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THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE HANG GLIDING AND PARAGLIDING ASSOCIATION OF CANADA • JUNE 2009

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AIRAIRmagazine

PLUS:■ HPAC’S AGM IN JUNE

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AIR Magazine • June 2009 • Volume 23, Issue 02ContentsContents

Cover A scene from the Paragliding Worlds in Valle de Bravo, Mexico.

See more pictures, page 21.

Photo by Jim Orava

Jason Leus soaring low at Meadow Creek, B.C.

REGULARS

05 President05 HPAC Ratings10 In Brief

29 Incident report form31 Membership form

AIR Magazine • June 2009 • Volume 23, Issue 02

FEATURES08 Annual General Meeting

09 Explaining the ratings changes ■ by Michael Fuller

11 The Muller reserve clinic ■ by Calum Neff

12 Serious talk at Aero Club’s AGM ■ by Mark Dowsett and Steve Younger

13 2009 Willi XC ■ by Serge Lamarche

14 Embracing a field of stumps ■ by Nik Wellstein

16 Whirlwind detour ■ by Jim Orava

21 PG Worlds, in photos ■ by Jim Orava and Michel Ferrer

24 Wallaby Thoughts ■ by Michael Robertson

26 PG and HG Nationals fast approaching

S pring greetings to my fellow pilots,

As I am writing this in the middle of April, there is no mistaking that the fly-ing season is getting closer. And I have to make the mental leap of imagining myself in the beginning of June with a few flights under my belt, because that is about when you will be reading this.

It’s not that hard, really. In fact, I wish I was there, because this long winter with-out a single flight makes me wonder if I still can.

One thing is for sure: I will be rusty, like many of you. The bad thing is that this is exactly when thermals pack their biggest punch. So if you, like me, haven’t had time to keep on top of your game, try to avoid the big midday bouts and go for some easy

Change on the way DOMAGOJ JURETIC

New ratings structure among several changes headed for HPAC in coming year

sparing late or early in the day. That’s the best way to get ready for the big contend-ers.

And this year, the season is starting with a couple “main events.”

First and foremost is the completion and implementation of a new ratings structure. The changes are quite major and will un-doubtedly cause some controversy.

In general, the changes simply require more than before, and this barely puts us in line with many big free-flight countries. We don’t expect to win any popularity con-test with these changes. We simply believe that this is something that had to be done and something that was long overdue.

As you get familiar with those require-ments (and it is every member’s responsi-bility to do so), please realize how impor-

tant it was to account for all the regional differences in our sport. This rating review will be followed by a review of all instruc-tor ratings and by the implementation of a complete set of instructional standards, all of which should follow in the coming year.

So, if you read only one contribution in this issue, please take a few minutes to get familiar with our new rating requirements as presented by our IAC Chair, Michael Fuller on page 9.

As you read these lines, the HPAC board of directors has just gone through the an-nual directors’ meeting. This is the time when we close the books, take stock of our accomplishments and failings and put some projects on the table for the coming year.

We don’t expect to win any popularity contest with these ratings changes. We simply believe that this is something that had to be done and something that

was long overdue.

PG Novice Ab Glenn Derouin Kris Kernick 14-Jan-2009PG Novice Ab Keith MacCullough Mathieu Couture 14-Jan-2009PG Novice BC USHPA Sherri McEwen 25-Mar-2009PG Novice NB Michel Fougere Joey Savoie 19-Jan-2009PG Novice Qc Vincent Vaillancourt Patrice Arcand 19-Jan-2009PG Novice Qc Vincent Vaillancourt Stephane Diamond 16-Jan-2009PG Intermediate BC Pilot Scott Flavelle 21-Jan-2009PG Intermediate BC Pilot Peyman Imani 1-Feb-2009PG Intermediate BC Pilot Lee Kenyon 10-Mar-2009PG Intermediate Qc Pilot Lionel Labelle 6-Jan-2009PG Advanced Ab Keith MacCullough Ross McMurdo 16-Jan-2009PG Advanced Ab Keith MacCullough Jean-Michel Wan 8-Mar-2009PG Advanced BC Claudio Mota Elina Mota 23-Feb-2009PG Advanced BC Claudio Mota Philip Rich 23-Feb-2009PG Advanced BC Claudio Mota Torge Schuemann 23-Feb-2009

RATINGS BOARDHPAC ratings issued between Jan. 1, 2009, and March 31, 2009

RATING PROV. RATING OFFICIAL MEMBER DATE

FROM THE PRESIDENT

AIR MAGAZINE | JUNE 2009 7

Editor: JAMES KELLERair@hpac.ca

HPAC/ACVL OFFICERS

President: DOMAGOJ JURETIC [domjuretic@videotron.ca]Vice-president: CAS WOLAN [shga@hpac.ca]Secretary: AMIR IZADI [bluethermal@shaw.ca]Treasurer: CHARLES MATHIESON[Charles.Mathieson@telus.net]Safety and Accident Review Officer: QUINN CORNWELL [safety@hpac.ca] HPAC/ACVL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

B.C. and Yukon: AMIR IZADIAlta. and NWT: BRUCE BUSBY [buzword@telus.net]Saskatchewan: CAS WOLAN [shga@hpac.ca]Man. and Nunavut: GILLES NORMANDEAUOnt.: STEVE YOUNGERQue.: DOMAGOJ JURETIC Atlantic Canada: MICHAEL FULLER

Business Manager: SAM JEYES [bm@hpac.ca]Éditeur du Survol: ANNE-SOPHIE GUENIER[survol@hpac.ca]Competition Committee Chair: MARK DOWSETTNational Site Preservation and Development Chair: MARGIT NANCE [margitnance@shaw.ca]Observer: VINCENE MULLER[fly@mullerwindsports.com]FAI/CIVL Delegate: STEWART MIDWINTER [stewartd@midwinter.ca]Instructors Advisory Council Chair: MICHAEL FULLERInsurance Committee: GREGG HUMPHREYS[insurance@hpac.ca]Legal Advisor: MARK KOWALSKY[lawyer@hpac.ca]XC Records/Observer: VINCENE MULLERTransport Canada Liaison: ANDRÉ NADEAU[andre.nadeau@rogers.com]Web Team: CHARLES MATHIESON, GERRY GROSSNEGGER, QUINN CORNWEL, SERGE LAMARCHE

AIR is published four times yearly by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada/L’Association Canadienne de Vol Libre, and is mailed under Publication Agreement Number: 40735588. Undeliverable copies should be returned to:

5 Millennium Dr.Stratford, P.E.I.C1B 2H2

Articles and photographs published in AIR remain the property of their creators, and do not necessarily express the viewpoints of AIR, the editor or HPAC/ACVL.

H T T P : / / H PA C . C A

“It is not enough to just ride this earth. You have to aim higher, try to take off,

even fly. It is our duty.”— Jose Yacopi

To give you a chance to participate in this process, we follow up with the annu-al general meeting, where you are called upon to participate by consulting our re-viewed financial statements and voting on their approval. This is your chance to view where your money goes.

We are also presenting a vote that will hopefully allow us to move our fiscal year end date from March 31st, where it is too close to our annual general meeting and the start of the season, to December 31st, thereby giving plenty of time for our treasurer and business manager to harvest and compile all the figures for our financial statements.

At this time, we don’t see any downside in doing so, so this shouldn’t be a contro-versial vote. This will only make the job easier for our next treasurer, who we are desperately trying to find.

We are also looking at reducing our notification requirements for the annual general and special meetings. This meas-ure is only aimed at allowing for a bigger flexibility in using our magazine (which comes out four times a year) to officially notify the membership.

Today, as our bylaws stand, we are stuck with a two-month cycle to submit any-thing to our members (one month for the deadline to mailbox cycle for AIR, and an-other month for official notification).

In this electronic age, we think it might be OK to reduce this notification require-ment to 10 days; not forgetting that noti-fication by email and through the website could still be done 30 days in advance most of the time.

So on balance, chances of being notified one way or the other in a timely way will still be excellent. Anyway, it is going to be your call through this vote that we are sub-mitting to you.

Finally, there will a suggestion box.

The last main event is the partial or complete overhaul of the website. This is the costliest project that HPAC has under-taken in quite a while, and this is why it commanded the attention of a full com-mittee of HPAC members (among which where a few people working in the field). The committee also consulted outside ex-perts.

The committee has now submitted its recommendations to the board of direc-tors. The committee has prudently recom-mended to go with a multiple scenario call for bids. One of the scenarios consists of a cosmetics face lift and a partial overhaul, allowing us to rebuild on the foundations of the current website and the second con-sists of a complete rebuild with a modern open-source structure, which might make the website more flexible.

At this time, we are also considering splitting the first option into two, by hav-ing bids consider a superficial facelift as a separate scenario from the partial over-haul. So, as you can see, we are trying to be very prudent here.

Nonetheless, we realize how important it is for members and HPAC volunteers to have a flexible tool and how important a website is as an image bearer and market-ing tool in this digital world.

So it’s full-steam ahead on this big en-deavour.

Please stay tuned and keep posted, be-cause there are plenty of things going on at your association.

There are already plenty of competitions and friendly fly-ins on the calendar. What a feast! Enjoy and have a great and safe flying season!

- Domagoj JureticHPAC President

president@hpac.ca

FROM THE PRESIDENT

submitgot a story to share? photos? an equipment review? an

event coming up? — you get the idea. AIR welcomes any content that might be of interest to your fellow pilots.

air@hpac.ca

8 AIR MAGAZINE | JUNE 2009

AGM 2009

Dear Members,On behalf of our President, Domagoj Juretic, I would like to provide you with the notification that we will be hosting our on-line annual general meeting in June 2009.

Allowing for the 30-day notice in our bylaws, the AGM is set to officially start on the June 19 and end on the June 29.

During this period, you will have the opportunity to provide your feedback and vote on the following items:

1. Approval of the financial statements

for the fiscal year 2008-2009.2. Approval of the choice of auditors for

2010.We will also be providing a link to the

summary of the 2009 ADM (annual direc-tors’ meeting) that was held in April of this year.

Furthermore, there will be a link to the new insurance policy and a text of our by-laws for your review.

And, finally, there will a suggestion box

at your disposal. You are cordially invited to take part in

this process and possibly to help out fellow pilots with limited online access, by going to our website’s main page at:

www.hpac.caThanks for caring about what goes on in

your association.

- Sam JeyesHPAC Business Manager

Get involved with the AGM

HPAC’s online annual general meeting runs on the association’s website — www.hpac.ca — from June 19 to 29

INSTRUCTORS’ CORNER

By MICHAEL FULLER

Instructors Advisory Council

B y now, the instructors will have received their communiqué package describing the changes

that have been made to our rating sys-tem. You will also probably get the new exam set, as well, before you receive this issue of AIR.

There is not much I can add here to further explain the changes, but what I would like to do is reconfirm the proc-ess we’re going through and why. I‘d also like to introduce the subject to the gen-eral membership.

In 2004, the board identified two com-ponents to examine: a review of our rat-ings, and an assessment of instructional standards.

The plan was to review the ratings first and then proceed to discuss how we might establish a national instructional standard to support the goals of the new rating system.

The goal of the association was and will continue to be to put in place a process by which we can train highly skilled pilots so they progressively gain stronger and stronger piloting skills and a growing knowledge base of conditions, aerodynamics and regulatory obliga-tions as they progress through the learn-ing curve, resulting in all around safer more proficient pilots.

The process has been slow, but finally we’ve reached a turning point on our route to goal, which is the rating review.

The learning curve now consists of a revamped Beginner rating through Novice, to a beefed-up expectation of what makes an Intermediate pilot and then, finally, to the Advanced or perhaps more appropriately, the Complete pilot rating.

So, as a pilot progresses through the rating system, they are recognized as be-ing more and more skilled and the chal-lenges are more demanding.

For example, if mountain-trained pi-lots never flies coastal or vice versa, they will be stuck at a rating that reflects their limited knowledge and skill. This also

takes into account the huge diversity that we enjoy in Canada in terms of fly-ing environments, from coastal to flat-land to mountain.

We are also introducing the idea of mentorship. The purpose of the mentor is to give a student with the Beginner rating an opportunity to fly with a men-tor. The mentor is a skilled pilot entrust-ed by the instructor to guide a student in flight. The flying site must be a training site approved by the instructor, and in gentle conditions. It is intended prima-rily for launch and landing practice and must be approved by an instructor on a daily basis. The use of a mentor is at the discretion of the instructor.

Finally, there is the topic of HAGAR. With the introduction of the new rat-ing structure, we will be eliminating the need for HAGAR from the Intermediate rating.

We still encourage all pilots that will fly in controlled air space to write the Transport Canada HAGAR exam. In fact, it is illegal to fly in that airspace without it.

In order to take some of the mystery and sting out of the acquisition of air law knowledge, we have introduced air regulation theory in all levels of rating exams. This will require a progressive familiarization of the subject in the vari-ous ground schools. To support that, a HAGAR study guide is available on the

HPAC website. It will be sent out as part of the welcome package to students who have successfully completed the Begin-ner rating.

All of this is a huge job but one we feel is very important, given not only the technical developments in our sport but also advances in knowledge in airman-ship and teaching. The new rating struc-ture is the basis for moving to the next step, but that doesn’t mean they are now cut in stone. Far from it. We will con-tinue to tweak the rating requirements as we develop the instructional review, should we recognize that something is missing or is just plain wrong.

If you’re interested in contributing your time and energy toward achieving this goal, we’d certainly welcome your constructive participation.

For more information or clarification, please contact your regional director, the IAC chair or the business manager.

In the meantime, the board will con-tinue its work with a review of the Sen-ior Instructor rating and the Instructor’s rating, and also the development of an Assistant Instructor rating.

In closing, I would like to say a big thanks to all the instructors out there who helped out with their input, and also to the members of the IAC. We look forward to your continued support and contribution as we continue with this work.

New ratings changes introducedHPAC updates rating system as of May 1; instructional review to follow

Brad Murphy skiflies Blackcomb Glacier at Whistler, B.C.

IN BRIEF

XC camp in B.C.

HG points online

HG World team update

AIR CLASSIFIEDSGLIDER WANTED: I am looking for a good hang glider at a reasonable price. I weigh 170 lbs. Please call Darran Mohan at 250-270-0107.

By MARK DOWSETT

Competition Chair

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds are in France in June, and the teams will

be comprised of four pilots per country this time around (down from the nor-mal six-person teams). The number of pilots is restricted because of the launch size.

The top four Canadians that qualified for the team are (in order of rank) Scott Gravelle, Brett Hazlett, Rob Clarkson and myself. Congrats to the other pilots on showing their dedication and deter-mination to achieving a place on the team. Congrats to Scott for topping the team ranks — it’s his first time achieving the No. 1 spot.

Which brings us to the not-so-good news: Rob Clarkson will be on his own this year, as the other pilots to qualify aren’t able to attend.

Good on Rob for pursuing his pas-

A cross-country camp aimed at novice to intermediate pilots will

be held this July in Cache Creek, B.C.■ Goal: Provide guidance and oppor-

tunity for pilots with little or no cross-country experience to fly with experi-enced pilots in a group. Seminars and practical experience on flight planning, decision making, site choice, landing field assessment and team flying. This is not intended for pilots without soar-ing skills.

■ Site: Based in Cache Creek, several local sites will be used dependant on weather conditions.

■ Dates: July 4-11, 2009■ Requirements: 2m radio, your fly-

ing equipment, HPAC membership■ Accommodations: Camping at

The 2008 Hang Gliding points are of-ficial.

They can be seen by following the links from the Competition page on the HPAC website (http://hpac.ca/pub/?pid=94) or from the footer on the Canadian Team’s website (http://canadiannationalteam.ca).

Gliding news— truly, madly, briefly

sion. It’s Rob’s first time qualifying for the World team and it sure takes a lot of determination to do a trek like this solo. Good on ya’ for wanting it that bad, Rob. It’s so easy to say “no” to a voyage like this, and it takes a lot to pursue it.

I really wish we (Canadians) could come together and support our teams more. The U.S. teams (both hang glid-ing and paragliding) really put a lot of effort into funding their national teams in 2009. Their paragliding team raised more than $25,000 and their hang glid-ing team has currently raised more than $15,000, which is covering about 70 per cent of their five-pilot team’s costs.

It’s hard asking for donations or hand-outs, but I think Rob certainly deserves it for sticking it out. Donations are active on the team website: you can put it on your credit card through PayPal, or go old-fashioned and send Rob a cheque. He’s not asking for support, so I’m sure he’d appreciate it even more.

Brookside Campground group area, Cache Creek

■ Contact: Mark Tulloch at hglid-ing@shaw.ca

By BRENDON MCKENNA

A reminder that P.E.I.’s fifth-annual Tow Jam event is almost here: June

19-21, 2009.Please RSVP if you’re planning to at-

tend, and reserve space for tenting/trail-er/RV.

Friday, June 19, will be a play date for all those who want to come early and try some non-structured flying. Just a fun day more than anything.

The main event will be on Saturday and Sunday.

We will tow by day and have homeg-rown music and campfire by night — hence, “Tow Jam.”

If you play an instrument, then it is

mandatory you bring it along, regardless your skill level.

You are welcome to pitch a tent, set up a trailer or park an RV (without hook up) in our backyard — again, please RSVP for space.

Alternatively, contact me for informa-tion on motels and campgrounds in the area.

We have booked Slemon Park again this year. Slemon Park has an 8,000-foot runway with lots of potential for cross-country flights.

Alternatively, we have a private grass strip with two 2,600-foot runways. In the event we get blown out at the tow sites, we will probably make a run for some coastal flying.

If you have towing equipment, I rec-ommend you bring it with you.

If you are not trained in tow flying, it could be an opportunity to get some ex-perience.

Pegasus Paragliding will be running a tow clinic during the weekend. You must be a member of HPAC to participate in any of the tow clinics.

Contact me at brendon@pei.sym-patico.ca for more details or visit www.flypei.ca.

I look forward to seeing you all here on our Island. I will do my best to accom-modate all those who come to visit us either for Tow Jam or any other time of the year!

Take care in the air.

Tow jammin’ on Prince Edward Island

RESERVE CLINIC

By CALUM NEFF

O n March 7, 2009, Muller Wind-sports held their annual Reserve Clinic, giving pilots the chance

to have their equipment checked by a professional, as well as get some practice deploying a reserve parachute.

Both hang gliding and paragliding pilots were hooked in with their har-nesses, where they were spun, simu-lating turbulence experienced during a glider failure. Upon hearing the “go” command from Muller instructor Keith MacCullough, pilots were timed till they successfully deployed their chute. Times ranged from just over two seconds to one complete equipment failure.

After receiving their time sheet from Vincene Muller, pilots headed to the repack table, where a number of instruc-tors inspected and repacked using the Wills Wing format.

Deployments and repacks took a short break for the very informative presenta-tion by John Janssen and Keith. Both instructors covered in detail the impor-tance of the proper equipment — not just reserves, care and maintenance of equipment, and the use of a reserve-from when and why to throw, deploy-ment procedure, coming down under reserve and post deployment (1. Kiss the ground; 2. Change shorts). The presen-tation was finished with instructional videos from YouTube.

Although pilots came from all over Canada, numbers were down from previ-ous years, with a total of 68 deployments (29 hang glider and 39 paraglider). At-tendance was at its peak in 2002, with 86 deployments.

The one failure this year was an older conical reserve, which was repacked in-correctly using stationary store elastics. One other system was suspect, as both the hang glider harness and reserve were old (so was the pilot, as you can imagine — just kidding, Jaime). All other sys-tems were in good, working order and came down to the operation of the equipment.

It is important to remember that the full system includes: a reserve, a

harness and a carabineer, all in good working order with a competent user; but even this does not make a real de-ployment safe.

Practice makes perfect, and as Keith would tell you from his competition at the Paragliding Worlds this year, it can happen to anyone. He was witness to

24 reserve deployments in nine days of competition.

Muller Reserve Clinics are held an-nually in the spring before flying season and also provide a good get-together for the pilots, complete with pizza. I look forward to seeing everyone there next year and safe flying in the meantime.

Practice makes perfectDispatches from the Muller Windsports 2009 reserve clinic

I have no idea why I’m gravitating to these kinds of meetings — I mean, it is a waste of a day. It must mean I’m bored!? Or is

it just because there is no flying in the off-season in this frozen tundra called Ontario?

It was surprisingly “fun,” though. It’s great to meet other flying enthusiasts and see what other silly things they do in the air.

The meeting was the annual general meet-ing for the Aero Club of Canada — they are HPAC’s liaison to the FAI. The following as-sociations are members:

■ HPAC■ Canadian Sport Parachuting Associa-

tion (CSPA)■ Model Aeronautics Association of Can-

ada (MAAC)■ Soaring Association of Canada (SAC)■ Canadian Sport Aeroplane Association

(CSAA)■ Canadian Balloon Association (CBA)■ Aerobatics Canada■ Federation National Paramoteur (FNP)The morning was mostly an informal in-

troduction of each association and a brief summary of each of their activities, com-petition involvement, record achievements, membership number reports and any gen-eral issues their associations are facing. It was interesting to hear that Martin and Mia’s record claims in 2008 were Canada’s only record claims for any sport.

Everyone was “excited” to welcome the newest member, the FNP. I don’t think I even heard about them forming. They joined the ACC so they could compete at the Paramotoring World Championships and are looking at growing their associa-tion nationally. He claims there are about 700 pilots flying them coast-to-coast, but they only have 15 members at the moment. They are looking at providing 3rd-party li-ability insurance to their members, which would be a big attraction.

We put a bug in their ear about includ-ing the powered-hang glider pilots. Their website is at http://www.fnparamoteur.ca (French only right now).

FNP asked the typical question — why do we have the ACC? It was “funny” that he’d ask just after joining the association a few months back . . . but it’s typical. We join because we are told to, and at the surface it

seems to be all about competing. It brought out a good discussion to make sure we all convey back to our associations what the Aero Club of Canada is all about.

It’s all about supporting the FAI — a lot of work goes into (and comes out of) their technical committees. They are constantly working to improve world-wide standards of our sports and oversee their evolution. The ACC’s FAI representative had a great quote: “If we don’t take sport aviation seri-ously, who will?” That summed up the im-portance of the meeting to me.

It’s the ACC that makes sure Canada has a voice on the international scene, and it’s the FAI that makes sure our sports have a voice on a global scene.

The most visible thing the ACC does for HPAC is the administering of sporting li-censes for our international competitors, as well as the approval of CIVL Badges and world record submissions to the FAI. I went to the meeting with a change to the sporting licence process, and it turns out HPAC has some unique requirements. They agreed to let HPAC issue its own sporting licenses for 2009 as a trial.

So there will be some changes to that process coming soon. No change in the fees for record-setters and international compet-itors, but there will be some changes on the domestic competition scene for any domes-tic CIVL Category 2 events (for example, our Nationals).

The ACC also has a trust fund in place. It has considerable funds in it that generate in-terest each year, which can be use to (gener-ally) “promote aviation.” This is yet another fund that is sitting there and no one is us-ing. It hasn’t been used in years, and unfor-tunately they have no guidelines as to what can be applied for — so the sky is the limit! They want proposals submitted, and they have to come from HPAC (no individual ap-plications).

Fees are always the big issue. Unfortu-nately, as with everything, fees go up. Their administrative fees have gone up, but it’s negligible. The biggest problem was the ex-change rate compared to the Swiss Franc has gone down considerably. The fee the FAI charges the ACC didn’t increase at all. Still, this will result in an across-the-board 28 per

cent increase in our fees. What can we do, all associations had no choice but to agree.

Other interesting reports:CSAA: This is the category that the Red

Bull Air Races comes under. They have mixed feelings about the air races. The plus side is Red Bull has greatly increased expo-sure to this discipline, but they have their own rules and format of competing and are “stealing” the pilots to go just to their events and training camps. The CSAA was proud to have had two pilots invited to the training camps and one pilot has been in-vited back — a 24-year-old from Ontario, who is the youngest pilot in the circuit. Obviously, the most expensive of the sports in the ACC.

FAI: Red Bull was actually a sponsor of the FAI in 2008. The sponsorship money Red Bull paid was actually distributed back down to the member associations (our ACC) and it was based on membership numbers. I think they said we got about $1,500. It was a one-time sponsorship fee and it sounds like they are working on future years.

MAAC: Very interesting to see such high membership numbers for the folks that fly these RC planes! They have a great mem-bership and they publish a professional magazine. They do compete internationally, as well. They mentioned that they are split-ting classes within their association as well — under and over 35 kilograms (those are big RC planes!!). Apparently, these under-35-kilogram planes (UAV.I’s) are trying to get approved for commercial purposes, geo-surveying and unmanned traffic report-ing planes. Once again, these all fall under the FAI’s jurisdiction, and they are the ones working out the standards.

The rough membership numbers:HPAC: 814CSPA: 2,700MAAC: 11,640SAC: 946CSAA: 65CBA: 59Aerobatics Canada: 65FNP: 15If one thing comes out of this meeting for

us all, remember the FAI official’s quote: “If we don’t take sport aviation seriously, who will?”

If we don’t take sport aviation seriously...Mark Dowsett and Steve Younger at the Aero Club of Canada’s AGM

AERO CLUB AGM

THE EVER-POPULAR WILLI XC CONTINUES FOR ANOTHER YEARSERGE LAMARCHE HAS THE DETAILS FOR 2009

WILLI XC

THE MAIN DIFFERENCE THIS YEAR over last year is that we don’t have access to the pavilion during the first weekend and part of the week. Hence, breakfasts on these days will be done outdoors, like they were originally.

We will need volunteers, as usual. You can mention what kind of volunteering, if any, you would like to contribute to the event.

Here is a brief breakdown:■ Registration is $60, includes speci-

fied meals, and $5 Canadian Team Fee.■ Participants must be insured mem-

bers of HPAC. Out-of-country pilots can get temporary HPAC memberships. Membership forms will be there at reg-

istration, but it’s always better to be member already. Participants must sign a waiver.

■ It’s a Class C HPAC competition again. The same relaxed format as usual — fun is the priority.

■ From July 24/25 to Aug. 2, inclu-sive.

■ Friday evening, on July 24, is initial registration/BBQ to allow flying on Sat-urday. Saturday, July 25 is the first day of flying and second wave registration/BBQ. Registrations are allowed all week. Sunday, Aug. 2, is last day of the compe-tition with dinner/trophies/prizes in the evening.

■ Pancake and eggs breakfasts includ-

ed every morning at around 9 a.m., fol-lowed by the pilots’ briefings at around 10 o’clock.

■ Headquarters at GEAR. Launch on Mount Seven.

■ Sponsors so far include GEAR, Muller Windsports, Control Innova-tions Inc.; other sponsors are welcome.

■ Bilingual organization — French and English — by Karen Keller and Serge Lamarche.

■ Book your camping/lodging early.■ Come prepared and fly safely!For complete info, rules, pre-registra-

tion and to contact the organizers: http://sergewebser vice.ca/seven/

wmxcc.html

THE EVER-POPULAR WILLI XC CONTINUES FOR ANOTHER YEARSERGE LAMARCHE HAS THE DETAILS FOR 2009

Hang gliders on launch at the 2008 Willi XC at Golden, B.C.

I came home

from an unbelievable trip to Mexico full of excitement to fly again, only to realize our area was very limited in possibilities.

For a number of reasons, our pilots are divided into various groups that do not fly together that much. One of the reasons being there has been no flying field with more than one tow direction that was open to everyone. With all the open fields and farmland in the Ottawa area, I could not understand why this was a problem.

The other thing required would be a good stationary tow. So, off I went and purchased a used scooter with full inten-tions to modify it as a scooter tow. It ran like crap, and it turned out it needed a carburetor and a bunch of tinkering and tweaking to get it to run great.

But after much contemplation, I decid-

ed if I really wanted to seriously tow, this was not adequate. (Anyone want to buy a perfectly good scooter to use for scooting around at the local flying club?)

Through one of the local members, a hydraulic winch was located in Mani-toba ready to go. Perfect! I had it shipped home, put on a roll of spectra, modified the hydraulics, shorted the trailer, moved the axle, put on a governor and, 250 hours of learning hydraulics and welding later, I had the perfect winch. Now it was time to find a location to fly.

Ottawa has Class D airspace extending out from the airport for 12 statute miles with a floor at 1,500 feet ASL, and 2,500 feet ASL from there out to 24 miles and 6,500 feet out to 45 miles. Class D airspace has the following restriction: “no person operating a VFR aircraft (that’s us) shall

enter Class D airspace unless the person establishes two-way radio contact with the appropriate air traffic control unit before entering.”

Ottawa also requires a Mode C trans-ponder.

Now, that really restricts the usable fields in the Ottawa area.

It just so happens my wife owns 35 hec-tares of land just on the edge of the Class D (2,500 feet ASL floor) airspace. About 30 hectares of this property was bush with the rest cleared. A little begging and plead-ing, and I was off to the races.

I was permitted to cut off 10 hectares; added to the area that’s already cleared, that would create an area large enough for the new flying field.

A local logging crew completed the work during this past winter. They sold off the

FIELD OF STUMPS

STUMPS AND DREAMSNIK WELLSTEIN MOWS DOWN A NEW FIELD IN THE OTTAWA AREA

logs for pulp, saw logs and firewood. The wood and branches that were too small for anything else were ground to chips and used in Quebec for electrical power pro-duction. That left a wide open field.

Mind you, a field of stumps or dreams, depending how look at it.

It is too bad that stumps could not be sold off as artwork or something.

The solution was to call an excavating company to remove the stumps. They were only too glad to start as soon as the frost was out of the ground.

“How much?” I asked,“Don’t worry, we’ll give you a good deal,”

they said,“How much?” I asked,“Maybe 200 hours work, plus trucking”“But how much?,” I repeated“Only $125 per hour.”After almost having a coronary, I kindly

asked them to leave, the dream seemingly over.

A few days later, one of the subcon-tractors I regularly dealt with in the past expressed interest in purchasing another excavator to add to his collection of six machines, but he had no need for one for another six months. A match made in heaven, I thought: I will buy the unit he wants and he will buy it off of me when the summer is over. The bank on the other hand, was much harder to convince of this hand-shake deal, though eventually they agreed.

I now can look forward to learning the excavation business first-hand in my spare time.

So, to go on from here, I have been informed we need sight-specific waiv-ers drafted, insurance and legal advice. I guess a few gliders, harnesses, helmets, a

rope retrieval vehicle, a wind sock, com-munication equipment and such would also be handy.

It seems to be never ending.A former boss of mine once said, “To

make a small fortune in aviation start with a large one.”

From this experience, I can now weld, obtained a basic understanding of hy-draulics, learned to pilot an excavator, and gained some insight into the logging busi-ness. I have also learned that it is harder than it looks to set up an airfield — but it sure is fun!

I say, “To get an education, build a fly-ing field.”

If and when the stumps are finally out and the field is seeded, I will be back to invite you all over for some flying.

Fly smart and don’t land in stumpy fields.

FIELD OF STUMPS

the whir lwindJim Orava takes a break from Mexico and heads

east — as in, Eastern Hemisphere — for another whirlwind adventure

WHIRLWIND

T he whirlwind slows down and I sit in the rain in a chalet on the French side of the Saleve, 15

kilometres north of Geneva, my wife’s home.

Upon arrival, Antoine Montant and his father arrive and entertain us to a fabulous French lunch before heading to Le Cret on the Saleve, one of the most beautiful paragliding sites in the world. Here is the cutting edge of free flight, where everyone with a couple of years of flying seems to become an acrobatic monster. The tourist hikers stand, eyes wide open, while gliders from 10 square meters to acro slivers spend more time inverted than upright, regaining normal flight only to regain height to execute yet another G-ridden plunge in front of the limestone monolith the height of the Chief but 20 kilometres long.

Upon arrival, it’s immediately appar-ent that our flying game has changed again. A dream place to fly, where the laminar air of Lac Leman compresses over the Saleve before sliding past the grazing cows and their bells, allowing

smooth constant inflations and aggres-sive top-landings. Antoine terrorizes the crowd with his infinite tumblings, me-tres from the cliff walls.

David arrives with a small hook. Weighing 90 kilograms, the glider is still too big for him with the increasing airspeed, so we watch the minigliders inflate and jet hundreds of metres ver-tically before departing over the edge. Helicos, tumblings, mactwists and sats, soaring on 10-metre swoops and top-landing like crows. The Geneva area, with hundreds of active pilots, the Swiss-French competition and free expression in flight an incubus for progression and creativity in free flight readily apparent.

The air is cold and we head back to the Cafe de Cret, where Corinne and Franceline have resurrected a hundred-year-old farmhouse to turn into a res-taurant to spread their love of the moun-tain, to create a centre for the inertia of climbers, hikers and flyers and all that love the wind rock and sky. Sunset sends a red wave of light over the Aravis, and the summit of Mount Blanc dominates

the horizon.We speak of our winter in Northern

India and Nepal, where David operates Blue Sky Paragliding, teaching acro and XC courses and flying hundreds of tan-dems each year with his wife and Herve Cerrutti, another of the world’s top acro monsters.

We recall the warm air pushing out of the Indian plains, creating an environ-ment where every day is made to fly, and how we had met some 10 years earlier inside a cloud somewhere on the shoul-der of Machupuchare.

Flashback to a telephone call in the fall. “We need to rig a flycam for Walt Disney in Mexico city, opening scene, talking Chihuahuas...” Loading our paragliders into a five-star hotel in Mexico City, we prepare for a week in the largest popula-tion mass in the world.

Storyline: two Chihuahuas on holiday in Mexico City, one gets kidnapped and the story progresses. Reality, we rig the flycam, get the opening shot and a real dog napper walks into the Disney ken-nel, takes the fancy mutts and our job is

finished.. off to Valle!Why more Canadian pilots don’t visit

Valle earlier in the season always re-mained a mystery to me. In October, the conditions are more gentle, the land green and the clouds soft. Already at the Penon, the Mexicans were busy in preparation for the pre-Worlds, cutting the brush back and sloping and grass-ing with the generous support of the Mexican government. But the strange developments that were to be the Valle launch politics 2008 were already taking place, with an unknown launch monitor charging 50 pesos per launch, for who and what we did not know at that point.

Having the gigantic launch to our-selves, we initially paid, unaware of the drama to follow with Fly Mexico at-tempting to privatize one of the major places in the world to launch.

The convoluted history of the club de Vuelo and Vuela of Valle led the FlyMex-ico people to believe it would be better to turn it into a private venture.

We still found many days at cloudbase. In order to break last year’s top-landing record of 22 top-landings at the Penon, the launch fee was lowered one morning

from $5 to below 25 cents per takeoff. Cracking 11,000 feet with Morgan and

skimming the water to the beach in Valle made it time to move. Corinne decided to take residence in Valle, while Brad, Morgan and I went east — way east.

Delhi is always a shock to the senses no matter how many times one has vis-ited before. Arriving after midnight and searching for my old standby hotel in old Delhi was no exception. For Bradley, it was a mind bender.

Exhausted beyond sleep, we sat in the squalor with the street kids entertaining beggars and tigerbalm salespeople while drinking a couple cans of Kokanee I had stuffed in my Niviuk pack. Morgan was somewhere en route via Mexico-U.S.-Eu-rope, while we had spent only one night in Singapore having a short sleep in a tiny airless room before somehow being deposited in the Delhi airport. Morgan arrives at 2 a.m. the following day, and we are stuffed into a petite Indian taxi, three solo Niviuk paragliders, the Axis tandem and our vol bivy gear heading north to the Himachal Pradesh.

Time is a whirlwind. It had already been six years since since my last visit to

this part of the Himalaya. Corinne and I had pioneered a launch above Dharam-sella at the Magic view cafe, which had just been built by a young optimistic In-dian, luckily with a sharp sickle.

Launching into a group of mighty Himalayan eagles, we had soared up-wards to the clouds, circled the Dali Lama’s palace before landing in a mi-niscule paddock in Dharmsella between wire, concrete and canyon walls to the screams of delight of a thousand Monks. Never would I forget descending past the roofs of the monasteries with the red-garbed monks all demanding I land on their particular re-bar-bristled roof!

On this trip, as we wound through the Punjab foothills and approached Bir, we could see the bases of the clouds col-oured with several wings. Arriving at the landing field, a group of Russians were taking care of a freshly broken tibia. The place had been discovered. We find sol-stice in the Tibetan part of town with an ancient granny’s spare room. One dollar per night, tea in the morning and a flat roof to watch the sun rise and fall on the great range immediately in front of us.

Gille is there, having spent the last

WHIRLWIND

18 seasons exploring the mountains by wing. After meeting him in Bir years before, I had flown with him summer and winter in the Alps and still the fly-ing vagabond was as keen as ever. Debu, the wonderboy from Manali, appeared and then another displaced Brit, Steve, with whom we had explored the western ghats with, appeared, still stuck in his Indian time warp. We all recall seeing giant leopards and landing in unknown villages.

Bradley Sanders, the mad young Yan-kee living in Pakistan and flying solo above 7,000-metre peaks instigates the first vol bivy mission.

Launching at Billing, we head down the range and land at “the caves,” where high altitude shepherds spend the sum-mers defending their sheep and goats from leopards and bears while living under house-sized boulders with tiny creeks running nearby. The day is still working, so we download our camping gear and launch again, unable to refuse the circling call of the griffins.

Within minutes, we are again in the clouds at 4,000 metres, cold and looking over the back at the great peaks leading

to the Tibetan plateau only kilometres away. Suddenly, the sky turns black and we dive like nutters for our camp as the sleet and hail begin.

Touching down again, we see three more paragliders enter the zone. First to land is the one and only John Silvester. Shortly after, two more Brits are search-ing for places to guide vol bivy with Johns guiding service. Seconds later, the storm hits and the hail and rain drive us under the great boulders. An hour later, the front moves past and we watch the three Brits launch again to fly back to Bir as birthday Bradley, the chef, cooks us a three-and-a-half-star meal before we go to sleep.

I wake up cold. There’s frost on the tarp above my face. Fresh snow offsets the 5,000-metre peaks from the crystal blue Himalayan sky, but with the latitude of Florida, the rising sun soon soaks up the cold and by 10 a.m., the giant vul-tures thermal out of the valley and we, too, inflate our wings.

Thermals faster than seven metres-per-second soon drag us above 4,000 metres, and we regain our travel towards Dharamsella. Gaggles of the giant birds

mark the climbs and our small airborne troupe jump the remaining ridges to-ward Dharmsella some kilometres be-fore the Pakistani boarder.

Crossing the final ridge, there ap-peared all the cliff shanties and mon-asteries and squalor that lead one’s eye to the valley below Dharmsella. But our goal of landing at 3,000 metres, stor-ing the gliders and walking down was becoming more remote by the minute. Cloudbase was fluctuating below 3,000 metres, and the steep cliffs and tall fir trees occluded any other option except flying far down into the deep Himichel valley.

Working with compass and GPS, stay-ing away from the craggy ridge, we cir-cled and waited for the mountains to breath. The thick mist tortured us with glimpses of top-landing potential, but with each approach, the clouds would seem to descend and stop any attempt to land in the alpine.

The thought of landing a vertical mile below and the resulting hike with glid-ers on our backs kept us circling on the edge of the white void. Suddenly, Brad Sanders pulled ears and dove into the

WHIRLWIND

What is next? More adventure in Canada and abroad, more speeding the skinny slivers through the crowded competition skies, speed riding, skis on, more foot launching off

the hills with tiny speed wings? This is one sport impossible to be bored with.

white. The mountain seemed to breath a second time and I could see prayer flags below me in the boulders and a green landable surface. I dove in and had a sweet landing.

Now, only the dingo Brad and Ste-ve were out in the mist waiting for a chance. But as the day was magic, we all proceeded to have perfect landings on the cloudy hill. Soon, we were all hiking down the mountain weightless with our gliders neatly tucked into a mountain hovel, heading for a meal and a room in the madness of Dharmsella.

It was a few days later after flying back to Bir, revamping and continuing on a five-hour solo flight, that I landed in the control zone in the Manali/Kulu Valley. After dropping through a giant shear and plowing into the Kulu, I spotted what looked like an abandoned airport. Being in 600-metre-per-minute sink and going 85 kilometres per hour pointed into the wind (backwards) led me to take the big safe LZ (which appeared to be an aban-doned airport).

I am down, but what is with all the ra-zor ribbon above the wall within which I have landed? Then the sound of a bolt action rifle being cocked, another, and another. Three short dudes in green suits pointing very old guns at me. Nice. But it was when the fellow in the white dress shirt and the black pants jumped out of the tall grass in front of me and said in his Indian accent “verrry, verry BAD” I knew that I was not having dinner right away. Of course, it all worked out well and after more than a month of India, it was time to head to Nepal. Conditions were get-ting too stable in these mountains.

From there, there was a sedate and yet mad session of tandem flying in Nepal. As every pilot knows, the variables of flying make life so interesting, yet when one flies for someone else, it can be much more so. The most memorable flight was a 69-year-old British birdwatcher who had come to Nepal to fly with the Grif-fins. The giant Vultures had been few in the previous weeks, but I assured her they would arrive. And as if we had somehow called them, around the mountain came not 10 or 20 but hundreds, and as they climbed we launched and engaged our-selves with dozens of the birds within metres in every direction. It took hours for her to calm down after landing!

Here in the kingdom of Nepal, the magic is spontaneous, the variety of ex-perience infinite, even in a short time. Adventure is a daily experience, and fly-ing tandem is a gift.

Many great friends have collect-ed as if by magic as well. We fly to the great peaks, flip acro tandems over the lake, eat and live so well. We fly over screaming monkeys and endless vil-lages, hike through the jungles past the elephants and the Maoist camps. Flying four or five hours a day, another month and a half evaporate. I must go back to Mexico, where Corinne has been flying daily.

Pochara-Kathmandu, Kathmandu-Delhi. Delhi Singapore. Sing-Seoul. Seoul, Vancouver. Vancouver, Mexico city. A night bus, and Corinne finds me in Toluca at midnight.

I test a new glider once and start the Monarca the following day.

Always, where there is humour and friends, it seems so relaxing, no matter what the context. Here we are again in a giant gaggle, seemingly bouncing off of each other below the clouds and loving every second of it. The goal field is a scene of happy humans so glad to be where they are, and the GPS room is buzzing. Now we are back in competition world, where we will stay in the air and we will fly far, and even if it looks like a sweet place to top-land, we will fly the task!

Mexico, land of fire. The ability for a human to become a bird is relentless and for the duration of both the Monarca and

the pre-Worlds, we remain aloft an av-erage of five hours a day for more than three weeks. We cannot stop.

How many turns, it hurts to guess. How many actual kilometres, only the zopilotes know.

The whirlwind continues with us aboard flapping our plastic wings the whole way.

Another summer season, vol bivy in Canada, yanked to 5,800 feet, finally now the Worlds in Valle, the last flashback, where the sharks really play. This season, the new competition wings lead to a bevy of reserves and bumps. On the final day, after the task is called, I have a needed re-serve deployment with the battened top surface well wound through the dental floss less than 600 feet above the earth. It takes a week of spinning my easy glider to desire to fly the competition machine again. What will wings be like next year?

What is next? More adventure in Cana-da and abroad, more speeding the skinny slivers through the crowded competition skies, speed riding, skis on, more foot launching off the hills with tiny speed wings? This is one sport impossible to be bored with.

The whirlwind continues . . .

Jim Orava is the owner of Cayoosh Expeditions in Pemberton, B.C., and has as of yet not managed to control

his urge to go adventuring with either his wife, Corinne, or any other

monkeys keen to get out into the wild blue yonder.

WHIRLWIND

// continued on page 20

PG WORLDS

The Paragliding Worlds were held at Valle de Bravo, Mexico, in January. Canadian pilot Jim Orava and Michel Ferrer of France captured the event in pictures.

Racing past the three kings.

PG WORLDSp

PG WORLDS

Keith out front.

Nicole McLearn.

Jim Orava.

The CanadiansCongratulations go to four Canadian pilots who flew

at the Worlds: Brett Yeates, Keith MacCullough, Jim Orava and Nicole McLearn.

As a team, Keith, Jim and Nicole placed 24th out of 44 teams.

Individually, the Canadian standings were:Keith: 45th out of 148 pilotsJim: 78thNicole: 128thBrett: 129thIn the female category, Nicole placed 13th out of 21

pilots.

By MICHAEL ROBERTSON

High Perspective

T he 12th incarnation of the annual Wills Wing party and “demo daze” at The Ranch (Wallaby Ranch —

half-hour southwest of Orlando, Fla.) was a wonderful get-together as always.

Sadly, it lacked one key ingredient: the event’s founder, Wills Wing president Rob Kells. For those who have been liv-ing under a hang gliding rock rather than launching from it, we lost this prince of the industry last year to prostate cancer.

I had a special connection with Rob, in that we shared a birthday and we each have three daughters.

The DVD from the memorial service, a copy of which I have, was played again. Rob’s presence was palpable for me, and he gave us great flying on Saturday, something like 240 flights.

I flew a couple of tandem flights on my new Falcon 3 tandem. Great fun working light lift with a student, a per-fect intro to thermalling.

Steve Bellerby almost made it to the Saturday night party flying his Litespeed down from Quest (not that far, but tricky in a crosswind with a lot of little lakes in between).

Steve Wendt was there with his

“scooter tow” clinic. Mark Dowsett and Shane Wright attended and said they re-ally learned a lot. I have been a huge fan of stationary winch tow training for 15 years, and it really does my heart good to see others coming to appreciate its benefits.

I remember well the first time I told Wills Wing how fantastic the Con-dor was as a training glider using the winch. They freaked! “Tow a Condor, are you nuts?” they shrieked. They were so shocked, I couldn’t even get them to bring a Condor to the earlier demo days to allow me to demonstrate the gentle low-tow technique.

To me, teaching on hills is obsolete. Learning on flat ground is so easy and the skills learned are so solid that even if I had the perfect training hill, I would never go back.

My best flight was the Monday before things officially got started. I logged two hours, 42 minutes in challenging, small-core-air with a relatively low inversion (3,500 feet) on a Wills Wing Eagle 164 (so sweet). With light wing loading in light air, it’s kind of easy to stay with, or out-climb, the topless boys and girls.

Interesting when they realize it’s not a beginner on that boat. One problem was that I’d find a good little core low and

start cranking and banking up, then the speed demons would converge above me and sometimes start turning the oppo-site way, forcing me to reverse and lose the best lift. Kind of annoying that these guys would feel they are above the rules of the air. Or maybe they just think, “No VG-less Eagle is going to out-climb me!”

The wind blew and the sky bellowed for several days in the middle. Some of us did the tourist thing, visiting Sea World, etc. I normally feel bad visiting animals in captivity, but I really enjoyed the shows, the proximity to such a vari-ety of beautiful creatures and the strong conservation message.

Another excellent blown-out-day ac-tivity that I enjoy is tuning tips with Mike and Steve from WW (in the past, Mike Barber gave an XC flying tutorial). This year’s topic was “tumbles” and sprog set-tings. It went on for a long time, which was to the benefit of those who cared to use the non-flying time for listening and learning. This topic was especially hot, because of the Oz report video of Dustin doing loops without his sprog wires ever going tight. The bottom line was, leave your sprogs at the factory setting and if you’re going to mess with them, talk to the experts.

DEMO DAYS

Wallaby thoughts — or, demo days

A corollary that was reinforced at our ’chute repack clinic was to avoid situa-tions that would get you upside down, like aerobatics and flying in really violent air. The RCR Charts of Reliability DVD that I just completed, after five years in the editing room, gives a guideline that Joe Greblo from Windsports Soaring Centre in L.A. contributed: leave the lift when it reaches half your maximum dive sink rate.

This is a great rule, especially for nov-ices and intermediates. That is, if your sink rate in a full dive is 1,000 fpm (you could probably add 200 fpm in a spiral dive), then at least find the edge of the lift when your climb gets to 500 fpm. This is more to avoid cloud suck than tumbles, but they are close relatives. The good news is only two in the large group of advanced pilots had tumbled, both in “poor judgement” situations.

Vincene Muller made it from Alberta,

but the normally large Quebec contin-gent didn’t. I really missed that fun-lov-ing gang and their go-for-it flying.

There were people from all over the world. I met and reacquainted with folks from Holland and Ecuador, who were very keen about the new Charts of Reliability DVD, which is hot off the press (well, ac-tually, these were “pre-press” copies.)

(Drop me a line or give me a call if your interest is peaked, or if you are keen about risk management. The ac-companying manual has also been com-pletely rewritten.)

We watched another “crash-bash” vid-eo/DVD from the early California days, which quite naturally led to the “die-in-droves” days that decimated the indus-try in the mid-to-late ’70s.

I’m always a bit queasy watching these testimonies to the sheer bravado of the bold. How can someone casually leap onto an obviously barely built aircraft

with virtually no instruction and jump off a mountain? It was crazy enough on low hills over sand. That anyone sur-vived is a minor miracle. For those who enjoy that sort of thing, the DVD is re-ally excellent. It’s called “Big Blue Sky.”

The good news is that when this cra-ziness became apparent to all, it led the industry to self-regulate and we enjoy the benefits of superb testing and safety margins today. In 1975, there were 50 manufactures in the U.S. and 50 fatali-ties. By 1985, there were five manufac-tures and, again, about an equal number of fatalities. It also led to solid instruc-tional standards, although there was a bit of a lag in this, my area of expertise. Such as it is.

I’m really excited to be entering my 40th year teaching hang gliding full time in 2010.

See you there to help me celebrate next April?

DEMO DAYS

By ERIC OLIVIER

The Paragliding Nationals will be at Quebec’s Mont Yamaska.The competition, which runs July 10 - 19, will be the third

major paragliding competition held at the site.Since 2005, when we held our first ECC championship, the fly-

ing at Yamaska has evolved in a dramatic fashion. Where XC flying was reserved for a very select few paraglider pilots and veteran hang glider pilots, I’m happy to say it is now a daily event. The flying scene has gone from mostly local soaring to thermals and mile hunters.

Flights of 50 and 60 km, or farther, are now regular happenings. It has brought friendship, challenges and fun to our flying like no other event before.

Pilots have now laid out more routes and LZs, and the task com-mittee will set longer and more challenging tasks than before.

The event is set at six tasks over eight days (typical FAI triangles, out-and-returns and straight distances). It’s sanctioned by FAI as a Category 2 event, by HPAC and is valid for NTSS points.

Launches are located 320 degrees around the mountain (all at around 1,000 feet above ground) and we have launch sites facing south, west, north and east.

Registration: goflyxc.com/2009/canadian_paragliding_nationals/ Mont Yamaska, site of this year’s Paragliding Nationals.

By RALPH HERTEN

The Canadian Hang Gliding Nationals are all set for Sun Peaks, B.C., from August 15 to 22.

Registration: August 14 - 15Practice Day: August 15Competition: August 16 - 22 We’re expecting an exceptional turnout, so make sure you’re

there for a great competition and reunion with flying buddies.In addition to an Open Class and King Posted Class, we have

confirmed a Sports Class for less-experienced competitors. Dave Wagner, local guru and instructor, will be heading up the Sports Class. Entry will be limited to pilots with less than 25 hours fly-ing time, but with solid skills and a desire to learn and improve. Intermediate rating or instructor sign-off is required.

We are looking at small tasks within glide of the LZ. GPS is mandatory. Dave will be providing coaching to the entrants. We will set up a rigid wing class if interest warrants. (Sorry — no free flyers at this event!)

We have lined up a bunch of preferred accommodations for competitors. Check out the link on www.goflyxc.com/2009/ canadian_hang_gliding_nationals/ for more details.

The best value is at Fireside Lodge in the heart of the village, but other deals and camping options are available to suit various tastes and budgets.

Early-bird pricing is over; see further payment details on the website.

For more information, contact rherten@gmail.com

East meets West This year’s Canadian Nationals, first paragliding in Quebec and then hang gliding in British Columbia

Paragliding, Mount Yamaska, Que.

Hang gliding, Sun Peaks, B.C.

The hang gliding venue: Sun Peaks, B.C.

2009 NATIONALS

Joaquin Klein “powder flying”Meadow Creek, B.C.

photo: Douglas Noblet - www.WildAirPhoto.com

Fred Perrault’s funny launchMeadow Creek, B.C.

photo: Douglas Noblet - www.WildAirPhoto.com

Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of CanadaAssociation canadienne de Vol Libre

HPAC Accident / Incident Report – CONFIDENTIAL ACVL Rapport d’Accident / ou d’Incident – CONFIDENTIEL

Is this an Accident or Incident? / Est-ce que c’est un accident ou incident? Type (HG or PG) / Type (DP ou PP):Date of Accident/Incident / Date de l’accident/incident: Time of Accident/Incident / L’heure de l’accident/incident: Province / Province: Site / Site:Purpose of Flight (Training/Student, Tandem, X-Country, Local, Competition, SIV) / Le but du vol (formation/étudiant, tandem, vol voyage, vol local, compétition, SIV) :

PILOT INFORMATION / INFORMATION DU PILOTEName / Nom du Pilote: Gender / Sexe: Age / Age: Address & Contact # / Adresse & Téléphone: Email / Courriel:

Passenger / Passager: Address & Contact # / Adresse & Téléphone: Email / Courriel:

Witness / Nom des témoins: Contact #/ Téléphone: Email / Courriel:

Reported By / Rapporté par: Contact # / Téléphone: Email / Courriel:

ASSOCIATION / ASSOCIATIONHPAC Membership # / # de membre ACVL: Club(s) / Club(s):

EXPERIENCE / EXPÉRIENCEStudent (Y/N) / Ètudiant (O/N): Rating / Niveau: Date of first Rating Issue / Date de délivrance du premier brevet: Endorsements / Qualifications: SIV Training (Y/N) / Formation SIV (O/N):

Hagar (Y/N) / (O/N):Hagar # / # Hagar:

Total Hours / Nombre d’heures totales: Hours last 90 days / Heures depuis 90 jours: Total Flights / Nombre total de vols:

EQUIPMENT / ÉQUIPEMENTSGlider Make, Model & Year / Marque, modèle et année de fabrication de l’aéronef : Harness Make, Model & Year / Marque, modèle et année de fabrication du harnais : Helmet Make, Model & Year / Marque, modèle et année de fabrication du casque : Reserve Make, Model & Year / Marque, modèle et année de fabrication du parachute : Reserve Deployment (Y/N) / Déploiement du parachute (O/N): Description of Damage / Description des dommages:

WEATHER CONDITIONS / CONDITIONS MÉTÉOROLOGIQUESGeneral / Général : Wind speed & direction / Direction et vitesse du vent:

INJURIES (INCL. HOSPITALIZATION & TIME LOST FROM WORK) / BLESSURES (INCLUANT LA PÉRIODE D’HOSPITALISATION ET ABSENCE DU TRAVAIL

OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION OF ACCIDENT/INCIDENT (INCLUDE COORDINATES & PHOTOS) / DESCRIPTIONOBJECTIVE DU VOL ET DE L’ACCIDENT / INCIDENT (COORDONNÉES ET PHOTOS)

HUMAN FACTORS / FACTEURS HUMAINS

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS / FACTEURS ENVIRONMENTAUX

TECHNICAL FACTORS (EQUIPMENT) / FACTEURS TECHNIQUES (ÉQUIPEMENTS)

RECOMMENDATIONS / RECOMMANDATIONS

ACTIONS TAKEN (CLUB OR ASSOCIATION) / CORRECTIFS APPORTÉS (LE CLUB OU L’ASSOCIATION)

REPORT REVIEW – COULD THIS ACCIDENT HAVE BEEN AVOIDED? HOW? / RÉVISION DE RAPPORT – EST-CE QUE CET ACCIDENT AURAIT PU ÊTRE ÉVITÉ? COMMENT?

(or, fill out the electronic form at www.hpac.ca)

HPAC SAFETY OFFICER / OFFICIER DE SÉCURITÉ ACVL

Marlene Jacob Cell: 705.795.7717

Email / Courriel: safety@hpac.ca

Mail / Poste: 27 Coronation Pkwy Barrie, ON L4M 7J9 ______________________________________________________________________________________

* Accidents are investigated to provide guidance toward the prevention of a recurrence. The personal content of this report is CONFIDENTIAL. Report analysis is confined to cause-related circumstances and is for record keeping and accident prevention purposes only.

*Les accidents sont soumis à une enquête afin de fournir des recommandations qui serviront à prévenir d’autres incidents. Les données personnelles de ce rapport sont CONFIDENTIELLES. Le rapport d’analyse sera limité aux causes et circonstances de l’incident et sera conservé dans les archives à des fins de prévention.

Quinn Cornwellcell: 204.237.0540

157 Birchdale Ave.Winnipeg, Man.R2H 1S3

safety@hpac.ca

Hang G l id ing and Parag l id ing Assoc ia t ion o f Canada5 Millennium Drive, Stratford, PEI. C1B 2H2

T e l : 1- 8 7 7- 3 7 0- 2078 Fax : 1- 9 0 2- 3 6 7- 3358 Ema i l : admin@hpac .ca

APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP

HPAC and Provincial1 Association Membership FeesIncludes $3 Million third-party liability insurance, valid Canada wide, and a magazine (see below depending on your province).

FULL MEMBER: Choose ONE of A, B, C or D OPTIONS:

A. Ontario, NWT, out-of-Canada residents (includes Air Magazine) $0 provincial fee $125 Subscription to AIR Magazine for non-HPAC members $30

B. Manitoba, Nunavut (includes Air Magazine)$0 provincial fee $125 Subscription to AIR Magazine for HPAC members $18

C. Atlantic Provinces, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon (includes Air Magazine)$15 provincial fee

$140 Subscription to SURVOL Magazine for HPAC members $18

D. Quebec (includes SurVol Magazine) $43 prov. fee $150 (Subscription to SURVOL Magazine for non-HPAC members is available for $25 direc tly from AQVL.qc.ca ) *

Magazine preference (pick one): AIR (English) SurVol (French) neither (downloaded PDF only)

Total of Membership Fees (A, B, C or D): Total of Optional Fees:

TOTAL SUBMITTED TO HPAC (Membership + Optional fees):

New Member? Yes No Check appropriate: HG Pilot PG Pilot

HPAC/ACVL Membership # (required if you are currently or have previously been a member):Name: _____________________________________________________________ Male Female

Address: ___________________________________________________ City: __________________

Province: _______________ Postal Code: ____________ Country: _____________________

Club or School Affiliation: ________________________________________________________________

Phone Home: ( ) - Work: ( ) - Cell: ( ) -

Date of Birth: (day) (month) (year) E-mail: _____________________________

Medic Alert: _________________________________ 2 Meter Radio Call Sign: _________________

In Case of EMERGENCY contact: _______________________________ Relationship: ___________

Address: __________________________________________________ City: __________________

Province: ___________________ Postal Code: _______________ Country: ______________

Phone H: ( ) - ___ Work: ( ) - ____

I wish all the information above to remain confidential (not made available on the list available to other members):

It is MANDATORY to carry third-party liability insurance to fly most sites in Canada. HPAC/ACVL Liability Insurance is only available to members of the HPAC/ACVL. If you are applying for membership please complete the following:Did you have an accident or incident in the past year that was not reported? (Yes No )

I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS FORM IS AN APPLICATION FOR LIABILITY INSURANCE AND THAT ALL THE INFORMATION GIVEN ABOVE IS CORRECT.

Dated: _____ Signature:____________________________________________________

1 The HPAC/ACVL collects Provincial Membership fees on behalf of Provincial Associations. This mandatory fee is set by Provincial Associations.

HPAC/ACVL WAIVER

RELEASE, WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK

I, _______, hereby acknowledge and agree that in consideration of being permitted to participate in Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities, I hereby agree to release and discharge Owners and / or Lessors of land who have granted permission for the use of property for Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities, the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada a/o Association Canadienne De Vol Libre, their officers, directors, representatives, employees, members and all other persons or entities acting in any capacity on their behalf (hereinafter collectively referred to as Releasee) from all liability and I do hereby waive as against the Releasee all recourses, claims, causes of action of any kind whatsoever, in respect of all personal injuries or property losses which I may suffer arising out of or connected with, my preparation for, or participation in, the aforesaid Hang Gliding/Paraglidingprograms or activities, not withstanding that such injuries or losses may have been caused solely or partly by the negligence of the Releasee

And I do hereby acknowledge and agree;

a. that the sport of Hang Gliding/Paragliding and Hang Gliding/Paragliding is very dangerous, exposing participants to many risks and hazards, some of which are inherent in the very nature of the sport itself, others which result from human error and negligence on the part of persons involved in preparing, organizing and staging Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities;

b. that, as a result of the aforesaid risks and hazards, I as a participant may suffer serious personal injury, even death, as well as property loss;

c. that some of the aforesaid risks and hazards are foreseeable but others are not;d. that I nevertheless freely and voluntarily assume all of the aforesaid risks and hazards, and that, accordingly, mypreparation

for, and participation in the aforesaid Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs and activities shall be entirely at my own risk;e. that I understand that the Releasee does not assume any responsibility whatsoever for my safety during the course of

my preparation for or participation in the aforesaid Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities;f. that I have carefully read this RELEASE, WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK agreement, that I fully understand same,

and that I am freely and voluntarily executing same;g. that I understand that by signing this release I hereby voluntarily release, forever discharge and agree to indemnify and hold

harmless the Releasee for any loss or damage connected with any property loss or personal injury that I may sustain while participating in or preparing for any Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities whether or not such loss or injury is caused solely or partly by the negligence of the Releasee;

h. that I have been given the opportunity and have been encouraged to seek independent legal advice prior to signing this agreement;

i. that the term Hang Gliding/Paragliding programs or activities as used in this RELEASE, WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK agreement includes without limiting the generality of that term, the Hang Gliding programs and activities as well as all other competitions, fly-ins, training sessions, clinics, towing programs and events;

j. this RELEASE, WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK agreement is binding on myself, my heirs, my executors, administrators, personal representatives and assigns and;

k. that I have had sufficient opportunity to read this entire document. I have read and understood it, and I agree to bebound by its terms.

Signature of Participant: (You must sign here)____________________________ Date: _ _____________

Participant Name (Type here): ______________

Signature of Witness (Must sign here): _________________________________Date: _______________

Witness Name (Type here): __________________________________

Note: You are only required to sign the HPAC Waiver once but we would prefer that you complete one every year. To verify that we have a waiver on file for you, visit the HPAC/ACVL site at http://www.hpac.ca.

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