Shining a (small, battery powered) light on a murky area.
Check
here for Ron's (and others) take on the original discussion at the USHGA BOD
meeting.
History: In an earlier USHGA membership vote, the proposition passed that the
USHGA remove the word "fuel-less" from their Articles of Incorporation. Then Tim
Herr the USHGA lawyer stated that the vote was not proper and that the
threatened lawsuit re the vote would likely win if the USHGA implemented the
results of the flawed election. The USHGA EC decided not to implement the
results of the vote due to this legal advice.
So the USHGA EC/BOD is in the awkward position of not implementing an action
that their membership told them to implement because their method of assessing
the membership's wish was improper. The USHGA may be vulnerable to a lawsuit if
they don't implement the results of the membership vote as well as if they do.
Based on an action from the spring meeting of the USHGA BOD, Bill Bolosky wrote
an article published in the USHGA HG/PG magazine that stated that the USHGA
would go ahead and have a new (and supposedly proper) vote on a proposed
different (or perhaps the same) change to the Articles of Incorporation. Writing
an article to say you are going to do something and actually doing it are two
different things. Bill is no longer the USHGA President, and not even a member
of the Executive Committee, although he is still a Regional Director.
To implement Bill's pledge of a revote, the Organization and Bylaws Committee
met to determine the wording of the proposed A of I change if any. The first
proposal was to stop a new vote. That action failed. So the revote was supposed
to go ahead.
The next proposal was for a revote on the changes seen below. That proposal also
failed in committee, but was then revived in the BOD General Session and passed.
Here is the proposed change to the USHGA A of I's highlighted in red:
The specific and primary purposes are to engage exclusively for
scientific and educational purposes in the development, study,
and use of fuel-less flight systems,
and of aircraft capable of being
launched by human power alone; to make knowledge
relating to these subjects available for the advancement of such scientific and
educational purposes; to organize meets
where the testing and flying of such systems and aircraft will be encouraged;
to conduct generally a scientific and educational study and research of the
design, construction and operation of such systems and aircraft;
and to foster the future development of such science and flight.
The changes are changes to punctuation which slightly, but
importantly, change the meaning of the primary purposes of the USHGA. Under this
proposal the USHGA would (more) explicitly address its primary purpose to two
classes of aircraft: The first "fuel-less flight systems" and the other
"aircraft capable of being launching by human power alone."
This means that sailplanes (but not motorized sailplanes) would be covered by
the USHGA's primary purpose ("fuel-less flight systems") as well as all hang
gliders and paragliders with or without motors attached as long as they were
"capable of being launching by human power alone."
Perhaps it is quite fitting that we would incorporate sailplanes into our
purposes because we (hang gliders and paragliders) are incorporated into the
SSA's purposes.
The USHGA BOD said that this membership revote should go ahead if and only if
the EC receives a favorable opinion from an outside lawyer, which apparently
Randy Leggett has already chosen.
I wrote earlier about glider and paraglider production in China. Rob Kells
reported to me that all the
paragliders that
Wills Wing distributes are produced in China. Gianni Hotz at Icaro2000 reported
that they are beginning to produce their first sails for their Mars gliders in
China.
Later Gianni asked me to ask Rob about their production of Falcon sails in
China. I did and this is what he said:
When glider sales have exceeded our production capacity here,
Wills Wing has, at times, supplemented our in-house sail production by
sub-contracting to other suppliers. We have had some Falcon sails made in China,
though the total number of those is only 5% of the total number of Falcons we've
made. The sails are made from the same computer generated patterns we use here,
using the same type of automated cutting machine, and we've found the quality on
those sails, and the flight characteristics of the gliders to be
indistinguishable from the sails we make here.
So why do we care about this issue? First, producing sails in
China reduces their costs and price to US pilots. Currently hang gliders
produced by Icaro2000 are relatively expensive in the US, and if Gianni is
successful in reducing his costs he can be more competitive in the US market.
Second, Wills Wing has a great deal of customer loyalty in the US, and some of
this is based on the fact that it is the biggest remaining (some say only) US
based hang glider manufacturer (apparently paraglider pilots don't have the same
feelings). If it were the case that Wills Wing had moved all or a lot of its
production overseas or across the border, then this perception of it being a
US-based company would suffer.
Rob is obviously very sensitive to this perception issue as seen in his
carefully worded statement above.
Aircraft registration affects aerotow operators so the Aircraft
Registration information is directly relevant to us. The Airman or pilot side of
sport pilot isn't relevant to aerotow operators because pilots who want to use
ELSA or LSA for the purpose of towing hang gliders will be required to have a
private pilot's license with either a PP-ASEL (Airplane Single Engine Landing)
rating or a PP with a weight shift rating. Your rating depends on the type of
aircraft used to tow.
Marty Weaver, manager of the Light Sport Aviation Branch in OKC, writes:
It would be greatly appreciated if you can get it out to your organizations the
following status of the implementation plan:
Aircraft Registration - will begin on October 15th. The FAA Form 8050-2 Aircraft
Bill of Sale and the FAA Form 8050-88A will be available on-line on October 1st
Airman Certification - will begin January 15th, 2005. The new FAA Form 8710-11,
Airman Certificate and/or Rating Application - Sport Pilot will be available
January 1st, 2005.
AC 61.65, (revision) - Certification: Pilots and Flight and Ground Instructors -
is estimated to be available January 2005 to provide policy and guidance to
flight instructors for conducting proficiency checks and endorsement
requirements.
FAA Order 8710.X, Sport Pilot Examiner Handbook - is estimated to be available
in late-October to establish the Sport Pilot Examiner program.
FAA Form 8710-12, Light-Sport Standardization Board - Designated Pilot Examiner
Candidate Application is estimated to be available by November 1st.
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