http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1582
Rick Masters: Superiority of Hang Gliders
And this doesn't happen in hang gliding - I'm guessing at a proportionally higher rate 'cause I'm guessing it's an easier mistake to make with our birds?Rick Masters - 2014/10/03 18:56:06 UTC
Current list numbering (changes frequently as historical fatalities are found and added):
PG fatality #784
Henry Navia Garcia
Another murder of a tandem passenger by an incompetent operator who forgot to fasten his client's leg straps. It was a special black eye for paragliding in Columbia because the dead man was a government employee in service to the Secretary of Health in Cali. As usual, he held on to the "instructor" for several minutes until his strength ebbed and he fell to his death. One of over 100 deaths on the tandem PG fatalities list.
I didn't hear ya...
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=811
FTHI
...calling Jim Lee, Bob Dunn, or Dave Butz incompetent...Rick Masters - 2011/10/26 23:07:48 UTC
At an Owens Valley Comp (1982?), I saw, from a distance, Jim Lee, in a UP Pod, lift and tug, then launch. But Jim fooled himself and he fooled me. He had been clipped in by going around the outside of his down tube. When he launched, he immediately engaged in a struggle not to enter a spiral dive. I remember saying, "Throw your chute! Throw your chute!" But he made it to the Pitts and crash-landed in a turn that damaged his glider - but he survived.
My good friends Bob Dunn and Dave Butz both launched unhooked. Bob held on to his base tube all the way down from Plowshare. The impact split his skull and he suffered terribly until he died during the night, alone. Dave pulled himself onto his control bar and rode the glider down from the high Santa Barbara launch.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802My sincere thanks to Carlos Miralles and Bill Dodson for teaching me the ONLY way.
NOTHING substitutes for a hang check immediately before take off. I know. I'm still here.
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
...ya stupid shit. The percentage of established hang gliding people who've had connection incidents - launched unhooked, minus a leg loop or two, partially hooked, hooked into something other than a hang strap, with dangerously misrouted suspension and/or have been intercepted at launch with a critical issue - is fuckin' HUMONGOUS. I've done the partial hook-in trick...Rick Masters - 2011/10/19 22:47:17 UTC
At that moment, I would banish all concern about launching unhooked. I had taken care of it. It was done. It was out of my mind.
...myself - launched, soared, landed.
Ya wanna blast the paragliders 'cause they collapse in turbulence and kill people like they're going outta style - fine, more power to ya. But that issue has shit to do with the flavor of wing over people intending to get themselves airborne and to dump on paragliders for this one is naked hypocrisy and bigotry. It's basically lying to your readers - and I notice none of your Bob Show douchebag buddies over there are calling you on it.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/faq.php
Frequently Asked Questions
Bullshit, Bob. You're the only asshole who has any freedom over there and the only thing you honor is all your assholes getting along real well with each other.What will keep the US Hawks from becoming another USHPA or HGAA?
You will ... hopefully. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Everyone has to do their part once in a while. If you see something that's not being done correctly, then it's your duty to speak out. One big difference between the US Hawks and other organizations is that the US Hawks really does honor the free speech of its members.
They'll never put themselves in that position, so that gives us an edge right off the bat.
