Steve Wendt, Michael Robertson, Pat Denevan, Billy Vaughn, Matt
Taber, Allen Sparks, Jim Proehl, Bo Hagewood, Mike Brown, Rob Kells, Steve Kroop, Bob Lane, Tracey Tillman, Lisa Colletti, Jeff Beck, James Gardner, John
Matylonek, Jeff Nicolay, Steve Prepost, and Aric Paulson.
I have begun promoting the idea to aerotow flight parks that they
will likely double their student sign-ups for lesson packages if they do some
training hill or scooter tow before going tandem.
Think about this; ten years ago we had about 8500 HG members, and now we have
something like 5500. Over that same period, due to aerotow flight parks, I'll
bet there were (at least) 20 to 50 times more tandems than in the previous ten
years. Could it be that those that seek out HG instruction are being scared away
by the very method we all thought would revolutionize instruction. I think the
answer is yes!
I'm quite sure a series of low powered stationary winch clinics
with Condors will help the sport. Especially in helping new instructors get
started. I think assistance from the USHGA is good, especially in promoting what
we're doing, but I've always felt these things should be self-supporting.
I am all for seeing more scooter instruction and I absolutely
agree that scooter training has great advantages for aerotow flight parks. I,
however, caution against an expectation of doubling the number of students.
I totally get what Rob is saying but I do not believe that we are loosing as
many prospective students as suggested. I think that there are pilot types and
there are non-pilot types. Scooter towing will help get people to take more than
one flight (i.e., hang 1 package) but I think the ones that want to become
“pilots” (i.e., proceed to H2 and higher) will do do so regardless of the
training method.
I do agree that the slower altitude progression of scooter training well help
with the altitude timid students. But, look at how many H1s KHK churns out
compared to the number that stay with it to the H2/H3 level.
What will make more pilots is broadening our reach - more instructors in areas
that lack instruction. Scooter towing can do this.
While I still need to get approval from the Quest owners, I'm on
board. Having a virtual training hill would be incredibly beneficial to our
students. For the obvious reasons, scooter towing fills in some important gaps
for Quest Air. For a variety of reasons many of our seasoned pilots request
additional approach and landing instruction, and scooter towing can provide a
more efficient and cost-effective solution to AT pattern tows.
Naturally, if scooter towing can double the number of students who want to solo
our business will benefit greatly. For us, caution is necessary when pitting the
much cheaper intro scooter tow flights against intro aerotow tandems. If we
don't see more signups, we may only price ourselves out of the intro AT sales
while recruiting the same (hopefully) number of students. I'm sure we'll find a
balance between offering scooter tows and minimizing the risk of lost revenues
until we get some first-hand results.
From helping with the clinic signups I know that most who didn't sign up could
have attended if travel expenses were covered. Just two had time constraint
issues. I heard Steve Wendt and Matt Taber suggest requiring a refundable
deposit, which I think would have helped with the last-minute cancellations and
no-show.
To increase membership I agree that USGHA support is critical, and I believe
scooter towing is an incredibly promising part of that effort.
The revamped Aeros website is now live
www.flyaeros.com. We’ve added a lot of new
content with much more to come in the next few weeks.
We’re also very excited to announce that Bo Hagewood will be returning to
competition in Florida flying a Combat L for Aeros. Bo has been flying quite
well after recovering from his injury and we’re looking forward to seeing him
back among the leaders in Florida!
The Upper Similkameen Indian Band wishes again to invite the world
paragliding community to the Hedley Open, and Mountain Festival May 3rd-10th,
2006 . Tasks will be GAP scored and all include the usual fun GPS tasks such as
race to goal via turnpoints over Hedley's excellent terrain. This will be an
FAI, Canadian , Class 2, B event valid for international points. Read more on
www.explorex.net, register at
http://events.dowsett.ca/.
This is a new and exciting Canadian venue with " huge air " potential. Besides
paragliding there will be many attractions, mountain films, Salmon BBQ's, and
multi-sport festivities. For more information, see
www.explorex.net. The flying venues
include soaring above the spectacular Mascot Gold Mine, see
www.mascotmine.com and amazing new,
often unexplored, cross country potential.
To register for the competitive part of the event please go to events under
www.dowsett.ca. The price is $100 and
includes free camping. A purse and a variety of prizes, cash and other, will be
made available to the top ranking participants. Stay tuned to listed websites
for further developments. We welcome any questions from potential sponsors,
media and any interested parties. Registration is open until the first day of
the event. Contact ; <petercperu>
and <info> For more
information scroll through pages 1, 2, 3,etc. at bottom of
www.explorex.net home page for Hedley
related stories.
Background;
While filming in the Upper Similkameen valley , a group of paragliding
enthusiasts discovered the incredible flying potential high above Hedley,
British Columbia. The area offers a combination of incredible soaring and
thermal conditions with launch sites 3000ft (1000meters+) and 4,000ft above
valley floor .
The spectacular Snazai’st rock formation, offers soaring at a venue several
times the width of the El Pinion rock in Valle De Bravo, Mexico. See
www.monarcaparaglidingopen.com
for pics from that venue.
Hedley BC is the "Utah of Canada" with a desert like ambience and our nation's
hottest climate. Last Canadian Thanksgiving on October 7th, 2005 a first
inaugural Fly In was held in Hedley. Over fifty paraglider pilots, including
four hang gliders, along with a hundred enthusiasts attended the event on a
short three weeks notice. The flying was fantastic. Hedley proved to be the best
place in Canada to fly this late in the season. We expect phenomenal thermal
conditions for May 2006.
I've been through a number of TFR reporting sites and the very
best one I have found is www.TFRcheck.com.
It runs off information gathered by Jeppesen and is updated about every two
minutes. The writer is correct. TFRs are not to be trifled with or taken
lightly.
We were at a festival last year doing this and had a few walk in's
to join in the fun. Have done stationary winch towing there a couple times also,
with and without the pulley. Hang gliders and paragliders. Alex is 8 and Sammy
is almost 6. Alex earned her P 1 thru me and went on to fly Morningside's
training hill last year "solo".
I carried on a bit of an email conversation with Chris Fogg, HGFA
manager. He says that Chris Jones has told him that he will be sending in a
report this week. Maybe Chris will make it more available.
I'm following up on another straight over tuck and/or tumble near Wallaby Ranch sometime in 2005.
I've received an email asking for more information about a tuck
and/or tumble that happened some time last year to a Wallaby Ranch pilot who
apparently was trying to make his older glider a bit more competitive in glide.
He is said to have accomplished that at the price of lacking some ability to
recover. More later.
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The Oz Report, a near-daily, world wide hang gliding news ezine, with reports on competitions, pilot rankings, political issues, fly-ins, the latest technology, ultralight sailplanes, reader feedback and anything else from within the global HG community worthy of coverage. Hang gliding, paragliding, hang gliders, paragliders, aerotowing, hang glide, paraglide, platform towing, competitions, fly-ins. Hang gliding and paragliding news from around the world, by Davis Straub.
