hpac acvl air · 2009-11-11 · air magazine | december 2009 3 contents cover a scene from the 2009...

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

HPAC ACVL

AIRAIRmagazine

PLUS:■ The search for a new AIR editor

■ HG Nationals at Sun Peaks

■ SOGA Fun Competition

WILLI 2009

AIR MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2009 3

ContentsContents

Cover A scene from the 2009 Willi XC at Golden, B.C.

See stories, page 14-17.

Photo by Karen Keller

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REGULARS

06 President07 Classifieds08 In Brief

12 HPAC Ratings27 Incident report form29 Membership form

AIR Magazine • December 2009 • Volume 23, Issue 04

FEATURES10 2010Calendarsforsale

11 NewsfromSOGA ■ by John Pop

11 Endofseasonblowout■ by Ross Hunter

13 Helpwanted:thesearchforaneweditor

18 TheHangGlidingNationals■ by Terry Ryan

24 SOGAFunCompetition■ by Terry Ryan

AIR Magazine • December 2009 • Volume 23, Issue 04

Douglas Noblet and Fred Perrault over Nelson BC

Fred Perrault soaring Elephant Mountain, near Nelson, B.C.by Douglas Noblet - Wild Air Photography

6 AIR MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2009

A s I am writing this, the trees have lost most of their leaves, mark-

ing the end of the season at most of our fly-ing sites.

This forces me to reflect on this last sea-son and the losses we suffered this year. One of them happened barely a few days ago (in the last days of October) in Alberta. Another happened earlier in the summer in Ontario. Both involved hang gliders. And a third one, still, happened in the middle of Montreal!

A person used a 150-ft climbing rope tied it to a hitch on the back of his car. In a city park, in 50-km winds, he secured himself to his “wing and harness” contraption and lifted off. He was facing the wind until he got wacked hard enough by a gust to do a 180. Then, he got to the end of his line and, with the force of a couple of Gs, snapped some riser lines and came back to meet the planet at great velocity. The report said that an “ex-perienced pilot” died while trying to control his “paraglider or parasail . . . while overfly-ing the city” (while he was tied to his car at the end of a 150-ft rope!).

We checked the database, and from our records, this guy has never been a member of HPAC. Where did he get his gear? Who knows.

In Ontario, before the fatality I men-tioned above, a small town paper reported the death of a hang glider pilot without hav-ing checked the facts. The true story was that the pilot suffered a broken arm, if my memory serves me correctly. The reporter only relied on radio frequency monitoring to do his story.

Why such a gruesome subject matter? Simply put, we are an aeronautical disci-pline and, as such, it is not our tradition to stick our heads in the sand. We have things to learn from every little mishap that pilots are courageous enough to share with their fellow sky visitors. But here, the message that comes out of all this is how important it is to share this in the most factually cor-

Getting ahead of the storyThe 24-hour news cycle means information — and misinformation — about our sports can quickly spread

DOMAGOJJURETIC

P R E S I D E N T

FROM THE PRESIDENT

rect way with the public.In this era of instant news, we must be

ready as an organization to respond to the 24-hour tempo in which news comes out. We have a fight on our hands and it is a fight against ignorance about our sport. Never is it more blatant than in the case of a “pi-lot falling from the sky.” I am still not sure what is the best way to be ready. Maybe it involves having a pool of instructors ready to respond as contact reference for news or-ganizations. But I will look into this.

Speaking of loses, we (HPAC) have to go through some of our own. And it is no small loss that our past president and regional director for Atlantic Canada is retiring. Michael Fuller was also IAC Chair and he spearheaded the massive review of our rat-ings system. Michael is still an active senior instructor in Nova Scotia, where he almost single-handedly developed a vibrant pilot community.

At HPAC, he was often the voice of reason and our historical knowledge base. He was also my mentor for all things HPAC and, thankfully, he will remain just a phone call away when I find myself in a bind (which is bound to happen sooner or later). I am proud to call him my friend. Hopefully he’s not a vanishing breed, because the best way to describe him is gentleman pilot.

As if this wasn’t enough, AIR Editor James Keller announced that he wanted to retire, as well. I will reserve my praise for James in a following issue, but I have to let you know that we are actively looking for a new editor. This job is compensated, but comes with se-rious responsibilities and deadlines. You will see more info on page 11.

This transition might be an appropriate time to ask ourselves how our magazine could evolve. Probably the next editor will bring some ideas to the table and that will become the basis of that discussion.

We have many other spots to fill in our roster. I don’t know if you remember, but

Gregg Humphries (our Insurance Chair) retired a few years back. Well, he’s still in his chair because of a lack of volunteers. So, we still need a volunteer with some insurance expertise to advise HPAC and relieve Gregg from this forced labour. Gregg is still hang-ing on, but please could someone give him a well-deserved break?

You want some spots in HPAC? Three directorships are up for elections. Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec have directors whose terms are ending Dec. 31.

Interested candidates are invited to con-tact Sam Jeyes, our business manager, at [email protected] to announce their intentions as soon as possible.

In the interest of democracy, our busi-ness manager will be as accommodating as possible — but don't wait.

Are you an instructor and roaring to have a say at HPAC? With the huge project of es-tablishing national standards and working on the content that will become the refer-ence in our instructional system, there will never be a better time to get involved. Steve Younger, a senior hang gliding instructor from Ontario, has just taken over the IAC with that mandate. He is looking to build a nationally representative team to tackle this huge job.

The train will leave the station shortly — you can be on it and have a say about where it goes and how fast, or just watch it roll by. If you want to be on it, please contact Steve Younger at [email protected]. If you are not part of the next IAC, please be ready to participate by reading and responding when needed to any communication sent by Steve and his team.

Currently, we are also opening a review period for our new ratings. Now that we went through a season with these new re-quirements, it is time to review them. To that end, we need your feedback, good or bad. We need to know what impact these new ratings and requirements had on you. While


FROM THE EDITOR

Editor: JAMES [email protected]

HPAC/ACVL OFFICERS

President: DOMAGOJ JURETIC [[email protected]]Vice-president: AMIR IZADI [[email protected]]Secretary: BRUCE BUSBY [[email protected]]Treasurer: TIM PARKERSafety and Accident Review Officer: QUINN CORNWELL [[email protected]]

HPAC/ACVL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

B.C. and Yukon: AMIR IZADIAlta. and NWT: BRUCE BUSBY [[email protected]]Saskatchewan: LOREN WHITEMan. and Nunavut: GILLES NORMANDEAUOnt.: STEVE YOUNGERQue.: DOMAGOJ JURETIC Atlantic Canada: MICHAEL FULLER

Business Manager: SAM JEYES [[email protected]]Éditeur du Survol: ANNE-SOPHIE GUENIER[[email protected]]Competition Committee Chair: MARK DOWSETTNational Site Preservation and Development Chair: MARGIT NANCE [[email protected]]Observer: VINCENE MULLER[[email protected]]FAI/CIVL Delegate: STEWART MIDWINTER [[email protected]]Instructors Advisory Council Chair: MICHAEL FULLERInsurance Committee: GREGG HUMPHREYS[[email protected]]Legal Advisor: MARK KOWALSKY[[email protected]]XC Records/Observer: VINCENE MULLERTransport Canada Liaison: ANDRÉ NADEAU[[email protected]]Web Team: GERRY GROSSNEGGER, CHARLES MATHIESON, 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 Mount Herbert Rd.Stratford, P.E.I.C1B 2S3

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

AIR CLASSIFIEDSI am looking for an offer on this equipment. I would like to sell the entire package rather than breaking it up. I will be giving some-body a really good deal — I would like to see somebody get a good deal and make very good use of this equipment. Contact me and we can work out a very good price. [email protected]■ SWING, ARCUS 3, size 28 (All up pilot weight of 198-254 lbs), a very pretty aqua blue, with accelerator system and complete bag. This wing has 63 hours, 40 minutes of air time on it and the wing is in very good condition.■ APCO, MAYDAY 16 reserve, 23m2, 1.863kg, max load 106kg.■ SUP AIR HARNESS, model EVO Modua-ble, Large size, custom manufactured by Sup Air to fit the extra large Bump Air of 20cm instead of the standard 17cm, top chute con-tainer, side hip protectors, 2 carabineers, hook knife sewn onto harness webbing for easy access. Black with red accents.

■ ADVANCE FLIGHT SUIT, large in size, grey with red accents, fits me very well and I am 5’-10.5” and 185 lbs in my birthday suit.■ CRISPI FLIGHT BOOTS, Airborne, re-movable ankle support, fits size 10.5 with extra support after market insole or size 11 without.

Both of the following gliders are in London, Ont., and can be seen anytime. For info, call: Patrick at 519-659-0710.

The price is 1600.00 for all this great stuff:■ SPORT 167 EUROSPORT (speed bar,very good shape)■ SPORT 167 AMERICASPORT (speed bar,good shape)■ Spare downtubes (four)■ Spare wheels (four sets), spare speed bar, spare base bar (straight)■ Ball vario (652)■ Tail fin■ Manuals batten chart assorted hardware, cross country bag.

No more horizons wider than Hope! No more the franchise of the sky, the freedom

of the blue! No more! Farewell to wings! Down to the little earth!

— Cecil Lewis

you ponder this, it is important for me to re-mind everyone that this is not a popularity contest. The aim is better proficiency for our pilots and ultimately increased safety. The biggest challenge is to have some ratings and requirements that take into account the dif-ferent flying sites and experiences from all over the country. The proper place to share that crucial feedback is at this address: [email protected].

As I told you in the last issue, we con-stantly face all sort of challenges and op-portunities at HPAC and we need the man-power to face both when they arise. In the case of the Pemberton launch, it was an opportunity that required volunteers to be ready and seize it. Thanks to these (mainly local) volunteers, the project went ahead and the work already started this fall. And all this effort will result in a premier flying site.

Sometimes, it takes great effort and perseverance just to keep our sites open. At Mt Ste-Anne, a tireless bunch of vol-unteers is working hard to keep the site open. In this case, the challenge to our sport is truly national. We are dealing with a national ski operator and the final deci-sion (which is yet to be made) might have national implications for all flying sites located on ski resorts. Margit Nance, our National Site Preservation and Develop-

ment Chair, is our fighting general in this long-hauled battle.

And it is why my main message for this is-sue is a reminder. A reminder that our sport can’t be expected to survive aloft just on au-topilot. It constantly needs an able crew to keep it going, wherever the flight plan might take it next.

With the Internet being available even un-der the warmer skies of the exotic locales that a few of us frequent in the winter months, there have never been so few excuses for not getting involved in your association to take care of the sport we all love so much. Please give us a hint that you care by jumping on board with us, wherever you may physically be at the time.

And if you're among the lucky few snow-birds, please remember those three words: INSURANCE...... INSURANCE..... INSUR-ANCE! (medical, emergency evac, etc...)

Don’t leave home without it!Looking for a quick, simple an elegant so-

lution for a last-minute holiday gift?Think of our very chic 2010 calendars.

They really look great and you will be proud to share them with friends and family.

Happy Holidays with my best wishes for your loftiest aspirations in 2010!

— Domagoj JureticHPAC President

IN BRIEF

www. f l ymex i c o . c om

The new HPAC ratings requirements printed in the last issue of AIR incor-

rectly stated first aid is recommended for the intermediate rating. In fact, first aid is required for the intermediate rating.

Also, in the same issue, an article about the Ottawa XC Challenge incorrectly stat-ed that Serge Lamarche participated in the event. In fact, Serge was not there.

HPAC’s board has approved a motion to refund up to $100 for any instruc-

tors HAGAR / Transport Canada invigila-tion written test fee.

Instructors can only apply once.It will be paid on completion of instruc-

tor rating.A copy of the payment must have an

exam date on or after Jan. 1, 2009.

Nominations are open for three posi-tions on the HPAC board of direc-

tors: Alberta and Northwest Territories; Manitoba and Nunavut; and Quebec.

Board members are elected every two years, with those three regions alternating election years with the other four.

Interested candidates should contact the business manager at [email protected].

Corrections

Board nominations

HAGAR refundMuller instructor course

News from the HPAC world

Because you deserve to flyevery stinkin' day of your vacation

Muller Windsports Ltd. will host the Annual Instructor Course for Hang

Gliding and Paragliding from March 19-21, 2010.

The course runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Muller Windsports in Cochrane, Alta.

The course will be conducted by John Janssen (Senior, Hang Gliding) and Keith MacCullough (Senior, Paragliding).


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FROM THE EDITOR

FlyBC’s Mexico Winter Tours

Weekly tour packages for Beginner though to Advanced PG Pilots. Train to become a Novice/P2 pilot in sunny Mexico on your vacation with an Advanced HPAC/USHPA Instructor with 15 years experience with FlyBC Paragliding.

On alternating weeks we provide Guiding and Intermediate to Ad-vanced Instruction at some of the most beautiful sites in Mexico. Everything but food is included for one low price.

Starting in Manzanillo and surrounding sitesDecember 15 to February 28

www.flybc.org/tours.htm // Jim: 604-618-5467

[Ed. note: . . . ]J A M E S K E L L E R

A I R E D I T O R

After six years, HPAC's AIR Magazine is about to get a new editor

I t's a funny thing, editing a magazine about hang gliding and paragliding

when you're not a pilot. Both of my parents, Karen and Doug

Keller, few hang gliders when I was grow-ing up, so I was always around the sport.

I've only been in the air once, a short tan-dem off tow on the Alberta prairies, look-ing down on the patchwork quilt of canola and grass, surprised at just how quiet it was, but even that was part of an otherwise typi-cal weekend.

Trips out to watch the towing, riding in the back of the old rusty Ford pickup and watching the pilots shoot into the air af-ter shouting, "Clear!" The annual camping

trips to Golden, riding up to the Mount Seven launch or hanging out at the landing zone, waiting for the pilots to come in. The Christmas and awards parties at our house in Calgary, and I'd always be able to sneak some food, that delicious red-coloured rice that would be there every time.

All of this no doubt helped when I be-come editor at the end of 2003.

I knew what words like thermals, LZ and cloudbase meant, and that certainly made the job of editing your stories easier.

Still, it was a learning experience, not un-like my day job — a print and radio journal-ist — constantly learning and making sense of things I've never before encountered.

It's a learning experienced I've quite en-joyed over the years, but it's one that's now coming to an end.

I've put in my notice to leave the editor position — probably after the next issue. It's time to move onto to other personal and professional commitments, and pass the torch to the next editor.

I hope the pilots that have made this job possible — writing the stories and snapping the photos that found their way onto these pages — continue to contribute, and others who might have the urge, give it a try.

Don't underestimate how much HPAC/ACVL members across Canada appreciate the stories and pictures that tell the story of free-flight in Canada.

After every issue, I receive several emails thanking me for the latest edition — but it is, of course, the pilots who volunteer their time that deserve the credit.

And for those pilots — and there are many, after two dozen issues — I am in-credibly grateful.

So thank you, to all the pilots who have contributed, the HPAC/ACVL board, and the presidents and business managers over the years that have helped make this job easier.

It's been a slice.

– James KellerAIR Editor



T he 2010 HPAC Calendar is now available for purchase.

This is a large-format, 11x17-inch, glossy calendar with flying photos from all across Canada, coast to coast.

The quality of the photos is stunning and worthy of our great sport.

The entire calendar is bilingual except for the cover, which can be ordered in either French or English.

PRICE

The price of each calendar is $20 plus $9 shipping. Taxes included.

Orders of up to five calendars will still be charged the one shipping price.

Please consider ordering more than one, as they are a great way to cele-brate our sport and will make excellent Christmas gifts for all your non-flying friends and family.

All proceeds go back into HPAC.

TO ORDER

You can place your order through the business office via cheque or paypal.

Please specify if you would like a French or English cover.

Calculate: $20/calendar + $9 shipping (for up to five calendars)

Via Paypal: Send payment to: [email protected]

Or go to www.hpac.ca/pub/ where you can click on the link in the right-hand corner and specify the quantity you want and pay with your credit card via PayPal.

Via Cheque: Make cheque payable to HPAC. Include “calendar” in the memo spot. Send cheques to:

HPAC (Calendar Project)5 Millennium DriveStratford, PEIC1B 2H2 CanadaTel: 1-877-370-2078Fax: 1-902-367-3358Email: [email protected]

Quantities are limited so please order now!

— Amir Izadi

2010 HPAC CALENDAR

2010 HPAC calendar for saleOrder yours today, in either English or French, for just $20


byJOHNPOP

W ell, I don’t know what the weather was like for the rest of Canada this summer, but for us in On-

tario, it was cool and wet.I really can’t call it summer, but we did

have summer in September! We were flying most weekdays and weekends. Club mem-bers bagged off many days of work to take advantage of the awesome thermal days. Many pilots would boast of flights averaging one to four hours on many days.

One day, there were about nine or 10 pi-lots who showed up for the crystal-clear blue sky. Not a cummie in sight, but many blue thermals were lurking about. There were six to eight of us working the skies riding the lift anywhere from 3,500 to 5,500 ft ASL in gag-gles of two to six gliders at any one time.

We also shared the air with many sail planes from York Sailing, who are our neigh-bours just a couple of kilometres from our field. Needless to say, we generally were well above them that day.

As you can see from the picture, Ontario is a Mecca for XC flying, as there are many large flat fields for landing.

SOGA is slowly growing again, with new members joining each year, from 31 to 78 years young. Some pilots as far as New York State are starting to come up more often for the awesome flying and great camaraderie.

As an added value to the club, Mark Dowcett and Steve Younger have started a separate business in hang glider sales and

byROSSHUNTER

I t was getting close to the end of the fly-ing season, and I was looking for one last prairie flying day. Looking over my busy

social schedule, it looked like the weekend of Sept 19 would be good. XC skies confirmed this with some pretty colors I had not seen since the spring.

I made a few phone calls and it wasn’t long until John Mac, Eric Boisvert and Rob Clarkson were on board.

The day started out looking real fine, blue, and wind not too strong, but the closer we got to the tow road, the stronger the wind became.

First, we towed up Eric. He made one circle and was blown about 1,000 ft behind takeoff, and on the wrong side of a creek. Af-ter hauling Eric’s gear back across the creek, I decided it was too strong for John, but thought I was OK to go.

The sky did not look very good, with high

overcast and a few sunny spots, but I was there set up and ready to go. Rob Clarkson decided not to set up, as he arrived later, and it really did not look that inviting, but said he would help with retrieval should I make more than one turn.

It was bumpy on tow, and John and Eric were out of rope way before they ran out of road. I radioed down to park the car to in-crease the pressure so rope would not pull out. I’d waited on tow for a thermal.

I gained about 200 ft as the rope straight-ened out between myself and the car, then just waited. After a few minutes I was in 100 up, released and started turning. Very week lift, but I was gaining altitude and had re-trieval worked out. Life is good.

Wasn’t long until I was out of sight of Rob and John, but my radio crackled, and I was able to broadcast my position.

They figured out my drift and ground speed and were hot on my trail. I stumbled around 1,500 ft above ground for awhile

then popped up to 4,000, 5,000 and eventu-ally 6,000 ft above ground. After a couple hours, my luck ran out and I was 115 km from take off. Rob and John showed up with my glider still on the “A” frame, but it wasn’t long until we were off to Hana for a delicious Chinese diner.

Thanks Rob and John for your help. You can really relax in a flight when you know retrieval is worked out — and when they‘re chasing you, well, it’s even better.

When I took off, I really thought I would be going somewhere in the 3-10 km range, not more than 100.

I think some of our favorite flights are the ones where we did not think it was going to be all that great and we managed to get a good flight. It can be soaring a ridge when the flags really did not look that great on the drive out, or launching when the flag is kind of light, but getting up anyways, or having a nice XC when the sky did not look that good. I can hardly wait for spring.

A brief note from SOGA

a training school to teach prospective pi-lots. (Grand Valley Hang Gliding — www.hangon.ca).

Collectively, with SOGA and Grand Val-ley, we are trying to encourage new people to take up hang gliding.

Consider visiting us on your next trip to Ontario: www.soga.ca.

End of season blow out special

NOTES FROM SOGA // BLOW OUT SPECIAL


HG Beginner NS Michael Robertson Harry Daigle 1-Aug-2009HG Novice BC Michael Robertson Jon Orders 3-Jul-2009HG Novice On Michael Robertson Adam Sheppard 1-Aug-2009HG Intermediate BC Michael Robertson Jon Orders 3-Jul-2009HG Intermediate On Michael Robertson Milko Angulo 6-Aug-2009HG Intermediate On Michael Robertson Nikolaus Wellstein 30-Sep-2009HG Intermediate On Steven Younger Peter J. Morgan 12-Sep-2009HG Advanced BC Michael Robertson Jon Orders 3-Jul-2009HG Advanced Qc Vincent Vaillancourt Hugo Fournier 3-Jul-2009PG Beginner Ab Keith MacCullough Ian Haigh 31-Jul-2009PG Beginner BC Jayson Biggins Hans Dahler 1-Aug-2009PG Beginner BC Jayson Biggins Paul McLennan 1-Aug-2009PG Beginner BC Claudio Mota James Breau 1-Aug-2009PG Beginner NS Michael Fuller George Boudreau 29-Aug-2009PG Beginner NS Michael Fuller James Emery 10-Sep-2009PG Beginner Qc René Marion Daniel Di Domenico 30-Sep-2009PG Novice Michael Fuller Walter Ludwick 20-Aug-2009PG Novice BC Thomas Clark Walter Geissbuehler 31-Jul-2009PG Novice BC Glenn Derouin Ron Clark 19-Aug-2009PG Novice BC Glenn Derouin Philip Howe 19-Aug-2009PG Novice BC Glenn Derouin Emmanuel Lavoie 16-Jul-2009PG Novice BC Alan Polster Dave Sproule 30-Sep-2009PG Novice BC Dion Vuk Guy Herrington 30-Sep-2009PG Novice BC Dion Vuk Rajeev Nongpiur 19-Aug-2009PG Novice BC (BoD) Jason Faulkner 17-Jul-2009PG Novice On Eric Brent George Holborn 5-Aug-2009PG Novice On (BoD) Carlos Olivera 12-Sep-2009PG Novice Qc Jocelyn Lapointe Martin Cote 1-Aug-2009PG Novice Qc René Marion Guy Desgreniers 3-Jul-2009PG Novice Qc René Marion Daniel Di Domenico 30-Sep-2009PG Novice Qc René Marion Jimmy Marois 4-Aug-2009PG Novice Qc René Marion Bruno Matte 19-Aug-2009PG Novice Qc René Marion Bernard Rouzaud 3-Jul-2009PG Novice WA Thomas Clark Pilat Zenon 17-Jul-2009PG Intermediate BC Pawel Boryniec Maciej Siwocha 1-Aug-2009PG Intermediate BC Glenn Derouin Jonathan Wreglesworth 1-Aug-2009PG Intermediate BC Jason Leus Frederic Perreault 6-Jul-2009PG Intermediate BC Keith MacCullough Ryan Letchford 3-Sep-2009PG Intermediate BC (BoD) Andrei Kravchenko 30-Sep-2009PG Intermediate BC (BoD) Magali Lalonde-Legault 29-Aug-2009PG Intermediate BC (BoD) Claudia Schwab 6-Sep-2009PG Intermediate Qc René Marion Bernard Rouzaud 3-Jul-200 9PG Intermediate Qc (BoD) Daniel Lavertu 3-Jul-2009PG Advanced BC Pawel Boryniec Peyman Imani 31-Jul-2009PG Advanced BC Pawel Boryniec Maciej Siwocha 1-Aug-2009PG Advanced BC Jeff Muldoon Frederic Perreault 10-Sep-2009PG Advanced BC Jim Reich Alan Polster 17-Jul-2009PG Advanced Qc René Marion Bernard Rouzaud 3-Jul-2009PG Advanced Qc Vincent Vaillancourt Hugo Fournier 3-Jul-2009

RATINGS BOARDHPAC ratings issued between July 1, 2009, and Sept. 30, 2009

RATING PROV. RATINGOFFICIAL MEMBER DATE

RATINGS


HPAC is looking for a new AIR editorApplications due Dec. 31 to takeover editing and layout duties

J ames Keller's departure means HPAC is seeking a new editor to put together the association's official

quarterly publication.AIR is the official magazine of HPAC/

ACVL, and is sent to nearly all members outside Quebec, and some in that prov-ince, as well.

It is the primary tool the association and its board of directors have to commu-nicate with members across the country, featuring regular notices that are required to be included.

But AIR is also a chance for association members to tell the story of free flight in Canada, in writing and in pictures.

THE jOB

The AIR editor is a paid position, hired by HPAC as a contractor to produce the magazine.

The position deals with every aspect of putting together the magazine, including:

■ Soliciting articles and advertisements.■ Editing the articles for the magazine

for content, grammar and style (using the industry standard, The Canadian Press Style Guide).

■ Laying out the magazine.■ Working with the printer and dis-

trobutor to ensure the issues are correctly printed and sent to HPAC members and

subscribers.The editor is required to have his or her

own access to the hardware and software required to produce the magazine.

The editor is paid a set rate per issue, as well as incentives for attracting new ad-vertising and writing articles.

HOw TO APPLy

Interested applicants should contact the HPAC business manager, Sam Jeyes, at [email protected].

Applications are due on Dec. 31, and the position will start early in the new year af-ter a decision by the HPAC board.

AIR EDITOR WANTED

APCO Fiesta over Elephant Mountain, near Nelson, B.C.


THE 2009 WILLI CERTAINLY WAS one of the most difficult and danger-ous to date. Four days with stormy gust fronts and the last day was a bit hard for paragliders. Still, fantastic weather every day except one.

Indeed, right on the first day, Saturday, a superb afternoon had a growing thunder-storm southerly, which exploded violently around 6:30 p.m. in Golden. For people who do not know, these gust fronts gener-ate stunning strength and speed.

Three hang gliders were able to reach the official LZ, while several paragliders couldn’t, since the wind reaching 70 km/h, exceeded their flying speed.

One paraglider fled north fast and far enough to land before the gust front reach him. The others were too low. One landed at the airport, another in a baseball field in

town, another in a slough, and one more in the CPR yard, all while flying back-wards. Some bruises, no worse.

The three hang gliders that landed dur-ing the gusts had to manage. One only broke a downtube. The second broke two, bent more tubes and seems to have cracked a few ribs landing flat hard on the belly. He slightly banged a knee as well. The third maneuvered a bit better, but the ground slid fast on his medium size wheels. He scraped his knees and face in spite of a full-face helmet.

Day 2 was too windy and only one pilot flew.

Day 3, a thunderstorm to the north this time created a terrible gust front again that caught only one by surprise in flight. Gay Leblanc found himself in the river and no doubt his helicopter water landing train-

ing contributed to his good survival. No harm, only some dacron scraped off the left leading edge, and lots of humidity.

Day 4 ended with a thunderstorm again, but this time all were already sheltered.

Only beautiful on Day 5. One paraglider scratched too much and was forced to land in a clear cut. He found himself fac-ing a bear and called 911, which triggered a search. The police were still looking while he finished dinner at GEAR. The phone company had located the call at less than 15 km from their Harrogate antenna. Good to know in case of real emergency.

Day 6, I decided not to fly. Too much storm in the air.

Day 7 was very beautiful and hot. An inversion was stopping the thermals and distances were few.

Day 8, all is very beautiful, but the

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clouds appeared perky enough to predict another thun-derstorm. Good flights by all except the three late ones that got caught by another gust front. Only one had to land in the gusts and broke a downtube. The other two promptly fled south to land in calm air, narrowly avoid-ing the worse.

Day 9, thermals were described as hard. Most free fli-ers didn’t go far. Two paragliders went down under their reserve. One walked out of the woods on his own. The other, a woman, called for help by radio and was finally rescued before sunset by a helicopter SAR team.

The awards and closing dinner went very well and the atmosphere was more social. I must thank all the partici-pants for their good humour in spite of the difficulties. The group seems closer since last year. An atmosphere of mutual aid brings much to the group.

Big thank you to all who participated, volunteered, retrieved, cooked, endured, sponsored, etc., during the week. The conditions were challenging.

Thanks in particular to John McIsaac for his support, to Karen Keller, our co-organizer, to the local landown-ers that showed patience and seem to enjoy our adven-tures, to Alpine Helicopters and the search-and-rescue team for saving one.

PHOTO CONTEST

The Willi 2009 is not quite complete yet. The photo contest held by Glenn Bitterman was not judged because of other concerns during the event. However, Glenn has collected and sent me the photos, and they are now post-ed on a voting page at:

http://sergewebservice.ca/seven/wmxcc_photo.htmlPlease vote for your favourite photos!

// Continued, next page . . .

WILLII XCK

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WILLII XC

PARAGLIDER ADVANCED1 Igor Bogdanov2 Nicole McLearn3 Robin Sather4 John Haigh5 Raul Sanchez6 Igor Tolsky7 Guy Leblanc8 Brett Yeates9 Ryan Letchford10 Fedja Mulabdic11 Keith MacCullough12 Greg Hemmingway13 Norm Lawlor14 Lyle Johnson15 Sandor Barth16 Randy Parkin17 Mike Waddington18 Dave Corbin19 Rob Green PARAGLIDER INTERMEDIATE1 Al Thielmann2 Dale Osmond3 Veronica Dubak4 Magali Legault5 Stu Cobbledick6 Dannie Wolf7 John R. McIsaac8 Oleg Sotnik9 Rob Rae

PARAGLIDER NOVICE1 Andrew Berkley 2 Louise Bouchard3 Doug Litzenberger4 Andrew McLellan5 Evelyn Peters McLellan6 Devin McMurdo7 Vincent Wolf8 Karen Girouard TOPLESS HANG GLIDER, ADVANCED1 Rob Clarkson2 Fiona Katay3 Doug Litzenberger4 Gary Braun5 Greg Leslie6 Ken Nicholson7 Rob Green8 Ross Hunter9 Doug Keller10 Leif Hanson

HANG GLIDER W/KING POST, ADVANCED1 Serge Lamarche2 Tim Middlemiss3 Chris Culler4 Guy Leblanc5 Christine Nidd6 James Komarniski7 Dave Corbin8 Moore Newell9 Dave Bacon HANG GLIDER INTERMEDIATE1 Jason Dyer2 Phil Siscoe 3 Rob Stagg

HANG GLIDER NOVICE1 Gilles Normandeau2 John Chisholm

wILLI 2009 RESULTS

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WILLII XC

C limbing the Pagliaro cliffs, I am preparing my final glide

back to the GEAR LZ. A growing T-cell to the east gave me concern, but I am now past it and will be landing shortly.

As I set out across the gap, I get ham-mered with strong persistent sink. The LZ quickly becomes unreachable, so I turn back towards the nearby 15-km field, but I plummet rapidly out of range. A couple small fields below are my only escape.

Turning final above Highway 95, I hit the full force of the gust front and get blown back despite top speed on my XC142.

Behind me is a steep embankment lead-ing to the Columbia River and associated marshes. My choices are crashing into wild-ly swinging trees or going for a swim. I turn right and promptly get pushed sideways over the 200-ft cliff. A fierce rotor slams my left wing, sending me out of control into a steep left turn towards the embankment. I roll right with all my might, barely miss the trees, then hit the water in a descending right turn.

SPLASH!!In-flight mayhem turns to peace and

quiet underwater. Just like during my heli-copter underwater egress training, I took a deep breath before the plunge, giving me time to consider the options. Should I release my harness buckles, cut my hang

loop or undo the carabiner? A quick glance shows more light behind me than in front, so I push out the control frame, lift the glid-er’s keel, and pop my head out of the water, just behind the trailing edge.

The hang glider is floating nicely nose-down, my harness is also buoyant, and I am drifting slowly with the current.

I quickly toss my gloves and sunglasses, then I undo the carabiner to separate my harness from the glider. I grab a wing tip and swim while pulling the glider across the river, towards the shore closest to the road, drifting nearly 800 metres from the impact point.

Reaching the steep, boulder-built shore-line, I try to lift the glider out keel first, but can’t get secure footing. Shivering in the cold water, I streamline the glider in the current and remove my harness and flight instruments. Repositioning the hang glider requires me to push off into deeper water, then rotate the nose towards shore. More failed attempts and urgent physiological needs convince me to give up, so I jam the nose wires in submerged rocks and get out.

I strip off my wet clothes in the howling winds, just as a train whips by on the spot I would have crashed at the base of the cliff. I clear the horrific vision from my mind and climb up to the nearest house, where caring locals give me dry clothes and let me call for assistance.

Soon after, my friends Leif, Fiona and Rob help me get the glider out of the cold river. Luckily, the glider only has superficial damage. After a full dry-out period, reserve repack and minor sail tape-up, I am back thermalling my glider over Mount Seven!

My BlackBerry, GPS and FRS radio fully recover, but my vario only offers partial functionality . . .

FINAL COMMENTS:

■ A water landing is not for everyone, as many pilot drownings have shown. Panic, a broken arm or being knocked un-conscious could have been catastrophic.

■ Air trapped in the sail and keel al-lowed my glider to float for a long time. Also, my hang-strap length and glider ge-ometry allowed my head to clear the trail-ing edge. Other gliders may not float at all, and also prevent a pilot’s head from clear-ing the sail.

■ Prevention is best: land early if condi-tions deteriorate, especially in the moun-tains.

■ Still, pilots must weigh all options when facing a crash. Top-landing may be better than racing a gust front in the val-ley. A planned tree-landing may be bet-ter than getting rotored into the ground. Crashing close to a road is better than in a remote area.

spashing down in the columbia riverg u y l e b l a n c g e t s w a t e r l o g g e d w h i l e h a n g g l i d i n g a t t h e w i l l i


T here is a lot of angst preparing to fly a new site where the LZ is way upwind and nowhere in sight.

But now that I’m in the air, my mind is at ease knowing I have the height to go anywhere I want.

The view from a thousand feet over launch at Sun Peaks Ski Resort in B.C. is truly spectacular. On a clear day, you can see glaciers 80 km away. Closer, way down in the valley, the tiny town is laid out like a Christmas mantle set — toy houses and cars, and people too small to see.

The mountains, range after range. fade to purple. A patchwork of greens and beiges run up the valleys in three different directions. And the pines — the tall ma-jestic pines — reaching high as if to snatch at your wing. Numerous forest fires mar the otherwise idyllic scene. But all seems well. It is the last day of the Canadian Na-tionals for 2009 and I am having the flight of my life.

OH, wHAT A FLIGHT

There is a hairpin turn, a switch-back really, where the road climbs the moun-tain from Whitecroft to Sun Peaks. You can see it on any detailed map of the area. That’s where I found my elevator to the sky.

I could dance and frolic in the air, losing

altitude in the process, then glide on over to that elevator above the hairpin turn and rise up again. Rick and Moore and Dave (I think) were in the area, too, all watching each other, searching for better lift.

But this day, for the most part, I was at the top of the stack. Even after they all landed, I snagged a thermal at 700 ft above the LZ and cake-walked back into the sky. Then, at 1,500 ft, the real magic began. I decided to tour the valley before landing, expecting to lose altitude. But I boated around for 10 minutes or so and found myself at 3,000 ft.

Lift was everywhere. I flew fast, faster than I ever have before, twice, three times around the valley; and still I had 3,000 ft. I toured the two upwind legs of the valley, and still I was maintaining altitude. The guys on the ground were breaking down. Did they know something that I didn’t?

I scanned the sky for signs of danger. Fog, a rogue cloud, a gust front. Nothing. Conditions were beyond perfect.

But the truck would be leaving soon. And our celebration dinner was tonight. I shouldn’t stay up too long. But how to get down? I wanted to hold onto the pleasure of this flight forever.

But I began a half-hearted search pat-tern for sinking air. Once in it, I stood Wanda (my wonder-wing) on her ear in a spiral dive. The wind song was louder than

I ever remember as I plummeted down-ward. I pulled out at 2,000 ft just because, and had to search for more sink. Down again to 1,000. Then flew hard towards the LZ.

There was a shear at 800 ft and I got batted around, twanging my side wires twice. I came in hot on final over the flags, rounded out, and pulled off a nice three-stepper to compliments all around. A truly joyful flight.

I was barely unhooked when Rick Hines handed me a cold beer. How can you beat that? It was a fabulous finish to a great week.

Here’s what led up to it.

THE SETTING

The little yuppy town of Sun Peaks is nestled in a high mountain valley about 4,000 ft ASL. As soon as you leave High-way 5 and go east, the road climbs and climbs and climbs. It levels off around Whitecroft, where the LZ is, then climbs some more as you approach Sun Peaks.

It is a pretty little place but very tour-isty. The pavement stops here and if you wish to continue exploring the mountains it is all gravel roads from here on in. Horse ranches abound, deer are everywhere, and cattle guards are at regular intervals along the road.

between the sun and the peaksterryryan goes to the nationals

HANG GLIDING NATIONALS


It is cool here in the high pines — even in summer. A T-shirt is too light in the mornings and a jacket is recommended on the mountain. The highest of the three peaks is Tod Mountain, about 7,000 ft ASL.

MAGNIFICENT 7

It was a good year for Ontario pilots. Ul-timately, seven of us showed up at the Na-tionals this year. Five from SOGA; Eugene Bumbaco from The Soo (free flyer); and Jim Scoles from Ottawa. WestJet wanted way too much so we shipped our wings out via Quik-X Transportation. (By the way, I used to use Quik-X in my business before I retired and I’d highly recommend them for LTL shipments.) Whereas Rick arrived later, Mark and Milko and Peter came on Friday and we were all set to go for the practice day on Saturday. But it was not to be, due to poor conditions.

Mike and I took the opportunity to explore the mountains out to McGilvray Lake and way beyond. Somewhere in the hinterlands, I lost my cellphone.

Pilots’ meeting, Sunday morning at 8:45 sharp. Gee, it was good to see all the old guard again and catch up on what’s new. A good turnout of new pilots too, mostly in the sport class.

EARLy DISAPPOINTMENT

North winds that day, the first official day of the competition, prevented us from flying at SunPeaks, so we all went to Savo-

na, just west of Kamloops to a launch site called Oscar’s.

A light task was called, but a heavy overcast made it impossible and no one made it beyond the minimum distance of 15 km. I got an extended sledder and managed to make it all the way, over the power lines, to the (international) LZ. This LZ is real desert in every sense of the word. Many pilots landed there and during a leisurely breakdown the good mood and enthusiasm was infectious. The only bad thing around here was the cactus.

In the end, we all retired to the Fox and Hound in Kamloops for apres-flight

libations.Diane was first to get the Lucky Dog

award, landing downwind and coming out unscathed. Peter was not so lucky. He had a hard landing at the “bomb-out” LZ and a dislocated shoulder put him out for the duration. What a disap-pointment for him — and for all of us.

On the second day, we were back to Oscar’s launch. At least we were famil-iar with it now. We all set up and wait-ed, and each picked the conditions we thought were best. I picked poorly and only got a sledder.

A NEAR DISASTER

I landed in the desert just short of the power lines and found a cactus-free area to break down. (Just another one of life’s little pleasures.) My gawd, it was hot and dry. A car approaches fast and the passen-ger yells, “Hey, ya done great man!" and disappears just as fast.

Quiet! Hot! Dry! My water is running low. Two horses with no name amble over to check out the fallen bird. More distant dust.

Another vehicle. Our truck this time.Kathy is driving and Mark is in the pas-

senger seat. Mark yells, holding his arm at full length, and extends a can of beer to-wards me. Kathy slows down just enough so I can snag it. And then they’re off, dis-appearing over the horizon on another retrieve. Quiet again. I smile as I clutch

Terry launches from Oscar's on Day 1.



my treasure.The first two draughts are glorious

after the exertion of my flight. I set it down behind my glider and proceed to break down. I’m pulling the battens and flinging them behind me when sudden-ly I hear a different sound: the sound of batten hitting a beer can. I turn around and see it tipping over. “NOOOOO!!” I wail as I lunge to save it. It tips back, tee-ters three or four more times, then stabi-lizes upright. Whew! A near disaster has been averted by shear luck. I savour the rest of it even more now as I wait for my retrieve. That story got me the second Lucky Dog Award.

I can’t believe my good fortune. After Day 2 of the Canadian Nationals, I’m still in first place. Unfortunately, they tell me I’m sharing that position with many others who have done equally well — like, all of them.

The soaring has not been good with cirrus and overdevelopment. No one has made it beyond the minimum distance of 15 km.

Day 3. Conditions are still not right for the summit of Sun Peaks (Mount Tod), so back to Savona again for Oscar’s launch.

I had a grand one-hour-plus flight to 7,500 ft ASL. I shared a thermal with a Climax until he went farther back than I was prepared to go. Later, I soared

awhile with Dave Bacon until he left. Then the bottom dropped out.

FREIGHT TRAIN

I landed on kind of a mesa in the desert above the main LZ called the crash pad. I can well understand how it got its name. Lining up with the stream-ers, I was careful not to get into the sink over the toilet bowl. I passed the stream-ers a bit high but soon rounded out in ground effect. Flare timing was good but — what the heck — suddenly too fast — slammed down on my wheels — rolled through ground cactus and stopped hard up against a few sage brush bushes. Well, that was a surprise.

I spend the next few minutes picking shit-ball cactus off my shoes and har-ness. By the time I get out of my hel-met and harness the wind is dead calm. I walk back to the streamers to discern what went wrong when I suddenly get a sense of unease. Then I hear the rush of the proverbial freight train coming.

I turn around and look at my wing 200 ft away, and start to run. The normally rigid sage brush starts waving wildly all around me. I now hear the roar of the coming wind. I’m running with long strides and can almost hear the theme to Chariots of Fire in my head. At 50 ft, the gust hits my wing and it rises, clears

the ground, flies backwards, and pounds down on its keel. I get closer. It rises and repeats the short flight. I’m almost there. But not close enough to grab it before it tumbles over in the wind, once, twice before it snags temporarily in the sage brush.

I flop on it and grab the nose wires before it can go over again. I pull down and set my stance while a howling wind blows through, veering 90 degrees be-fore it finally dies down.

Wow!Dead calm again. I take some time to

gather all my stuff together again and start to break down (not me, my glider). I’m a bit stressed and find myself short on water again.

THE FRUIT ANGEL

While I am contemplating the “strong and variable” conditions, a little red car comes up over the crest of the mesa and drives the dusty trail towards me. It is Cecilia. She gets out laden with fresh Okanagan fruit: plump grapes and large juicy home-grown apples. Oh, what a treat, out here in this hot dusty place. Such luxury.

I resist the temptation to say, “Peel me a grape.” We chat for a while and I assure her that I am OK for a retrieve. Off she goes, disappearing into the mirage.



I find that it is not possible to set my keel to the wind because it is changing so much. I move it five or six times be-fore giving up.

HELL ON FINAL

When I have my wings folded, I notice a paraglider approaching at about 800 feet. It is clear he intends to land here. I face the wind, bend over and spread my arms to show him the direction. But then it changes 90 degrees. I turn around and see a dust devil breaking off. High above it, he seems to go up for a short time and I’m thinking, “Low save.”

Then his wing collapses violently and I’m thinking, “Land now.” He seems to be attempting an S-turn pattern at 300 ft when his wing collapses again. Woah! Too close.

He comes out of it penduluming wildly but at least his wing is flying. At 200 ft, it collapses again. He lets out a yell. He plummets earthward. Oh gawd, that’s too close for comfort.

It snaps out penduluming again with no directional control. But at least he’s flying. (Now set it down, buddy.)

At 100 ft, he takes another quarter-wing collapse . I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I see it fold under the other part of the wing. He lets out a scream. The whole issue drops like a stone.

I’m thinking; Oh, no! Not here. Not now. My first-aid skills are not up to this. With a woosh and a pop his wing fills with air when his body is 25 ft above ground, still dropping fast.

Now slowing. At five ft he pulls full breaks and leaps to the ground. He lets out an adrenalin-fed banshee yell and thanks God he’s alive. I run over and grab his hand — I’m not sure whether in com-fort or congratulations.

We say little. The experience speaks for itself. Whew! He got on the radio right away and warned Tonya not to land here. Others saw it all from a distance and many came rushing to our “crash pad” expecting the worst. But we all went home with a bit more knowledge and a lot more respect for desert flying.

Milko makes the first turnpoint and beyond. Game on. I mention him specifi-cally because this is his very first Nation-al competition. Way to go Milko.

Greg from California reported that he

landed in a field all purple with flowers. He said his landing wasn’t so good, but it was the nicest-smelling field he’s ever landed in. I suspect it was actually the sage brush or ruffled junipers he was smelling.

BURFIELD jITTERS

Ralph Herten, the organizer, has put so much into this. The 8:45 pilots’ meet-ings each morning are always informa-tive and fun. Top pilots from the day before share their exploits, and we get a detailed weather briefing from Mike Swift. On this, the fourth day, it is de-cided that we’re going up the mountain. Yahoo! This means taking our wings up on the chair lift. We’re all excited.

Some of us too much so.Me, the epitome of jangled nerves, I’m

trying to show calm encouragement to Milko.

The ride up on the Burfield chair is an exercise in logistics and co-operation. It all went surprisingly smoothly. At the top, one must hike all of one’s equip-ment about 200 yards to the launch site. Whatever one brings up the mountain, one must fly off the mountain.

I am very conscious of the extra weight and the extra thin air at this altitude.

Now, Google will tell you that the dis-tance by road from Sun Peaks to White-croft is 7 km; and the bomb-out LZ is another kilometre beyond Whitecroft. You cannot see it from launch because it

is over that ridge of trees. Yikes!It is with great apprehension that I

consider taking off and hope to glide to the bomb-out field against the strong prevailing winds. I witness two blown launches and my nerves get the better of me. I pack up my wing and leave it on the mountain overnight.

The task that day was 124 km, but no-body made goal. Jeff Remple won the day again by making it to the turnpoint and most of the way back. Second and third went to Mark and Tyler.

KAyAKS AND CAyUSES

Everyone around here is geared up for some form of outdoor activity. It’s good to see such participaction. In addition to all the hang gliders, I see tons of bi-cycles. They are by far the most popu-lar. You also see lots of kayaks, canoes, motorcycles, horses and hiking boots. I guess the fresh mountain air just in-spires people.

DAy 5

I am more relaxed the next day go-ing up on the chair lift. Relaxed enough to appreciate the awesome beauty all around me. I snap way too many pictures trying, in vain, to capture the essence of it all. The purple we see everywhere in the high alpine meadows is fireweed, so named because it is the first to colonize and thrive in new open spaces after a




forest fire.As we repeat the work of slugging and

setting up, I find myself huffing and puffing a lot. I thought I was way out of shape until I realized that we were 7,000 ft ASL. The safety committee called the day off due to high and crossing winds and turbulent air. Some of the guys went ahead to free-fly, but most of us packed up and left our wings on top. We walked down to the top of the active chair lift, where we met Gabby, Milko’s sweetie, and her brother, who were mountain biking all day.

Milko rode the bike down. Lucky dog. Went searching for my lost cellphone but never found it.

That night, we had rain and a vio-lent lightning storm. Many people saw a strike that set a tree on fire right near the resort. Luckily, the staff was pre-pared and had it out in short order.

TREE HUGGER

My wing was all wet the next morn-ing when I arrived on the mountain. But that was better than if it got struck by lightning or crapped on by a bear. Ian told a story of a bear eating the rubber handle grips, tires, even the ignition wires off an abandoned ATV.

Strong southwest winds were crossing on launch when one pilot decided to go. As he cleared the ground in mush, his wing got gusted to the left causing his wing tip to hit a small tree. With lots of retained energy, the glider pivoted to the left struck the ground and flipped over, violently flinging the pilot’s body into the air and slamming him to the ground.

We all expected the worst, but he landed on a thick bed of junipers, sav-ing him from serious injury. The wing itself did not fare so well. I overheard a bystander say, ”Those guys are crazy.”

After things settled down, most pi-lots got off in strong winds with two-step launches. The task was an 82-km downwind dash to Clearwater. John Mc-Clintock, on his ATOS, was the only one who made goal. Jeff Rempel was second and a bunch of other pilots were pretty close behind at varying points between Barrier and Clearwater.

Yesterday, there was only one forest fire visible from Sun Peaks. But after the lightning storms of Thursday night,

the mountains were dotted with new fires. Amazing! The firefighters could not possibly keep up. It’s no wonder the fires burn so readily. The lower branches and under-brush in the “old” forests are thick and matted and tinder dry.

An impromptu party kicked off at Ma-sa’s that evening where the hang stories flowed like the pitchers of beer. Good fun.

LAST DAy

After observing conditions on the mountain, the task committee called “a small downwind dash to Little Fort.”

There were a few scary launches on the last day, probably precipitated by the fact that launching the day before was so easy. One guy blew his launch complete-ly and two others almost scraped their base bar after jumping into it. But they got away with it. Lucky dogs.

I knew I could do better than that, so I launched in spite of my apprehension. I got away cleanly and found lift right where they said it would be. Thus began my fantastic flight described above.

NAZCA LINES

When you’re flying high above the world, you see things from a different perspective. The cars winding up the mountain roads. Impatient horses mill-ing in their paddocks. And inexplicable crop art in the fields, that you can only

see from above, like miniature Nazca Lines. Just east of the LZ, there was one such pattern. Farmers often break from their regular cutting routine and describe large sweeping arcs with their tractors. Who knows why. Maybe just for fun. That, we pilots understand.

Jeff won the day again and finished with a commanding lead.

Masa’s served up a nice dinner that night and at the awards ceremony there were lots of congratulations and good-natured ribbing. See the results on the next page.

Big thanks to Ralph Herten and Ian MacArthur, his co-organizer, for pulling off an excellent competition where eve-rybody had fun competing in a super-friendly environment. See y’all next year.

On Sunday morning we short-packed our wings, stuffed them into the shipping tubes and loaded them onto John’s truck for delivery to the shipper in Kamloops. Then the boys headed off to the airport.

In the afternoon, I had a chance to watch some of the Canada Cup Inter-national Downhill Cycling competition. Teams of all ages were in from all over the world.

That is something to see — cyclists hurtling down the mountain, through the woods, over the rocks and roots at breakneck speeds. The ambulance was there at least twice.

As a bystander I just had to say, “Those guys are crazy.”


SCOREBOARD TASK 1 TASK 2 TASK 3 TASK 4 TOTAL

1 Jeff Rempel (Cda) Airborne C4 13.5 732 659 595 802 2788

2 Rob Clarkson (Cda) WW - T2 579 414 543 577 2113

3 Ross Hunter (Cda) Moyes - Litespeed S4.5 472 415 563 579 2029

4 Jon Orders (Cda) Airborne - C4 238 413 566 608 1825

5 Greg Kendall (USA) Moyes - Litespeed S4 599 0 482 611 1692

6 Tyler Borradaile (Cda) WW - U2 0 536 556 525 1617

7 Mark Kowalsky (Cda) WW - U2-160 238 554 514 200 1506

8 Mike Swift (Cda) WW - Talon 238 412 177 677 1504

9 Gary Braun (USA) WW - Talon 140 410 342 263 176 1191

10 Leif Hanson (Cda) WW - T2C 144 247 154 512 249 1162

11 Ralph Herten (Cda) WW - Talon 500 0 444 188 1132

12 Dave Bacon (Cda) Seedwings - Sensor 610 F5 238 267 0 497 1002

13 John Mcclintock (Cda) Air - Atos 242 0 725 0 967

14 Milko Angulo (Cda) WW - U2 145 307 133 177 330 947

15 Rick Hines (Cda) WW - Fusion 238 132 362 176 908

16 Christine Nidd (Cda) WW Sport 2 135 341 132 177 209 859

17 Jim Scoles (Cda) Moyes - Litespeed 5S 0 0 199 559 758

18 Jason Dyer (Cda) WW Sport 2 238 170 0 323 731

19 Chris Culler (USA) WW - U2-145 249 0 177 176 602

20 Dave Wagner (Cda) Airborne - C1 13 238 0 177 176 591

21 Terry Ryan (Cda) WW - Sport-2 155 238 0 0 176 414

21 Moore Newell (Cda) WW - Sport-2 238 0 0 176 414

23 Ian McAurthur (Cda) Airborne Australia - C2 305 0 0 0 305

24 Garth Hemming (Cda) North Wings - Horison ET 0 0 0 0 0

24 Peter Morgan (Cda) WW - Ultra Sport 166 0 0 0 0 0



S o here’s Mark D. He lands out, about 30 km away. The farmer strides over as if all is normal and

says, “Hi, I just met your buddy.”“Huh?” says Mark.“Yeah,” says the farmer. “He landed his

hang glider right here not an hour ago. Then another guy came and picked him up.”

Talk about surprise. Dan Spier had landed in the exact same spot a bit ear-lier. What are the chances that two pilots would land in the same field 30 km away completely independently? That’s just one of the cool stories generated at the SOGA Fun Competition, held Aug. 1-3, 2009.

We had 12 contestants in this annual event and many came with wives and kids. A real family affair. Even more showed up

for Mary’s barbecue steak dinner on Sat-urday night.

Winds were high that first day and four of the 12 did not fly. Of those who did, four got away and did themselves proud. Others tried for the spot, but, alas, none qualified. It was a very tricky day. We didn’t know quite how tricky it was until later when we tried to fly a traction kite and watched its many collapses and surg-es.

We’ve had so much rain here in Ontario this summer, you can imagine how pleased I was to see no rain for the long weekend forecast. Alas, the wind gods frowned on us and two of the three days were blown out. But that didn’t stop the fun part of the event. It’s always fun when like-minded people — people united by a common

passion — get together for a weekend. The core group camped over three nights, so around the campfire we told stories (about hang gliding exploits, of course), sang and solved the problems of the world.

Mornings and evenings, many of us flew in relatively calm air. Mark D. hauled out the scooter winch Sunday night and gave free flights to all and sundry. One experienced pilot, demonstrating how the condor can be flown without hands, got gusted into the beans — to everyone’s amusement. It cost him dearly. We have a policy that if you land in the beans, you must contribute five bucks to the bean fund, which will go to the farmer at year end.

During the day, we flew kites, played horseshoes, worked on the hangar, stocked

Surrounded by Soya Beans

The 2009 SOGAFun Competition

by Terry Ryan

SOGA FUN COMPETITION


firewood and had a paper airplane contest.From an organizational perspective,

things went much better for me this year. We had “civilian” volunteers to look after things like registration (and other cleri-cal stuff) and retrieval co-ordination and driving. That was a big help.

This year, we had a truly international flavour. Two pilots came up from the Syra-cuse, N.Y., area. George and Dan showed up on Friday with their ATOSes. Woah, heavy duty! We had to modify our T-dolly to suit. The V-tail on the ATOS takes some special consideration when it comes to the dolly keel support.

Anyway, it’s nice when people come from away. It gives our little event a cer-tain stature.

The Saturday night party at Ken and Mary’s was a big bonus as usual. Great food and loads of fun. Mary always puts on a good spread. Some got to drinking and dancing — in that order. And then re-peated the process.

The campsite at this location is excel-lent. A natural clearing in the trees by a brook. Firepit, barbecue, picnic table.

Sunday night we all gathered around the campfire for a community supper and great camaraderie. Shishkebob and smok-ies and corn-on-the-cob topped off with a good pull of Cortel Brandy supplied by John Pop.

Troy was the last man standing — er — sitting. All the other die-hards left the campfire around 2 a.m.

Monday morning. Pizza for breakfast. Yeah, that’s roughing it. And Tim Hortons coffee brought in by Peter, the coffee saint.

At the awards ceremony, Ken got first place, of course. And Terry Davidson was recognised as this year’s most-improved pilot. Mary handed out some gag gifts and put a pointed humourous spin on each presentation. Everybody was thanked be-cause everybody pitched in to make the weekend a roaring success. Well . . . except Mark S — he’s just the ideas guy.

Before we left on Monday afternoon Milko and Peter and I short-packed our wings into long black tubes and prepared them for shipping out west to the Nation-als. The next big adventure. Gotta love this sport.

Ken Kinzie

Daniel Spier

Mark Dowsett

Mark Kowalsky

Milko Angulo

Ryan Wood

Peter Morgan

Steve Younge

John Pop

Terry Davidson

George Adams

Terry Ryan

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SOGA FUN COMPETITION


Sean White at Dallas Rd., Victoria, B.C.photo by Paul McLennan

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:


























































































































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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?

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











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HPAC SAFETY OFFICER / OFFICIER DE SÉCURITÉ ACVL

Marlene Jacob Cell: 705.795.7717

Email / Courriel: [email protected]

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.

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Quinn Cornwellcell: 204.237.0540

157 Birchdale Ave.Winnipeg, Man.R2H 1S3

[email protected]

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.

5 Mount Herbert Rd., Stratford, P.E.I. C1B 2S3

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.

Fred Perrault launching Idaho Peak, near New Denver, B.C.by Douglas Noblet - Wild Air Photography


Satie flying Mount McKenzie near Revelstoke, B.C.by Douglas Noblet - Wild Air Photography


hpac acvl air · 2009-11-11 · air magazine | december 2009 3 contents cover a scene from the 2009...

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