The Bob Show

[Tad Eareckson]

Trial?

[<BS>]

That event where Bob convincingly explains his guilt to BOD or not.

[Tad Eareckson]

And the lynching is complete - and unanimous.

[Tad Eareckson]

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.

A few years later (when I was starting the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association), I actually wrote to Tad inviting him to our forum because I wanted to incorporate diverse views in our new association. Tad joined us, and for a while things were fine. But over time, it became obvious to me that he was more interested in just bashing people than trying to actually solve problems in the sport of hang gliding. For a long time, I tried to show him kindness on our forum and I gave him a lot of slack with regard to his profanity and his comments that he wished certain people would crash and kill themselves. Eventually (and for reasons that I won't full disclose here), it became necessary to ask Tad to leave the US Hawks forum, and he is currently the only person who's been completely banned from the US Hawks.

Having said all of that, I have to add that Tad has an incredible amount of energy, and I think it would be great if the sport of hang gliding could figure out how to harness it. He's done extensive work on towing releases and he has a library of photographs related to releases. I think he brings an important perspective to the sport, but his personality is so toxic that it's very difficult to gain any benefit from it. Indeed, I consider it a failing on my part that I wasn't able to help Tad get past some of his "personality" issues and become a good contributing member on the US Hawks forum.

[<BS>]

Time to update this one. These are the ones I'm aware of but don't know if the list is current or complete.
People who have been banned from: u$hPa (operated by Tim Herr)
Tad Eareckson
Ward Carter
Brad Geary
Robert Kuczewski

[Tad Eareckson]

Joe Faust - 2015/04/20 23:40:49 UTC

It will be interesting what you say safety wise about:

I hope so. I always try to be interesting.

1. Un-soil-anchored (or otherwise secondary-anchored or kill-lined) canopy wing in the vulnerability of the wind before Brad is harnessed and before he has his string sorted, especially while being steward for the boy.

Wind, sorted strings... Here's Brad 'n' Zack's flight about 22 seconds in:

025-044311
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8752/17205445275_953bb5701d_o.png


Compare/Contrast with Sam 'n' Terry:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8143/7462005802_bbc0ac66ac_o.jpg


Mark 'n' ex Zack:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bRrpHNa68iY/UQ6Pv9gRZyI/AAAAAAAAjTg/Hc22bx5122Q/s2048/20943781_BG1.jpg


Kelly 'n' Arys:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8737/16790136379_c1c17b2f86_o.png


after around the same interval. Is this the best we can do on threat prioritization?

2. Not choosing to stand down but risking complicating the airfield while a accident is having to be faced by unknown assets.

Seemed to me like the airfield was complicated by two fewer people thanks to Brad choosing to stand up. Here they are about thirty seconds before we hear sirens:

030-060725
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7618/17179503046_d7ea9de367_o.png


doing what appears to me to be a really excellent job of not complicating the airfield - and ready at a moment's notice to complicate it even less.

3. Not choosing to stand down even while twice recognizing that a helicopter might be needed in the environment.

How wide a path are you imagining a medevac chopper needs the get in and out of a hot zone?

In some cases even one second could make the difference between life or death...

Name some.

...or between less internal injury and more internal injury, or less brain damage or more brain damage by hemorrhage quantity.

Good thing she signed the waiver, huh?

Here's Brad directing some of the emergency response to the crash site:

The pilot's up here on top of the hill.

032-081414
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8827/17019276489_a6866e9050_o.png


which he wouldn't have been able to do if he'd stood down. Maybe that made the critical second's difference which allowed Shannon to survive the crash.

4. Not choosing to stand down when not knowing just how such incident scene will be affecting the tandem flight he was doing.

Would it have been OK if Zack 'n' Alec's mom had immediately bailed and started driving back home - thus complicating the congestion on the actual roads the actual emergency responders were navigating to respond? Wouldn't that have been much more likely to add a critical second or two to the critical response time?

Of just how such scene...

042-100223
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7637/16998002927_3735bc4526_o.png

...will affect the boy or the combination of himself and the boy.

044-100927
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5334/16585244563_75db8e3c27_o.png

Get me!

045-101029
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7624/17204861131_c4d15e18c7_o.png

Take a picture!

Seems to be getting over it - as well as can be expected anyway.

5. Handling and using the apparently unleashed cell phone.

028-050004
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7623/17179503366_5d8e2991b5_o.png

How much loss of attention could make a difference for his tandem flight?

Well, if he'd flown into another glider - a lot. But I'm thinking that the unleashed cell phone would be less of an issue than an unleashed leopard.

How much focused attention is due to his stewardship of the boy?

How much is needed? Compare/Contrast with a boy in a car with the steward turning the fan on and switching the vents to defog the windshield.

I am estimating that 100% of his attention should be on his flight once he was in the air, as the boy's life and well-being deserves 100% focus.

What percentage of Kelly's available hands are you estimating that Kelly needed on the basetube while his glider was on its way to being slammed in by its towline? A hundred or fifty? Was fifty adequate enough to dedicate the other fifty to effect the easy reach required to disconnect the towline slamming them in?

6. The multiple times of the boy's self-adjusting the too-large helmet was distractive even watching the video.

The helmet was totally cool under the new Bob Kuczewski Mandatory Helmet At All Times While Hooked Into A Glider Regulation. Just says a helmet - doesn't say it's gotta fit or can't be lined with concrete.

Will the boy be adjusting his helmet when he needs to focus on the hand positions instructed in pre-launch?

1. I dunno... Any chance he'll be picking his nose?

2. Just how critical an issue do you think these hands positions are?

216-314718
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7716/16997982717_227dc45733_o.png


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7621/17203755812_3db70d87f3_o.png
217-315023

They're WALKING their way into the air and FLOATING their way back out of it.

Could Brad have aborted the joy-thrill ride until a proper helmet was available?

Which would've been next week? Probably not.

Of course. How many points of risk are involved with having a too-large helmet over such a young neck?

None if you don't crash. And if you DO crash it's a crap shoot regarding what kind of outcome you're gonna have relative to the helmet you are or aren't using. I'll bet there's a scenario in which you're better off with a real loosely fitting helmet like that one.

The helmet's crap. But that's more the fault of the assholes running that dump than it is the ones working for it. And it's not a significant safety issue. But it IS fucking up Zack's experience and that DOES really piss me off.

And why are there not helmets that integrate with torso and spine to avoid less neck injury?

1. Why would you wanna avoid less neck injury?

2. 'Cause we fly these things to have ENJOYABLE experiences - not to see how well we can armor up to minimize injuries when we fly them into the ground.

Why was the boy not fitted with a neck-space-filler torus?

Why was that not specified in the new Bob Kuczewski Mandatory Helmet At All Times While Hooked Into A Glider Regulation? (Please don't give him any ideas.)

7. The offing of PIC helmet while paying attention to mouth bite another PG's LE ?

1. As opposed to elbow biting another PG's LE?

2. That WAS pretty cool...

066-165709
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5322/17179497616_0179da467e_o.png


...wasn't it!

073-173220
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8727/16997998127_0dc02969d5_o.png


3. Was there something else worth paying attention to at the time? If there was I missed it.

3. The PIC's "helmet"...

001-000109
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5330/16998008077_b72da5252b_o.png


...is a camera platform (and a damned good one) - PERIOD. ACA; Brad; Max; Mom, Zack, Alec; Yours Truly... all want it that way. Brad used it to get THIS:

065-165122
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7626/16582991104_894af44666_o.png


picture - which oughta go on the cover of Tandem Paraglider Thrill Rides magazine.

What occurs to the risk portfolio during close-contact with another PG?

Probably goes up a little. Guessing it peaks out at about 0.01 percent of trying to foot land a hang glider in light air.

Does adding the significant risk of such contact flying...

I didn't say SIGNIFICANT risk.

...a matter that would be approved by the parents?

I'm guessing it WOULD. ONE of the parents had watched a paraglider slam in after an LZ midair and get very seriously fucked up one minute before her kid Zack would've lifted off, two minutes before Zack DID lift off, seven minutes before her other kid Alec lifts off and doesn't have a problem. She says:

Zack... You OK?

And Zack's OK.

By the tandem SOP's of instructor certification?

Didn't see anything.

Does such arrangements of two PGs fall within the FAA tandem waiver expectation?

Didn't see anything there either.

Did Brad increase risks to the boy's life and well being by choosing to enter the PG-to-PG complex?

Yeah. Just like he did when he took off with the kid. Just like Mom did when she threw Zack and Alec in the car for the drive to the gliderport. They'd have all been safer - and gotten healthier workouts - if they'd stayed home and played badminton in the backyard that day. But the way things went they got experiences beyond description and memories that'll last them the rest of their lives.

8. On the second coupling of PG-to-PG where Brad grabs lines of the other PG....

093-190624
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7697/16585237503_3bf1bebbeb_o.png

094-191429
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7694/17038770207_4107056d14_o.png

097-191620
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7634/17019267669_112f0c55c4_o.png

100-191704
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7609/17203768102_a9d2835965_o.png


Yeah, that was pretty cool too, huh?

...how much risk was tolerating added with regard to snag-line potential.

I won't know until after I hear about an actual snag incident resulting from somebody pulling this trick. Don't hold you're breath waiting for good crunchable data.

Risk adding for at least three persons: how much?

Compared to thousands of people using Davis Links as the focal points of their safe towing systems for hundreds of thousands of tows for a couple of decades. How much risk of me getting eaten by a Polar Bear coming back from the mailbox?

Falling PGs are risks to people on the ground also.

List the three most serious injuries resulting from paragliders falling on people on the ground.

9. What are the potential problems of teaching a boy to spit into the open air;

Blowback comes to mind immediately. Probably a good idea to have a face shielded helmet if you're gonna make that a regular feature of your lessons.

I did not think we are permitted to openly spit from high points in the air.

We're not. That's why I always do so closedly from low points in the air. I end up crashing into trees and powerlines a lot more that way but the law's the law.

I did not hear Brad qualifying the spitting situation.

I don't think he needed to. Looked like a pretty high quality spitting situation to me.

Will the spit carry what potential germs to people on the ground and in the houses?

I hope so. I love watching Californians who are convinced that vaccinations cause autism writhing in agonizing death throes when they get hit by easily preventable diseases.

Why not spit into one's sweat shirt?

'Cause then you've gotta launder one's sweat shirt and California doesn't have enough water to do that - thanks to this global warming that's not happening.

FAA requires that pilots do no harm to others.

Yeah, but they never actual ENFORCE laws against pilots who harm others. If they did there'd be lotsa tuggies doing very long prison sentences.

We do not know the health quotient of the boy's spit.

DUDE! I never...

Check out these pelicans.

104-192718
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5453/16997994817_abb70e5368_o.png


http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5464/17019266929_fbc19ea8d8_o.png
105-193015

...thought of that.

And now one can wonder how many students Brad has told about spitting.

Probably not many. The spitting Special Skill signoff is an extra thirty bucks.

And one wonders about Brad's spitting record.

Not this one, Joe. I'm more worried about eleven year olds being slammed in on terrain like this:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7588/16793597978_a1e73bd274_o.png


than spitting on terrain like this:

106-194713
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5343/16614475083_c12c4d6bcf_o.png


But... To each his priorities.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1787
USHPA Expulsion Proceeding

Rick Masters - 2015/04/25 02:46:51 UTC

Bob,

I want to thank you for pointing out to the Torrey Pines instructor that he was training paragliding students while hooked in without wearing a helmet.

Can't imagine why the Torrey Pines instructor wasn't similarly grateful.

This casual approach to training is non-professional and reflects poorly on the sport.

Course it is and does, Rick - you just told us all it is and does. And who are we muppets to disagree?

As you know, it is also dangerous.

And Bob's ALWAYS been deeply concerned about making all aspects of these sports less dangerous

I just came across this article. It makes the point.

Paraglider injured by a gust of wind
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
GENOLA -- A paraglider suffered severe head injuries Wednesday when a gust of wind picked him up on takeoff and slammed him into the ground, according to the Utah County Sheriff's Office. The man's identity wasn't released, pending notification of relatives.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7151267.html

As you certainly know, being attached to a paraglider without a helmet is an unnecessary risk.

And from that snippet we can all safely assume that:
- this:
-- was just a freak gust of wind (as opposed to a gust of water) that nobody could've predicted
-- guy:
--- wasn't:
---- in launch position preparing to launch
---- wearing a helmet
--- would've been just fine if he HAD been wearing a helmet
- the new Bob Kuczewski Mandatory Helmet At All Times While Hooked Into A Glider Regulation:
-- would've prevented this tragedy
-- is the obvious and only solution to this serious problem in the sports

I'm sure the instructor was grateful.

We ALL are, Rick. I just don't know how any of us managed to survive as long as we did without Bob's selfless and tireless dedication to safety and intervention on our behalf.

As well, I'm sure, was your Regional Director and the members of the USHPA Board of Directors, should they come to hear of it. With so many deaths and injuries at Torrey Pines over the years...

...least eighty percent of which could've been prevented by the new Bob Kuczewski Mandatory Helmet At All Times While Hooked Into A Glider Regulation...

I am sure the USHPA wants to keep bad publicity for the sport at a minimum. And it's only through pilots like you Bob, who keep a sharp eye out for bad behavior, that this is possible.

Yeah, Rick. Real bitch that Bob and his Bob Kuczewski Mandatory Helmet At All Times While Hooked Into A Glider Regulation wasn't around when your buddy Bob...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=811
FTHI

Rick Masters - 2011/10/26 23:07:48 UTC

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.

...Dunn decided to skip the hook-in check and run off Plowshare. Then he'd have been wearing a helmet and would've been just fine.

Thanks again,
Rick Masters
- President, Cross Country Pilots Association (1983-85)
- former FAI Observer and USHGA Special Observer

And past, current, and future total asshole.

[Tad Eareckson]

Here's how we know beyond any doubt whatsoever that the new Bob Kuczewski Mandatory Helmet At All Times While Hooked Into A Glider Regulation is NOTHING but useless, odious, obnoxious total BULLSHIT:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27736
Increase in our USHpA dues

Mark G. Forbes - 2012/12/20 06:21:33 UTC

We're re-working the accident reporting system, but again it's a matter of getting the reports submitted and having a volunteer willing to do the detail work necessary to get them posted. There are also numerous legal issues associated with accident reports, which we're still wrestling with. It's a trade-off between informing our members so they can avoid those kinds of accidents in the future, and exposing ourselves to even more lawsuits by giving plaintiff's attorneys more ammunition to shoot at us.

Imagine a report that concludes, "If we'd had a procedure "x" in place, then it would have probably prevented this accident. And we're going to put that procedure in place at the next BOD meeting." Good info, and what we want to be able to convey. But what comes out at trial is, "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, my client suffered injury because USHPA knew or should have known that a safety procedure was not in place, and was therefore negligent and at fault." We're constantly walking this line between full disclosure and handing out nooses at the hangmen's convention.

u$hPa - meaning Tim Herr and all his sellout cocksuckers - will NEVER allow an SOP which ADDRESSES AN ACTUAL PROBLEM to go on the books - PERIOD.

Twenty years ago somebody was half vegged because he was hooked into a glider and not wearing a helmet. u$hPa puts the Bob Kuczewski Mandatory Helmet At All Times While Hooked Into A Glider Regulation on the books last Tuesday. And so now they've given the veggee and his attorney all the ammunition they need to sue u$hPa out of existence. So in order for u$hPa to have put that on the books Tim Herr / u$hPa hafta be 100.000 percent POSITIVE that no such incident ever happened. And they are.

The ONLY modifications to the SOPs these motherfuckers will EVER make are ones that GUT *SOLID* regulations. If ONE commercial operator fucks up or kills someone as a direct consequence of an obvious and undeniable black and white SOP they will pull shit like very quietly changing "REQUIREMENTS" to...

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

Jim Rooney - 2011/08/26 10:11:31 UTC

Oh, btw... before you go there, cuz it is where you're headed... please note the word "Guidelines".

As I said.
Been through this shit a million freaking times.
Please quit trying to educate me about my job.

..."GUIDELINES".

And if you look at the ONE SINGLE *GOOD* THING that u$hPa's ever done:

1981/05

With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.

not one single instructor has EVER implemented it. And nobody's EVER been fucked up or killed because he didn't do a hook-in check. He just wasn't FOCUSED enough to do the hang check - which has NEVER been a u$hPa SOP.

The instructors and schools are doing the same math. "I've got a couple hundred / few thousand unhooked launch time bombs ticking out there. If I start teaching hook-in checks NOW and one of my time bombs goes off two, three, five, ten years from now I am seriously fucked."

This is why we get crap and insane statements from these assholes like:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26996
Critique my radial ramp launch

Ryan Voight - 2012/08/28 06:14:06 UTC

What USHPA reg are you referencing specifically?

And no, in a thread titled "Critique my radial ramp launch" that video is also pretty much entirely off topic.

You want to discuss/debate/dictate people's pre-launch habits, great, just don't hijack someone else's thread about radial ramp technique.

Since this video starts with him on launch, we don't know if he did a hook-in check already, a hang check, a preflight, took a pee before putting his harness on, or drove a hybrid car to launch... Why are you critiquing what you don't know, didn't see, didn't ask about, and isn't what he asked for critique on??? WTF?

http://www.rmhpa.org/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4258
HG accident in Vancouver

Tom Galvin - 2012/10/31 22:17:21 UTC

I don't teach lift and tug, as it gives a false sense of security.

On the other hand... FORCING pilots to do stupid dangerous shit like...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22176
Paragliding Collapses

Jim Rooney - 2011/06/12 13:57:58 UTC

Most common HG injury... spiral fracture of the humerus.

...standup spot landings is never a problem 'cause WHEN they get fucked up or killed the reason will ALWAYS be that they hadn't practiced / weren't good enough.

[Tad Eareckson]

Tad Eareckson - 2015/04/25 08:52:05 UTC

broken link

Jean Lake, Page 5:
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1802&start=40
Warren's 2015/04/03 03:47:33 UTC post.

This:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8737/16790136379_b3f1b660be_c.jpg
was the image address for a screen shot with which I had to make do until I got ahold of a YouTube video and was able to do the job right.

This one:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8737/16790136379_a8f8fceb9a_c.jpg
same frame, is the functioning replacement.

(Full resolution:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8737/16790136379_c1c17b2f86_o.png)

Bob Kuczewski - 2015/04/26 01:27:19 UTC

Hi Tad,

Thanks for the update, but I really hate to see people breaking things on the web. You may have no idea how many people have linked to that picture, and it's a shame to see them all coming up broken.

My suggestion is that people leave things the way they are and just add new stuff. Otherwise it's a nightmare to propagate all those changes throughout the web.

I'll pass your message on to Warren and ask him what he wants me to do (if anything) to his posts.

Bob

Bob Kuczewski - 2015/04/26 01:33:29 UTC

Hi Tad,

Here's the PM that I just sent to Warren.

Bob

Hi Warren,

Thanks for your help in building the US Hawks!!!!

I got an email message from Tad with the following quote directed at your posts:

...

It looks like he's updated his pictures and removed the old ones which broke your links to his photos. Please take a look and let me know if you'd like me to make any changes to your posts to refer to the new photos or make any other changes.

Thanks again.
Bob

Thanks for the update, but I really hate to see people breaking things on the web.

- It's the fuckin' web - get used to it. Links get broken, photos disappear, videos and forums are locked down and made inaccessible. And, while I think of it, DO please pass on my thanks to Scott for giving Davis a justification he could use to delete the entire "SGAA Coup d'état Almost Complete" thread.

- Almost as much as you really hate to see people fixing things in hang gliding.

- I didn't BREAK it, Bob. I made it BETTER.

You may have no idea how many people have linked to that picture...

But I DO. My idea is ONE. You're more than welcome to prove me wrong.

...and it's a shame to see them all coming up broken.

Yeah Bob. That's why I went to the trouble of writing you and providing you with the fix to just paste in and click "Submit".

My suggestion is that people leave things the way they are and just add new stuff.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. My suggestion is that people constantly revise resource material to fix typos and spelling and grammar issues, minimize redundancy, improve readability and documentation, better illustrate points - all without altering meanings, intent - and patch broken links to restore original material when possible and provide reasonable or better facsimiles when not.

Otherwise it's a nightmare to propagate all those changes throughout the web.

It would be a lot less of a nightmare if you'd just fix the fuckin' post to have it back the way it was when the author submitted and as he intended it.

I'll pass your message on to Warren and ask him what he wants me to do (if anything) to his posts.

Wonderful.

Thanks for your help in building the US Hawks!!!!

Yeah Warren. You should expect to start seeing some there there any day now.

It looks like he's updated his pictures and removed the old ones which broke your links to his photos.

- No, it looks like he replaced a video still with a better quality one from the same frame. And Flickr's providing this service to me/us for free and I don't wanna add to their storage expense and my cataloging headaches with shitloads of virtually identical duplicates.

- Since when did you develop an interest in the historical precision of hang glider disaster coverage? This is just another copy of scores of previous dope-on-rope incidents that upstanding defenders of people of varying ages such as yourself can never be bothered to do shit about?

[<BS>]

I'll pass your message on to Warren and ask him what he wants me to do (if anything) to his posts.

I'd be shocked if he didn't want the new link and the ability to add it himself.