http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1787
USHPA Expulsion Proceeding
Bob Kuczewski - 2015/04/23 08:15:53 UTC
You only have to look at the video by Brad Geary and Max Marien to see gross negligence.
Yeah? Which part?
Pulling down on the leading edge of a tandem paraglider carrying a child passenger...
- Student.
- And we all know how DEEPLY concerned you are with the safety of people of varying ages.
...is exactly equivalent to firing a shotgun into the air with pilots overhead.
And you are totally full o' shit beyond any level of comprehension.
They didn't kill one of those kids (fortunately)...
Pure luck that both of them are still alive.
...but it was exactly that same kind of arrogant gross negligence that injured Shannon Hamby.
- I don't know what led up to that midair but midairs between paragliders and paragliders, hang gliders and hang gliders, paragliders and hang gliders aren't all that uncommon. As somebody a real good ways towards a Five I DAMN NEAR caused one myself close to cloudbase over Ridgely on 2004/09/12 - ASSUMED I was alone and made an abrupt turn without clearing to head for an area in which I thought could find some extra lift. (John Middleton had to stuff the bar and there wasn't a goddam thing I could do 'cept wait for him to clear beneath me.) So until you can show something more of a pattern than one midair in twenty years I won't be putting too much stock in the argument that this was a consequence of the pattern of the arrogant gross negligence of Air California Adventures.
- What the fuck does a midair over the LZ involving two student pilots - at least one of whom has to be totally clueless - hafta do with two...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41619
Goodbye Bob K?
Brian McMahon - 2015/04/23 14:51:44 UTC
Obviously these pilots have mad skillz, they fly hundreds of Tandems per year and are probably bored by a lot of the flights.
...madly skilled professional tandem thrill ride drivers doing relative work and keeping things under total control to the last fucking inch one hundred percent of the time? Can you come up with anything LESS relevant?
Rick Masters - 2015/04/23 15:06:50 UTC
Wow. After reading BobK's post I would be wary of allowing USHPA to be too closely allied with any free chapters or the national hang gliding association that replaces it.
The national hang gliding association that's hoping to replace it stinks every bit as much as - and, in many ways, much more than - the original.
Also, Joe very correctly points out the stunning and utterly incompetent behavior of the tandem parachutists carrying children within the Paraglider Dead Man's Curve (PDMC).
Yeah. He very correctly pointed that out over here too - and has yet to respond to the rebuttal I posted a couple days ago. But don't worry - I wasn't holding my breath.
This is exactly how tragedies happen.
Yeah motherfucker? Cite some data supporting that proclamation.
In my view...
Say no more. Anything in your VIEW is certainly more than good enough for the rest of us.
...no USHGA-sanctioned "instruction" should be allowed anywhere without the "instructor" being equipped with a ballistic reserve.
In my view any "instruction" being conducted so far out at the edge of the envelope that a ballistic chute could be considered a significant safety asset shouldn't be conducted.
But, of course, even this wouldn't do any good should the "instructor" induce a collapse while holding his helmet in one hand and leaning over backwards and biting the leading edge of the paraglider behind him.
What were you expecting might happen? Give me the scenario in which either of those gliders experiences a significant control compromise.
To risk four simultaneous deaths this way, including two children of an unsuspecting public, is reprehensible.
Unsuspecting public?
I don't wanna go in early.
Hahaha. I wanna see this VIDEO.
Yeah.
It's gonna be AWESOME. You got a Facebook?
Yeah.
Definitely gonna hafta get in on there.
If the fuckin' public was unsuspecting shortly before those flights it sure wasn't unsuspecting shortly after.
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Disregarding the price tag I'd throw my people of varying ages up for rides like those in New York minutes - but, what the hell, I'm a known and unrepentant major threat to the safety of people of varying ages anyway. So take that any way you feel like.
The entire USHPA BOD should receive a vote of no confidence over the myopic way they see priorities.
They see their priorities as $$$ and only $$$. That's real bad for recreational hang gliding but if these tandem thrill rides were bad for the general public they'd be real bad for ACA and thus for u$hPa and they'd stop for THAT reason.
When somebody ACTUALLY KILLS SOMEBODY bookings plummet - as they DEFINITELY did in response to Jon Orders / Lenami Godinez-Avila and certainly would've in response to Kelly Harrison and Arys Moorhead even if Las Vegas Hang Gliding hadn't been the only show in town.
So if this kinda shit is ACTUALLY dangerous then where are the crashes - or even inconsequential incidents at altitude - that prove it to be? They were FORTUNATE not to kill anyone in the course of these two simultaneous flights but there haven't been any previous related incidents? I one hundred percent guarantee you motherfuckers that the next time somebody's killed hang gliding I'll be able to post at least ten videos from the Kite Strings collection clearly illustrating what went wrong and why.
But they permanently revoked Brad's tandem ticket anyway. And that wasn't good enough for ya?
Hang glider pilots in particular should understand why their fees are so high when they read this:
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41619
Goodbye Bob K?
Mark G. Forbes - 2015/04/23 06:40:44 UTC
...and they must price into our risk the additional hazard of false testimony...
The thing is, the insurers aren't going to know who to believe.
Yeah, the insurers are all total fucking morons - like Zack and Alec and their mom who are incapable of watching videos and determining what's dangerous and what isn't.
They will, however, believe this: The USHPA can't keep its own house in order.
Oh really? Appears to me - and probably a few other expelled members - that that's the one thing that u$hPa's TOTALLY EXCELLENT at doing.
But worse, much worse, is the behavior of the tandem paraglider parachutists entrusted with children.
With CHILDREN!!! Oh my GOD!!! (Children - first refuge for scoundrels.)
They clearly endangered the children by engaging in canopy relative work within the PDMC above a public Beach while claiming to be providing "instruction."
CLEARLY.
Here's li'l Lars up with Harald:
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He's being endangered and he knows it. Look at what he's looking at and look at the expression on his face. He knows there's something seriously wrong with this picture and what's wrong with this picture is just a slightly different flavor of what's gonna kill Arys:
and Kelly eighty-six days later in a totally predictable manner.
Here's Zack up with Brad (and li'l brother Alec up with Max just below):
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http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8727/16997998127_0dc02969d5_o.png
He's very clearly NOT being endangered in the slightest, very clearly knows it, and is having an absolute BLAST.
If the insurers should see this video, they will realize their actual exposure is far beyond what they had assumed.
Fuck the insurers. Zack isn't their problem. They're only worried about the car Zack falls on.
They will also realize they can no longer trust the USHPA.
They're insurers. They undoubtedly realize they can never trust ANYBODY.
Hang glider pilots must realize they are subsidizing this potentially huge parachuting liability.
Good. I'd much rather subsidize this activity than assholes who build beach houses on barrier islands.
Seeing the USHPA expel a member outspoken on safety while simultaneously turning a blind eye to dangerous paragliding behavior at a showcase site is, to me, beyond belief.
To you the concept of anyone doing a hook-in check is beyond belief.
If I were a USHPA member, I would run, not walk, away.
If you were a u$hPa member I'd have even more incentive to not be a u$hPa member.
But today's hang glider pilots have obviously drunk the kool-aid. They see something entirely different, I guess.
This one does - asshole.
P.S. Not long ago I watched a program showing how things work in a baboon troop.
When a lower ranked male baboon is about to get the crap beat out of him by a higher ranked male baboon he'll snatch a little kid baboon away from its mother and hold it 'cause they have this rule that you can't beat up anybody who's holding a little kid.
This is EXACTLY the strategy you assholes are trying to use in your war with u$hPa. But we humans are beings created in the image of God and all this evolution stuff is a total load o' crap - right?
