Burcar. 805-403-8487, www.flyawayhang-gliding.com.

The hang gLiding cenTer - PO Box 151542, San Diego CA 92175, 619-265-5320.

miSSion Soaring cenTer LLc - Largest hang glid-ing center in the West! Our deluxe retail shop show-cases the latest equipment: Wills Wing, Moyes, AIR, High Energy, Flytec, Aeros, Northwing, Hero wide an-gle video camera. A.I.R. Atos rigid wings- demo the VQ-45' span, 85 Lbs! Parts in stock. We stock new and used equipment. Trade-ins welcome. Complete lesson program. Best training park in the west, lo-cated just south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Pit-man Hydraulic Winch System for Hang 1s and above. Launch and landing clinics for Hang 3s and Hang 4s. Wills Wing Falcons of all sizes and custom training harnesses. 1116 Wrigley Way, Milpitas, CA 95035. 408-262-1055, Fax 408-262-1388, [email protected], Mission Soaring Center LLC, leading the way since 1973. www.hang-gliding.com


TorreY pineS gLiderporT — This historic site, established in 1928, offers all of the services you need. We provide USHPA certified instruction, ad-vanced training, equipment sales, tandem flight in-struction, paramotor instruction, SIV clinics, cross country clinics, tandem instructor clinics, paraglid-ing instructor clinics, and a fully staffed cafe. We also have an extensive glider sport shop offering parachute repacks and full-service repairs. We are importers for Paratech, Ozone, Skywalk, and Independence gliders and are dealers for all brands! We also carry an exten-sive certified used inventory of gliders and harnesses. We are the primary Ki2Fly dealer, and also carry Aus-triAlpin, Crispi, Black Hawk Paramotors, and too much more to list! Check us out online at: www.flytorrey.com or give us a ring at (858)452-9858.

windSporTS - Don’t risk bad weather, bad instruc-tion or dangerous training hills. 350 flyable days each year. Learn foot-launch flying skills safely and quickly. Train with professional CFI’s at world-famous Dock-weiler Beach training slopes (5 minutes from LA air-port.) Fly winter or summer in gentle coastal winds, soft sand and in a thorough program with one of Amer-ica’s most prestigious schools for over 25 years. 818-367-2430, www.windsports.com.

COLORADO

apco aviaTion deaLer - COLORADO'S FIRST & ONLY DEALER - Paragliders,harnesess,rescue sys-tems and accessories call Ken (303)775-8676 or email:[email protected]

FLORIDA

aTLanTa paragLiding - 21 years of experience, top instructors, top pilots, very consistent weather all year around. Your best choice on the east coast. www.atlantaparagliding.com 404-931-3793.

fLorida ridge aeroTow park - 18265 E State Road 80, Clewiston, Florida 863-805-0440, www.thefloridaridge.com.

graYBird airSporTS — Paraglider & hang glid-er towing & training, Dragonfly aerotow training, XC, thermaling, instruction, equipment. Dunnellon Airport 352-245-8263, email [email protected], www.graybirdairsports.com.

LookouT mounTain fLighT park - Nearest moun-tain training center to Orlando. Two training hills, nov-ice mountain launch, aerotowing, great accommoda-tions. hanglide.com, 877-HANGLIDE, 877-426-4543.

miami hang gLiding - For year-round training fun in the sun. 305-285-8978, 2550 S Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, Florida 33133, www.miamihangglid-ing.com.

QueST air - Home to the champions—is dedicated to your success, whether you want to learn to fly, are honing your landing skills or hoping to medal at the next World Championships. (352) 429-0213, Grove-land, FL, questairforce.com.

waLLaBY ranch – The original Aerotow flight park. Best tandem instruction worldwide,7-days a week , 6 tugs, and equipment rental. Call:1-800-WALLABY wallaby.com 1805 Deen Still Road, Disney Area FL 33897

GEORGIA


LookouT mounTain fLighT park - Discover why 5 times as many pilots earn their wings at LMFP. En-joy our 110 acre mountain resort. www.hanglide.com, 1-877-HANGLIDE, 1-877-426-4543.

HAWAII

profLYghT paragLiding - Call Dexter for friendly information about flying on Maui. Full-service school offering beginner to advanced instruction every day, year round. 808-874-5433, paraglidehawaii.com.

INDIANA

cLoud 9 SporT aviaTion - See Cloud 9 in Michi-gan

MARYLAND

highLand aeroSporTS - Baltimore and DC’s full-time flight park: tandem instruction, solo aerotows and equipment sales and service. We carry Aeros, Airwave, Flight Design, Moyes, Wills Wing, High En-ergy Sports, Flytec and more. Two 115-HP Dragonfly tugs. Open fields as far as you can see. Only 1 to 1.5 hours from Rehoboth Beach, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia. Come Fly with US! 410-634-2700, Fax 410-634-2775, 24038 Race Track Rd, Ridgely, MD 21660, www.aerosports.net, [email protected].

MICHIGAN

cLoud 9 SporT aviaTion - Aerotow specialists. We carry all major brand hang gliders and accessories. Cloud 9 Field, 11088 Coon Lake Road West, Webber-ville MI 48892. [email protected], http://members.aol.com/cloud9sa. Call for summer tandem lessons and flying appointments with the DraachenFliegen Soaring Club at Cloud 9 Field. 517-223-8683, [email protected], http://members.aol.com/dfscinc.

TraverSe ciTY hang gLiderS/paragLiderS Put your knees in our breeze and soar our 450’ sand dunes. Full-time shop. Certified instruction, begin-ner to advanced. Sales, service, accessories for ALL major brands. Visa/MasterCard. 1509 E 8th, Traverse City MI 49684. Offering powered paragliding. Call Bill at 231-922-2844, [email protected]. Your USA & Canada Mosquito distributor. www.mosqui-toamerica.com.

Super Fly GTX

(sky GTX also available)

a p e x b a s e . c o m9 5 1 . 9 4 0 . 1 3 2 4


NEW YORK

aaa mounTain wingS inc. - New location at 77 Hang Glider Road in Ellenville next to the LZ. We ser-vice all brands featuring AEROS and North Wing. Con-tact 845-647-3377, [email protected], www.mtnwings.com,

fLY high, inc. - Serving New York, Jersey, and Con-necticut areas. Area’s exclusive Wills Wing dealer. Also all other brands, accessories. Area’s most IN-EXPENSIVE prices! Certified instruction/service since 1979. Excellent secondary instruction! Taken some lessons? Advance to mountain flying! www.flyhighhg.com, 845-744-3317.

LeT'S go paragLiding LLc - Paragliding flight school offering USHPA-certified instruction for all levels, tandem flights, tours, and equipment sales. More information: www.letsgoparagliding.com, 917-359-6449.

pLaneT paragLiding - New York City area's fin-est instruction. Come fly with us. Beginner through advanced instruction. Best prices on new gear. Bill 203-881-9419, 203-206-3896, www.planetparaglid-ingtours.com.

SuSQuehanna fLighT park COOPERSTOWN, NY. 160' training hill with rides up. Mountain site. Bunk house. Camping. Contact info: home (315) 866-6153 cell (315) 867-8011. [email protected], www.cooperstownhanggliding.com.

NORTH CAROLINA


kiTTY hawk kiTeS - FREE Hang 1 training with pur-chase of equipment! The largest hang gliding school in the world. Teaching since 1974. Learn to fly over the East coast’s largest sand dune. Year round instruction, foot launch and tandem aerotow. Dealer for all major manufacturers. Ultralight instruction and tours. 252-441-2426, 1-877-FLY-THIS, www.kittyhawk.com

OHIO

cLoud 9 SporT aviaTion - See Cloud 9 in Michi-gan

PUERTO RICO

fLY puerTo rico wiTh Team SpiriT hg! - Flying tours, rentals, tandems, HG and PG classes, H-2 and P-2 intensive Novice courses, full sales. 787-850-0508, [email protected].

TENNESSEE


LookouT mounTain fLighT park - Just outside Chattanooga. Become a complete pilot -foot launch, aerotow, mountain launch, ridge soar, thermal soar. hanglide.com, 1-877-HANGLIDE, 877-426-4543.

TEXAS

auSTin air SporTS - Hang gliding, and LSA weight shift control sales, service and instruction. Steve Burns (512) 736-2052, [email protected]. WWW.AUSTINAIRSPORTS.COM.

fLYTexaS / Jeff hunT - training pilots in Central Texas for 25 years. Hangar facilities near Packsad-dle Mountain, and Lake LBJ. More info: www.flytexas.com, (512)467-2529

UTAH

cLoud 9 paragLiding - Come visit us and check out our huge selection of paragliding gear, traction kites, extreme toys, and any other fun things you can think of. If you aren’t near the Point of the Mountain, then head to http://www.paragliders.com for a full list of products and services. We are Utah’s only full time shop and repair facility, Give us a ring at 801-576-6460 if you have any questions.

Super fLY paragLiding – Come to world famous Point of the Mountain and learn to fly from one of our distinguished instructors. We teach year round and of-fer some of the best paragliding equipment available. Get your P2 certification, advanced ratings or tandem ratings here. We have a full shop to assist you with any of your free flight needs. 801-255-9595, [email protected] , www.superflyinc.com.

VIRGINIA

BLue SkY - Full-time HG instruction. Daily lessons, scooter, and platform towing. AT towing part time. Custom sewing, powered harnesses, Aeros PG , Fly-light and Airborne trikes. More info: (804)241-4324, or www.blueskyhg.com

WASHINGTON

aeriaL paragLiding SchooL and fLighT park - Award winning instructors at a world class training facility. Contact Doug Stroop at 509-782-5543 or visit www.paragliding.us

INTERNATIONAL

canada - Raven Aviation Hang Gliding Lessons (USH-PA certified) and Trike Lessons. One week full immer-sion courses. Lumby BC Canada. On-site camping. More info: www.RavenAviation.ca, (250)307-7553

coSTa rica - Grampa Ninja's Paragliders' B&B. Rooms, and/or guide service and transportation. Lessons available from USHPA certified instructors. USA: 908-454-3242. Costa Rica: (Country code, 011) House: 506-2664-6833, Cell: 506-8950-8676, www.paraglidecostarica.com<http://www.paraglide-costarica.com>

mexico - vaLLe de Bravo and beyond for hang gliding and paragliding. Year round availability and special tours. Gear, guiding, instruction, transporta-tion, lodging - all varieties for your needs. www.fly-mexico.com 1-800-861-7198 USA

PARTS & ACCESSORIES

criTTermounTainwear.com - is your one stop website for all your flying equipment and accessories. Gear from Critter, Nervures, SOL, Sup'air, Swing, Digi-fly, and more. Specializing in vol bivy, sky camping and hike & fly adventures. 1-800-686-9327, [email protected].

fLighT SuiTS, fLighT SuiTS, fLighT SuiTS. Warm Flight suits, Efficient Flight suits, Lightweight Flight suits, Flight suits in twelve sizes. Stylish Flight suits, www.mphsports.com, (541)702-2111.

for aLL Your fLYing needS - Check out the Avi-ation Depot at www.mojosgear.com featuring over 1000 items for foot-launched and powered paraglid-ing, hang gliding, stunt and power kiting, and pow-ered parachutes. 24/7 secure online shopping. Books, videos, KITES, gifts, engine parts, harness accesso-ries, electronics, clothing, safety equipment, com-plete powered paragliding units with training from Hill Country Paragliding Inc. www.hillcountryparagliding.com 1-800-664-1160 for orders only. Office 325-379-1567.

haLL wind meTer – Simple. Reliable. Accurate. Mounting brackets, control-bar wheels. Hall Brothers, PO Box 1010, Morgan, Utah 84050. (801) 829-3232, www.hallwindmeter.com.

oxYgen SYSTemS – MH-XCR-180 operates to 18,000 ft., weighs only 4 lbs. System includes cyl-inder, harness, regulator, cannula, and remote on/off flowmeter. $450.00. 1-800-468-8185

SpeciaLTY wheeLS for airfoil basetubes, round basetubes, or tandem landing gear.(262)473-8800, www.hanggliding.com.

PUBLICATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS

Soaring - Monthly magazine of The Soaring Society of America Inc. Covers all aspects of soaring flight. Full membership $64. SSA, PO Box 2100, Hobbs NM 88241. 505-392-1177, ssa.org.

SERVICE

cLoud 9 repair deparTmenT - We staff and main-tain a full service repair shop within Cloud 9 Paraglid-ing; offering annual inspections, line replacement, sail repair of any kind (kites too!), harness repairs and reserve repacks. Our repair technicians are factory trained and certified to work on almost any paraglider or kite. Call today for an estimate 801-576-6460 or visit www.paragliders.com for more information.


geT Your annuaL inSpecTion, repair or reserve repack done quickly and professionally. Super Fly does more inspections, repairs and repacks than any service center in North America. Call or email for de-tails and more information. 801-255-9595, [email protected].

riSing air gLider repair ServiceS – A full-ser-vice shop, specializing in all types of paragliding re-pairs, annual inspections, reserve repacks, harness repairs. Hang gliding reserve repacks and repair. For information or repair estimate, call (208) 554-2243, pricing and service request form available at www.ris-ingair.biz, [email protected].

WANTED

wanTed - Used variometers, harnesses, parachutes, helmets, etc. Trade or cash. (262) 473-8800, www.hanggliding.com.

wanTed - New or used apparel with old USHGA logo / artwork. Size L. Please contact Theodore at (530) 222-2447

MISCELLANEOUS

kooTenaYTwiSTedfLYerS.ca - Handcrafted cop-per PG & HG models & mobiles that capture the en-ergy & motion of flying. Make great trophies, or home and office accents. More info: www.kootenaytwisted-flyers.ca, or (250) 358-2511.

STOLEN WINGS & THINGS

iT waS a Sad end to a three month paragliding trip to Mexico when our van was broken into at a truck stop in Buttonwillow, CA. All my paragliding gear was stolen. UP Everest med harness, Niviuk Hook wing small s/n D21110. Ozone Rush2 wing med s/n R2MK-33B-005, UP profile reserve 20 parachute, Flymaster B1 variometer, SOL flight deck, Garmin GPS 72, Yeasu FT60 radio, ICOM 2200h 50 watt mobile radio. Con-tact Forrest Brault at [email protected] or (530)533-5018.

SToLen gear - Please keep an eye out for a stolen custom colored blue and yellow ProDesign Accura 100 wing, and a blue and black Apco ChairBag har-ness with a front deployed reserve. Taken from my car in Las Vegas 9-26-09. Contact with any info [email protected] or (425) 444 2344.

SToLen - WW Sport 2 155, white, orange and yellow/ green. Also an old paraglider Airwave Fusion, medium blue and white. Both stolen 10-30-09 Stockton, Cali-fornia. Call Tim at (208) 861-9489

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PARAGLIDINGrTng regn name ciTY STaTe raTing officiaL

P-1 1 Kerry Smith Grants Pass OR Kevin LeeP-1 1 Jay Ferguson Seattle WA John KraskeP-1 1 Erik Boomer Hood River OR Patrick JohnsonP-1 2 Marco Guzman Union City CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-1 2 Brian Miller Las Vegas NV Ron PeckP-1 2 Kyle Kearney Oakland CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-1 2 Pravin Chikkathimmaiah Santa Clara CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-1 2 Dan Ferrando Fairfax CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-1 2 Benjamin Ellingson Las Vegas NV Ron PeckP-1 3 Gage Galle Honolulu HI Pete MichelmoreP-1 3 Ben Anvar West Hills CA Rob MckenzieP-1 3 Salar Atabaki La Jolla CA Max MarienP-1 3 Josh Voth Santa Barbara CA Bruce KirkP-1 3 Andrew Ross Waialua HI Pete MichelmoreP-1 3 Richard Doppelmayer Mililani HI Pete MichelmoreP-1 4 Jesse Tuttle Farmington UT Jonathan JefferiesP-1 4 Diego Calderoni Moab UT Chris SantacroceP-1 6 Lawrence Williams Lonoke AR Pete MichelmoreP-1 8 Daniel Smith Jericho VT Doug GotthardP-1 10 Mackenzie Woods Memphis TN Charles WoodsP-1 12 Rephael Baehr New York NY Bruce KirkP-1 13 Sarah Mcnair - Landry Iqaluit, Nunavut Patrick JohnsonP-2 1 Kerry Smith Grants Pass OR Kevin LeeP-2 1 David Krocker Aumsville OR Kelly KellarP-2 1 Jay Ferguson Seattle WA John KraskeP-2 1 Erik Boomer Hood River OR Patrick JohnsonP-2 2 Brian Miller Las Vegas NV Ron PeckP-2 2 Benjamin Ellingson Las Vegas NV Ron PeckP-2 3 Gage Galle Honolulu HI Pete MichelmoreP-2 3 Ben Anvar West Hills CA Rob MckenzieP-2 3 Josh Voth Santa Barbara CA Bruce KirkP-2 3 Andrew Ross Waialua HI Pete MichelmoreP-2 3 Richard Doppelmayer Mililani HI Pete MichelmoreP-2 4 Andrew Juszczyk Chandler AZ Chandler PapasP-2 4 Jesse Tuttle Farmington UT Jonathan JefferiesP-2 4 Diego Calderoni Moab UT Chris SantacroceP-2 6 Lawrence Williams Lonoke AR Pete MichelmoreP-2 10 Charles Davis Atlanta GA Luis RosenkjerP-2 12 Rephael Baehr New York NY Bruce KirkP-2 13 Sarah Mcnair - Landry Iqaluit, Nunavut Patrick JohnsonP-3 1 Gary Pyles Richmond WA Ron PeckP-3 1 Kerry Smith Grants Pass OR Kevin LeeP-3 3 Thomas Therrien Kailua HI Pete MichelmoreP-3 4 Jesse Rader Pagosa Springs CO Bruce KirkP-3 4 Kyle Swenson Telluride CO Ryan TaylorP-3 4 Sean Buckner Goodyear AZ Chandler PapasP-3 4 Paul Gurrieri Aspen CO Alejandro PalmazP-3 5 Ben Anderson Chubbuck ID Chris SantacroceP-3 8 Flauvio Braz Gomes Medford MA Ricardo MacielP-4 2 Jim Jennings Moss Beach CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-4 4 Rick Baars Grand Junction CO David PrenticeP-4 4 Neil Hansen Alpine UT Mike SteenP-4 8 Geovani Alves Framingham MA Ricardo MacielP-4 8 Davidson Da Silva Framingham MA Ricardo MacielP-4 10 John Frazier Buford GA Luis RosenkjerP-4 13 Mukrim Sisic Toronto, Ont Robert Roth JrP-5 10 Erik Graper Rising Fawn GA Daniel Zink

J A N U A R Y 0 9 RATINGSHANG GLIDINGrTng regn name ciTY STaTe raTing officiaL

H-1 2 Ashwin Manthripragada Albany CA Barry LevineH-1 2 Anthony Coute Los Gatos CA Patrick DenevanH-1 2 Brent Sumner Los Gatos CA David YountH-1 9 Jesse Yoder Arlington VA John MiddletonH-1 10 Jason Brown Covington GA Gordon CayceH-1 10 Jim Snell Wlison NC Daniel ZinkH-1 12 Matthew Helm Schenectady NY Daniel GuidoH-1 13 Jukka-pekka Kaikkonen Espoo James TindleH-1 13 Jean-claude Corbeil Laval City, Quebec Malcolm JonesH-2 2 Michael Lichterman Berkeley CA Scott SeebassH-2 2 Henrik Bengtsson Berkeley CA Scott SeebassH-2 2 Tina Soggemoen Berkeley CA Scott SeebassH-2 2 Anthony Coute Los Gatos CA Patrick DenevanH-2 9 Scott Keyser Newport PA Randy GroveH-2 10 Jason Brown Covington GA Gordon CayceH-2 10 Jim Snell Wlison NC Daniel ZinkH-2 13 Jukka-pekka Kaikkonen Espoo James TindleH-2 13 Jean-claude Corbeil Laval City, Quebec Malcolm JonesH-3 2 Jason French Cool CA Christopher ValleyH-3 13 Jean-claude Corbeil Laval City, Quebec Malcolm JonesH-4 12 Kenneth Foldvary Ellenville NY Tony CovelliH-5 10 Don Murdoch Birmingham AL Daniel ZinkH-5 10 John Rex Lisle Wildwood GA Daniel ZinkH-5 10 Daniel Zink Rising Fawn GA Matthew Taber


1971 - 1973 Low & Slow1972 - 1976 Ground Skimmer1976 - 2003 Hang Gliding1993 - 2003 Paragliding2003 - 2008 Hang Gliding & Paragliding

CompleteMAGAZINE

COLLECTION

1971-2008

You hold the history of our sport, from the earliest days of bamboo and plastic to the present. Within these pages you’ll fi nd the evolution

of foot-launched fl ight from the fi rst days of bamboo dune-skimmers to the modern variety of hang gliders, paragliders and rigid wings. Each PDF fi le is one complete magazine, just

as originally published. Pages with color have produced as color scans,

the rest scanned as black and white images. Blemishes or imperfections are present in the original source magazines, some of which were the only known copies remaining.

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Future issues will be available on an update disk. Compilation copyright. 1974-2008, US Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association. All rights reserved. Other material republished by permission of copyright holders. Please don’t dupli-cate or reproduce this work without permission. For limited reprint permission (club newsletters, etc.) contact the USHPA offi ce at 1-800-616-6888 or E-mail: [email protected] Pages scanned and indexed by Scandoc, Inc. of Aracata, CA. www.scandoc.com. Cover design by Gregory Gillam, [email protected].

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Broken Handles78 |


by Steve Messman

My dad, bless his hard-working soul, is surely smiling right now. I can almost see the twinkle in

those blue eyes, and I’m sure he’s shak-ing his head in resignation like he used to when I was a kid. I can practically hear his ethereal chuckle resonating off my walls, a ghostly echo from my long-ago childhood. I used to work with my dad when he did his almost daily odd jobs around town. For all my hard work, I got paid well—at least according to dad. I got the clothes on my back, a bed to sleep in, and three meals a day. My dad thought that was more than sufficient payment; I thought it was harsh, especially since I was in constant need of an ice cream or a new Batman comic book. But, I did manage to get my youthful ver-sion of revenge: I broke his tools. I didn’t mean to, of course. I never intentionally broke a single one of dad’s tools but, for some reason, I always broke some kind of handle. If we were doing construction, I always broke at least one hammer handle. If we were replacing sidewalks or drive-ways, I broke the sledgehammer handle or the pick handle. If we were splitting a load of wood, sure enough, I broke the ax handle. Today, that problem continues. But today, it’s bigger and more impressive, and it’s dad’s turn for revenge because, now, I’m the one who pays. In just the past week, I broke the giant teeth off a bull-dozer’s blade, and while raking my dozer handiwork with a tractor and rake, I split that rented brush rake into two perfect halves. Hear it? Do you hear that sound that skipped past your ears but managed to haunt the middle of your brain? That’s my dad, laughing.

This dubious talent of breaking things continues to plague every aspect of my life to include that of flying. I became abun-dantly aware of my flair for breaking air-plane parts when I learned to hang glide. I replaced downtubes as frequently as dad replaced hammer handles. Only once, though, did I break a leading edge. I’m guessing that’s a good thing. Flying my

ultralight brought an onslaught of similar experiences. I replaced the rear axles on that cage at least twice in as many years, and of course, there was that very expen-sive propeller.

Having flown paragliders for more years than either hang gliders or ultra-lights, the list of broken things continues to grow. It now includes lines, torn lead-ing edges and trailing edges, zippers, and all sorts of those little plastic snaps. Other, more expensive items get broken way more frequently than I would hope, and that should be somewhat strange, considering that these appear to be stored securely out of danger’s path. I’m pretty certain that my vario was never intended for use as a kneepad, but one day I landed on a short, rocky beach and accidentally gave it a try. It wasn’t very effective as a kneepad, and once I had finished using it as such, it wasn’t at all effective as a vario, either. Hidden as they might be, those smaller things just keep getting broken—truly a mystery. While blowing a launch in a high-wind situation, I got toppled, and the screen on my Garmin was crushed while being scoured across the single rock in my path. While that has hap-pened only once, I can’t help but wonder what line, what zipper, what mischievous gremlin keeps plucking those rubber but-tons off that same GPS. I guess I should be thankful that Garmin keeps replacing the unit—but then, I do keep paying for it. Each time I call the company for some kind of repair, I imagine daddy Garmin looking at me through soulful eyes, smil-ing, and shaking his head in mock resig-nation. Then, every single time, I hear that ghostly laugh.

I fly with a very small group of pilots, but I’ve noticed that none of them have lines that get mysteriously broken. None of them land on their varios or drag their GPSs through rock gardens. I’ve also no-ticed that very few pilots on my current email lists admit such accidents. I’ve, therefore, come to believe that breaking things is my personal plague: something I was born with, like some non-contagious

form of genetic leprosy. It took me more years than it took my dad, but I finally fig-ured it out, too. It’s a disease. My dad rec-ognized that fact when I was young, and that explains why he would merely smile and shake his head. What else was he to do—except replace handles? There’s ap-parently nothing I can do about it. I just wish the “handles” I keep replacing didn’t cost $100.00 or more a pop. Go ahead, dad. Laugh.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10JULY

Content closes 5/15/2009

USHPA STRATEGIC PLAN

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EDITORIAL CALENDAR

hang gliding & paragliding vol40/iss05 may 2010

Documents

sports of hang gliding

related hang gliding

paragliding association

paragliding activities

paragliding methods

art director

executive director

mark gaskill