The Bob Show

[<BS>]

Tad cannot be trusted to correct his mistakes.

Evidence to the contrary.
http://www.kitestrings.org/viewtopic.php?p=3242#p3242
http://www.kitestrings.org/viewtopic.php?p=8658#p8658

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3466
USHPA's Risk Mitigation Strategy

Bob Kuczewski - 2019/04/20 20:20:13 UTC

USHPA's Risk Mitigation Strategy

Pssst . . . Hey big insurance company...

Don't worry about all those accidents and deaths. We have a bullet proof risk mitigation strategy.

Here's how it works. We let our big businesses get away with whatever they want, and we make sure everyone is afraid to testify against them. And if anyone does dare to testify (they almost never do), we publicly smear them, take away all their ratings, and turn the whole hang gliding community against them.

Pretty cool, huh?

Sure. Right. Whatever you say.
Uh ... we'll look into getting back to you on that policy.
Don't call us, we'll call you ... maybe.

March 9th, 2019 ... 2 more dead at Torrey.

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=463
Davis Straub's "Oz Report" Conflict of Interest

Bob Kuczewski - 2011/03/09 02:33:49 UTC

This is going to sound cold, but I believe people have a right to make their own choices. I don't want a "nanny state" where anyone is telling me what I can and can't do ... for my own good. The sport of hang gliding would surely not exist if that thinking were carried to its logical extreme. There's something bred into all living things that urges them toward taking some degree of risk in their lives. Those who want to forbid that risk are essentially snuffing out the human spirit itself. I can't support that. I do support information. I support good information. I support exposing bad information. But I don't support dictating what anyone can or can't do. The fundamental principle of economics (and evolution) is two words: "people choose".

Pity the Board didn't get somone like Dennis Pagen to talk to you, bring you back into the fold, harness your energy, settle the matters without you doing any serious damage to the sports.

[<BS>]

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=165970
Bob Kuczewski's Expulsion Info Update

I saw BK in action at the BOD. I would have shot him.

[Tad Eareckson]

Tend to get a bit nauseous being in alignment with Davis about anything but...

http://www.shga.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3840
[TIL] About Tad Eareckson

Bob Kuczewski - 2013/03/10 18:20:34 UTC

I first learned about Tad Eareckson when I was Regional Director and the USHPA Board circulated a letter he had written (with intention to send?) to the FAA about some dangerous practices in hang gliding.

The Board's knee-jerk response was to try to take some kind of legal action to silence Tad. I indicated that I thought we shouldn't be sending our lawyers in as our first response, and that maybe we should have someone talk with him first. So Dennis Pagen volunteered, and I believe the matter was settled without any serious damage to the sport.

Serious damage was being done to the sport within the first half hour of its inception. It was being done to the sport when I entered it at the beginning of April in 1980. It just kept getting worse, and worse, and...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=16439
Some day we will learn

Steve Morris - 2010/03/31 23:58:54 UTC

In 2009 there were several serious hang gliding accidents involving pilots on the HG forum (or who had close friends on the forum that reported that these accidents had occurred). In each case there was an immediate outcry from forum members not to discuss these accidents, usually referring to the feelings of the pilots' families as a reason to not do so. In each case it was claimed that the facts would eventually come out and a detailed report would be presented and waiting for this to happen would result in a better informed pilot population and reduce the amount of possibly harmful speculation.

In each of these cases I have never seen a final detailed accident report presented in this forum. So far as I can tell, the accident reporting system that has been assumed to exist here doesn't exist at all, the only reports I've seen are those published in the USHPA magazine. They are so stripped down, devoid of contextual information and important facts that in many cases I have not been able to match the magazine accident report with those mentioned in this forum.

The end result has been that effective accident reporting is no longer taking place in the USHPA magazine or in this forum. Am I the only one who feels this way?

...worse and it's in death spiral mode now and there's nothing out there that's gonna turn that around.

It's hard to think of innovations in equipment (save for the digital stuff) and training that shouldn't have been no-brainers on Day One but were way too long in coming. Take HGMA glider certification for example - reflex bridles, defined tips, sprogs. And it gets catastrophically neutralized by foot launching and landing, control tubes flying, easily reachable releases, pro toad bridles, appropriate weak links with finished lengths of 1.5 inches or less. HGMA certified gliders are all great way the fuck up in the sky and as deadly as anything we've ever flown near the surface where anything matters.

Name something else. The AT stuff I spent years developing, refining, documenting gets pissed all over and kept out of circulation by u$hPa, the Flight Park Mafia, the worlds largest hang gliding community, The Davis Show, you and your asshole buddies. Long live Industry Standard cheap bent pin shit.

You're all "people choose" just as long as it's not your Torrey parochial ox getting gored. Then it's NOTHING BUT enforcement of existing regulations and implementation of obnoxious useless new ones you pull outta your ass. (Go ahead Bob. Get legislation passed outlawing inflight cell phone use. Then maybe get it expanded to two meter radio. Then see how that goes over with the worlds largest hang gliding community.)

Catastrophic student paraglider crashes at Torrey... Yeah, zilch experience students SHOULDN'T be put into situations over their heads. HOWEVER... Nobody had a gun to Shannon's head FORCING her to fly in the conditions and circumstances which led to the devastating end of her career. Nothing was stopping her from saying she didn't feel up to flying in the traffic present that day. She had the options of bagging it and coming back next weekend, doing some kiting practice, soaring and hanging out in clear air until there was nothing else in problematic range of the gliderport.

My situation on the other hand... As far as I'm concerned Ridgely was my ONLY viable flying option - Woodstock was as out of range as the fuckin' Owens Valley and I'd long before burned out on that drill. Those motherfuckers were operating in flagrant violation...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3600
Weak link question

Jim Rooney - 2008/11/20 22:25:38 UTC

Something to bear in mind... the tug's weaklink is three strand.
For clarity... A normal single loop weaklink would be considered two. A tandem double loop is considered four.
In the tandem setup, the "weaklink" in the system is at the tug end, not the glider.

Ya'll seem to be missing this.
Once you go beyond three strand... you're not using a weaklink. If the weaklink goes, you're getting the rope.
Paul found this out the hard way in Texas.

...of federal law.

So I had two choices - fly illegally and unsafely behind Bobby Fucking-Genius Bailey's turbocharged 115 horsepower Infallible Weak Link and the incompetent flagrantly noncompliant asshole driving it or don't fly. There was no come back next weekend when we'll be flying legally and safely option. (But you have very little experience towing so couldn't possibly comment.)

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=867
Tad Eareckson ...an ongoing project

Bob Kuczewski - 2019/04/11 06:57:51 UTC

I fear that poor Tad may be losing his mind. He keeps addressing me by name and asking me questions on his forum ...

Maybe Tad forgot that I can't answer any of his "Hey Bob" questions ...
...because he banned me?

Yeah, you seem to be able to respond to Tad's posts just fine whenever you think you can score or appear to. It's only when you're really obviously painted into corners that you go blind, deaf, and dumb.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/wiki/HG_ORG_Mission_Statement
HangGliding.Org Rules and Policies

* No posts or links about the toxic Bob Kuczewski, Scott C Wise, Tad Eareckson and related people, or their material or organizations. ALL SUCH POSTS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DELETED.

That's all that's left, Bob.

http://www.kitestrings.org/post11506.html#p11506

Gone is:

These people are poison to this sport and are permanently banned from this site in every possible way imaginable. They have been banned over and over again by multiple websites and organizations.

which had all three of us still on equal footing - ignoring the fact that Scott doesn't have an organization - plus all Jack's Bob-specific paranoid ranting. I'm glad all the latter stuff is gone 'cause I was always a good bit jealous of and felt a good bit slighted by all that WAY disproportionate extra attention you got.

And do note that the "moderator" of the worlds largest hang gliding community never went after Yours Truly with any specific allegations 'cause he always knew he couldn't afford to.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=14312
Tow Park accidents

Jack Axaopoulos - 2009/11/10 13:36:53 UTC

I still dont know if I buy into the stronger weak link hypothesis.

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2467
weak links

Jim Rooney - 2007/07/22 22:30:28 UTC

I've heard it a million times before from comp pilots insisting on towing with even doubled up weaklinks (some want no weaklink). I tell them the same thing I'm telling you... suck it up. You're not the only one on the line. I didn't ask to be a test pilot. I can live with your inconvenience.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Davis Straub - 2011/08/26 14:04:52 UTC

We had six weaklink breaks in a row at Zapata this year. Russell Brown (tug pilot, tug owner, Quest Air owner) said go ahead and double up (four strands of Cortland Greenspot). He knows I used his Zapata weaklink in Big Spring (pilots were asked to tell the tug pilot if they were doing that).

None of these mainstreamer motherfuckers has ever heard of a weak link of any kind for any purpose in any application before. Maybe you should start a Bob Show topic to get this issue properly sorted out once and for all.

[<BS>]

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2944
Discussion of USHPA SOP 12-02.1 through 12-02.11

I've started this topic to gather views as to the quality of the USHPA hang gliding pilot proficiency system (rating system) as expressed in USHPA SOP 12-02 (specifically 12-02.1 through 12-02.11). In particular, I'd like to see discussions about any items that pilots might feel are so wrong that they should be changed.

Erase the money trail from the text. Erase the sieve of membership from the text.
Erase the revocable text. Erase u$hPa from the text.
Have zero mention of paragliding, towing, tandem, unenforceable tribal control matters.
Focus just on raw knowledge and raw skills.
Then overlay creative comments with creative helpful links for the mentors and pilots.
Erase text that implies that an org is required for procedures, practice, and performance; keep the text so that the participant remains 100% responsible. Encourage log-diary with notes from many mentors along the way.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=3480
Ryan "Airthug" Voight - A failure preaching to the choir?

Bob Kuczewski - 2019/05/14 08:47:47 UTC

Ryan Voight is a second generation hang gliding instructor (son of Paul Voight). Ryan was literally raised in the sport of hang gliding. He eventually started his own school at one of the best and most consistent hang gliding sites in the U.S. - Point of the Mountain, Utah. Eventually, Ryan joined his father on the USHPA Board as part of a father/son dynasty.

So what happened? Let's listen in as Ryan tells us all what's wrong with the sport of hang gliding:

Ryan Voight - 2019/05/14 02:28:43 UTC

I believe ADAMANTLY that the failings of the sport to thrive are almost entirely due to poor instruction techniques and practices.

Well then, if the entire sport is plagued with poor instruction techniques and practices, then shouldn't Ryan's school have flourished? Shouldn't Ryan be running the most successful school in the world and turning out more new pilots every week while the rest of the sport flounders?

Ryan even produced this great introductory video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM


The video does an excellent job of showing how students are coached through picking up the glider, running on flat ground, and eventually launching and landing from a small hill. It reminds me of my own training progression back in 1978. It also reminds me of what I've seen by instructors from coast to coast for decades. Is that the "secret" that's somehow going to save hang gliding? Really?

Let's see what else Ryan has to say ...

I moved on, I'm done teaching, and very done trying to help USHPA. Hang gliding isn't even that big a part of my life anymore... I sold my T2, and just have one glider now, a Falcon. Saturday was my second flying day in 2019...

What!?! Here's a second generation hang gliding instructor and second generation USHPA Board member who knows the secret of teaching and was running his own school in one of the best flying sites in the country ... and now he's "done teaching"? He's "moved on"? What could have possibly gone wrong?

Ryan seems to want to blame "USHPA", but Ryan *is* USHPA. He's as close as we have to "hang gliding royalty" in this country. Both Ryan and his father have been extremely influential in creating the "USHPA" that we have today.

The sad fact is that Ryan and his jokester father are exactly what's wrong with USHPA. They've been calling the shots for their own business interests for decades now. The wreckage all around them is theirs. They own it.

Neither Ryan nor his father Paul would support the reforms needed to turn USHPA around. Neither would support open voting by the USHPA Board. Neither would support separate divisions for hang gliding and paragliding. Neither would support balancing the Torrey Pines Soaring Council. Neither would support a hang gliding club at our most famous flying site. Neither would support due process for pilots. They both sat idly by while Mark Forbes and Tim Herr called the shots.

And now Ryan Voight steps forward with a training video as if that's all that's needed?

Let me be clear. Ryan Voight and Paul Voight and the majority of the USHPA Board have driven the sport of hang gliding into the ground for their own self serving reasons. There has been too much interest in the business of hang gliding and not enough interest in the sport of hang gliding. Ryan Voight is the poster child for this epidemic, and he's gotten what he deserves.

Well then, if the entire sport is plagued with poor instruction techniques and practices, then shouldn't Ryan's school have flourished?

When in hang gliding has total anything of quality ever pushed total crap significantly out of existence?

Shouldn't Ryan be running the most successful school in the world and turning out more new pilots every week while the rest of the sport flounders?

He certainly would if anything he was teaching had any foundation in reality.

Ryan even produced this great introductory video:

The video equivalent of the excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

If you teach them how to pull the glider with the harness they'll learn to steer the glider through weight shift simply by running toward their target.

069-25104
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1572/26142964830_289bc3f2cb_o.png

The video does an excellent job of showing how students are coached through picking up the glider, running on flat ground, and eventually launching and landing from a small hill.

At all times totally adhering to hang gliding's global cardinal rule of never getting a hand anywhere near the control bar.

It reminds me of my own training progression back in 1978.

I would've never had the slightest doubt.

It also reminds me of what I've seen by instructors from coast to coast for decades.

And yet we still have never seen the tiniest scrap of video evidence of anybody anywhere pulling the glider with the harness to steer it through weight shift simply by running toward his target. Go figure.

Is that the "secret" that's somehow going to save hang gliding? Really?

Gotta admit... It's the best kept secret in the entire world history of aviation.

Let's see what else Ryan has to say ...

I'm all ears. 'Specially since we no longer get to hear anything Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney has to say about anything.

I moved on, I'm done teaching, and very done trying to help USHPA. Hang gliding isn't even that big a part of my life anymore... I sold my T2, and just have one glider now, a Falcon. Saturday was my second flying day in 2019...

Almost kindle's a spark of hope for the sport.

What!?! Here's a second generation hang gliding instructor and second generation USHPA Board member who knows the secret of teaching and was running his own school in one of the best flying sites in the country ... and now he's "done teaching"? He's "moved on"? What could have possibly gone wrong?

I'm wondering what could've possibly gone right.

Ryan seems to want to blame "USHPA", but Ryan *is* USHPA. He's as close as we have to "hang gliding royalty" in this country.

Now that:

08-19
http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5277/30076449505_1f6ed2f804_o.png


And that wasn't even in either the Northern or Western Hemisphere.

Both Ryan and his father have been extremely influential in creating the "USHPA" that we have today.

No shit.

The sad fact is that Ryan and his jokester father are exactly what's wrong with USHPA. They've been calling the shots for their own business interests for decades now. The wreckage all around them is theirs. They own it.

And we're inheriting it.

Neither Ryan nor his father Paul would support the reforms needed to turn USHPA around. Neither would support open voting by the USHPA Board.

Sound like excellent Bob Show material so far.

Neither would support separate divisions for hang gliding and paragliding. Neither would support balancing the Torrey Pines Soaring Council. Neither would support a hang gliding club at our most famous flying site. Neither would support due process for pilots.

Lemme show ya how to write:

Neither Ryan nor his father Paul would support the reforms needed to turn USHPA around. Neither would support open voting by the USHPA Board. Neither would support separate divisions for hang gliding and paragliding. Neither would support balancing the Torrey Pines Soaring Council. Neither would support a hang gliding club at our most famous flying site. Neither would support due process for pilots.

in a less sickening style...

Neither Ryan nor his father Paul would support:
- the reforms needed to turn USHPA around
- open voting by the USHPA Board
- separate divisions for hang gliding and paragliding
- balancing the Torrey Pines Soaring Council
- a hang gliding club at our most famous flying site
- due process for pilots

They both sat idly by while Mark Forbes and Tim Herr called the shots.

The way you did when the motherfuckers were going after Yours Truly - to settle the matter without me doing any serious damage to the sport. And can you even begin to imagine where the sport would be today if the matter HADN'T been settled without me doing any serious damage to it? I totally shudder to think.

And now Ryan Voight steps forward with a training video as if that's all that's needed?

He stepped forward with it well over four years ago. And Team Kite Strings tore his ass to shreds on it. But it didn't make...

Michael Grisham - 2019/05/14 00:02:18 UTC

Ryan,

I was wondering how much you spent on a 5 minute video with over 2.6 million views (in four years) promoting simple basic hang glider instruction.

Ryan captures everything the sport needs to promote hang gliding in his video. The basic elements, a small safe clear area, a good instructor, a small training hill, and a hang glider are all that is needed or required. Every metropolitan area in America should have a city or county park as depicted in Ryan’s video.

Read the viewer comments.

Ryan holds the key to breathe new life into Hang Gliding.

Thank you Ryan.

Lead the way.

...the slightest degree of actual difference. Hang gliding operates on popular and respected opinions rather than fundamental aeronautical theory.

Let me be clear.

For something new and different.

Ryan Voight and Paul Voight and the majority of the USHPA Board have driven the sport of hang gliding into the ground for their own self serving reasons.

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=463
Davis Straub's "Oz Report" Conflict of Interest

Bob Kuczewski - 2011/03/09 02:33:49 UTC

This is going to sound cold, but I believe people have a right to make their own choices. I don't want a "nanny state" where anyone is telling me what I can and can't do ... for my own good. The sport of hang gliding would surely not exist if that thinking were carried to its logical extreme. There's something bred into all living things that urges them toward taking some degree of risk in their lives. Those who want to forbid that risk are essentially snuffing out the human spirit itself. I can't support that. I do support information. I support good information. I support exposing bad information. But I don't support dictating what anyone can or can't do. The fundamental principle of economics (and evolution) is two words: "people choose".

There has been too much interest in the business of hang gliding and not enough interest in the sport of hang gliding. Ryan Voight is the poster child for this epidemic, and he's gotten what he deserves.

Rooney got a small taste of what he deserves. Ryan got...

Ryan Voight - 2019/05/14 02:28:43 UTC

Hang gliding isn’t even that big a part of my life anymore... I sold my T2, and just have one glider now, a Falcon. Saturday was my second flying day in 2019...

...what he wanted.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59699
Reply to Tiki

Bill Cummings - 2019/05/15 18:44:54 UTC

Power to the pilots not an ever shrinking board

For somewhere around the last five years the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association has been making decisions on how, "To Promote, Protect, and Serve Recreational Hang Gliding," and doing it on line, for free, and on the day something comes up. (meeting continuously, people can participate, bring items to the board )
The voting procedures in place allow for your second, third, (and so on) choices to be counted if your first choice doesn't prevail.
The clubs throughout the country are integrated have their own web page/forums (free) that can be found with the other clubs' web pages/forums on the central US Hawks website.
(IF I FORGOT TO SAY IT - IT'S FREE.)

You also forgot to say that...

- Only one of you motherfuckers has a vote that actually counts for anything - one that can't be arbitrarily overridden, negated at any time for any or no reason whatsoever; that it's been that way for well over the length of two US presidential terms now and is likely to stay that way until well after Hell has frozen over.

- Any one of you motherfuckers can be permanently banned having broken zero of Emperor Bob's stated rules or guidelines at any time on the whim of Emperor Bob.

- It's Board of Directors all get voted into office with one vote - guess whose.

- That if you get to launch altitude by having another plane pull you while you're flying your plane...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2944
Discussion of USHPA SOP 12-02.1 through 12-02.11

Joe Faust - 2018/04/20 21:40:42 UTC

Have zero mention of paragliding, towing, tandem, unenforceable tribal control matters.

...all your airtime, altitude gains, miles, skills, experiences, accomplishments, qualifications, contributions count for total shit. It's only hang gliding if you got to launch altitude in the backseat of a truck with your glider bagged up on the racks. All you flatlanders, national competitions champs, world XC record holders can go fuck yourselves.

And fuck all you Bob Show douchebags for allowing that outrageous crap to stand without a single whisper of dissent - 'specially all you Bob Show douchebags who've ever gotten off the ground with any kind of external thrust assist. Also fuck all you Bob Show douchebags who've ever flown any hang glider whose design evolved from towed gliders and allowed that outrageous crap to stand without a single whisper of dissent. (Have I missed anybody?)

[<BS>]

That's likely everyone, if you go back to the "oranges" of modern design.

[Tad Eareckson]

Those things look pretty covfefe to me.

P.S. - 2019/05/16 21:30:00 UTC

Why the quotation marks around "oranges"?