Air Spring 2001 - Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada

AIR
S
p
r
i
n
g
In the Air
Department’s
3
President’s Message
4
Editor’s Message
6
AirBuzz
13
AirTech
14
AirEvents
15
Transport Canada
16
AirSafety
23
AirBag
31
AirImages
37
AirTech
38
HPAC Membership
39
AirTraffic
Air is printed four times yearly
and is a publication of the
Hang Gliding and Paragliding
Association Of Canada / Association
Canadienne de Vol Libre.
Designed and produced using an
Apple G4, Imac and
G3 Laptop Powerbook.
Air design, editorial and
production completed by
Tony P. McGowan.
All views expressed in this
publication are not necessarily
those of HPAC / ACVL,
it’s directors or editor.
Printed by Winnipeg Web Press.
Air Feature’s
9
Tow Nationals 2000
by Dean & Margaret Lutz
10
From Hero to Zero
12
Golden Airtime
17
AGM 2001
18
Rescues at MT 7
By Chris Muller
by John Janssen
by Andre Nadeau
by Peter Bowle-Evans
Madness
19 Triangular
by Tomas Suchanek
24 HPAC
By Andre Nadeau
s &Wizardry
29 Radio’
by Peter Bowle-Evans
Updates
32 SOGA
by Mike Gates
40 Iparaglide.com
Cover: Chris Muller wangs it over Cochrane.
Above: Jayson Biggins takes advantage of the coastal winds.
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A
I
When to Submit
Next deadline is May 15
What to Submit
All articles must be submitted before the
deadline to be considered for publication.
If you do not see your article or submission please be patient. I will make every
attempt to get your article printed in the
upcoming issue.
Spring wwwhpacca
(204)254-4056
R
I
Design
CALL FOR AN INFORMATION PACKAGE
N
Where to Submit
By Email at cunim@excite.com
Tony McGowan
c/o 1430 Church Ave.
Winnipeg, MB, R2X 1G4
Advertising Rates
Rates can be viewed on the web at:
http://www.hpac.ca/hpacsop/air/
backissues.htm
F
O
Design and Layout
Please call me for pricing if you need
your ad designed or touched up.
Sur Vol Editor - Line Turcotte
line@tractionsports.com
850 Claude de Ramezay,
Marieville, Québec J3M 1E8
Deadlines: Feb. May, Aug and Nov 15th.
Presidential Address or Peter’s Way
From the President
T
here are parts of Ottawa that have a certain comfort level and character that can explain to me why it may be a desirable place
to reside. Alas, the resources of the HPAC are not sufficiently embellished to permit me such luxury, or I too could become
ensconced in that same reverie. Rather, I know what I cannot have, and that I am bound by duty, conscience and plain lack of surplus funds, to get a job done.
"Presidential Address". My oath, it sounds as though I should be fat and well rounded, which I patently am not, and pompous and
insufferably boring, which I pray that I do not become. Look, you can go to the web site at http://www.hpac.ca/ , and under a button that says Link to Presidents Page, you will find your way to where I have to express myself more formally for the world to read.
Further, between this AIR and the web site, there are enough details to satisfy the most ardent beauracratics and political enthusiast.
Now the web site, like any web site, is a living animal, so the buttons could be arranged a little differently when you get there. Under
many, many more buttons you will find just about anything that ever was done or ever, ever happened in the name of the HPAC. I
said ‘just about’. That’s my out for anyone who rushes in there to furiously ferret out some pristine jewel of data only to find it missing, and fearsomely point The Finger at me and declare massively, "Peter did not know..........!"
Like all things, the more you learn, the more you realise you do not know. Being The Pin, as I sometimes call it, of the HPAC, is no
exception. So when I set off to Ottawa, knowing that from a little stirring of interest on the eGroups mail, that at least noone was
openly declaring, "Ugh!" in relation to me, I did have a little feeling about things. After participating in the weekend’s proceedings,
I had once again been impressed by the stirling qualities of the group. There are some very, and I mean very excellent people in this
group that shepherd the HPAC on its way, and yes, it does feel like an honor to have this group promote you to its leader. This is a
challenge, and I have accepted it.
Now there is much detail of where we are going elsewhere in this publication, assembled by Andre Nadeau, aided by Kevin
Thomson, and adjusted very recently from input from the BoD (Board of Directors - one of the keys is not to become the Bored of
Directors - I do hope this translates the emotion in French). Now that I have met Andre, and along with the others have exchanged
a little shop about our personal lives, I can relate with confidence to where his energies are focused. So I will attempt to provide you
with what I like to call a translation of where you are going. That’s right, you. This is about you, not me. YOU are the pilots, you are
the members, and you are the association. I and the famous board and its many officers and associates like to think that we are each
individually one of you too, but we are not IT - You are!
As I write, what follows is still up in the air - inevitable pun - as this is still being fraught with in terms of voting motions, Vs the AIR
deadline. If it flies, this is how it will go.
You will become members of the HPAC. OK, conceivably the name may have to change slightly. There will be 7 regional directors,
one from each region. The regions currently are the same as the provincial associations. The provincial associations, by the way,
although they will no longer be members of the HPAC - remember you are now the members - will be free to proceed as they wish.
Persons standing for directorships will state their cases, most likely via the web site. You will vote, on a national basis, for these directors. They become a Board of Directors (BoD), from which they will elect a President, Vice President, and a Secretary, who will still
be voting members of the BoD, and will be known as Executive Officers. There will be two other officers, a Treasurer and a Safety
Officer, who will be appointed by the BoD. They will not be members of the BoD, and so they will not have votes on the BoD. Then,
and here is a very big item, there will be a Business Manager. Think of it as a hugely expanded version of the present administrator job. This person will be paid. How much is yet to be determined, but there will be a budget, and it will be setup to balance, or
better. I will say here though, that without memberships, none of this will fly. The directors will be there to take input from you, the
members, and make policy and decisions, rather than being workers. The President heads up the Board, assisted by the other two
executive officers. The President will coordinate with the Business Manager, the Treasurer and the Safety Officer. Since you will be
directly members of this HPAC, all business relating to its membership will be your business, and a great deal of this will be readily
available, and up to date, within the web site. In fact, much of this is not new. If you go to the website and find your way to AIR
back issues, Dec 96 p27, the similarity between that and what is happening now is uncanny.
Once the big AGM was over, the work began. I now know better what was behind Kevin’s little smile as we said goodbye at the
airport. HE was off the hook! We have had 6 motions, and more emotions about them. One of these is pivotal. To do the easy stuff
first, we had a couple about the AGM minutes, then set about setting instructor fees at $65 per year, really as an alternate to school
fees - this one is still voting, but I think it will have gone through by the time you read this. We have dropped the price of named
insured certificates to $10, with one name per certificate. There should be splashes about these last two elsewhere in this AIR. Now
come the ones about the re-structuring. In importance, #6 came next. This was to agree to an initial working set of documents from
which to commence the restructuring work. So we have some new By-Laws, and where we had SOPs (Standard Operating
Procedures) we now will have PRDs ! (Policy & Regulatory Directives). Again, still voting, but looking like it will happen. At some
point, when they have been completed, you should be able to read these By-Laws and PRDs, and even have input to their revision if
required. The great thing is, they are way simpler than the old, hashed about SOPs were.
...continued on next page
wwwhpacca Spring Presidential Address or Peter’s Way (cont’d)
Motion 5 is the pivotal item, the cruncher. It is the Terms Of Reference of the Transition Committee - so this becomes the TC-TORs. The
core of it defines the Chair of the TC, as Andre Nadeau, defines a budget of up to $3000 in $1000 increments, and endows this
chair with the ability to enact PRDs if the BoD fails to respond. This is the pivotal issue, and at the time of writing, is still in the process
- and believe me, it is some process. It puts pressure on the BoD to do our part. It is a good thing I can survive on minimal sleep.
This document should also be up on the web site if passed. It sounds wild, but the idea is to actually get something done. Once all
enacted, we can amend, add, and change as is seen fit as time goes by. The terms of reference of the Business Manager have still
to be fleshed out. Indeed, that is a key component of the re- structure. The Board gets to define the manner of appointment of the
Business Manager. We have our work cut out.
If you are new to the sport, and are still in that state of euphoria where, like being in love, all rational thought has vanished and you
are blinded by obsession, all you need to know is that once you have left the shelter of your instructor, the HPAC is the organisation
that keeps the whole thing going. Support us by joining, and we will support you. Note, however, that there is no portfolio of Divorce
Adviser on the Board. You may be on your own there.
In closing, and if you can bear with me for a few more lines, substantial thanks go to Andre Nadeau, whose exemplary ground work
has brought us to this point. It is our wish that we will be thanking him for a great deal more in the future. It is the intention of the
Executive and the BoD to capture Andre's energy, enthusiasm, expertise and work to the best possible advantage. Many thanks go
to Kevin Thomson, who has ably shouldered the Presidency for many years, and who has been continuing to work for us.
I have known the other two members of the executive, Phil Siscoe and Martin Polach, for many years, and am very pleased to have
them to work with. The fact that we live in relatively close proximity to each other means that we will have the opportunity to get
together in person on a regular basis. I can tell you that when I brainstorm with these guys, we get something out of it.
I am in this for flying, for fun, and to make a contribution. I am a firm believer in the need for our national association, representing
each individual member. My thoughts and opinions expressed here are echoed by Phil and Martin.
When I pass this job on to whomever may be my successor, it is my goal to pass on a clean, efficient, and happily run association.
Anyone who made it all the way through this - Bravo!
Peter Bowle-Evans
President HPAC/ACVL
Golden, BC
...if you build it they will come
From the Editor
C
an you believe it! Here I was thinking that this would be a piece of cake, after all the first issue was easy. Well little did I know...”if
you build it they will come”...the flood gates were officially open. Awesome! was the only word I could use to describe the
response I got from the last issue. The amount of articles I received for this issue was absolutely staggering, which made it hard to
choose the final pieces. I now have enough material to last the rest of the year. But don’t let that stop you, I still need quality articles
for feature pieces and general interest.
You can always tell when Spring is in the air. Suddenly you see cars and trucks driving around with long tents on them, groups of
strange men looking around for anything that wasn’t flooded to run off, hillbillies showing up at monthly meetings with long beards
and smelling like they’ve been in hibernation with their cats all Winter...ahh the fun of being a hangbum.
It always boggles my mind at how pilots, and I use that term loosely, show up at club meetings (which have been going on all Winter)
in the Spring, hang around in the back of the room, say a few words, then disappear till next year. What’s up with that! Do these
ghostly apparitions long for a time once forgotten, or do they just need some human companionship after a long cold winter, I can
never figure this out. Does every club experience this strange phenomenon?
Anyway...I hope you enjoy this issue and remember your suggestions will always be appreciated in helping me move closer to finalizing the look and content of our national magazine. Let me know what you think.
Tony McGowan
Air Editor
Spring wwwhpacca
Departing Prez Message
A
s I leave the position of President to
more capable hands a new phase in
our national association begins. The last
four years were fun and probably many of
you will find that suprising for someone to
say about volunteering their time.
The experience of working with others,
whose main interest is in airtime but
whose commitment and concern is high
enough to agree to give up some personal time to help run the show, is a rewarding experience.
I've been involved at various levels of the
executive of the HPAC (started out as
HGAC) since 1983. The association has
always had to depend upon the efforts of
volunteers which means that on average,
very little gets done quickly. The important
reasons for the HPAC existing were
always taken care of, such as our
WOW
WOW does not begin to describe
what I felt when I check the issue. I
am flabergasted at what you have
done. This issue will do more for
the good of the HPAC than all my
effort to date. That is what was
required to kick some life into this
moribund association and that's
the break the Executive needed
before heading into the AGM. I
cannot thank you enough for volunteering to do the job.
Andre Nadeau
May I say you have done "A
DAMN FINE JOB" It's the best
effort I have seen for years...There
is actually something to "READ".
Sort of harken's back to the old
days of the British mag ..Wings..
back when Brian Milton was the
editor. Cheers!
Martin Pollach
Wow. If the cost to the HPAC is
close to being within the limits
we've set then this is even more
impressive than it already looks to
be. Congratulations on a great
job!
Kevin Thomson
I just got to see the new AIR at the
AGM in Ottawa. I think you did a
great job. The look is exciting. Just
a nice all round job. Cheers!
Judith Newman
insurance policy and our relationship with
Transport Canada.
However, in the past number of years the
demands on our lives are making it harder to find volunteers with enough time to
look after even the important things. This
is part of the reason why the new structure
has been defined and why we are making
some changes.
Other articles within this issue will
describe what we are doing so I won't
waste ink here but I think that the feeling
is that this is only something that has just
begun to happen in recent times. Having
been invlved for almost 20 years now I
know that is not true.
The work that got done always depended
on a few key individuals but when it
worked the best it was when those few
took on the work and did it themselves. I
think that is just the nature of an volunteer
organization like this. You can imagine
the frustration of Andre, an ex-military officer who is used to having things run efficiently on command, who comes into the
association with big plans but unable to
get any action out of the BoD.
The new structure will allow things to happen fast if there is someone with the interest and the willingness to try. It will still
rely heavily on the commitment of volunteers but our hope is that it will be more
efficient and less frustrating to those who
want to make something happen. I look
forward to the ongoing experiment.
Fly safe!
Kevin Thomson
Here’s what you had to say!
The new AIR Magazine looks
great! Nice change in today's
"world of color" to actually get
something in color from HPAC!
Keep up the Good Work!
Jim Reich
Love the new Air! Great layout and
graphics, with articles to match,
and at a fraction of the cost of
USHGA's mags.
Steve Wodz, Kelowna, BC
Thanks for taking on the challenge
of Air Editor. I truly enjoyed the
new format; the addition of colour
is definitely an outstanding
improvement. Keep up the good
work!
Guy Leblanc, Cold Lake, Alberta
Great job on the new look and content of Air Magazine. This is a substantial, good looking magazine,
and I like the colour. Keep up the
good work!
Phil
I just finished reading that snappy
new issue of AIR (Yes, I'm that slow)
and I gotta say; that was a great
job. Congratulations to Tony
McGowan for having the vision to
make a change AND the determination to actually pull it off. Way to
go, Tony.
Terry Ryan, Toronto
Tony, What a spectacular production. Quite tremendous. BTW, I prefer this non-glossy paper. I know it
may seem cheaper in quality,but
without the glare it is more readable.
Fantastic. My accolades could go
on for awhile. thank you very much.
Peter Rodrigues
I just got my copy of "Air" and wanted to tell you that it looks GREAT!
(although if you cross your eyes a little bit, you can see an "Auto
Trader"...). I think you have come
across the right size and format for
our national magazine. (anything
could better that terrible waste of the
last issue) Any ways, I just wanted to
say good job, I look forward to
more.
Cas Wolan, Saskatoon,Sk
Firstly, I’d like to congratulate you on
the stellar job relaunching Air. To say
the new look knocked my socks off is
an understatement. I read it back to
back to back. Loved it, loved it,
loved it. A few pilots I’ve talked with
in Vancouver agree that the new look
(and the pride of ownership they
feel) has motivated them to think
about writing articles. I’ll keep bugging them on your behalf (one local
pilot in particular has just returned
from flying in Tibet, and I’m personally keen to hear about it!)
Dean Trueman
wwwhpacca Spring airbuzz
Flying and Stargazing d
it doesn’t get any better!
g
The South Okanagan Soaring Association is hosting a weekend dedicated to kids and
spouses. For once, pilots take second stage to one of the most fantastic weekend getaways
you will every experience.
Join the Kobau Star Party and Fly -In, Friday night Aug.17th to Aug. 19th at Mt Kobau
Summit, Forestry Campground, Oliver / Osoyoos BC.
The Oliver area is home to one of the most spectacular flying sites in Canada. Kobau
mountain - with multiple launches at the 6000 foot level and staggering scenic views of the
Okanagan valley and the world famous Cathedral Parks mountain range.
d
d
The XC potential is a triangle including Midway, Hedley and Penticton. Altitude gains to
11,500' are common - and now legal thanks to a new Class E airspace designation for
the whole area. Think of Chelan with a 6000' Launch. And if you have always dreamed
of landing at an Airport, now's your chance. The LZ is the Oliver Airport!
But all this pales in comparison with what happens August 18 - 26 during the week of new
moon. You see, Oliver is home to the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory
http://www.drao.nrc.ca/. Each august, astromoners and enthusiasts bring their personal
telescopes to the summit of Mt Kobau for a week long star party and let the public view
the night sky. Some of their "toys" are worth in the tens of thousands of dollars! Read all
about it at http://www.bcinternet.com/~mksp/
THE TALKS
The scheduled night time talks include a presentation by one of our own. Sean Dougherty
is an employee at DRAO. Plus, Sean has offered to host a tour of the Dominion Radio
Astrophysical Observatory.
Osoyoos is a recreational paradise - with lakes galore and more things to see and do than
you can shake a stick at. But for one week each year, starting August 17th, it is the best
place on or off planet earth for kids and family.
Camping is under the stars. Blackout rules apply. See you there.
Fred Wilson
News Dribbles
Ever had that potencially fabulous flight cut short buy the
pressures on your bladder and
the dire need to pee? Ever not
wanted to take a single sip
from the camel back so to not
risk explosion? Well there is
help - guys!
At www.stadiumpal.com you
can order your very own " stadium pal". Yup you guessed it,
the product is sized providing
you enter the correct info and
it attaches to a pantleg - likely
not meant for strolling those
hot 35 degree launch days but
the condom like catheter looks
like it could be quite effective.
Spring wwwhpacca
TOW GROUP
A yahoo group has been
set up specifically for
hang
glider
towing
issues. Some of the issues
to date discussed have
included:
Circle towing,winching,
type of rope to use etc
etc.
The reason for setting up
a different group to the
ops and safety listis that
we wanted to only have
those people on the list
that wereinterested
in
towing. In doing so it is
hoped that towing issues
can be more deeply
debated without boring
those who are hill flyers
only.
The current topic is using
pulleys in short fields.
All hang glider/paraglider/sailplane pilots who
are interested in towing
are welcome to join. If
you would like to join
simply go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com
/group/skysailingtowing
Camping with the “TOW”ban’s
Join 2 experienced Manitoba pilots who are planning to take the
week of May 28th off to try some towing at a couple of preplanned locations around the province. This may include up to 3
towing locations in southern Manitoba. A tandem glider will also
accompany the crew.
Anyone interested in participating in this fun camping and towing
week please feel free to call Hans at 204 791 5733 or Doug at 204 489 4762. Any
and all are welcome for 1 day or one week. Book your spot now!
h
High Perspective Instructors Course
We are having an Instructors course (HG) at the High Perspective Tow Field Toronto on
Victoria Day weekend. It starts the evening of the 17th of May (Thursday) and runs until
the 21st. We are also having a Tandem course (HG) on the 5th & 6th of May. Details can
be found on our web page under upcoming events or contact Peter Darian @ High
Perspective HG & PG School. peter@flyhigh.com www.flyhigh.com
Check out the NEW Vancouver Island Hang/ParaGliding website
www.islandsoaring.com
airbuzz
Meet Head Wanted!
PG NATIONALS MEET DIRECTOR LAST YEAR FOR RANDY PARKIN
For the eigth year in a row Randy Parkin
is running the Paragliding Nationals at Mt
7 on the August long weekend. His past
record ensures us all that the meet will be
another success. However, all good things
come to an end, and Randy has notified
me that he must retire from this job, and
that this will be the last year that he will be
running this meet.So, three things:1.
The 2002 PG Nationals is looking for
another meet director. Mt 7 is open, but
the whole thing is open for bids. Don't
anyone try to tell me this is not enough
notice! We want to see bids for the 2002
PG Nationals at the AGM next February if not before.2. This is your last chance to
give Randy your support for this meet.
I am looking forward to hearing him tell
me how helpful everyone was at his last
play at PG Nats Meet Head.3. This is my
first, but by no means last, place to say
"Thank you" to Randy for all his work.
Much of his fun and easy going but still
business like personality is embodied in
this meet. I am sure all those of you who
have participated in his meets will concur.
Peter Bowle-Evans
President - HPAC/ACVL
New Tow Manual
The HPAC has started the job of putting together a Towing Procedures Manual for
hang glider & paraglider towing in Canada. The Australians already have one
that's fairly complete, so we thought that we'd start there and adapt it to Canada
and to how we do things here in ManiTOWba.
The original document (text only) from the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia, and
the same one converted to HTML without any changes are posted at the MHPA web
site: http://www.soar.to/mhga Take a look through it if you'd like.
The most current version of the new Canadian Towing Procedures Manual is here at
http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/mhga2/towManual/HPAC_Tow_Manual.htm
Give us a hand! Figure out what you'd add, remove, or change, and email your
comments to Gerry Email: TheNodeWarrior@usa.net. Please be specific about exactly where and to what section your comments apply to.
WAG
The FAI and 2001 ECO are pleased to announce the opening of the WAG on-line
store. This new E-commerce store will offer a wide variety of merchandise featuring the WAG II logo, the FAI's WAG logo, "Quillo" (the WAG II mascot), and
customized embroidery for FAI teams. http://www.worldairgames.com
As a start, the store will offer apparel items for cooler weather, such as high
quality sweatshirts, long sleeve T-shirts, and hats with embroidered WAG
logos. Soon, items will include warmer weather apparel such as T-shirts and
shorts with silk screened WAG logos. As the Games approach, many nonapparel items will also be offered, such as sport bags, hand-telescopes for
watching air sports, and children's items related to flying.
As a special service for teams attending the World Air Games in Spain, the WAG
store is offering custom embroidery on all of its apparel. Team names, athletes' names, national flags, etc., can be embroidered right on the official WAG
apparel. Custom embroidery with sport-specific Quillo logo's will also be
available for all WAG apparel.
The website for the WAG store will include a photo gallery of air sports images,
and links to many FAI-related sites. The WAG store will take orders on-line,
and accepts several major credit cards. Please visit the new WAG store at:
http://www.worldairgames.com .
Paraglide Canada
Instructors/Tandem Course
Paraglide Canada Instructors and Tandem
Certification Course. Instructors will be
Glenn Derouin, Wayne Bertrand, both
Senior Instructors and Senior Tandem
Instructors.
Dates are April 28, 29th, 30th, 2001
Tandem course 1st, 2nd, 3rd of May.
Location: Vernon, B.C.
Come and recertify or become a new
instructor. Check out the requirements for
instructor / Tandem on the HPAC website.
For booking or more info Ph./Fax 250
503-1962 or E-mail glennderouin@hotmail.com Or my site at www.paraglidecancada.com
Also Paraglide Canada hosting a Reserve
Deployment Course.
Location: Blue Grouse Mtn, Kelowna
Dates: June 2nd 3rd
We will be tossing out laundry over the
water, and landing in it !! For those of you
who really want to know what it;s like to
land under a reserve chute...
Instruction and Boat will be provided.
www.paraglidecanada.com for details or
email glennderouin@hotmail.com
Ph /fax 250 503-1962
wwwhpacca Spring airbuzz
News from Golden
Mark Fraser, Hugo Tschurtschenthaler and
Florian flew PGs from Mt 7 on New Year's
day. I think it was short, but a couple of
days ago Mark & Hugo got 45 mins. They
are helicoptering up.
Gordon’s little incident
Gordon rigg@btinternet.com wanted to
tell his own story of his little incident. He's
staying in a cabin next to us here at the
Hay Caravan Park, and came over this
evening to type in the following report:
Things were fairly laid back as regards
setting off until one of the tugs broke a
prop and then all the top pilots pulled
rank and pushed in the queue. I followed
suit ending up third from the front of the
right hand queue when Gerolf joined at
the front so I shifted to the left-hand line in
front of Oleg. Guess it was Oleg's lucky
day! Things went OK for about 400 ft of
climb straight into the 10-15 mph of wind.
There had been a long delay calling a
task because the wind seemed strong and
was blowing us away from the good
roads, but they'd set the task quite cross
wind following the unmetalled roads.
At about 450 ft the tug went through a
boomer and as I followed through it my
efforts to stay in line accelerated me over
the tug as he fell out the front. This big lift
hadn't tipped me or thrown me off line,
just lifted me and when I pulled in I shot
forward over the tug (this was common in
Hungary with the low power tug trikes
they use). I'd considered releasing to use
this lift and glanced at my altitude (600
and something) but now I was just trying
to get myself in line with the tug again and
save the weak link.
I slowed up to let the tug pull in front and
then dived, but not enough and the rope
twanged tight and broke my weaklink.
Now at I suppose 550 ft or so I turned
back thinking that the boomer was still
there (and it hadn't seemed rough to me
on the tow). I needed to go that way for
another tow anyway.
I accelerated in the sink toward the lift and
I was just thinking that it was taking too
long to get to the lift and I was getting too
low when suddenly the nose pitched up
violently and ignored my control input
(bar to my knees). The glider was so
upright that I was just lifting myself up and
not getting through the control frame at
all. Everything felt wrong and all the airspeed was gone.
Spring wwwhpacca
Then there was a lot of clattering and
things felt even more wrong. However I
still had a logical thought sequence in
seeming slow motion and I decided to
throw the chute now as height was marginal and it would soon be a waste of
time. I ripped it off my right side and
throw it into the blue with my right arm. I
saw the bridle go straight but not the
deployment bag come off.
I think I still had the control frame with one
hand, and looking at the ground it didn't
seem to be coming up too fast. Moments
later the bridle pulled tight and the
descent slowed to something definitely
survivable. I landed on my feet somehow
even remembering to bend my knees and
roll to the side ending up resting on a
nose wire. I was immediately becoming
more concerned about the subsequent
dragging which lasted 20 yards or so
until Matt out driver (a local non pilot from
Hay) arrived and sat on the chute.
Bill carried the glider back and Zupy
helped carry the harness and chute. I felt
fine and wanted back in the air. Later
inspection showed the harness back plate
was broken. The glider was quickly
shown to have bent sprogs on one side
and not flyable but with a pretty good
chance of surviving again.
Hero of the day was Oyvind Elleffsen
(NOR) who called me from the launch
queue on the UHF to offer me his glider to
fly the task. I also loaned his harness and
came in 15th on the day to hang on to
3rd place for now.
In hind sight it was stupid to fly back into
such a radical thermal, though to me on
the tow it didn't feel that bad. For now I'll
have more respect for anything rough
near the ground and I'll be well away
from any dust devils that might seem to
offer a low save! I know that several witnesses have landed out rather than use turbulent low saves in the last two days too!
The strong pitch up to the glider robbed
the airspeed so any inherent stability in
the glider was irrelevant in my opinion.
The glider had 1/4 VG and the sprogs
were one turn of the thread below what
came out of the factory (which put the bar
pressure quite a lot higher than the glider
I was flying all last year, including very
turbulent stuff in Innsbuck and St. Andre
without any frighteners). The opinion of
the experts is the glider would have easily passed pitch tests at this VG setting as
it was set. I really don't think the set up of
the glider was at all relevant to the accident.
Major things that contributed to my safety
was the impressive strength of the glider
that meant it was still there to slow my fall
and might have flown on if I'd been higher. We rebuilt it this afternoon and it was
test flown this evening. We replaced all
the sprogs some of which only had very
slight bends, the keel which had a slight
indent in the top from the cross bar, and
just one batten at the root that was
creased. Only one other batten needed
reprofiling! The centre section of the cross
bar we also replaced but you had to close
one eye before you could see the slight
bend in that. I guess Steve wanted to
make sure I had everything like new in
case anything might make me nervy! The
harness, a prototype M2 Cigar has the
front section back plate creased along the
centreline and we are working on that
now so I can fly it at Forbes. It looks like
this was broken in the tumble, as my chute
goes to the shoulders not the hang strap.
Eyewitnesses reckon it was much less than
a second from the glider pitching to my
deployment bag coming off the chute. The
chute filled with me at less than 100 ft.
Certainly the M2 side mounted chute system worked really well and my occasional searches for the handle while ridge
soaring probably made the difference in
saving a few milliseconds. The harness
shell and hang strap are all OK the only
damage there is the back plate. I'll never
get a chute behind my legs!
Glider: Moyes Litespeed 4 - Very strong
indeed and I'm very sorry to have registered the first tumble on this very stable
glider!
Harness: M2 Cigar prototype
Chute: Apco Mayday 18 PDA.
My first deployment. I've been flying all
the hours I can since 1984. Mr Miskin
might have been wrong when he said it
was so small I'd probably die. Could I
have thrown a bigger one hard enough?
Who knows. If there's a next time maybe
I'll be looking at it for ages hoping it was
bigger!
Oh and in the comp I'm still third and the
first two Attilla and Gerolf have beaten me
slightly every day so far... ...My day will
come, after all I'm feeling VERY VERY
VERY VERY LUCKY!!!!
Canadian Towing Nationals 2000
By Margaret and Dean Lutz
O
nce the domain of T-Rex, in July Eastend, Saskatchewan was the setting for the
Canadian National Towing Competition. They refer to "The Valley of Hidden
Secrets", now it is home for deer, antelope, pheasants and gray partridges. The Cyprus
Hills, Frenchman River Valley and fields of wheat, canola, and peas all contributed to the
striking beauty of this setting.
The competition opened with a pancake breakfast and welcome from Rob Johnston, local
organizer and Ian McArthur, meet director from Kamloops, BC. Maps, competition information and GPS instructions were distributed. The pilots were told to meet at TOW site #1
by l:00 p.m., where the task for the day would be announced. This was the routine set for
the week with a morning pilots meeting occuring at the T-Rex museum. Each day was
unique due to the changes in weather and cloud cover. Some pilots left, others arrived the gallery of local observers varied and, of course, tasks were set according to wind
direction.
Pilots from Calgary, Edmonton, Moose Jaw, Kamloops, and Winnipeg each had their tow
rigs. Pilots were launched alternately. Each tow rig had its own cachet with Craig
Lawrence's, "Towzilla", being perhaps the most impressive! How appropriate the setting
was for him there in T-Rex country! It had 8,000 feet of line, pilots could sky out without
even leaving tow! This countryside was conducive for towing due to miles of straight, unobstructed, low traffic roads. Lots of fallow ground provided great LZ's.
Top: Steve Pederson, James
Gross, BJ McCaskill and
Dean Lutz wait for launch.
Above: Comp winner Gerry
Grossnegger launches.
Congratulations to all the Manitoba pilots who participated. Special mention goes to
Gerry Grossnegger who won the competition. Gerry accumulated the most points and was
the only pilot to reach goal! It was the last day of the competition, with a light southwest
breeze and a short launch window with only light lift. Gary flew 80.4 kms. in four and a
half hours! The window closed and half the pilots sank out!
Special mention goes to Barry Morwick who flew the farthest on day two and won the
day! He flew approximately 37 kms.! Barry took third place in the competition.
Congratulations Barry! Two Manitoba pilots flew cross country for the first time, James
Gross and Dean Lutz! We may have trouble keeping them home now!
On day six Dean Lutz won the day by flying 12.4 miles. The lift window was very narrow
and many pilots sank out early. If one listened to the whispers of a twenty year veteran
pilot, you could hear some strategy planning. "I'm going to get some of those big wheels
and a tail fin so that I can get ahead of Dean tomorrow!" There were a lot of laughs and
joking especially over dinner at Jack's Cafe.
Steve Pederson did well and came in sixth place! We used his truck to pull the club winch
and launch pilots. This was very generous of Steve. The air conditioning and supply of
peanuts kept the driver comfortable and fed! B.J. McCaskill also did well by coming in
eighth place! He was acknowledged for being outstanding in his willingness to help other
pilots in various ways.
Margaret Lutz was given the driver award for her help to the Manitoba team.
Finally, a special thanks goes to Ian McArthur, affectionately known as "meet head". He
gave a great deal of time to insure that the meet ran smoothly and all important bases were
covered. His attitude was that this should be firstly a fun meet! And it was! Congratulations
to Ian who came in second place, narrowly edging out Barry.
wwwhpacca Spring from
Hero
Zero
By Chris Muller
to
M
y trip to Tapalpa was fairly
uneventful. Two days of airline,
cab, and bus travel took me from
Calgary international through LA, Mexico
city, Guadalajara, and finally Tapalpa.
Tapalpa is the site for next years first
PWC, making this years event a PrePWC.
The town of Tapalpa is small, quaint, and
is a tourist town for residents of
Guadalajara. It is also quite cold (for
Mexico), as it is situated on top of the
plateau we were launching from at
approx. 7000 ft. The night I arrived there
was a huge fiesta going on in the main
square with lots of music and of course,
fireworks. Mexicans defiantly know how
to do fireworks.
One of the main attractions involved a
guy running through the crowd with a
wooden bull above his head that was
loaded with firecrackers. Risk of injury:
High! The main event featured a 30ft tall
apparatus with various sorts of fireworks
staged to go off. Spiny things, roman candles, and even the Virgin Mary would
light up, hiss around, and launch into the
crowd. Not safe, but a
super good time! I managed to look over
and catch a ten-year-old kid take
one of the big pieces of shrapnel in the
face. His good buddies just laughed as he
dropped to his knees covering his face.
These fiestas had apparently been going
on all week.
There are two launches that were used
during the comp, one off of the plateau,
and one at San Marco, on the other side
of the Valley. The next day, I met up with
fellow Canadian Jim Reich, and we made
our way to the launch at San Marco as the
wind was blowing over the back at
Tapalpa, a common occurrence.
The ride up to the launch at san Marco
defiantly pushed the clearance limitations
of our VW bug, and Jim could repeatedly
Spring wwwhpacca
be heard saying "good thing its a rental",
and" there’s nothing important under
there, just the floor pan", as the large,
jagged rocks grinded the belly of the bug.
The Mexicans at the takeoff couldn't
believe our little bug was up top parked
next to their SUV's. Jim and I had really
nice flights down the range, in pretty epic
conditions, and landed with plenty of time
to drive to Guadalajara to pick up my girlfriend, Kristi.
The next day, Sunday, was the first day of
the comp. There were approximately 40
pilots entered with a large Swiss contingent, a handful of Brits & French, Othar
Lawrence and Ryan Swan from the US,
two of us from Canada, and a couple of
Mexican pilots rounding out the field.
For the first day we called a short 45km
out and return. It wasn't a great call
because we knew we would have to come
back into the lee of the plateau to get up,
but the organizers wanted us to finish in
the Tapalpa lz. Been here before, media
before safety... Anyway, the day started
pretty light while we waited for the start
but improved as we headed out on
course. Watching OJs SATs while we waited for the start was pretty cool, and defiantly passed the time!
The race was straight forward up until we
had to return to the ridge after the turn
point, and as expected, we were in strong
leeside conditions! FUN! I was 20 ft away
from my buddy Matt when his wing
played hide and seek on him and one of
the hill side trees played catch. Not pretty. Anyway, he yelled up that he was OK,
and I was outta there. I had a couple of
Swiss guys to catch up to.
The ride home was pretty uneventful once
we escaped the gulch, and just before
goal I was able to pass the Swiss, and
managed to bring it home first. Not bad
for a days work. As it turned out Matt was
fine, and made it back to Tapalpa before
Talapa Awards Ceremony
Photo by Kristi Ohlhauser
we did. More than half of the field went
down at the turn point, so I wouldn’t say
the task call was a good one. Following
me in were Christian Maier, and Kaspar
Henny, Switzerland.
Day 2
We had a similar race along the ridge this
time jumping out to the flats near San
Marco, approximately sixty km. The day
was almost a repeat of day 1 with the
conditions getting better as the day went
on, and I managed to get home first
again, with the help of a bit of lift a half
km from the goal.
Day 3
The wind at the Tapalpa launch was over
the back so we made our way over to the
San Marco launch. The route to San
Marco included having to
cross a dry lakebed. The bus driver taking
the pilots to San Marco decided to switch
tracks crossing the lake and managed to
dig the wheels in and high
center the bus leaving the pilots stranded.
By the time the organizers sorted everything out, and we shuttled everyone to the
takeoff, things were getting a little late.
Still the task committee decided to call a
75km task up and down the ridge.
The conditions were strong, and a strong
headwind at the first turn point turned out
to be the deciding factor, decking a lot of
pilots. Only three to goal, with me followed by Patric Berod (f), and Steve Ham
(gb). While the results didn't show it, I
can't say enough about the young Swiss
pilots, who were constantly out front pushing. Give these guys a couple of years...
Day 4
Back to Tapalpa. A couple of turn points
out front made this task a little more difficult, with a lot of good pilots going down
early. One of the young Swiss guys,
Christian Maier, was in first, closely followed by Patric Berod, then after a fair
gap I came in just ahead of Ryan Swan,
and Shaun Stone. This meant the next day
would be a showdown between myself
and Patric Berod, as he was within a hundred points
Day 5
A similar task as the day before, with the
exception of goal, which was on top of
the plateau. All I had to do was finish
close to Patric to maintain the lead, but
early on I managed to get really low making things a little more difficult. After getting low I had to
pretty much haul ass to catch up. As it
turned out, I was able to close the gap to
within a minute of Patric Berod, and finish
third for the day, with Kaspar Henny in
first. We would have been a little further
down the list but a couple of the early
guys landed just short.
The gap was small enough for me to hold
on to the lead, so it was party time! We
were treated to free alcohol, and food at
the awards ceremony that night, and we
took full advantage of it, or maybe it took
advantage of us! The poison of choice
was called 'pancho', and it did a number
on us! Kristi was the international chugging champion, as she took out the competition one by one. That’s my girl!
The Results were me, followed by Patric
Berod of France, and third was Christian
Maier of Switzerland. The comp was a
huge success, and next years PWC should
be even better!
The next day was spent regrouping, and
packing. A bunch of us decided that we
would head to Puerto Vallata to try and
get in some kite surfing, surfing, and flying. When I say a bunch, nine of us
packed into an econoline 350, and tested
its max load capacity! We actually got
some kite surfing in that afternoon near
Manzanillo on a piece of deserted beach.
What a blast!
buddy Tihi and chill on the beach for a
couple of days. Yelapa, for the most part
it is only accessible by boat and is part
tourist venue, part hippie colony, with no
electricity, and few of the material comforts we were used too. We spent three
days there doing sled runs, and hanging
out on the beach. After that we made our
way up to Bucerius, and spent a few days
surfing.All in all the break was awesome,
but after dropping Kristi off at the airport
it was time to make our way to Valle de
Bravo for the millennium cup. It was tough
to leave but we hopped on the all night
busI forgot to mention that the econoline
started acting up so we decided that the
bus might be the 'safer' option) and by ten
the next morning we were in downtown
Valle.
If I had to recommend a destination flying
spot based on good, consistent flying, it
would be Valle. I had been twice before,
and had not missed a day of flying yet!
The town of Valle is a lot like Tapalpa,
only a little more touristy. Also, I think
Valle is a little more suited to the après-flying crowd with more restaurants and
shops, and the landing area by the lake is
a nice place to hang out. There are two
launches in Valle, one, a nice ridge soaring site over the lake, and the other at El
Penon, approx 20km out of town. The
Penon launch is where the competitions
take place.
Well, that’s pretty much where my vacation ended. On day 1 of the comp., I tried
too 360 in to close and managed to peg
a good sized Mexican pine. The rescue
was excellent; I was quickly immobilized
on a backboard, loaded into an ambulance, and sent to meet a helicopter.
Obviously no one wants to be in that position, but it is nice to know that such a high
quality of rescue exists there. I can't thank
the pilots enough who helped with my
evacuation, and who helped pack my
gear.
So what did I do wrong? Well, basically,
I thought I had more room than I actually
did. When I turned back towards the hill I
was anticipating lift,
which would have kept me above the
ridge, and it just wasn't there. Just poor
judgment. Kind of a letdown after the
Tapalpa meet... The end result is that I am
wearing a neck collar right now, and will
be wearing the apparatus for
a three months. I had a surgery to fuse
together C4 and C5, plus I have a little
titanium in there now. Not bad considering what could have happened.…
We decided to go to Yelapa to visit our
wwwhpacca Spring Classic
Golden
Airtime
By John Janssen
"August evenings did not let us
down. After years of flying here,
there are still a few of these
evenings that I will remember.
The one to single out was the
one with Serge Lemarsh and
John Janssen, where the coming
of darkness did nothing to
diminish the everlasting lift, and
even when we finally gave in to
the need to see the ground on
landing, it was lifting
over the LZ too."
T
hat was how Peter Bowle-Evans described (in the last Air issue) a very special day
above Mount Seven. It was also one of my most memorable flights of the season.
The day began with thermals kicking up dust in the campground just after breakfast. With
thermal activity this early, I was optimistic about good lift later in the day. Over several
years of camping in Golden, my family has established a bit of a daily routine... breakfast, bike ride, lunch, flying and then a dip in the pool to cool off after a hot day. On our
bike ride, we stopped at the skateboard ramps to get airtime of a different sort. Then we
were off to the airport to check the weather. As we rode through town, I detected a south
wind. The airport wind socks indicated that it was a strong south wind. My hopes of great
flying conditions began to fade. A south wind at Golden means no XC to the south (the
preferred direction), and a strong south is usually no fun at all. Hoping the wind would
subside, we decided to change our daily routine and go swimming first then fly later.
By 4:30, we were on
launch and several
pilots were already starting to set up. The wind
had just started to calm
down. Although a couple of pilots had
launched earlier, they
had not been able to
stay up.
Pilots were
waiting for someone to
launch first to test the
conditions.
Serge
LeMarsh (local Golden
pilot) was willing to
oblige.
He didn’t
appear to be having
any trouble with the
wind strength and was
even starting to climb
out. As Serge circled
several hundred feet
over launch, the scramble was on and the
remaining gliders took
shape rapidly.
Pilots
were wasting no time and launched like lemmings. At that point my wife came over and
said, "Don’t be the last one off, I’m not getting out on that ramp to hold your glider."
Conditions were still on the strong side and a wire assist at launch was required. Tom
Korte, who is usually one of the first to launch, had already assumed the roll of launch master and had launched several others before he helped me launch. After I took off, he had
to finish setting up his glider and then launch on his own. Thank you Tom.
The first thermal is often the most elusive, and that was also the case on this flight. The lift
was there, but not the type I was willing to commit to doing a 360 in. So I "S" turned trying to share the lift with a paraglider who had launched immediately after me. Eventually
we both got above launch, and went our separate ways. That first thermal took me to
2500 feet above launch. That should be plenty, I thought, to get me over to the summit of
Mount 7.
Three quarters of the way across the bowl south of launch, I had lost 1000 feet and I wasn’t even close to the summit yet. There was definitely still a south wind. I was beginning
to have second thoughts about my decision to go to the summit. I was well below summit
height now, and even below the upper paragliding launch. I glanced back at launch but
immediately dismissed the notion of going back there to find lift. It had taken me almost
an hour to get this far, and I didn’t like the idea of starting all over again. I worked the
cliffs below the paragliding launch, and was soon climbing steadily. A few more turns and
I was above the PG launch. This gave me enough height to work the bowl just north of
the summit.
It only took a few turns in that area to connect with a thermal that took me to 10,500 feet
(about 2000 feet above Mount 7). I breathed a sigh of relief. It is usually a lot easier to
maintain your altitude above the mountain than it is to get there in the first place. I had
...continued on pg. 35
Spring wwwhpacca
airtech
q
Sci Fly
Technology and Science
By Dean Trueman
Artificial Lift
Aviation Engineers are tinkering with one
of the most radical concepts since powered flight began: artificial lift. The basic
laws of physics dictate that for an aircraft
to stay in the air, it must have air flowing
across its wings. Airflow creates a lower
pressure on the top surface than on the
bottom, and the ensuing difference preses
an aircraft upwards. The more air pouring
over the wings, the more lift. As an aicraft
slows, it loses the necessary airflow and
stalls; nothing is keeping it up and gravity
is in command. Scientists say they may
have found a way to reduce stall, by
directing small jets of pulsing air through
holes near the rear edge of a wing. This
airflow can help keep the aircraft from
stalling and even do the steering.
Using the technique to pump extra air
across the wings, a team successfully initiated a roll maneuver on a remotely piloted aircraft during a recent flight.
Equipped with a small tank of pressurized
air, the test planes wings were fitted with
holes about the diameter of a cocktail
straw, allowing the air to exit at a speed
slightly faster than an adult could blow air
through that same straw. The air jets are
activated only when needed, preserving
pressure in the tank. When the air jets on
the left wing were activated, increased lift
on that side caused the plane to roll on its
horizontal axis. A second flight gave the
same results. Now that the aero-engineers
have demonstrated that their flow device
can actually steer a plane, they can
explore the possibility of creating an
emergency lift system for stalling aircraft.
If enough air streams could push sufficient
flow over the wings, there may be a
chance of recovering height and control.
As well as avoiding that mountain....
Natures Vario
Researchers say that a cockroach's ability
to scurry out of the path of an oncoming
shoe or rolled up newspaper is aided by
an organ that senses the slightest changes
in wind speed and direction. It's an organ
that most other creatures, including
humans, lack. After analyzing nerve
impulse patterns, researchers learned that
the microscopic hairs covering the organ,
which sticks out their back end, could
sense minute changes in wind patterns
from an approaching predator or an
armed human. The hairs, called cerci, typically allow the roach to determine the
direction of the danger soon enough to
escape. Even with wind blowing around
them, the insects can detect the particular
gust created by an approaching animal.
NEC, known best as a computer company, funded the study to learn more about
the cockroach nervous system, to aid in
developing sophisticated electronic
devices in tiny packages.
Goodbye to the PLF
Parachutes may glide serenely through the
air, but their landings can be anything but
graceful. Parachute landings are a major
cause of injury and damaged equipment,
but engineers now believe they have
solved the problem.
All it takes is a simple distance sensor,
similar to the type used to help truck drivers reverse safely, and a pneumatic piston
that decelerates the load just before
impact. The retraction mechanism rests
between the parachute and the load, and
contains two pulley blocks, through which
the parachute cable is attached to a piston. When the chute opens, the sudden
deceleration on the cable pulls the lower
pulley block upwards, compressing the air
above the piston and in the gap between
the two cylinders.
The damping from the piston's motion
halves the impact of the jerk. During
descent, the radar system, which is fitted
to the bottom of the load, monitors the distance to the ground and relays this information to a microcomputer. At a critical
point just before impact, the microcomputer triggers a solenoid valve, which releases the compressed air back into the inner
chamber. This drives the piston to the bottom of the cylinder again and draws the
cable back into the cylinder, pulling the
load upwards relative to the canopy.
The process is timed to draw the load up
at the same speed at which the load is
descending, momentarily stopping it a
few centimeters above the ground. During
testing, the retraction mechanism reduced
the deceleration to 2.7 g. (about equivalent to the force on your foot when you
step up onto a curb).
Although designed to handle large cargo
drops, the researchers believe a similar
mechanism could reduce injuries to parachutists.
Eagle population threatened
Pilots that have flown with bald eagles
can testify to being held captive by their
beauty and flying skills. Recently, a mysterious disease has killed more than 80
birds, and may upset the delicate eagle
population. The afflicted birds initially
have trouble flying, walking or swimming,
begin to develop lesions and ultimately
die. Scientists have yet to discover how
the eagles are contracting it, and are conducting autopsies to search for clues.
The diagnosis work so far has not found
any evidence of bacteria, virus or parasites, so researchers are now looking for
some type of compound, either natural or
manmade, in the environment that might
be causing the problem.
Over the last three decades, bald eagles
have made a remarkable recovery in
North America, thanks in large part to the
Endangered Species Act, which protects
them and their habitat.
Self healing down-tubes
Researchers have developed the first
material that automatically repairs itself,
offering a potential way of fixing the hairline cracks that develop in the space-age
composites used in everything from tennis
rackets to aircraft. The scientists' secret:
tiny capsules of glue that are added to the
composite material. Composite materials
consist of fibers of glass, carbon or other
substances mixed with a resin. Damage to
composite materials often begins as tiny
cracks, and as they grow, they weaken
the material until it breaks. To heal tiny
cracks automatically, the researchers
sprinkled capsules about the thickness of
a human hair throughout an experimental
fiberglass-like compound. When a crack
appeared, capsules in its path broke
open, spilled their contents and sealed the
cracks. The compound retained 75 percent of its original strength after the cracks
had healed for 48 hours. The material
contains 100 to 200 capsules per cubic
inch. While all of the capsules will eventually break, objects made with the material could last several times longer than
those made of current composites.
Objects such as spacecraft, artificial joints
and bridge supports, which are difficult or
impossible to reach, are prime candidates
for self-healing materials. Materials such
as the self-healing composite are part of
the infant field of smart materials.
Dean Trueman is a Vancouver-based
paraglider pilot. On rainy days, he works
in the technology sector.
wwwhpacca Spring airevents
Canada / USA
April 7 - 8
Fraser Valley Annual XC Hang Gliding
Competition - week #1 (Brett Hazlett)
April 13 - 15
The Kamloops Valley Racers will be holding the annual Easter meet HG event. This
year we will be requiring all comp pilots
to fly by GPS co-ordinates for ease of scoring. We will also have a rec comp for
pilots wishing to fly that don't use GPS
yet. This is a great get together for HG
pilots and paraglider pilots both.
e-mail DaveFerguson mold@canada.com
April 15 - 21
Flytec Championships
@ Quest in Florida
April 21 - 22
Fraser Valley Annual XC Hang Gliding
Competition - week #2
April 28 - 29
Fraser Valley Annual XC Hang Gliding
Competition - week #3
May 5 - 6
Chelan Speed Gliding Comp
May 12 - 13
Fraser Valley 4th Annual Paragliding XC
Competition - week #1
May 19 - 21
Lumby Club Cup (WCSC)
May 26 - 27
Fraser Valley 4th Annual XC Paragliding
Competition - week #2
Spring wwwhpacca
June 2 - 3
Fraser Valley 4th Annual XC Paragliding
Competition - week #3
July 1st
SOGA Fly-in & Open House
The normal introductory rate of $25 for
non-members will be waived for the 3 day
weekend. Pay only for your earotows up
to 2500 feet. We encourage you to join
us chasing thermals instead of the wind.
Camping is free, just make sure you take
your garbage home with you.
For more info contact Ken Kinzie
ken@kswater.on.ca or (519)524-1689
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SOGA
July 28th - August 3rd
2001 HG Nationals to be held at Mt 7,
Golden.This meet will also constitute the
HG part of the Willi Muller XC Challenge
this year.Check the HPAC Web Site for
further details.
July 28 - Aug 3
Willi HG and PG Challenge in Golden
Aug 4 - 6
SOGA Competition
This is a fun competition with something
for everyone. Open distance XC, spot
landing, and a XC seminar. The 5 days
preceeding
this
event
will
be
practice/free flying days. This is prime
time for this site. For more info contact
Ken Kinzie ken@kswater.on.ca
Aug 4 - 6
Western Canadian HG Championship
Mt. 7, Golden, B.C.
Format and scoring TBA
Contact: Karen Keller, 403-293-4008
email: skyward@cadvision.com
Aug 4 - 6
Canadian Paragliding Nationals
Mount 7, Golden, BC
Meet Sanctioning: As last year, our intent
is to seek Category 2 sanctioning from the
FAI for this event. Those intending to gain
points for world meets will need Sporting
Licenses.
Aug 11-12 Aug 18-19
Grouse Mountain Fly-in (HG & PG)
Aug 18 - Aug 25
US Nationals - Texas
Aug 25 - 26
Can-Ams at Black Mountain
Washington (Mark Dowsett) (HG & PG)
Sept 1 - 3
Cache Creek Team Meet
Sept 1 - 3
Qu’Appelle Valley Classic, Saskatchewan
Competition run by the MHGA. Pilots meet
at the Waverly Hotel in Melville Friday.
Contact: thenodewarrior@usa.net for info
The World
June 6 - July 1, 2001
World Air Games HG Championship
Algodonales-Cadiz (Spain)
June 6 - July 1, 2001
13th World Hang Gliding Championship
Algodonales-Cadiz (Spain)
2
Part
Hang Gliding and Paragliding
I
n the first article of this series, I described the process for
amending the Canadian Air Regulations (CARs). I also mentioned that there are a number of amendments to the CARs that
pertains to HG and PG that have already been approved by the
Canadian Air Regulation Advisory Committee (CARAC) and that
are currently being reviewed by the Justice Department – they
are still there as of 27 January. In this second article, I summarize the most significant amendments and I explain their significance.
I break down the amendments into two categories: structure and
content. I will tackle each in turn.
Structural Amendments
Structural amendments relates to the way the regulations are organized in the CARs, not
changes to the individual regulations. Currently, the regulations for hang gliders are combined with regulations for ultralight aircraft in CAR 602.29. Transport Canada has recognized that this is less than ideal and is reorganizing the structure of the CARs so that
hang gliding regulations are consolidated into their own sections. In fact, there will be two
sections that deals specifically with hang gliders. The first one is CAR 603.77 that specifies the general hang gliding operation rules. The second one is CAR 605.114 that specifies equipment requirements for hang gliders. Note that this does not mean that the only
regulations that apply to hang gliders are in those two sections. There are other CARs that
apply to all aircraft and those are still relevant to hang glider pilots.
Content Amendments
There is nothing earth shattering in the amendment to individual CARs themselves. The
amended regulations, for the most part, close existing loopholes, clear up some confusing
issues and eliminate some regulations that are not necessary. This list is not exhaustive
but these are the changes that will interest most pilots. I will cover some of the more esoteric amendments in future columns.
Flights in Class B, C, D and E: The current regulations only addresses hang glider
flights in Class E airspace. There is no mention of other controlled airspaces.
The amended CARs specify the conditions that hang gliders must meet to fly in Class B, C,
D and E controlled airspaces. This eliminates a potential source of confusion.
Cross-Country Flights: The current regulation specifies that hang gliders are only
allowed in Class E airspace if they conduct XC flights.
The CARAC has approved the deletion of the above regulation and non-cross-country
flights are now allowed in Class E. Furthermore, there has never been any regulation specifying that flights in Class B, C and D had to be cross-country flights so non cross-country
flights are also allowed in these airspaces as well as long as the pilot obeys the other regulations that apply to those airspaces. This change eases regulations imposed on hang
gliders.
Requirement to Contact FSS: The current regulation specifies that hang gliders must
informs the nearest flight service station of the time of departure and estimated duration of
the (XC) flight in Class E airspace.
The CARAC has approved an amendment that removes this requirement entirely. This
change eases regulations imposed on hang gliders. Note that since a pilot must be in
radio contact with an ATC unit when they fly in Class B, C and D, there is no requirement
to inform an FSS of a flight in those airspaces either.
Requirement to carry a compass: The current CARs specify that a hang glider flying in Class E must carry a compass.
The CARAC has approved two amendments to this regulation. First, a GPS can now be
used in lieu of a compass. Second, the new regulation specifies that a compass or GPS
must be carried in Class E for XC flights and at all times in Class B, C and D. This means
that a compass is no longer required in Class E for non cross-country flights.
...continued on pg. 36
TRANSPORT CANADA
Regulations
wwwhpacca Spring airsafety
Safety Notification’s
1. Parachute Deployment Pouch
design flaws.
The HPAC has confirmed that several
manufacturors have sold Harness mounted Parachute Deployment Pouches with
serious design flaws which could result
in a failure to deploy.
Problems to various degrees have been
experienced with some models of Charly,
Sol and Edel harness mounted deployment pouches. Please note that I am not
picking on these particular manufacturors.
We know of other harness pouch problems but can not identify the manufacturors at this time.
Several different problems have been
identified. Some parachute pouches are
made of neopreme which stretches and
compresses the the reserve parachute in a
vise like grip. Other harness pouch
designs may eliminate or severely restrict
timely deployments. Other problems are
commonly identified.
THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE IS TO
ATTEMPT A PRACTICE DEPLOYMENT
IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT.
Attend a Parachute Deployment and
Repack Clinic. It could be a critical factor
in saving your life.
2. PRACTICE DEPLOYING WITH
BOTH HANDS.
If you have a side mounted reserve, practice deploying with the other hand.
Dislocated shoulders has made this
requirement a reality.
3. INSPECT NEW RESERVE
PARACHUTES.
I encourage owners of new reserve parachutes to inspect the contents inside
deployment bags. At least one manufacturor has supplied products which were
"packed for shipping purposes" - not
"deployment purposes"...Meaning four
rubber bands were wrapped commpletely
around the parachute. Deployment would
have been impossible.
A large and growing collection of
International Safety Notifications are
posted at:
http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/safety/safety_notices.asp
Fred Wilson
Spring wwwhpacca
FSS (Flight Service Station) Services
NAV Canada is centralizing pilot service province wide across the country to new "Flight
Information Centres" (FIC) Your new 1-800- HAGAR Flight service calls will soon be routed to these new facilities. FIC will be responsible for Advanced Pilot Weather Briefing,
Flight Planning and Enroute Radio Communications.
Smaller Airports FSS will stay operational, but their sphere of influence will be reduced to
primarily the 5 NM radius around the airport, plus the upside down wedding cake controlled airspace around the Airport. They will become responsible for local traffic advisories, vehicle control and emergency services.
A couple of BIG messages come out of us for this.
1. NAV Canada is prepared, at NOT COST TO US, to schedule in extra staff - even on
overtime! - if we need extra help for major events, given the need. Talk about Flight
Service!
2. FSS is no longer a part of Transport Canada. They are private enterprize as part of
NAV Canada.
This has very important implications for us.
Canadian Airspace is grossly over-regulated in Canada. If you compare a US VFR chart
with any Canadian version, our over regulation is glaringly obvious. You can fly to
18,000' ASL just about everywhere in the USA - where there is 10 or 20 times the air traffic in a country half the size.
I firmly believe that controlled airspace should only be where there is effective control. If
you take a look at most populated areas in Canada, you are hard pressed to find anything but controlled airspace. FSS is totally focused on the 5 - 20 NM controlled airspace
"wedding cake" around there airport. A few years ago, we would phone our HAGAR into
Kamloops etc from places like Golden - hundreds of miles away and get our ears burned
off by busy FSS attendants. Thankfully this has changed.
But the real message is that now, we finally have an opportunity to lobby Transport
Canada to get rid of the vast majority of this grossly over-regulated "controlled" airspace.
Nav Canada, FSS are no longer part of Transport Canada. TC will listen hard to lobby
groups like the Canadian Sport Aviation Council (CSAC) who represent us, and COPA
among others.
The TC contact relating to Ultra-Light Aeroplanes and Hang Gliders is the Recreational
Aviation and Special Flight Operations Division of Civil Aviation in Ottawa. The Chief of
that Division, encourages HPAC officials to contact him on issues important to us. That is
his job.
To find out if your sites are affected by Controlled Airspace, your and / or your club need
to buy VFR and LE charts for your area. The VFR charts are semi topographical maps that
show where controlled airspace and Airways are. LE charts are what you need to find out
how high you can go. They tell you the base altitude of the controlled airspace level above
you and the base altitudes of Victor / Radial Airways.
In extreme situations, you may need to refer to the Designated Airspace Handbook - which
gets down into really fine details on this topic. The downside is it's expensive because it
is updated every couple of months... but this is no longer a problem. Tranport Canada has
posted it for free in Acrobat format on the Web at: http://ats.nrcan.gc.ca/ (look in IFR
products)
Note: you can buy your VFR / LE Charts from an HPAC member pilot! Roger Nelson at
Map Town. Web site: http://www.maptown.com/ or Toll Free 1-877-921-6277
Fred Wilson
Investment of HPAC Funds
The BoD recognized that it would be advantageous for the Association to invest some of its reserve in
financial instruments that would return a better yield that GIC over the long term. Martin Pollach will investigate.
Master rating for Philippe Thibodeau
Philippe Thibodeau died in February 2000 of a trike accident in Mexico. The AQVL nominated Philippe
for a posthumous Master rating. The rating was awarded unanimously.
Philippe may not be well known to pilots outside of Quebec but he has made an important contribution to
hang gliding and paragliding in Canada. The following are but a few of his many accomplishments over
eighteen years:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Philippe opened l’Ecole Vol Libre, the older school still operating in Quebec.
Philippe trained hundreds of pilots over the years including a significant portion of the flying
population in Quebec. His school was featured in a USHGA Hang Gliding magazine in 1994;
A Senior instructor with a Tandem II endorsement for hang gliding and paragliding,
Philippe trained numerous instructors over the years;
Philippe taught in France, Mexico and French Antigua amongst other places. In 1995, he was
invited by the Sultan of Oman to demonstrate hang gliding, conduct interviews and such to help
Omani open a local school;
Philippe was featured in multiple print articles and TV programs over the year;
Philippe promoted our sports through his participation in numerous static displays and air shows
that were seen by thousands of people; and
Philippe authored a pilot formation guide for the AQVL.
Air Magazine
The BoD recognized the high quality of the December issue of the Air magazine. The BoD unanimously
agreed to raise the compensation of the AIR editor to $500 per issue in addition to 25% of the advertising revenues the Editor raises. In addition, the BoD unanimously agreed to raise the budget of the next
two editions of Air by a thousand dollars each. Finally, the BoD decided that the Editor would be responsible for mailing the magazine to pilots and $100 per issue (in addition to the cost of the stamps) would
be provided for handling. The BoD discussed a proposal to add an on-line magazine but that decision
was deferred until there was a better feeling that there were too many articles for the current four issues
of the AIR magazine.
Translation
The lack of translation was recognized and this will be addressed in the restructure of the Association. In
addition, it was decided that Phil Siscoe would investigate the availability of Federal grants for translation.
Nationals
There was only one bid for the PG Nationals. That submission was accepted. The PG nationals will be
organized by Randy Parkin and will take place on Aug 3-6 at Mt 7.
There was no bid for the HG nationals. The directors will solicit bids from within their Provincial
Associations and will forward the bids to the Competition Director and the President.
Web Site
The BoD noticed that the web site(s) were disjointed and confusing. It was decided to create a new site
from scratch. It was also decided that the BoD would approach Charles Warren who has offered to take
the site over. Judith Newman volunteered to work with Charles on design. The implementation of the
new web site will be a responsibility of the Transition Committee.
School Insurance
The purpose of the school insurance was discussed. It was noted that the school insurance is just an instrument to raise funds towards paying the annual insurance premium and does not provide additional insurance per se. The third-party liability insurance for instructors and their students is automatically provided
under the current policy. The BoD discussed a few methods to raise insurance premium from instructors.
It was agreed to discontinue the school insurance, but the matter of instructor fees was left to be addressed
later. At the time of writing a motion on this is in progress. We are hoping that voting will be completed
in time for announcement in this AIR.
Election of New Executive
The new Executive for 2001 are President – Peter Bowle-Evans Vice President – Phil Siscoe and
Secretary Treasurer – Martin Pollach.
Andre Nadeau
AGM2001
he main topic of discussion at the AGM was the restructure of HPAC. Following a presentation by Andre
Nadeau, the Directors spent most of the AGM discussing various options to get the Association back
on tract. Andre Nadeau’s article in this issue of AIR describes the rationale and the end result of the new
organizational structure so I will not discuss it further. The BoD had some time for a few other items and
made some decisions that we hope will be beneficial to the Association as a whole. The items that were
discussed and the associated decisions are as follows:
Record of Discussion at the HPAC AGM, Ottawa, Jan 20-21, 2001
T
wwwhpacca Spring Rescues at
Mt.7
F
irst off the bat, this is not bad, it is all good! It is about where the current arrangments
are at, not about a series of happenings. Is has nothing to do with skeletons or close,
not that any of the readers will have any of those things, of course. So here goes:
HELICOPTERS & CREWS
Wire sling helicopter rescues are now much more available than previously. Some
changes happened last summer, actually during our meets here. Alpine Helicopters, who
setup a base here the previous year, and who scooped the best two local pilots in the
process, were already in the current dictated state of the art rescue business. This means
they were fielding machines equipped with the latest equipment demanded by regulations,
although they did not have one in place at Golden at the outset. This happened last summer, when they stationed one of these machines here.
Both resident, local Alpine pilots have not only the necessary endorsements to operate this
machine and its associated equipment, but they have the so important experience. The
placement of this machine was well coordinated with Parks Canada. Now although the
new regulations do permit people other than Parks wardens to be certified for sling rescue, for the time being that is where the presently certified personnel are. In relation to
Golden, there are wardens at Glacier Park to the West, and the Yoho and Banff Parks to
the East. This means access to wire sling crews from the Rogers Pass summit, Field or Lake
Louise. The point is that they are close by. I have worked in machines between Golden and
Rogers Pass. You are there faster than you can drink coffee.
The situation of a machine having to be dispatched from as far away as Canmore should
now be a thing of the past. This means quicker response and less cost, a good combination. In addition to the adjacent Parks crews, the are moves within the Provincial
Emergency Program to train wire sling crews. This is likely several years away from crews
in place, but this is the direction of intention.
COMMUNICATION
We need to avoid unnecessary searches. Last summer we had some, through nothing more
than good intentions all round. Helicopters flew several hours looking for pilots who,
although they had gone down sort of unexpectedly, were in fact doing OK, and did not
need helicopter rescue. What happens sometimes is that one event is seen by several completely different people. I have been able to field a few of these in the past, when the local
RCMP has called me up at work and told me they had just received a call from someone
who was say hanging up their washing on the line and had seen a PG going all over the
place and must have crashed.
A phone call or two or a quick spin out the NLZ and I have learned that nothing of the sort
has happened, or so-and-so was doing wingovers or the like, and I call back and tell them
thanks but relax. Last summer we had a PG who most definitely spun in, in full view of
Nicholson and probably all over town. He spun in just below the cliffs just below the upper
PG launch. Some pilots there saw it all, ran down and discovered that clean underwear
were the greatest need. Others further away feared the worst, and pretty soon those of us
on the HG launch are wondering what this chopper is doing buzzing around just about
where we want to go thermalling.
After a while we were able to get enough confirmations of events to call the pilot on the
air band and tell him he could stand down. By a scramble of rescue organisations' errors,
there was never any bill for this. In subsequent debriefings about this with Alpine, PEP and
the RCMP, here is what we came up with:
If something has happened that could be construed as requiring a rescue, but either does
not at all or that we have in hand by whatever other means, then please do call the RCMP
at 344- 2221 and inform them as to what is going on, where and so on, and give them
a name and phone number or even a radio frequency to call back to. Then if other third
party calls come in to them, they will either know right away if this is the all the same thing,
or can at least call to discuss. They will be much happier doing this than sending out unnecessary rescues.
Obviously, do your best to cooperate with whatever they may ask. I have personally been
through the routine of calling in for a possible rescue from a phone about 50 kms down
range, on a weekend when the calls are all routed to a central dispatch in Cranbrook,
which is about 240 kms from Golden, and been asked, 'which one, there are three going
on already'. In this case, there was enough information properly called in that a fifteen
minute round of phone calls determined that my sighting was under control by other
means.
...continued on pg. 36
Spring wwwhpacca
Wilcannia...thrills in the outback
By Tomas Suchanek
Preface by Bill Moyes
G
erolf Heinrichs returned to Europe with his new
design the Litespeed and he took one for Tomas
to test fly. A few flights later Tomas told Gerolf
that he believed that the glider was capable of a 600 km
flight.
Gerolf relayed Tomas's opinion to me and I called Tomas
to tease him into a return to hang gliding from his new
love, sailplanes. I said " Are you going to just tell us of the
gliders capability or are you going to show us." Tommy's
answer was "Are you going to send me a ticket to
Australia or are you just going to talk about it!
The next day the word was out that Tommy was coming
to town. The phone rang hot from pilots wanting to join
the trip to our favourite record site Wilcania. Bob Bailey
and I decided that we would need to take two dragonflys,
as the towing from the flat dessert terrain would be my
responsibility. The choosen time period was December to
gain an advantage on the length of the day's summer
heat.
The final crew...A totally international assault.
Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic
Attila Bertok - Hungary
Gerolf Heinrichs and Thomas Weissenberger - Austria
Conrad Loten - New Zealand
Victor Becan - Slovenia
Radek Bares - Czech Republic
Noma Yasuhiro -Japan
Bob Bailey - USA
Bill Moyes - The only Australian
Daily launches were from a clay pan on the Riverside
property. The hard clay was a good smooth surface for
the tug and the dolly but was like standing on a mirror
with the sun’s heat reflecting up. 40 degrees plus every
day and an extra 10 degrees in the clay pan. The pilots
were all pleased to get out of the clay pan and the crew
were pleased to see them go so we could get into air conditioned chase cars.
The guys flew up to eight hours each day. This was the
most gruelling week I have witnessed. Tommy never
missed an opportunity to better a record and pushed the
envelope to its limit.
When the lid was nailed on the coffin of the last record ,
we were all pleased to pack up and drag our poor dehydrated bodies back to the cars and some moisture.
Tommy was the exception. He treated the exercise as a
warm up for the World Sail Plane Championship to be
held in South Australia in January.Twenty four hours after
completing a 300km flight Tommy was in a sail plane in
Naromine flying a 750km triangle.
That guy is different!
wwwhpacca Spring B
ack in ‘’93 the Moyes gang started to explore the Australian outback with the vision of long
flights, which would move the existing distance and speed hang gliding world records further forward.
When looking back, I can say, that we succeeded with three tandem world records flown from
Hillston in December 1994 and also the speed over 150 km triangular course in 1997 from Hay.
The little town of Hillston was no longer suitable due to the relatively closeness to the Great
Dividing Range, where we had to land on the tandem flight with Corinna after covering 360 km,
so Captain Bill yelled that famous saying "go west young men", and we went. The last fragment of civilisation before running into the Simpson desert appeared to be a little town on the
Darling river called Wilcannia. It's a pretty rough place with an 80% aboriginal population and
the highest number of policemen per citizen in Australia, of course a few wild stories kept us on
our best behaviour, but I tell you, the thermals there can be even wilder and stronger, than the
ground stuff, and that's why we based our operation nearby at Riverside farm.
Lots of pilots did their personal longest flights out of Wilcannia and Hillston including mine,
Corinna's and Bob Baiers 367 km with the landing in Corryong, Attila Bertok's 405 km to
Victoria, Darryl Cooners 360+ or Drew Coopers longest flight in OZ, 428 km from Hillston to
St. Arnaud in the state of Victoria back in 93. Because of this potential, Bill Moyes kept encouraging the old crew during the year to try once again and that's why the wheels started spinning
on December 5th 2000 in the Moyes factory at Botany, chopping down the 1000km drive to
Wilcannia.
Above Left - Left to Right
Back Row: Attila Bertok, Conrad Loten,
Bobby Bailey, Tomas Suchanek,
Viktor Becan, Bill Moyes
Front Row: Tomas Weissenberger,
Gerolf Heinrichs, Noma Yasuhiro,
Leo (Tomas’s driver)
Above Right - Left to Right
Leo (Tomas's driver that came from
Czech with him), Gerolf Heinrichs,
Attila Bertok, Tomas Suchanek,
Radek Bares, Tomas Weissenberger
Above:
Atilla poses after his
200km record flight
The first little bunch included my Czech mates, Leo the driver and Radek and Kiwi pilot Conrad,
in civilian life working as an emergency doctor, (he was considered a great support for our intentions), and tow pilot and designer of the Dragonfly, Bob Bailey, whose only fear was the total
absence of any McDonalds restaurants in our destination. But he survived it for next two weeks
anyway...
The Dragonfly was assembled the next day and on the morning of December 8th, Wilcannia
welcomed us with a south westerly breeze and blue sky. We decided to have a little warm up
flight up the Darling river, taking off with our stock Litespeed's around 1PM in good hot 25 km/h
wind. Struggling between five to fifteen hundred, I was the only one reaching the first clouds two
hours later near Tilpa, while Radek and Conrad landed and started their longest sightseeing trip
by car in the Australian outback. The first cloud surprised me with a solid five meters per second
and suddenly everything looked much better from 3500 m AGL at cloudbase. Not taking anything under 3m/sec I covered 180 km in the next two hours to reach Bourke and the 300km distance mark at half passed five. The gap between my position and the retriving car became much
wider, some 120 km, although the boys were probably breaking all speed limits on the dirt roads
and the police cars could simply not keep up with them anymore. By the way, when passing the
town of Louth, I hit the strongest thermal of my life, wide and solid 8.5 m/sec on my Flytec averager all the way to the cloudbase!
The afternoon and evening part of the flight was considerably slower, recent flooding of the
Darling river affected the thermal conditions there and twice I found myself down to 400m above
the deck of course in the middle of nowhere, but I managed to get the lift as well as the radio
connection with my retrieval and finally I landed at 19:45 on a dirt road some 50 km NE of
Brewarrina and 430 km from our Riverside take off. I passed Drew Cooper’s old distance record
by only 2 km. Not bad for an afternoon joy flight, except that the landing area was full of thirsty
mosquitos and the nearest farmhouse was beyond the horizon. I started walking towards civilisation, that is the least pleasant part of nearly every distance attempt here in the outback.
Spring wwwhpacca
I had only covered some 8 kilometres, when suprisingly I could hear my crew on the radio. Rest
was easy, we made it back to Wilcannia the next day to meet hungry Attila (the Hun) Bertok from
Hungary, known in the flying community by his nickname, and the rest of the pack also including our legendary driver and psychologist Jed Gilmour from Stanwell Park.
The next morning there was no wind at all and we decided to take advantage and have a go at
triangular courses. Attila, suffering from his, as Gerolf says "kilometre bug", declared the longest
triangle in the world of 249 km , we left Riverside shortly after midday together with Japanese
Noma and Conrad. I prefered a shorter course and tried speed over 100 km triangle. The sky
stayed blue the whole day, although some lifts strenghtened to 5 m/sec and I rounded my triangle with a start and finish point at Riverside and turnpoints White Cliff JCN and Capon farm within 2 hours 39 minutes in the new world record speed of 40.54 km/h. Celebrating in the evening
we were pleasantly surprised, when Attila rounded his triangle and landed after seven and a half
hours, establishing the new world record for the longest triangle flown on a hang glider, 249 km
FAI. He later reported strong lift over the red ground area southeast and east of Wilcannia, with
the strongest thermals reaching 2900 m AGL. There are only two major roads this way, Barrier
Highway going to Cobar and Cobb Highway to Ivanhoe, but the second leg, Cobb highway is
a dirt road and there is a very poor track system in between. We all admitted Attila’s courage,
when crossing the road between his first and second turnpoint. We were not to know that we
would be crossing this area ourselves every second day during the next week .
Below: Set-up on the clay pan
Center: Bob Bailey waits for his next victim
Bottom: Tomas declares 357km triangle
December 11th and 12th could be considered as serious rest days, we only flew some 140 km
to Ivanhoe and to Tilpa, although the boys reported very strong lift on the second day, reaching
altitudes of 4500m AGL, the highest in Australia as long as I can remember. They were stopped
by cold, the cloudbase was another 700m higher!
December 14th was the start of an excellent period of weather, the sort of weather that allows
you to fly more then you can handle and start praying for rain after a couple of days. Bill Moyes
pushed delicately, as he only knows how, for long ones. A very light southerly with early clouds
encouraged us to say "why not" and we all went for a 300 km triangle from Riverside via Mount
Manara and Narraport. The heavily populated area on the second leg was really promising
regarding some walk and fun in the case of outlanding, but not one of us fortunately did. The first
leg was pretty rough going light headwind, average
thermals between four to six meter per second, but
the 3500m cloudbase saved us from the unexpected! Both Attila and I had a low save after the second turnpoint near Emmdale surf club, while Attila
also scratched the ground right after the first one,
but finally we both rounded the course in the new
distance world record around a triangular course. I
could also claim the speed world record over 300
km triangle with the average speed of 45 km/h.
Two in one, I never can resist a good offer! The
smile on Attila's face also documented his mood, I
suppose, he completed one of his dreams this day,
he was always pushing for the long ones, home in
Hungary or home in Australia. I still remember the
first day after the Forbes Flatlands six or seven years
ago, when he completed a 200 km out and return,
while the rest of the field was recovering from the
previous day's party!
Gerolf Heinrichs and his mate Thomas arrived in Wilcannia on December 15th, the boys went
for speed over a 200 km triangle, declaring the course from good old Riverside via Bushleys
and Alma Park farmhouses. Finally Attila went around in less than five hours, establishing the
new world record with a speed of 41 km/h and Conrad also managed to complete the task.
They reported strong lift and cloudbase at 3200 to 3400 m AGL and a bit stronger SE wind. I
took the day easy and declared baby tasks, first 50 km and second time 25 km triangular courses near Riverside, with the landing in between them. That was a good day again, some 7 m/sec
thermals were found around and I completed the first triangle via Nettalie farmhouse and
Wilcannia airport in 1 hour 05 min in the new world record speed of 46 km/h and then later
on the little triangle I averaged 50 km/h, also the world record for speed. Three in one day, even
better!
December 16th started pretty early, first clouds appeared in the sky shortly after 11 am and after
a short discussion we declared a 357 km long triangle via Cobb Highway and Marfield RD JCN
and the second turnpoint at Bulla farmhouse. Bob took us gently to the thermals with good help
from Bill Moyes and we all could head down following Cobb Highway. A light NE breeze
formed nice cloudstreets, making the first leg easy for me. Attila and Gerolf went a little bit later
on the course and suffered some delay from different conditions. The second leg to Bulla farm
headed more east compared to previous days, where 'no man's land' turned into tiger plains
with an absolute lack of roads and farms in some sequences of the flight. Cloudbase rose from
2500 to 3200m later and I had to test the abilities of my Litespeed to climb from low right after
the second turnpoint on the edge of heavy rain. Well, nothing special, but I managed to climb
and to get away. But my exposed hand held radio suffered some damage from the rain so I could
not rely on help from the ground crew anymore. The second critical point came at half passed
six in the evening, when I went down to less than 200m AGL in the middle of the bush and far
wwwhpacca Spring Check out the
records flown at
Willcannia:
Record 1
Date: 10.12.2000
Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic
Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4
Record type: Speed over 100 km tri.
Start point: Riverside
Finish point: Riverside
Reached speed: 40km/h
Record 2
Date: 14.12.2000
Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic
Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4
Record type: Speed over 300 km tri.
Start point: Riverside
Finish point: Riverside
Reached speed: 45km/h
Record 3
Date: 15.12.2000
Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic
Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4
Record type: Speed over 50 km tri.
Start point: Riverside
Finish point: Riverside
Reached speed: 46km/h
Record 4
Date: 15.12.2000
Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic
Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4
Record type: Speed over 25 km triangle
Start point: Riverside
Finish point: Riverside
Reached speed: 50km/h
Record 5
Date: 15.12.2000
Pilot: Attila Bertok - Hungary
Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 5
Record type: Speed over 200 km tri.
Start point: Riverside
Finish point: Riverside
Reached speed: 41km/h
Record 6
Date: 16.12.2000
Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic
Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4
Record type: Distance over 357 km tri.
Start point: Riverside
Finish point: Riverside
Reached speed: 45km/h
Reached distance: 357 km over
triangular course
Please consider these performances
named above as new claims for world
records pending FAI approval.
Spring wwwhpacca
away from the road. One hour of torture, when low, was finally remunerated with 1 m/s gain
some 28 km from goal, final glide was a piece of cake and I crossed the finish line at 7.52 PM
after an 8 hour flight, averaging 45 km/h speed on the course. Unfortunately, Attila could not
cross the death area due to the later time and landed some 50 km short, while Conrad cut the
corner to Emmdale and made it back home flying some 300+ km triangle. Gerolf and the others
went down on the second leg and they all had been picked up by Bill or Thomas and made it
back home right in time for Bill’s barbecue.
December 17th started with a fresh NE breeze on the ground, although the pressure gradient up
higher was not too promising regarding the strong wind. We declared a far goal in Horsham,
Victoria, just to give it a go. Bob was excellent with the Dragonfly once again and placed all of
us near to the Riverside start gate. The first one hundred kilometers were in blue, some stuff
exceeding 4 m/sec and then we reached the troughline and cloudsbase formed at 3400m. The
bad news was the wind stopped. Some of us kept going and I finally landed 311km from
Riverside just SE of Mildura, close to where Attila landed four years ago. Typically a pre frontal
day, the last two thermals went to 4050 m AGL and even my special Moira thermal wear did
not keep me warm enough. Seven hours after take off, I had to land just before a gust front of
the approaching southerly. Radek reached his longest distance when he landed 260 km from
the start point and was saved by a local farmer from hail and thunder. Bill picked up the rest of
the pack except Lukas, who decided to follow the Cobb HWY and then spent an unforgetable
24 hours waiting for retrieval at the Ivanhoe pub.
Finally I would like to thank all who helped us on this trip, especially to Bill Moyes and Bob Bailey
for getting us airborn, to Moyes Gliders for providing the best tool and I should also say, that all
the records were done with serial Litespeeds in standard configuration, not equipped with funky
carbon uprights or base bars.
Jed, Leo, Thomas and Bill were excellent as the pick up drivers and my personal thanks goes to
Attila for his "pushing for distance" force.
That’s all folks. See ya there next time!
Tomas gets congratulations from Bill!
airbag
through the week gazing out of their office windows at a bird soaring on an odd thermal
or a cloud passing by, reminding them of great flying conditions. This small but increasing
number of paraglider pilots have been silently building up as the sport’s popularity catches on in the state. According to Sandeep Dikshit, Equity Research Director with W.I.Carr
Securities, it is "a fulfilling passion, relaxing hobby and completely in harmony with
nature".
110 Km from Mumbai enroute to Pune, soon after Lonavla, lies Kamshet, the paragliding
hub of the region. Here numerous favorable takeoff sites, great flying conditions and dramatic scenery provide a splendid backdrop to some excellent flying. Add to this the fact
that flying is possible almost every day of the long season and you have the perfect
paragliding destination. All these factors and more have converted this sleepy area into
the paragliding stronghold in the Western Ghats!
The area is fast becoming a popular flying destination in the world paragliding community. The low hills, rocky terrain with endless flatlands around that once lent itself perfectly to
guerilla type warfare today seems to be sculpted specially for paragliding. Pilots trudge
uphill, spread their vibrant wings and fly effortlessly along the ridges, limited only by the
weather, their skill & endurance. Around them the ruins of the Lohaghad & Visapur forts,
and the Bhaja and Bhedsa cave temples that have stood sentinel for hundreds of years
gaze upon the colorful canopies and their exhilarated occupants, silently watching as
man’s age old dream of free flight finally becomes a reality.
Kamshet
A Paragliding Getaway
T
he Mumbai–Pune road is an arterial
roadway leading out of the city tracing
an ancient trade route that once connected the coast to the hinterland. Rock cut
cave temples and hill fortresses along the
route stand witness to the silk & spice
bearing caravans accompanied by
adventurous Greek merchants, Chinese
travelers and Buddhist monks that braved
the perils of wild animals and fierce tribal
marauders, praying to goddess Tara to
lead them out of danger.
Over the past few years a strange breed
of adventure seekers have been plying
this route. They too pray for a speedy
completion of the Mumbai Pune
Expressway that will whisk them to
Kamshet (about 11 Km from Lonavla) in
time to alight from their cars and attach a
pair of " wings" on their backs and step
off the hillside and fly in solitude as the
evening sun casts a golden hue over the
countryside below.
Consisting of an unlikely group of people;
professionals, executives and businessmen from Bombay and Pune, these
‘paragliding enthusiasts’ wait patiently
In India, paragliding is still a relatively new sport, introduced as late as 1991-92 by some
visiting foreign pilots in the Kullu valley. In fact some of the sites in the big mountains are
believed to constitute the best in the world. The Himalayas may have experienced the first
wave of paragliding in India but in certain pockets in the western region the sport is fast
catching on. In the scores of sites around Pune, Kamshet and the further reaches of the
Western Ghats a few paragliding outfits have been operating in the last few years.
Notable amongst them are Harley India and United India Paragliding at Pune, Omair in
Panchgani and Nirvana Adventures in Kamshet. Nirvana Adventures set up operations in
Kamshet about three (3) years ago and have since then discovered a variety of flying sites
within a 30 km. radius of their base at Kamshet suited for beginners training, hobby pilots
and the more adventurous pilots. Say’s Sanjay Rao of Nirvana Adventures " Our main
emphasis is on teaching people how to fly and enjoy the purest form of free flight known
to man".
Nirvana Adventures course pattern, flying operations and pilot rating is in accordance
with the United States Hang Gliding Association’s standard operating procedures and pilot
proficiency systems. Residential courses running through the week and on weekends, great
accomodation overlooking the serene Vadivali lake and a sizeable fraternity of recreational pilots - an amazing mix of people of varied age groups and diverse backgrounds
is what one may expect to encounter on any given day of the season.
In July 2000 a team from Nirvana Adventures made a trip to Oludeniz, Turkey to fly at
Babadag the ‘Paragliding Mecca’ of the world. This was the first Indian paragliding expedition of its kind till date. The purpose of the trip being to fly at one of the worlds best rated
sites and to get a first hand experience of ‘Safety in flight’ which the site is famous for.
Back at Kamshet, the paragliding capital of the Western Ghats, the sport bridges the gap
between tradition and modernity. At one end of the spectrum is the paraglider, an aircraft
made of a combination of advanced aerodynamics with space age materials, and the
other is the bullock cart, an ancient mode of transportation on which the pilots sometimes
hitch a ride to the takeoff site!
sanjay rao
Copyright © 2000 Nirvana Adventures (Bombay)
For more information on the sport log onto
www.nirvanaadventures.com
Email sanjay@nirvanaadventures.com
Telephone (91-22)- 6493110 / 6053724
wwwhpacca Spring HP
AC
...a new beginning
Background
The HPAC has not been in great shape over the last few years. It has suffered from a
decline in membership and a general disinterest by the Canadian pilot population at large.
This threatens the ability of the Association to defend Canadian pilot interests.
By Andre Nadeau
Over the last year, considerable effort has gone in identifying what ails the Association.
The following have been identified as some, but not all, of the problems facing the
Association. In no particular order:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lack of focus;
Lack of prioritization of activities;
Unreliable and untimely decision-making;
Lack of empowerment of people doing the work – too much micro-management;
Failure to adhere to Government Regulations;
Failure to adhere to By Laws and SOPs;
Inability of the Provincial Association to meet their commitment;
Poor utilization of scarce volunteers;
Uneven service levels;
Marginal allocation of financial resources;
Poor Communications with Canadian pilots;
Poor configuration control over documents;
Dismal maintenance of historical records; and
Lack of French Services.
Once the problems were identified, the Association conducted an option analysis to determined how best to resolve them. It was determined that incremental changes to the structure of the organization and in the way the HPAC conducts its business would not resolve
the problems effectively and timely. Consequently, the BoD decided at the January AGM
that a major restructure of the Association is necessary. The first steps towards this restructure are now under way.
This article describes the objectives of the restructure of the HPAC, describes what the new
HPAC will look like in the future and explains how and when we are going to get there.
Objective
The criteria that have been considered when selecting the new organizational structure are
listed below. It was felt that a new organizational structure meeting these criteria would
go a long way towards resolving the current problems:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Representative. The Association should be responsive to the need of Canadian pilots.
Thus, pilots should have a say on the selection of the HPAC Directors;
Simple. Adopt the KISS principle and avoid unnecessary complexity;
Flexible. Do not handcuff the association needlessly through over-regulation. Put in
place only those regulations that are required and ensure that they can be amended
easily in the future if there is a need to do so. Trust the Directors and their represen
tatives to make the necessary decisions when faced with issues and problems;
Focus. Ensure that the HPAC focus on activities that are achievable and does not get
dragged down by activities that are outside its mandate or that it does not have the
resources to do properly;
Effective. Ensure that the HPAC performs all activities correctly and to the satisfaction
of its members; and
Efficient. Perform the activities in a timely manner with the minimum use of resources
consistent with effectiveness.
The intent of this restructure is not to achieve perfection but to create a structure that is superior to what currently exists. It is expected that future BoD will continue to improve the
Association incrementally over the years to the benefit of all members.
Spring wwwhpacca
Vision, Mission and Objectives
The HPAC has been lacking a clear vision, mission and goals for years. The recognition
of this problem has lead to the establishment of the following.
The Vision of HPAC is to have 2,000 members by 2005.
The Mission of HPAC is to provide its members with those services of a national nature that
enable and facilitate their participation in hang gliding and paragliding in Canada.
The Goals of the HPAC are to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Promote the growth of hang gliding and paragliding in Canada to maintain a viable
population of active pilots;
Promote the safety of hang gliding and paragliding in Canada;
Provide and manage a national third-party liability insurance program;
Develop and manage a Cdn. pilot rating program to help standardize pilot skills
in Canada;
Support a hang gliding and paragliding instructor formation program;
Manage a national competition program to select a Canadian hang gliding and
Canadian paragliding champions;
Represent the interest of hang gliding and paragliding pilots at Transport Canada;
and
Represent the interest of Cdn. hang gliding and paragliding pilots internationally.
The New Organizational Structure
The new organizational structure of the HPAC will be as shown in Figure 1. A BoD consisting of seven Directors, each one elected by the pilots from within one of seven regions,
will lead the HPAC. The regions are BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario,
Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. This smaller BoD will improve communications
between directors and will make it more affordable to hold the annual meeting of
Directors. The BoD will focus on policy.
HPAC Organization
The officers will consist of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Safety
Officer. All officers will be appointed by the BoD and will report to the President. The
President, Vice President and Secretary will also be Directors. The President will head the
BoD and the Vice President will replace the President as required. The Secretary will be
responsible for the minutes of the meeting of the BoD. The Treasurer will manage the budget and funds.
The Business Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day activities of the Association.
The Business Manager will be responsible for implementing the policy and he will have the
authority and responsibility to do so. His duties will go well beyond the current
Administrator functions. He will report directly to the President.
All standing committees will be dissolved. Committees will be formed as required by the
BoD to tackle specific projects and will be dissolved once those projects are completed.
Volunteers currently doing some activities as members of existing committees will continue
to perform these activities if they wish, but will do so under the direction of the Business
Manager who will retain responsibility for the effectiveness and timeliness of these activities.
All the roles and responsibilities of the BoD and officers will be captured in the documents
described further on in the next section.
HPAC Documents
The current HPAC documents consist of the By Laws, a constitution, operating procedures
and tens of forms. None of these documents have been under configuration control over
the years so their accuracy is suspect. In addition, few people know that they exist, they
are not widely available, they are difficult to find and, for the most part, they are only
available in English.
The new organization will replace all these documents with a new By Law and a set of
documents called the Policy and Regulatory Directives or PRDs. These documents will be
available in both official languages.
The new By Laws will be written to allow as much flexibility as possible, while meeting
Industry Canada's guidelines, to minimize the need to amend them in the future. Most
details about the structure, policy and regs of the Association will be captured in the PRDs.
wwwhpacca Spring Lessons Learned...
I thought some of you may relate
this to what we do and how we
should respect what some of the veterans in our sport have to offer.
Think about it...
What a Winch!
There's
something
about
Remembrance Day that makes me
think of the enormous contributions
of our veterans to aviation progress.
My friend Art had to bail out of his
bomber at night over France, and
lived to fight another day. When we
meet in the coffee shop, and I listen
to Art's stories of those times, I realize how incredibly smooth, powerful, and reliable our modern aircraft
have become. Heck, we don't even
have to wear fur-lined boots any
more! And nobody has to "bail out"
any more.
Out at the airport, a bunch of skilled
enthusiasts were pre-flighting an
enormous Grumman Albatross for
the Remembrance Day fly-past. This
spotless monster WWII seaplane is
powered by almost unknown
engines, and is flown using
unknown flying techniques! How do
these guys know about these rare,
complicated, old aircraft? Most of
them weren't flying when Art was
shot down over France, and no flying schools will teach you how to fly
an Albatross.
Well, it's the old principle of one-onone. Each one teach one. Each one
of them collects old information,
and they share it with each other in
order to keep these old birds flying.
I was thinking of these guys after my
visit to the airport today when I was
looking through some of the new
titles in our "History" catalogs.
There! That's how they do their "living history"! They collect information, restore aircraft, fly them, bend
them occasionally, and write more
books for the rest of us. Over and
over again.
Thanks, Art, and all your mates, for
all the pioneering that you've done
for us! See you at the Cenotaph.
Reilly Burke
Technical Advisor
CFI Aerotraining
Spring wwwhpacca
Check out this stationary winch system designed by the Hang
Glider Dudes from Neepawa, Manitoba. If you wanna take a
ride on this baby then attend the Neepawa Fun Fly-in Tow
Comp being held this May Long Weekend, 2001.
This comp will be a pre-event to the possible hosting of the
2002 Tow Nationals in Neepawa by Manitoba.
Check out the details in “airtraffic” or contact the Meet
Director John “Downtube” Rempel at 204-667-8464.
My wife's impression of PG
Husband gets up at ungodly hour of 4am.
Drives 5 hours for best thermalling launch.
Either:
A. Hikes 1 hour to the top of a really high place
B. Drives 15 mins to the top of a really high
place...in the process losing muffler on car.
Shakes out an assemblage of brightly coloured
bed sheets. Ties himself to said bedsheet assembly, Yells Banzai!! and jumps from the really
high place.
At this point Husband either:
A. Reaches terminal velocity prior to suddenly
stopping when confronted with planet earth.
B. Floats around aimlessly watch the stitching
come undone on the bedsheet assemblage.
Once wife is suitably driven insane with anxiety
husband then:
A. Lands in field covered almost completely in
the dung of large herbivorous animals.
B. Approaches the ground and sticks his leg in
a gopher hole.
C. Approaches the ground only to decide that
it looks like fun to hang from high-voltage wires
for a bit.
D. Lands without incident only to approach wife
with huge grin on face because he is a sh*t and
enjoys watching her suffer.
Husband then talks incessantly for the next
week about how great the next outing will be.
HPAC - A New Beginning (cont’d)
The PRDs are documents that are issued under the authority of the Board of Directors (BoD)
of the HPAC. They contain policy, regulations, procedures, responsibilities and other information to be applied to the administration of the HPAC. Basically, if an activity is not identified in a PRD, then the HPAC does not do it. The PRDs will be under tight configuration
control and will be made available on the HPAC web site. Printed copies will be made
available to those members who do not have access to the Internet and who request them.
Transition
A Transition Committee of three members is being formed to manage the transition to the
new organizational structure. The Transition Board Chairman is Andre Nadeau who will
also act as the Program manager for the transition activities. Andre Nadeau will report to
Peter Bowle-Evans, the current President. The Transition Committee will be responsible for
all transition activities that include, but are not limited to, the following:
•
•
•
•
Develop the Transition Plan and all timeline associated with the transition;
Develop the new by-laws and PRDs;
Organize and conduct the election of the new directors; and
Improve the HPAC web site.
The Transition Committee primary objective is to ensure an effective and timely transition
to the new organizational structure. The Transition Committee will have broad authority to
make decisions to ensure that these goals are achieved.
Tentative Schedule for Transition
The tentative schedule for the transition is below. This schedule will be reviewed during
the development of the Transition Plan:
•
•
•
•
•
The new By Laws will be approved by the BoD by mid March 2001;
Candidatures for Director will be accepted in July and August 2001;
PRDs will be promulgated NLT than end October 2001;
Election of Directors will be conducted in October 2001;
The first meeting of the BoD will be held in January 2002. The new BoD will take
over control of the Association at that time.
Information Dissemination
The Transition Committee intends to disseminate information as widely as possible. The
following means will be used:
Information about the transition and transition activities will be posted on the Transition
Web site at http://members.home.net/andre.nadeau/transition/home.htm.
A mailing list has been created to disseminate information to those pilots who do not have
access to the WWW. To register to this mailing list, send an empty e-mail to: HPACAQVLTransition-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Note that this is not a discussion list. The
only individual that will be allowed to post e-mails on this list is the Chair of the Transition
Committee and the only information that will be posted is about the restructure. Postings
will be made in both official languages.
The AIR and Survol will be used to disseminate information to those pilots who have no
access to the Internet. Because of the delay associated with page setting, printing and distributing these magazines, the information may be slightly stale by the time it reaches pilots
through those means.
Request for Volunteers
The Transition Committee is looking for volunteers to help with transition activities. A listing of activities for which volunteer assistance is required will be kept current on the transition web site. If you are interested in helping, please send an e-mail to the Transition
Committee Chairman at: andre.nadeau@home.com.
Andre Nadeau
Chair Transition Committee
The following motions have
been passed through an online process since the AGM.
Motion 2001-02-#01
The BoD has passed a
motion to charge an annual
instructor fee of $65 per
year.This followed from the
discontinuing of the school
insurance fee previously
charged, that was agreed
at the AGMNet proceeds to
HPAC are expected to be
less than previously rather
than more .
Motion 2001-02-#02
The BoD has passed a
motion to reduce the fee
charged for named insured
certificates from $50 to $10
Motion 2001-02-#05
The talked about re-structuring is now able to
begin!The BoD has passed
a motion that enables the
establishment
of
a
Transition Committee to
engage in the business of
effecting the HPAC re-structuring. The motion includes
that the Chair of this committee be Andre Nadeau.
Motion 2001-02-#06
The BoD has passed a
motion that agrees in principle with a set of documents
that form the basis for the
commencement of the
HPAC re-structuring process
that
the
Transition
Committee will start work
from.
Peter Bowle-Evans
President HPAC/ACVL
wwwhpacca Spring Instructor
Insurance Fees
T
he HPAC holds a third-party liability
insurance with our insurer. This insurance provides up to three million thirdparty liability insurance to pilots AND TO
STUDENTS that are under the direct supervision of HPAC-CERTIFIED INSTRUCTORS.
In turn, the HPAC recoups the cost for the
insurance policy through membership
fees, school insurance (now instructor
fees) and site insurance certificates. The
school insurance and site insurance certificates were only instruments to generate
revenues. They did not confer any additional insurance per se to school or sites.
The concept of "school insurance" was
found to be less than ideal for the following reasons:
• Student and school operators were easily confused about what "school insurance" was all about. For example, a
school could hire a non-certified instructor
and still think that their students would be
protected under the "school" policy while
this was not the case since the student was
actually protected by a certified instructor's personal insurance. Similarly,students
may have thought that they were covered
by the "school insurance" under these circumstances when that was not the case.
Thus, there was the risk that both the
HPAC and the school was misrepresenting
the "school insurance";
Spring wwwhpacca
• Under the old system, no school actually needed to pay for "school insurance"
because they were not getting anything
more than what their certified instructors
already received automatically under the
HPAC insurance policy i.e. their students
are automatically covered. If school operators knew better (sometime a lack of
communication is a plus?), they would not
pay the "school insurance" fee since it has
no real value and the HPAC would loose
an important source of revenue; and
• The school insurance process added
unnecessary administrative overhead
because the HPAC had to track schools in
addition to instructors while there was
really no need to do that.
Eliminating the "school insurance" altogether and not replacing it with any
instructor's fee at all was actually passed
in principle at the AGM pending a financial analysis of the cost. That analysis
showed that the HPAC could not afford
the loss of revenues. Since all directors
were heavily opposed to raising the membership fee, the logical solution was to
charge instructors a fee as a condition to
retain their instructor's rating.
Notmaking the fee a condition for the
retention of an instructor's rating would be
pointless because the instructor's student
would be covered automatically under our
insurance policy just by virtue of the certified instructor holding the certification.
I agree that the instructor's fee is not a perfect solution but money has to come from
somewhere. An increase in the number of
HPAC members would help raise the necessary funding and would allow the HPAC
to reduce or even eliminate the instructor's
fee as the Director really wanted to do.
Since I estimate that up to half of the pilots
in Canada are not members, we have a
significant potential source of funding out
there. One of the reason we are restructuring is to try to offer these pilots some
good reasons to join (or rejoin) the HPAC
so we can generate the additional funding to subsidize instructors and undertake
other useful projects that will benefit the
sports in Canada.
In response to Charles Warren's comment
that he did not hear anything about this
issue until it was said and done, I just
want to mention that this topic was added
to the AGM agenda in mid-November
and a discussion paper was posted on the
AGM web site. Having said that, it is the
responsibility of the Directors of the HPAC
to communicate with their provincial
members.
This may, or may not have happened. In
any case, another reason for the restructure of the HPAC is to make sure future
directors are elected and accountable to
the pilot who elects them. This should
help foster bettercommunications in the
future.
Andre Nadeau
&
Radio’s
Wizardry
By Peter Bowle-Evans
W
here would we be without the wonders of technology in free flight today? Unable to communicate, not
knowing our altitude, rate of ascent, heading, airspeed, windspeed, speed to fly to goal, or to direct our
drivers, order dinner ahead of time, call home, call the office, check up on the staff, check the email, make a
few quick stock trades, download an audio-visual and space-and-time record of our flight and analyse the fine
details with mathematical precision; indeed, even to know where the heck we are in at least three co-ordinate
systems - we would be like space travelers projected into the ever expanding universe that leaves them further
and further marooned in nothingness and nowhereness.
From the marvels of the vox unit, I now know just how much effort some of my friends exert in the flying of their
hang gliders, as one day every huff, puff, pant and grunt was relayed faithfully to my ear. Just how much grunt
he exhorts while engaging in certain other physical activities is open to speculation, but I know what my leaning is toward.
The simple radio is a truly a masterpiece on its own. I have yet to come to the end of the permutations by which
one can function other than as the manuals describe. At one time I had as many as eight or more connections
on my system, by the time I was hooked in, any one of which alone could, and did, provide puzzles and amusement. After I got smart and re-configured the system, getting it down to half this number, things got much more
challenging as more quirks arose from less obvious sources. A good radio livens up the dullest flight. You just
never know what it will do. Well, actually you, because they follow every version of
murphy's law that ever was.
So, when you wish to convey something of importance and immediate relevance, such
as 'this air is not suitable for novices', as happened to me one evening, or 'I will be
landing at such-and-such spot in five minutes and it is in the opposite direction to
the way I said I was going to fly before I launched' - there is, of course, no conceivable way that anything will be received, at least by anyone that matters.
Whether these messages are actually transmitted could be a subject for a post
doctoral thesis on space-time continuums. If they are, then there must be a huge
repository of them somewhere. Anyone gaining access to it should be able to
trace many pilots' entire life histories, just supposing that there was a web
browser tailored to searching through it. Conversely, of course, should you
inadvertently curse - not that any of you do, you understand - or if you should
be chatting with someone about the hamburgers you at for lunch, then every
syllable, complete with tone and inflections, will be meticulously both transmitted and received far and wide.
Skips will jump several hundred kilometers, and the content will be relayed
from HG to sailplane to base stations to 747's, and pretty soon multinational
astronauts will be coming back with requests for details on the fries and gravy.
We must realise that the humble hamburger is very likely a much dreamt of
luxury for those marooned space men, and seeds of discontent must not be
sewn. This must be the real reason behind the regulations against frivolous talk
over the air bands.
Partial receptions are always good IQ tests. Notice I say receptions, as the relationship between transmissions and receptions seems to be an unknown akin to
life after death; you just are not able to be at both ends at once - at least until
...continued on next page
wwwhpacca Spring we all fly with flight recorders, and until
hijacking of HGs and PGs becomes a
problem, this is hardly likely. Come to
think of it, close to some international borders, this could be not so far fetched. 'You
vil vly me to town Greener Grass in country of Utopia or I vill shoot you to death,
avter ve land.' How about a section on
hijacking in the tandem manual? It shouldn't be boring. I digress. Take the word
'die', or was it 'dying'? - on its own. No
one in their right mind would say they
were dying, would they? Obviously, their
battery is dying, maybe for their vario or
radio, so we just won't hear anything
more from them till they show up somewhere. Great, let's have a beer! Too bad
we will have to drink theirs too! You know,
one day, the message really was, 'I am
going to die'. It was one of those
episodes, although happily he thought
wrong, and lived.
Never mind for a moment whether or not
we can tell anyone what we are doing or
where we are going right now, so long as
we know. Providing we have taken the
few simple steps of programming all the
world's airports' coordinates into our
GPS, along with some of the more likely
places we might actually fly to, have
flown the requisite umpteen sledders to
calculate our polar - we won't discuss pilot
weight gain just now, have successfully
correlated all the corrections between the
input from our airspeed indicator, our
GPS, and perhaps that polar,
and have kept it straight in
our head - no, in our programming, that altitude
does not require a correction, have correctly set our
launch altitude in relation to
our potential LZs, bearing in
mind AGLs, MSLs, Ms, ft,
inches or mms of mercury,
time zones,
UTM zones
- you do
know
there is a UTM zone line running plumb
through the middle of Calgary, don't
you?, declination - this one is for real in
Canada, and possibly angle of dangle.
We will have no trouble at all charting our
course, following our coordinates,
inputting our requirements, and obtaining
projections of our necessary speed and
heading to fly to arrive precisely at our
intended goal and at an equally precisely
pre-calculated time. Plainly we will have
no difficulty evaluating the windspeeds
along the intended route. Why, we can
call up any number of meteorological
services, which should be able to automatically input a steady stream of data to
our equipment.
What do you mean, you have never
heard of Yahk? Actually, we could do the
whole thing from our PC at home, without
all the messy details of not having a driver, wearing out the SUV, getting cold,
scared or sweaty and dirty. We could get
a much better print out from the laser than
the minuscule inkjet we plug in to the cigarette lighter. You mean you don't have
one of those yet?
As a friend pointed out one day, it is so
much more satisfying to know that instead
of having flown about forty-five kliks, you
flew 38.2, or as I can imagine that
instead of 'blasting me out of there like a
cork out of a bottle', it was 1813.02 fpm
for 79.75 secs.
At least when we do get down on the
ground again, even if noone else knows
where we are and how great our adventure has been, or even we do not ourselves, it is comforting to relax in the
knowledge that we can check our investments and make whatever trades we
deem necessary - providing our cell
phone is not so small that we cannot find
it without our glasses on. We will assume
that we were thoughtful enough not to forget those glasses, or the little gizmo with
which we connect the cell to the palm PC.
Further, now that the location of any cell
phone can be traced once it is turned on,
we can be retrieved with no problem. At
least the cell phone can, even if it is in
bears stomach. Biologists need to develop
an environmentally acceptable puke
potient for the retrieval of non- biodegradable cellular telephones from man eating
carnivores. As a Parks Canada warden
once remarked to me, 'we do not want the
bears to have indigestion'. Please fly in
digestible, biodegradable clothing.
Me, I like my simple vario, with numerals
large enough I can read it without my
glasses on, and buttons big enough I can
press them with gloves on. It dies every
Spring wwwhpacca
now and then too, but so far I have not.
Myself, by the time I get away from the
office and all the PCs, RAMs, DRAMS,
SDRAMS, RAMBUSSES, GIS, GPS, SA,
UTMs, NADs, EDMs, TTMs, TINs, DEMs,
DTMs, PLYs, GWN, USTN, UCMs, BATs,
CFGs, GBs, NSs, routing, cabling, transfers, protocols, gender benders, passwords, codes, equipment that is NFG
right out of the box, incompatibilities, multitudinous mismatching formats and
medias, data recorders and downloaders
...anyone in this domain will have their
own pet list, I have had enough of it! For
pleasure and fun, I want as little of all this
as possible.
Once I am airborne, in a sense, I don't
care where I am, just that I am flying. In
fact, I quite like that I simply disappear for
several hours. With my simple gaze that
has retained its long range faculties very
well, I find I can tell where I am quite
effectively. As to how high, the mountains
are a pretty good yardstick, and vario
does his job, although the pit of my stomach, which requires no batteries or programming, also tells a story. Some of the
sensations that flow from my hands, along
my arms and through my shoulders tell me
all sorts of things about the air and thermal conditions I am actually in, and the
clouds and soaring birds tell me things
about the air currents in other places. My
ears, dulled as they may be from years of
air driven equipment, loud stereos, and
just plain years, still hear the sound of the
wind going by with so many varying
tones, and my face can feel the coolness
or warmth of that same air. In this, perhaps the most free environment I know, in
the absence of a bank of electronic beeps
and bops requiring constant attention, I
can enjoy - what do you think? Free
flight !!
One of my friends with whom I fly most
regularly does not even own a vario, let
alone all the other wizardry. Know what?
He flies, perhaps not quite always, but
most often, higher, further, and for longer
than any of the rest of us - and his wing is
not new either.
I read several articles now about HG
pilots who have sort of re-adopted a slower wing. The more usual term for these
wings is beginner or novice, but since
these are very far from beginner pilots, I
am just calling it slower, which they are. It
seems they are having a lot of fun, and
they are also competing with them, in various ways. What about a meet where the
big rule is, "No electronic wizardry"? In
the interests of safety, I am sure we would
have to allow radios. All the rest - leave it
all behind.
How about it - free flight anyone...?
The Nationals
Left to Right...
Barry Bateman
Andre Nadeau
Tyler Borradaile
Chris Muller
Paul Thordarson
Phil Siscoe
Shots from Jayson Biggins
Jayson gets ready
Spring launch at Woodside
wwwhpacca Spring T
he S.O.G.A. club competition has always been a primarily fun event, with friendly rivalries and spot landings for entertainment!
Last year we decided to alter the X.C. scoring system to take into account the ever-changing conditions in Ontario. (Three days of comp-one rained out, one perfect-one blown out)
The tasks were all open distance, the furthest pilot would have his distance multiplied to
one thousand and all other competitors would have their mileage multiplied by the same
factor. It actually worked out! - The lead pilot always received the maximum points-no matter how far he flew, and the rest of the competitors always scored no matter how far (or
not!) they flew. A real confidence boost for some of the less experienced pilots. Prizes were
awarded for spot and X.C. but the scores were kept separate so that those that didn’t want
to go (or couldn’t) could always try for the spot points.
The second day of competition dawned with winds W.S.W. 10-15 K, puffy cumies started
early and the pilots rushed into line by the dollies. Ken Kinze all business and on the launch
cart first, had a good tow and was soon on his way. Most of the pilots got under way in
one tow and conditions were good all day long.
Ken took the day with an outstanding flight of 81 miles landing just short of Orillia followed by Joe Hockin with an excellent 53 miler that was cut short by Georgian bay (he
landed on the beach in Collingwood!) Martin McLeod came in third with a 42 miler. The
rest of the field was as follows: Steve Younger 30.5 , Mike Gates 22 , Gary Ticknor 21,
John Pop 16.5 and last a rookie, Shane Wright with 15 miles.
The last day was virtually blown out and most of the pilots decided to stay
home, strong Westerly winds gusting 25-30 K were called for and only
the die hards (sorry-optimistic) set up. As you can tell the winds abated
somewhat at the end of the day and Ken again beat out the rest of the
pack with a hard fought 28 miles. The rookie Shane followed with a 17
mile flight which seriously threatened Joe Hockin’s second place standing
as Joe was not going to bother to compete that day. He called from
Toronto and upon hearing that we were setting up, raced up to fly just
before the window closed! Gary managed to fly 7.1 miles, Joe 7 ,I managed only 6 miles after getting dumped in the turbulent air and watched
Shane sail over me at 5 grand! Martin faired even worse with a 1.7-mile
hop!
The final scores for the X.C. portion are as follows;
1st
Ken Kinze………….2000pts
2nd
Joe Hockin………….905 pts
3rd
Shane Wright……….792pts
4th
Martin McLoud……..579pts
5th
Gary Ticknor……..512pts
6th
Mike Gates………..486pts
7th
Steve Younger……377pts
8thJ
ohn Pop…………204pts
In the spot-landing portion Rick Hines nailed the spot on his first try, dead center! (The spot
was laid out like a dart board-no pun intended) and recieved50 points for his trouble, followed by Kevin Thompson who also nailed dead center for 50. Steve Younger made the
spot (but not in the center bullseye) for 10 points. Many other tries were made but as the
pilots were unable to hit in the spot they made no points.
The final scores were as follows;
1st
Rick Hines………….50pts
2nd
Kevin Thompson…...50pts (2nd flight tie breaker )
3rd
Steve Younger……...10pts
Special thanks go out to Christene Nidd who put hundreds of miles in her car chasing
pilots, Joel, Greg and Steve for driving the tug and to Pam and Graham for their assistance
as ground crew.
As meat head for the second year running I can honestly say that I personally had a lot of
fun at this competition, there were no incidents/accidents and we all had a good laugh. I
would recommend any pilots to come over to S.O.G.A. and experience the fun and easy
airtime!
Mike Gates
Spring wwwhpacca
Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association o f Canada
#13, 13670 - 8 4 Ave, Surrey, B.C., Canada V3W 0T6
P h . & F a x : 1-6 0 4 - 5 0 7 - 2 5 6 5
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HPAC Form A- Rev.2000-6
wwwhpacca Spring RELEASE, WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK
I, _________________________________, hereby acknowledge and agree that in consideration of
being permitted to participate in Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities, I hereby agree to
release and discharge "Owners and/or Lessors of land who have granted permission for the use of property for Hang
Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities, the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada a/o Association
Canadien De Vol Libre, their officers, directors, representatives, employees, members and all other persons or entities acting
in any capacity on their behalf" (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Releasee") from all liability and I do hereby waive as
against the "Releasee" all recourses, claims, causes of action of any kind whatsoever, in respect of all personal injuries or
property losses which I may suffer arising out of or connected with, my preparation for, or participation in, the aforesaid
Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities, not withstanding that such injuries or losses may have been caused solely or
partly by the negligence of the "Releasee"
1.
And I do hereby acknowledge and agree;
a.
that the sport of Hang Gliding / Paragliding and Hang Gliding / Paragliding is very dangerous, exposing
participants to many risks and hazards, some of which are inherent in the very nature of the sport itself, others which
result from human error and negligence on the part of persons involved in preparing, organizing and staging Hang
Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities;
b.
that, as a result of the aforesaid risks and hazards, I as a participant may suffer serious personal injury, even death, as
well as property loss;
c.
that some of the aforesaid risks and hazards are foreseeable, but others are not;
d.
that I nevertheless freely and voluntarily assume all of the aforesaid risks and hazards, and that, accordingly, my
preparation for, and participation in the aforesaid Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs and activities shall be entirely
at my own risk;
e.
that I understand that the "Releasee" does not assume any responsibility whatsoever for my safety during the course
of my preparation for or participation in the aforesaid Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities;
e.
that I have carefully read this RELEASE, WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK agreement, that I fully
understand same, and that I am freely and voluntarily executing same;
g.
that I understand that by signing this release I hereby voluntarily release, forever discharge and agree to indemnify
and hold harmless the "Releasee" for any loss or damage connected with any property loss or personal injury that I
may sustain while participating in or preparing for any Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities whether or
not such loss or injury is caused solely or partly by the negligence of the "Releasee"
h.
that I have been given the opportunity and have been encouraged to seek independent legal advice prior to
signing this agreement;
i.
that the term "Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities" as used in this RELEASE, WAIVER AND
ASSUMPTION OF RISK agreement includes without limiting the generality of that term, the Hang Gliding towing
programs and activities as well as all other competitions, fly-ins, training sessions, clinics, programs and events;
j.
this RELEASE, WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK agreement is binding on myself, my heirs, my executors,
administrators, personal representatives and assigns and;
k.
that I have had sufficient opportunity to read this entire document. I have read and understood it, and I
agree to be bound by its terms.
Signature of Participant: _________________________
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Spring wwwhpacca
Print Name: _____________________________
Golden Airtime
...continued from pg. 12
now been flying for over an hour, and I
hadn’t seen anyone in the air besides the
initial paraglider. At 10,500 feet the
shapes below get very small, the air is
cool, and the space around you is limitless
... until you spot another glider. There
was one at my altitude coming back from
the south end of Mt. 7, and another one
working its way up the spine north of the
summit.
Tom was also airborne by now and we
discussed the conditions over the radio.
Both of us were experiencing sink at that
moment. He was barely maintaining several hundred feet above the summit and I
was on a steady descent from my perch at
10,500 feet. He suggested that we were
probably just between cycles and we just
needed to hang on till the next thermal
came through.
Since I had hooked such a good thermal
in the bowl north of the summit, I decided
to return there to find lift to get me back up
again. The bowl did not disappoint me,
and up I went again. I revisited this area
half a dozen times throughout this flight
when the altitude tank was getting low. It
was like pulling up to the gasoline pumps
and saying "fill’er up," and up I’d go.
One of the thermals was soooooo big,
(how big was it?) ... it was so big that I
flew straight for 10 seconds and the climb
rate was still increasing. Just out of habit
I began to circle and went right back up
to 10,500.
The Purcell Mountains were beginning to
cast a shadow on the entire valley. I knew
it would not be too much longer before
that shadow would start to creep up the
slopes that had so consistently provided
me with lift. I figured that I had probably
been up there a while when the Gob
Stopper gum, which my son Conner had
given to me prior to the flight, began to
disintegrate in my mouth.
They should put a warning label on the
gum package stating, "This gum will self
self-destruct in two hours."
Another indication it was getting late was
my wife’s last radio transmission, "John,
there is no sun in the landing field, and
we’re getting eaten by mosquitoes. We
are going back to the campground to get
more clothes. We will be back in a bit."
The sun was getting lower and I could see
Tom heading out into the valley.
When he got to the landing field, he used
the radio in my truck to contact me. The
battery on his radio had shut down 1.5
hours into his 2.5 hour flight. He wanted
to know what my position was.
My reply was, "I’m directly above the
summit of Mt. 7 still duke’n it out with the
two local boys." At that point Peter, Serge
and I were the only ones still in the air. I
later found out that the two Cold Lake
pilots, Guy and Corey, had gone south
(25 km). It was Corey’s first ever cross
country flight. James Lintott of Medicine
Hat and Charlse from Vancouver had
flown, but I don’t know where they finally
ended up. Since Peter and Serge were
still up, I figured I was in good company
and was willing to keep flying as long as
they were.
Sometimes you get a particular instance
during a flight that sticks in your mind like
a photograph, only it’s more vivid than a
photo because it is three dimensional.
One such instance occurred when I had
just flown out of a thermal that was drifting me east of the summit. It was taking
me too far back and I wanted to get back
out in front of the mountain again.
I was flying in a straight line to the west,
and just about over the summit at 9800,
when I noticed Serge was flying straight
out as well just off my right wing,. Peter
was off my left wing doing exactly the
same thing. It was like we were formation
flying without any prior communication.
45 degrees to the right the sun was getting low over the Purcells, and at the same
angle to the left a full moon was creeping
into the sky.
Formation flying above Mount Seven and
the sun and the moon in opposing positions: A 3D image that words can hardly
do justice, but an image I’ll not soon forget.
With the light starting to fade, I began to
wonder when to land. On most flights,
the lift runs out long before the light does.
It was now just after 9:00 p.m. and there
was no sign of the lift running out. From
this height a straight glide to the LZ would
still take 30 minutes. Just as I was pondering how much light there would still be
in 30 minutes, Peter and Serge began fly
north toward launch.
I took this to mean that they too were getting ready to head for the LZ. However,
on a warm summer evening floating
around in endless light puffy thermals, it’s
difficult to ignore lift and fly straight to the
landing field. It’s kind of like a kid walking to school and finding all kinds of
things to investigate before actually getting there. The destination is inevitable,
but definitely not the focus.
As I followed a ridge line away from the
mountain, the vario beeped once more.
"Well O.K. just one more." I banked the
glider and lazily began to climb again.
This is crazy I thought to myself. It is after
9:00 and I’m hitting better lift than I’ve
had mid afternoon on some flights. I only
climbed about 600 ft before I left the thermal and continued toward the LZ. Peter
and Serge were now well away from the
mountain and heading slowly for the LZ as
well.
As we flew over the middle of the valley,
an evening convergence had set up and
there was lift everywhere. The view of the
valley in the purplish twilight from 4000
feet above the LZ was awesome. Some of
the street lights in Golden had now come
on the town looked like SPARKLING
GOLDen.
It was time to pull in the bar and get serious about getting my feet back on the
ground. Bar to my waist and a few steep
turns finally got the glider descending. It
was ironic that the hardest that I’d have to
work all flight, would be trying to get
down!
My daughter’s (Nikkia) voice came over
the radio, "Dad, where are you?" "I’m
3000 feet directly above you," I replied.
"Can you see me waiving at you," she
said. "No," I said, "you look like a little
dot from up here." To which she replied,
"I’m jumping up and down. Can you see
the dot moving up and down?"
Of
course I told her I could.
Serge landed first (4.5 hours flight time),
then I came in two minutes later (3.5 hours
flight time), and Peter landed two minutes
after me (4 hours flight time). My wife
and kids greeted me with an icy cold
Coke!
They helped to quickly disassemble the
glider before the mosquitoes had a
chance to fill up on their drink of choice.
It was hugs for all, as we discussed what
a spectacular flight it had been.
Thanks to Tom for helping me get off
ramp. Thanks to Peter for guiding
around the sky over the mountain in
back yard. And thanks to my family
their support.
the
me
his
for
A candle light (Coleman lantern actually)
dinner at 10:30 was the conclusion to a
perfect day. I didn’t fly cross country and
it wasn’t my longest flight, but sharing the
air with friends at a special site, like
Mount Seven in Golden British Columbia,
is what flying is all about!
wwwhpacca Spring Transport Canada
Rescues at Mt. 7
...continued from pg. 15
...continued from pg. 18
Requirement to carry an altimeter:
The current CARs specify that a hang glider flying in Class E must carry an altimeter.
The CARAC has approved an amendment
to this regulation. A hang glider must
now carry an altimeter in all controlled
airspace. This change just acknowledges
that hang gliders can fly in Class B, C and
D airspaces and removes a potential loophole.
THE COSTS
There is nothing new about the allocation
of costs, more than the reduced costs from
less flying time. Flying time also depends
on more than point of dispatch. There is
search time and rescue site location to
consider, and there can be others. For the
time being whether we or you get a bill is
dependent upon whether or not it is an
ambulance call. This means whether an
ambulance would be called for due to
pilot injuries.
Aerotowing: The current regulation
specifies that a person operating a Flight
Training Unit (FTU) can use ultralight aircraft to tow hang gliders for the purpose
of providing hang gliding flight instruction.
The CARAC has approved an amendment
that specifies that a FTU can use ultralight
aircraft to tow hang gliders for recreational flights as well.
The significance of this change is obvious.
After a pilot completes its training, he can
continue to be aerotowed for recreational
flying, something that is not currently permitted by the CARs but is happening on a
regular basis at Canadian flight parks.
Note however, that recreational aerotowing is still permitted only at FTUs. Note
also that there are some conditions that
must be met before aerotowing operations
can begin. I will address these in a future
article.
Flight Training: Presently, a "person"
cannot conduct flight training for a glider
(including hang glider and paraglider)
unless they are a club, school or other
organization.
The CARAC has approved an amendment
that specifies that a person can now conduct flight training as well. That is selfexplanatory.
Note that the new regulations are not
effective yet. I will advise the HPAC members when that has occurred. Also note
that I am using "hang glider" throughout
this article. I do not wish to offend
paraglider pilots but a paraglider is a
hang glider so the CARs apply to
paragliders as well.
I intend to make this a regular column in
the AIR. The next article will look at my
planned efforts for this year. Bureaucracy
never stops.
Fly safe,
Andre Nadeau
Transport Canada Liaison
Spring wwwhpacca
So, picture a pilot hurt in the middle of a
field in the valley bottom, and ask the
question, does this need an ambulance? If
the answer is yes, then an ambulance
should be called for. There is a discussion
about where the injured person is, and
very quickly the questions, "Is there a
road?" and "Can an ambulance get
there?" get asked. When the answer is
plainly "No", because this person is not in
a hay field but in the middle of a cliff half
way up a mountain, this is the point at
which to start requesting a helicopter rescue. In these cases then, the helicopter
takes the place of the ambulance, and its
cost are charged as such.
If you are properly covered with medical
insurance, then no bill is issued for the rescue. More about the medical coverage
later. If the answer to the need for an
ambulance is a "No", then we or you will
be getting the bill - and this is where our
Contingency Fund comes in, because then
one of the designated site persons will
assess the need and if appropriate authorise the rescue to proceed, acknowledging that the costs will be invoiceable to
our fund.
Alpine personnel in Golden know that we
have the funds in place to adequately
cover this scale of cost, and they will proceed. If the pilot in need of rescue has not
contributed to our fund, then there will be
the discussion of who IS going to pay, and
their personal family and/or friends will
be invited to put down their credit cards
on it. We have to hope that the event of
no contribution, and no solvent family or
friends does not arise.
MEDICAL COVERAGE
This has been brought up a number of
times, by people like Fred Wilson, Andre
Nadeau and others, and I am going to go
through it some more. The lack of it was
highlighted by the horrendous situation
that a Quebec pilot got into one or two
winters ago, and I dare say there are others. This site is in British Columbia. So,
those of us who live here make use of the
British Columbia Medical Plan, which we
refer to as BC Med. There may be other
plans, but for ordinary folks, this is the
one, and it works. Now, many of us have
the premiums paid for through our
employment, and a number of those
employers have extended benefits plans.
Whichever way, we are covered. This BC
Med coverage pays for the lions share of
ambulance services. There is a minimum
fee of $54, and Golden to Calgary last
summer was $137. But pay attention now
- that is NOT the full cost.
I happened to have to assist a friend with
ambulance trip fees recently, and in the
envelopes were cards describing some
quite sobering information. One part contains the preamble over how the ambulance costs are subsidised by the BC
Government for residents of BC covered
by BC Med insurance. The other side presents a different reality.
For Non-Residents/Non-Beneficiaries, the
costs are $396 for ground service,
$2400 per hour for helicopter service,
and $6 per statute mile for fixed wing
service. While you are absorbing this, do
not think that these costs will not increase
over time.
Now lookup your own personal medical
coverage. Does it cover out-of-province
costs? This applies equally to BC pilots
going elsewhere as to non-BC pilots coming here. Of course, ambulance fees are
just part of out-of-province costs that may
be incurred. There are all sorts of medical
and emergency insurance plans all over
the place. I must urge everyone to look up
these boring details and make sure you
are covered. When you get right down to
the number of days or length of time that
you need this coverage for, as a HG/PG
pilot, for most it is not really that long that
you are away from home base. The plan
that I know of, thanks to Fred Wilson, and
which Andre has highlighted too, is
through the Canadian Automobile
Association.
The CAA has a plan that you as a third
party can even sign up a visitor for who
does not speak either of our languages.
Start from www.caa.ca and browse from
there. It is divided into provinces, and all
have 800 numbers. At the last count it
was of the order of $2 per day for a plan
that would look after everything from
crash to getting home. Read the small
print of course, and ask questions - things
do change.
Hoping you all protect yourselves fully and then never need to use it.
Peter Bowle-Evans
airtech
more
Radio
Q & A's
I
ndustry
Canada
&
Spectrum
Management are here to answer questions on radios and frequencies; and to
provide a couple of "news items on the
topic. This is a timely topic due to an
increasing proliferation of Radio types
and frequencies in the sport.
The HPAC has been issued two official frequencies for Air to Air and Air to Ground
operations: 123.4 MHz Aircraft Band for
Soaring Purposes and 173.64 MHz FM
for Hang Gliding Club Use.
There are other radio types in use, including HAM and the Family Radio Service,
but this article will begin by focusing on
our two official channels. Q's come from
the HPAC forum. Answers are from
Spectrum Management.
Aircraft Radios
There are many benefits to using Aircraft
band - often stated, but still worth repeating. It remains the easiest way to both file
your HAGAR and get an up to date
weather forecast. It allows you to land at
some airports and to fly through uncontrolled airports.
Q. What licenses and fees apply to
Aircraft Radios?
A. Aircraft Radios on board aircraft no
longer require licensing fees or registration in Canada and the USA. A considerable cost savings over a lifetime.
From a licensing aspect, the radios on the
ground require a license. "This becomes
some what of a hard sell when you are
likely dealing with the same portable
piece of equipment either strapped to the
pilot or used on the ground. Nevertheless,
this is the current regulatory regime."
Q. Do I still require a Radio Operator
Certificate?
Yes. The Radio Operator Certificate is still
a requirement for anyone who may be
operating the aeronautical radio equipment, regardless of whether a radio
license is required.
Q. How should I identify my hang glider,
if I no longer require a radio license?
A. Non-registered aircraft, such as hang
gliders or other soaring craft, should use
any reasonable method that will allow for
the identification of their station. We suggest that you use "Hang glider SURNAME" as a means of identification.
Q: Would Regulations re aircraft radios
discourage, if not prohibit, air to ground
communication, unless the ground is a
control tower?
A: No. Quite the contrary. Soaring purposes includes ground crew communications.
Q: Can additional frequencies be
obtained for special events / competitions? One frequency gets jammed.
NEWS
A. It is possible to be granted authority by
Industry Canada, on a short term basis, to
use other aeronautical frequencies in the
General Aviation Communication (GAC)
band for hang gliding purposes during
special events. For authorization of specific frequencies, the event organizer should
contact the local office of Industry
Canada well in advance of the scheduled
event. (up to 60 days) As long as the frequencies to be used are for hang gliding
operation and are in the aeronautical
mobile band, there is no fee associated
with this authority.
If deemed necessary, Industry Canada
may direct the event organizer to liase
with a contact person in NavCanada with
respect to coordinating this short term
operation.
FM Radios
Q. Is there a designated FM Frequency
for Hang Gliding in Canada?
A. Yes. 173.64 MHz is designated for
"Hang Gliding Club Use." It is a Private
Commercial Band shared with the
Canadian Ski Patrol and the Royal
Canadian Golf Association and is restricted to 1.0 watts.
"The reason no hang gliding is assigned
on 173.64 is because FM radios require
a license and no Hang Gliding clubs have
bought a license."
Clubs?
Yep. You heard right. Clubs are permitted
to buy a bulk license for all radios in use
by club members. Unlike other
Commercial FM frequencies you are not
restricted to local area use. This frequency
is allocated for hang gliding Canada
wide.
Q. Are there other FM Frequencies we
can use?
A. The Department would be extremely
reluctant to allocate any other such spectrum outside of the Aviation Band. Soaring
is an aeronautical service and should
have it's radio communication needs serviced from within the aeronautical bands.
As a national group, if more frequencies
are required then this should be sufficiently put together in a comprehensive letter
of intent to the Department and possibly
Nav Canada as well.
Comment
Illegal use of commercial FM frequencies
is becoming an increasing problem in
Canada. Many pilots use a local frequency but fail to realize that a commercial FM
frequency is resold to many different companies in different regions of each
province. Example: a business band sold
in Kelowna will be resold in Kamloops.
Secondly, outside of 173.64, commercial
FM frequencies are sold with the expectation that they will be used for ground
based transmissions. As soon as you gain
altitude the probability of interfering with
other users increases.
The advantage of FMs the possibility to
engage in idle chit-chat with flying buddies in the air. But once again, many
pilots are using the radios illegally and
ignorantly - they don't know that there are
special frequencies for repeaters, special
communications purposes, restricted frequencies, and the like. You can't just go
picking any frequency and start talking.
So the apparent infinity of channels that
FM provides is only an illusion. You can
legally transmit on just one frequency.
HAM Radios
Message, Caps locks from Spectrum
Management "I can't emphasize strongly
enough except to say..... AMATEUR
(HAM) RADIO EQUIPMENT CAN ONLY
BE USED BY CERTIFIED AMATEUR RADIO
OPERATORS. As we discussed, the
process of becoming certified is quite
arduous and time consuming. There are
no regulations regarding altitude restrictions although the Amateur fraternity may
have self imposed limits to help prevent
interference."
"We are highly dubious that all your members are meeting the licensing requirements of Ham radio."
...continued on next page
wwwhpacca Spring Radios Q/A
...continued from pg. 37
Using a Ham Radio Air-to-Air or Air-toGround IS NOT illegal. However the bottom line is that Spectrum Management
feels that it is inappropriate to use Ham
radios for flying. The problem stems from
repeaters. Simplex repeaters may pick up
your transmission and rebroadcast it on
another frequency. These users would
have no way of reversing the process to
speak to you to say you are creating a
problem.
With good antennas, Ham radios have
excellent range - in excess of 100 km air
to air without repeaters and on low power
output. They have nifty new features such
as APRS available which integrate GPS.
Family Radio Service
A New service for Radio users is the
Family Radio Service FM UHF 450 MHz
frequency range. This has 14 Channels, is
restricted to a low: 1/2 watt power which
is good for 3-5 km and would be applicable to teaching purposes or local soaring. There are no Licensing requirements
or fees associated with its use.
For further information:
Statements from Industry Canada and
Spectrum Management are posted on the
HPAC web site in the Safety Section
Articles. The HPAC Links page will also
get you to
Industry Canada and
Spectrum Management web sites. "The
topic of radio communication is obviously
a complex one. If anyone has any doubts
or questions call any of our District Offices
listed on our website.'
Spectrum management does get out in
their vans and hunt down evil radio
abusers but in reality the radio usage is
built on the honour system.
Very few Paraglider pilots have bought
into Aircraft Radios. For HG / Pgers alike:
if you are not calling in your HAGAR,
don't hold your breath waiting for the
HPAC Insurance policy to pay out in the
event of a mid-air. It won't. Filing your
HAGAR is like filing a flight plan: the
legal minimum to warn other VFR / IFR
aviators of your presence.
On an airway, airspace above 12,500
ASL is class B, 12,500 ASL down to
2200 AGL is class E, except a transition
area (such as where there is an approach)
and then class E goes down to 700 AGL.
Below 2200 or 700, other than control
zones, it is class G.
Fred Wilson
Spring wwwhpacca
wwwhpacca
President
Peter Bowle-Evans
Box 2035, Golden, BC, V0A 1H0
H: 250-348-2227 F: 250-344-5260
kapristo@rockies.net
Ratings Officer
Gerry LaCroix
310 Bouchard Rd.
Petersfield. MB, R0C 2L0
lacroix@mb.sympatico.ca
Vice President
Phil Siscoe
502 19th Ave NW, Calgary, AB,
T2M 0Y6
Hm: 403-289-7750 Wk: 403-295-5419
Cell: 403-809-7750
Phil.Siscoe@cdcgy.com
Instruction
Chris Muller
Box 2, Site 13, RR#2
Cochrane, AB, T0L 0W0
1-403-932-6760
fly@mullerwindsports.com
Treasurer
Martin Pollach
Box 1442, Cochrane, AB, T0L 0W0
1-403-932-3680
polachm@cadvision.com
Competition
Bernard Winkelmann
2012 - 35 St. SW
Calgary, Alberta
1-403-249-6763
benyl40@hotmail.com
Administrator
Gerry LaMarsh
#13-13670 84th Ave.
Surrey, BC, V3W 0T6
1-604-507-2565
hpac@istar.ca
Accident Review &
Safety Committee Chairman
Ian McArthur
Box 41 Heffley Creek, BC
VOE 1ZO, Canada
ianmc@direct.ca
Air Editor
Tony McGowan
c/o 1430 Church Ave.
Winnipeg, MB, R2X 1G4
cunim@excite.com
Insurance
Gregg Humphreys
2388 Epworth,
Victoria, BC,
V8R 5LI
1-250-592-8428
humph@island.net
CIVL / FAI
Stewart Midwinter
213-24 Ave. NW
Calgary, AB, T2M 1X2
stewart@midwintercanada.com
Transport Canada
Andre Nadeau
1-613-837-5482
andre.nadeau@home.com
B.C. Hang Gliding and
Paragliding Association
Mark Dowsett – BCHPA President
353 East 19th St.
North Vancouver, BC V7L 2Z4
604-984-2588
Alberta Hang Gliding and
Paragliding Association
PO Box 2011, Stn M. Calgary,
Alberta, T2P 2M2
Manitoba Hang Gliding
Association
200 Main St, Winnipeg,
Manitoba, R3C 4M2
Ontario Hang Gliding and
Paragliding Association
Box 151, 1792 Liverpool Rd.
Pickering, Ont. L1V 4V9
Cross Country / FAI
Vincene Muller
Box 2, Site 13, RR#2
Cochrane, AB, T0L 0W0
1-403-932-6760
fly@mullerwindsports.com
Saskatchewan
Hang Gliding Association
741 King St.
Regina, Sask. S4T 4E1
Hang Gliding and
Paragliding Association of
Atlantic Canada
32 Chelsea Lane, Halifax, NS
B3M 1K9, Canada
L’Association Quebecois
De Vol Libre
4545 Pierre de Coubertin, C.P.
1000, Succ. M,
Montreal, Quebec, H1V 3R2
For more info on clubs in your area
check out the new and improved
HPAC website @ www.hpac.ca
airtraffic
Stuff for Sale
Airwave Calypso
Low airtime HG,
excellent shape,
light blue.
Perfect first glider
for less than
$1500.
Contact Guy at
780-594-7282 or
guylau@jetnet.ab.ca
Airwave Pulse
10M, 35 Hrs,
new wires, spare
base tube
and down tube.
Great shape!
$3300.00
Contact Dave at
Box 336,
Stonewall, Mb
R0C 2Z0
1-204-467-8643
PG Instructor/Tandem
Course
April 5-8, 2001
Savona, BC
$ 300 for 4 days
$ 175 for recertification
Instructor Requirements:
HPAC Intermediate rating
Tandem Requirements:
HPAC Advanced Rating
(with Advanced Manouevers
course recommended)
Hang Gliding Champions
2000
A decision has been reached on the HG Champion for 2000. In discussions with the competition chair, Bernard Winkleman, it became apparent
that there was no mathematical procedure available to accommodate the
dual meet format that was run last year. Therefore, it has been decided that
we shall have two champions for 2000, being Chris Muller from the Lumby
meet, and Gerry Grosnegger from the Saskatchewan meet. Both names will
be engraved on the trophy. Congratulations Chris and Gerry!
REMINDER
Remember deadline
for the Summer
edition of Air will be
May 15, 2001.
If you do not see your
article in this issue it
will be in the
Summer edition,
so don’t worry.
Seminar in Savona Location to
be determined. Space is limited,
please book early!
I still need some
great photos...so send
them in and you could
be on the next cover.
Email is: flybc@hotmail.com
www.flybc.org
604-618-5467
Sponsored by FlyBC Paragliding
Email Articles to
cunim@excite.com
STOP THE PRESS
The Manitoba Hang Gliding
Association in conjunction
with the Neepawa Club
have just announced a
Tow Competition
to be held this coming
May Long Weekend.
The comp will be a
pre-cursor to the possible
hosting of the
2002 Tow Nationals
by the MHGA.
The competition will be held
in the town of Neepawa,Mb
May 19 to 21, 2001.
Contact:
Meet Head John Rempel @
204-667-8464 for more info
If you got the time come on
out and explore the XC
potential of this fantastic site
and get a jump on next
year. It’ll be tons of fun!!
wwwhpacca Spring For more details on these adventures go to www.iparaglide.com
Fly Hard Southwestern USA, April 7 to April 22, 2001. Join us for a 16-day "Fly Hard"
adventure tour through California, Nevada, and Arizona USA. The tour will commence in San
Diego, California on Saturday April 7 and end in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday April 22. On
April 16, 17, 18 we will meet up with Anne and Enleau O’Connor at Lake Havasue for
Simulation of Flight Incidents (SFI) training.
Calender
of Events
3-Day Simulation of Flight Incidents (SFI) Clinic, April 16, 17, 18, 2001, Lake
Havasue, USA. We teach you recovery and prevention techniques for all possible unintentional, non-standard flight occurrences. We will emulate the entire series of DHV test maneuvers that
are used to certify your glider. In this manner, you will gain valuable insight of the DHV test
process and see first-hand how your glider reacts at the limits of the flight envelope.
Emphasis during the course will be on: deliberately inducing the particular non-standard flight
configuration to understand how it may occur inadvertently; maintaining the configuration to be
able to see and recognize when it has occurred; and then learning the most efficient techniques
for rapid recovery to normal flight. Your instruction team will be comprised of Anne and Enleau
O'Connor, top US aerobatic pilots of Seattle Aerobattle fame. These pilots have executed thousands of aerobatic maneuvers and have mastered control of their gliders at the limits of the flight
envelope. They are capable of controlled changes of heading during spins and stalls, backward
flying, asymmetric spirals, loops and the all-new SAT maneuver!
For your safety, all clinics will be conducted over a lake with a rescue boat on standby. We use
a specialized tow rig and boat to tow you to three thousand feet above the lake where you will
release and begin your routines while guided from the shore by your instructor.
Fly Hard Central West USA, April 28 - May 13, 2001. Join us for a 16-day "Fly Hard"
adventure tour through California, Nevada and Utah USA. The tour will commence in San
Francisco, California on Saturday April 28 and end in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday May 13.
We will have the great opportunity to meet up with top US aerobatic pilots Anne and Enleau
O'Connor of Seattle Aerobattle fame (Redding, California). They will be available for guiding
and for theory sessions and question/answer periods.
Fly Hard Northwestern USA, May 19 to June 3, 2001. Join us for a 16-day "Fly Hard"
adventure tour through Washington, Oregon and Idaho USA. The tour will be a circuit, commencing in Seattle on Saturday May 19 and ending back in Seattle on Sunday June 3.
Fly Hard Beautiful British Columbia, September 1 to September 16, 2001. Join us for a
16-day "Fly Hard" tour through British Columbia (BC) Canada. The tour will commence in
Vancouver, Saturday August 18 and end in Calgary, Alberta on Sunday September 2. This will
be a great opportunity to fly with Dani Loritz, Firebird test pilot and one of the world’s top aerobatics pilots.
Fly Hard Southern Europe, September 22 to October 7, 2001. Details to be announced.
Dani Loritz, Firebird test pilot, world class aerobatics pilot, and close personal friend, will be
organizing this for us. Not sure exactly where, but Dani knows Southern Europe better than anyone, and this trip is guaranteed to be GEIL! (Swiss slang for "the best?").
Fly Hard Mexico, November 17 to December 2, 2001. Join us for a 16-Day day "Fly Hard"
adventure tour through Mexico. The tour will commence on the Pacific in Puerto Vallarta on
Saturday, November 17 and traverse Mexico arriving at the beautiful waters of the Gulf of
Mexico in Vera Cruz to depart December 2.
CANADA
Canada’s first paragliding e-commerce site has been launched at iparaglide.com. The site offers
convenient, fast and safe on-line shopping for the very finest paraglider brands including
Airwave, Firebird, Gin, Nova, Ozone, Renschler, Sup’Air, Windtech and XIX. Also available is
every imaginable accessory from large to small: harnesses, reserves, safety equipment, instruments, clothing, books, videos and cd-roms. Worldwide delivery is available to your door. The
firm is first to offer paragliding adventure tours that span the entire west coast of North America.
The flight school offers advanced levels of training with world class pilots flown in for mentoring
at clinics including simulation of in-flight incidents and aerobatic maneuvers.
Big Vision Productions, iparaglide.com’s sister company, presents the new
digitally mastered video, Seattle Aerobattle, North America’s paragliding
aerobatics championship. Marvel in the energy of extreme aerial maneuvers beyond the cutting edge of the sport, including controlled change of
heading during spins and stalls, asymmetric spirals, and loops. Witness
a successful reserve parachute deployment when a competitors maneuver
goes awry. Set to high-energy music, this video is a surreal play of color,
sound, and mind-bending moves that will take you higher.
Spring wwwhpacca