hpac acvl airmagazine · acvl newsletter ofﬁcially became air. to celebrate the occasion, the...

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE HANG GLIDING AND PARAGLIDING ASSOCIATION OF CANADA • SEPT 2004

John McIsaac and Cathy-Anne David open the

Golden Eco-Adventure Ranch in Nicholson, BC

CENTREFOR ADVENTURE

AIRmagazineHPAC ACVL

AIR MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER, 2004 3

Contents AIR Magazine • September 2004 • Volume 18, Issue 03

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FEATURES2004 Nationals Mark Dowsett and Terry Ryan write about the Canadian National Championships.

Landing GEAR The Nicholson LZ gets a face lift by James Keller

Dispatches from the Willi Nicole McLearn and Ian Mitchell report from the 2004 Willi.

Border crossing Chris Muller Flies from Golden, BC into Montana

Winds of change Things in Ottawa are finally picking up by Andre Nadeau

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REGULAR

04 From the President05 From the BM05 Editor’s Note05 Classifieds

Cover

Cathy-Anne David and John McIsaac create the Golden Edo-Adventure Ranch. Pictured here is the transformed house where Jerry Delyea is staying and helping out.

photo by Doug Keller

08 In Brief09 Regional News23 Logbook29 HPAC/ACVL Membership Form

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Jason Leus of Vancouver Island Paragliding soaring high over the Malahat.

4 AIR MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER, 2004

Fly far, but fly safelyA reminder to keep safety in mind when you’re in the air

P R E S I D E N T

Another flying season is wind-ing down, and I hope you all had

as good a year as I did. I had a couple of personal bests this year, but probably even more importantly, I had another safe year with no accidents.

There were a couple of times I pushed it a little too far, and it could have turned out a lot differently if I hadn’t gotten lift to get me out of a tight spot. I thought I learned the lesson the first time it happened, but I guess I didn’t, because I found myself in almost the same

Life is too busy. We need to go flying.Greetings from head office. Busi-

ness on the front lines is progressing well with a minimum of problems thanks to pi-lots doing a good job of completing required paperwork in a fairly legible manner. Thanks gang — this allows me to update your info the day I receive it.

One of the most important parts is keeping your personal information up to date, which you can do online at www.hpac.ca or fax it to me at 519-894-6277. Never miss an issue of AIR again because of address changes. I have several moved pilots whose mail returned, in-

DOUG KELLER

FROM THE PRESIDENT // FROM THE BM

position a few days later. I realized there is a fine line between confidence and bad judg-ment. I hope I’ve got it now, because I don’t want to find myself in that position again.

I was thinking about some of the acci-dents I’ve heard about this year and I was glad that none of them were fatalities — al-though some probably could have been if things went a little differently. If we can go the rest of this year without a fatality, it will be two years in row without one, something that we haven’t been able to do since we

started keeping records in 1974.I hope this is the start of a long stretch

where none of our friends die. Let’s all try to keep it going as long as possible. Everyday you fly, make a commitment to yourself that you won’t be the one to break the streak and encourage your flying companions to do the same.

Fly far, but fly safely.

– Doug KellerHPAC/ACVL President

cluding membership renewal cards, and their phones and e-mail don’t work. If you have a problem, drop me a note at [email protected].

Well, if you got this far, it’s time to say thanks to the web team for giving me some new tools, including bulk spam renewal no-tices, so make sure your e-mail address is current. We have a lot of members who may have expired but don’t know it, so whip that card out and check right now. If you have expired but have signed a waiver, you can re-new online with Paypal. Just visit the hpac/acvl website. This feature is not available to Quebec pilots, family memberships or those

outside of Canada at the moment. Beta test-ing has gone well and we hope to expand services soon, thanks again.

The Online General Meeting has been de-layed but should get underway soon, so keep checking the web site for announcements or the hpac list on Yahoo,

To subscribe, send an e-mail to:[email protected] the rest of summer. Fly high. Go far.

Go safe.

– John BurkBusiness Manager

The BM talks shopB U S I N E S SM A N A G E R

J O H N B U R K

More notes on renewals, keeping up to date, paying online and the Online General Meeting.

John Nielsen hang glides and Teresa Kovacs and Caudio Mota paraglide just out from launch at Mount Provost on Vancouver Island in April.

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Editor: JAMES [email protected]

HPAC/ACVL OFFICERS

President: DOUG KELLER [[email protected]]Vice-President: MICHAEL FULLER [[email protected]]Secretary: MICHAEL MILLER [[email protected]]Treasurer: CHARLES MATHIESON[[email protected]]Safety & Accident Review: FRED WILSON [[email protected]]

HPAC/ACVL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

B.C. & Yukon: MICHAEL MILLER

Alberta & NWT: DOUG KELLER

Saskatchewan: CAS WOLAN [[email protected]]

Manitoba & Nanavut: GERRY GROSSNEGGER

[[email protected]]

Ontario: PETER DARIAN-VARZELIOTIS

[[email protected]]

Quebec: STEVEN BOOST [[email protected]]

Atlantic Canada: MICHAEL FULLER

Business Manager: JOHN BURK [[email protected]]

Éditeur du Survol: LINE TURCOTTE

[[email protected]]

Competition Commitee Chairman: BERNARD

WINKELMANN [[email protected]]

Observer: VINCENE MULLER

[[email protected]]

FAI/CIVL Delegate: STEWARD MIDWINTER

[[email protected]] & VINCENE MULLER

Instructors Advisory Council Chair: JIM REICH

[[email protected]]

Insurance Committee: GREGG HUMPHREYS

[[email protected]]

Legal Advisor: MARK KOWALSKY

[[email protected]]

XC Records: VINCENE MULLER

Transport Canada Liaison: ANDRÉ NADEAU

[[email protected]]

Web Team: PHIL DEON [[email protected]],

JUDITH NEWMAN [[email protected]], GERRY

GROSSNEGGER & CHARLES MATHIESON

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:

120 Ottawa Street NorthPO Box 43082Kitchener, ONN2H 6S9

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

New address, and ten years of AIREDITOR’S NOTE

The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.

– Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.

First thing’s first: AIR has a new ad-dress.I’ve moved across the country, from

Calgary to Halifax, and the cloud-covered skies and coastal rain make the perfect weather for laying out a magazine.

Anything you might need to mail over this way needs to be sent to the new address. The new information is:

104 - 1360 Hollis StHalifax, NS

b3j 1t9902-431-0654

With that out of the way, we can now look ahead. This issue felt like it came together at the last minute. Up until a week of the dead-line, I wasn’t sure there would be enough copy for half a magazine. But, sure enough, pilots came through just in time (and, in some cases, a little after), and the result, as you will see, is an excellent read. Surprisingly, a few pieces were actually pushed forward to the December issue, and the stories that were

cut are well worth the wait.But I’m already thinking further than that.

2005 will mark a decade since the hpac/acvl newsletter officially became AIR. To celebrate the occasion, the March 2005 issue will take a look back at the last decade.

That means I need your help.Look through your old AIR magazines and

pick your favourite articles, photos and cov-ers. Scan them and e-mail them to [email protected] or send them in the mail with return post-age if you want them back.

Scans should be high resolution, prefer-ably 300 dpi, and scanned in colour if what you’re scanning is, in fact, in colour.

Because I’ll need a little more time to go through what’s sent in, the deadline for “10 Years of AIR” submissions will be earlier than normal: Feb. 1 (regular stories will still be due Feb. 15).

That’s all for now. Enjoy what’s left of the flying season and keep those submissions coming.

–James KellerAIR Editor

WILLS WING 147 ULTRASPORT approxi-mately 45 hrs airtime. Won SOGA Cup XC competition in 2001 and won the year-long XC Challenge in 2002. Performance is great, only one owner, excellent condition, no crash damage. Comes with Hall wheel kit with the “A” frame corner brackets, manual, batten diagram, spare parts kit, spare down tube. $3,200: [email protected] 519-742-9351

AIR CLASSIFIEDSSubmit your ad:[email protected]

$10 or free for membersNext deadline: Nov. 15

RACK SYSTEM trailer hitch, winch plat-form from ’95 Suzuki Sidekick 2-dr soft-top. Email [email protected] for info and photos. 780-451-1448

MEDIUM UP GROOVE, red, UP Har-ness, UP Med. Reserve, Kiwi Helmet, UP Flight Suit. Never Used. $2,800. Mike Miller. [email protected]


IN BRIEF

New board members announced

The news, quick and dirty

As we only have one nomination from each region, the follow-ing candidates are elected by acclamation and no voting will

take place this year. The new directors will take office sometime between September 2004 and February 2005. Please join the board in welcoming two new directors and one returning director.

Representing Quebec is Jacques Blanchet. Representing Alberta is Bruce Busby.Representing Manitoba/Nunavut for a second term is Gerry

Grossnegger. The board would like to thank the retiring directors — Steven

Boost, Quebec and President Doug Keller, Alberta/Nunavut — for their commitment to the flying community.

– Your Board of Directors

François Thibodeau is offering theory classes and instructor courses. They are:

August 15: Beginner course September 18 – 19: Paragliding and hang gliding instructor

courseOctober 8, 9 and 10: Advanced theory, hagar, meteorology,

etc. For more information, contact François Thibodeau at:

[email protected]

Upcoming courses

Lucille de Beaudrap now holds hpac’s feminine paragliding al-titude gain record, announced by the hpac Badge and Record

Committee.On May 17 of this year, she had an altitude gain of 2,120 m tow-

ing in Rosalind, Alberta. The previous record was 1,214 m, which de Beaudrap also held.

This flight was also close to hitting the general record altitude gain.

Feminine paragliding altitude gain record set

Mt. 7 Contingency Fund list online

The Mt. 7 Contingency Fund list will now be on the hpac/acvl website: hpac.ca.

Pilots pay into the fund to cover the costs of air rescue efforts. Pilots who do not pay into the fund will not be covered. Check the list, and make sure you pay before you fly.

The u.s. Paragliding National Championships took place in Salt Lake City, Utah Aug. 21 – 28.

The top three pilots were all American. Len Szafaryn took the first-place prize with 2,549 points; Eric Reed placed second with 2,503; and Joshn Cohn came third with 2,488.

Two Canadian pilots competed. Will Gadd placed 19th with 1,381 points, and Nicole McLearn of Vancouver placed 31st with 1,146.

US Paragliding Nationals

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (fai) has ratified a new paragliding speed record.

Gasper Prevc from Slovenia captured the record for speed over an out-and-return course of 100 km. Prevc reached 34.75 km/h flying at Drazgoska Gora in Slovenia on Aug. 3. Howard Travers, from the United Kingdom, held the previous record of 38.04 km/h set Jan. 24, 1999.

New paragliding speed record

The u.s. Hang Gliding National Championships took place in Big Spring, Texas Aug. 1 – 7.

In the flex category, Curt Warren placed first, Robin Hamilton placed second, and Dustin Martin placed third.

In the rigid category, Davis Straub placed first, Mark Pous-tichain placed second and Bruce Barmakian placed third.

And in the swift class, Brian Porter placed first, Junko Naka-mura placed second and Mark Mulholland finished third.

US Hang Gliding Nationals


REGIONAL NEWS

On Aug. 16, 2004, the first two tows on Prince Edward Island were officially

performed by Islanders.Recently, we acquired a scooter tow, and,

for a couple of weeks now, we have been spending some time preparing for our in-augural flight.

We set up the scooter tow yesterday evening at around 7:00 pm. We stretched out approximately 2,000 ft of line and made two tows both in the range of 200 – 300 ft of altitude in absolute zero wind-speed conditions. For the first tow, we used a very light line tension and pulled to around 200 ft before release. For the second, we in-creased the tension slightly, gained a little more altitude and released at around 300 ft. Both tows were very smooth.

The scooter tow acted just as we had hoped, and the ground crew did an excel-lent job in executing both tows.

The crew consisted of:■ Test Pilot: Brendon McKenna■ Tow Operator: David Peck■ Duty Pilot: Emmett McKenna■ Assistant Tow Operator: Greg MacAus-land■ Spotter: Don Campbell

Towing takes off on Prince Edward Island

PEI towing, Golden search and rescue

The following story appeared in the Gold-en Star newspaper (www.thegoldenstar.

net) Wed. Aug. 11. The program received fi-nancial support from Golden-area pilots.

The sky is the limit for the Golden and District Search and Rescue (gdsar) group following a weekend of training and quali-fication for sling rescue certification.

Two of Golden’s gdsar members, Jeff Hack and Kyle Hale, were present to take the training they have been waiting three years for. Also present were other sar per-sonnel from the Kootenay region.

The training session closes a chapter

in the local rescue group’s book that has remained unwritten until now. The lo-cal group is now in possession of the gear needed to allow them to perform sling res-cues on land and water with the aid of heli-copters. The special rope and its helicopter attachment mechanism has been in town for some time but budget issues resulted in a lengthy wait before all hurdles were cleared and the training and certification could take place.

Don McTighe, Alpine Helicopters, is a certified sling rescue pilot and knows the value of having trained personnel in the community.

“We would have to fly to pick up or wait for wardens from the parks if we had a sling rescue call in our region,” explained Mc-Tighe. “All that remains now is the signing of a memorandum of agreement between Alpine Helicopters and gdsar. Once all the formalities have been completed, we will be able to call on our local certified search and rescue members to respond to a call. This will make our response time much faster. Our other pilot, Craig Ward, is also a certified sling rescue pilot and both of our machines are more than a match for the job:”

“This is a major step forward for our group and we are ready,” concluded Hale.

Brendon McKenna on tow in one of the first official tows on Prince Edward Island.

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■ Official Photographer: Cathy McKenna■ Official witnesses: my boys David McK-enna (5) and Matthew McKenna (3)

Thanks to all the crew for their help with the tows. David did an excellent job as tow operator. I felt very confident being towed by David — he was very professional. It was a big accomplishment for the entire crew, and each of them should be proud of being the first Islanders to tow on p.e.i.

– Brendon McKenna

Golden and District Search and Rescue

Kyle Hale (left), Golden and District Search and Rescue (GDSAR) accepts a cheque from Peter Bowle-Evans. The funds are in appreciation of the many times GDSAR has come to the air of hang glider and paraglider pilots. The funds will also help support GDSAR’s recently acquired sling rescue certifi-cation.


FEATURE // NATIONALS

This years’ Canadian National Cham-pionships were once again held in Lumby, British Columbia. It is lo-

cated in the Okanagan (central British Co-lumbia), about 30 km east of Vernon. This is the third time in as many years I have hosted the two separate events over con-secutive weeks in Lumby, and this year, we finally had ideal weather. 2003 wasn’t bad, but 2002 didn’t work out so good.

I think the so-so weather from previous years had an effect on this year’s attendance for the paragliding meet. The attendance in the hang gliding meet has slowly been increasing over the last three years, but the paragliding attendance went down from 70 in 2002, to 55 in 2003 to 30 this year. Those that actually showed up were shown the reasons why I choose to host the Nationals in this great community. Shifting the dates from mid-May to early-June this year cer-tainly helped, too.

I treat the Nationals as a learning experi-ence for pilots of all levels, and the location, conditions and terrain help with this goal. I don’t feel we have enough formal events

in Canada, so I like to have these events for those pilots that wish to travel to interna-tional competitions, so they know what to expect. With the diverse pilot experience in Canada, these events need to be attractive to lesser experience pilots. In both events, we have pilots show up that have little or no xc experience. As long as they are com-petent pilots with good judgement, I feel Lumby is an ideal venue for those pilots to get involved.

Lumby seems rather unique: it has a few converging valleys but doesn’t seem to have a lot of strong valley venturies are often as-sociated with them. We don’t usually get a lot of strong wind either, which also allows novice users to feel comfortable going xc, and it allows us to call triangle or out-and-return tasks, allowing slower pilots to see the faster pilots coming back to goal. It also makes for simple retrievals.

I am not going to go through each day’s results in this article, as there are daily sum-maries on the Nats’ web site (www.dowsett.ca/cdnnats/).

The paragliding Nationals were first this

year, and the first four days of the seven-day event had fantastic tasks. We were faced with a not-so-good forecast approaching the meet, and I thought it was going to be a repeat of the 2002 competition. Halfway through our initial Sunday morning pilot meeting, the clouds suddenly parted, so the meeting ended so we could take advantage of the conditions. The forecast and condi-tions cleared up after that. Then, we had two days off and finished up with a “traditional” Lumby day on the final day, which was a short glide contest from Vernon Mountain in stronger winds.

Thanks to my lovely wife Donna and my new helper, Fred Wilson, I was able to fly competitively in the paragliding meet this year and had a blast. We had great condi-tions at the beginning of the week, and it was a blast to be climbing in such nice lift with all the competitors. I don’t compete on my paraglider much, and I really got a kick on day two climbing up off of Coopers with about eight other pilots in the same thermal to about 10,000 ft while we are all talking to each other — and not over the radios.

June 6 – 19, 2004Lumby, British ColumbiaTHE CANADIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Two pilots recall this year’s Nationals in Lumby, British Columbia.First, organizer Mark Dowsett.

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Congrats goes to Will Gadd for winning it all, Alex Raymont (last year’s Champ) for coming second and Graeme Herring for coming in third. Graeme flew real consist-ently, which always helps results. We also have the Standard Class, which includes pilots flying dhv 1-2 gliders (or less). Con-grats to Pete Evans for winning that divi-sion, especially since it was his first time ever competing and using a gps. Nicole also cleaned up in the Women’s category, placing 6th overall.

Then, I thought that, since the paragliders got five of seven days, they would get the better end of the bargain with regards to weather, especially since the forecast looked rather bad for the upcoming hang gliding Nationals. Usually, the hang gliders have the first week, but they got flipped with the paragliders this time around.

The first day was marginal, and only eight pilots got out of minimum distance (6 km). Jon Orders was stoked after this day as he was in first place over Brett and had visions of grandeur at this point.

We had a day off due to rain, and after that, things became magical. Brett show-cased his talent on Tuesday, being the only pilot to get up at launch and then continued to complete the 45.2 km out-and-return task. There was no looking back for him after that.

The next four days were incredible. We had two days from Mara Lake flying back to Lumby with many pilots having personal xc bests (check the lists at the bottom of the daily results for those details on the website) after getting up to over 12,000 ft. I was sur-prised to hear Dave Scott, who flies mostly at Chelan report that he was in some of his strongest (and smoothest) lift ever.

My best days personally were the final two. Someone said it took a few days to get the paraglider out of me again, but I just really enjoy flying from Coopers and racing around the Lumby Valley. We have never successfully had the conditions to fly to Cherryville (30 km east of Lumby) and back; during the Nationals, we ended up doing that five times (twice in one task, actually). Usually, that has been a one-way route due to higher winds. On those last two days, the longest task was 111 km, and many pilots reported getting up to 12,500 ft. One pilot said he stopped at 14,900 ft — and this was under an almost-blue sky. I wish I had a camera on me those days, because the view was amazing.

Congrats goes to Brett Hazlett for tak-ing first over all, Jeff Rempel for flying real consistently making goal the most days of anyone, and Dave Scott for coming up from the States and placing 3rd over all in his first ever trip to Canada and first gps-verified competition. The king posted class was also quite heated this time around. Kevin Ferguson won that class with his patient, consistent flying. Mark Kowalsky came in a close second, and it would have been ever closer if he crossed the finish line on the last day. Mark did a down-wind belly landing into the goal field on the last day about 100 m short of the finish line — it didn’t move him into first but it did move him up from third place on the last day to beat Rick Hines.

This year really showcased the reasons why we come to Lumby to compete or just go xc — smooth consistent lift, light winds, high cloud bases and (contrary to com-mon belief) lots of landing fields. Some pi-lots were concerned after hearing rumours that there are less and less welcomed fields to land in, but with a little care in choosing your field, and by showing respect to land

owners, you have nothing to worry about. I didn’t hear of a single land-owner com-plaint this year.

Many thanks to the pilots that came out. Needless to say, without you, these events wouldn’t be worth it. I really appreciate those pilots that come out year after year to sup-port the event, especially the Ontario hang glider pilots that go to the extreme effort to getting out here. It was a real pleasure to get to know some new pilots that came out for the first time, as well. It always pumps a lot of energy into the atmosphere to have new blood at these events. Ten of the 30 hang glider pilots were at the Nationals for the first time, as were 13 out of 30 paraglider pilots.

Also many thanks again to my wife Don-na and Fred Wilson. They helped out huge and without them, I wouldn’t be able to compete as well. Thanks to the sponsors as well: Muller Windsports, Far West, Silicon Cowboys, Paradreneline, Twin Creeks Mo-tel & The Blue Ox Pub.

Mark Dowsett is a hang gliding and paragliding pilot in Port Moody, BC. This was the third time he has hosted the Nationals in Lumby.

Graeme Herring lifting off from the Coopers launch.

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I flew in to Kelowna on Friday for the 2004 Nationals, and before I even got to Lumby, I was invited to a barbecue party.

Good start. Will Gadd, noted adventurer and top paraglider pilot, showed a couple of his movies, which were very impressive. It was pretty cool watching mountain-type movies with a real mountain backdrop.

I had an old Caravan from Rent-a-Wreck that had 280,000 km on it. It was in tough shape, but it worked out really cheap — and I didn’t have to worry about scratching it.

I met Tom Pierce and Naomi Gray from

Washington on Saturday, and a bunch of us went up to Vernon launch in Tom’s truck to free fly on the last day of the paraglider meet. Christine was wind dummy and, boy, did she show them lift. Paragliders bailed off the hill

like lemmings to follow her. On Sunday, the first day of the hang gliding

meet, it was blowing like stink up on Vernon. There were lots of scary launches. Just after his launch, Tom had trouble penetrating in his ATOS-C, and Naomi, with the bar stuffed, was flying backwards. I decided not to fly (on my Falcon) and got a big fat dnf on my score.

Monday wasn’t soarable, so the day was called off, anticipating better weather to come. Mark Johnson, weather guru, got it right. It was great for the whole rest of the meet.

On Tuesday, we went for Coopers, the old standby, but lots bombed out and only Brett made goal. That evening, a bunch of us went up onto Saddle mountain for a nice evening flight. We all gradually sunk out except Naomi, who stayed way high for al-most two hours enjoy-ing the smooth evening air. She landed lightly to cheers and cries of

“we’re not worthy.”On Wednesday, we were treated to a whole

new mountain/valley experience. We all went up to Mara launch (AKA Hunters?) adjacent to Mara Lake in the beautiful Okanagan Val-

ley. This launch site was new to many of us, and what a beauty: 4,400 ft asl and about 2,500 ft over the valley. Below launch, the val-ley contains Mara Lake and the picturesque, winding Shuswap River. Streams gush out of the mountains and fall through the rugged gorges that they have created for themselves. On a good (hot) day, the lee side of these gorges spill off thermals and a good pilot will beat the odds in guessing where and when. It’s still a marvel to me that good hang glider pilots can go wherever they want simply by reading the wind, the terrain and the sky.

A few of us hit the bomb-out lz, and Rick Hunt made it all the way to Vernon. The big story of the day, however, was that Naomi had to make a forced landing way back in the mountains. Search and rescue had to get her out. Took them 12 hours going in on foot, sine they don’t do helicopters unless the victim is seriously injured. She’d still be there if she wasn’t fully rigged with gps, radio, cell phone and all that.

The next day, Thursday, we’re back to Mara Launch. Now I know what to look for. I head straight out and pick up one of the “house” thermals, but it’s weak, so I head along the tree line in continuous lift and come in over the falls gorge with good height. There is bro-ken lift there and I am pleased to “maintain” there for quite some time. It doesn’t really come together for me, and I start to get low over the trees so I head to the bomb-out lz down the lee side of that gorge.

There is some lift on the way down. I spy a sparsely treed knob to my right, a bit up-wind, and sure enough it’s working, so I de-

For Terry Ryan, the 2004 Nationals came full circle.

Mark Kowalsky prepares for launch on his first flight of the meet.

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photo by Terry Ryan



cide to milk it.That was stupid.I lose it and get into its associated sink. I

strike out for the lz, but I realize if I hit more sink I wont make it. For an instant, I consider a forced landing God-knows-where, but the calm and sensible thing to do is try. I’ve got to make it over those power lines, that highway, those houses, that huge back yard, those im-mensely tall trees.

I’m aware of life going on below me — the school bus stopping to let off kids, the work-ers in a back lot, the other highway traffic. But I’m not enjoying the scenery now. I’m focus-ing on “max glide” and assessing every two seconds whether or not I’ll make it.

left wing and wheel. I waved to the people on the ground to let them know I was okay, but they didn’t see me. In short order, Glen and Scott came running up to me. Thanks guy — and sorry for the miscommunication. The right thing would have been to pick up my wing while still hooked in and turn it 90 or 180 degrees.

Friday. How could the week have gone by so fast? Naomi told her story in great detail at the pilot’s breakfast meeting, which was fasci-nating. Coopers Launch is called for this day, along with some impossible task (impossible for me, at least). We muster at Randy’s and, group by group, head up the mountain.

Arrival at launch is always a special time.

rise on the early thermals and dissipate. The whole aura instills a certain intimacy.

And then there is the anticipation of that special flight.

I was probably the last to launch. The pre-vailing wind was from the north, so I turned left and picked up a nice one rolling up and spilling off that rounded ridge. (I’m getting better.) Calm coordinated turns yield good results. I’m well above launch when it peters out, so I glide across the mountain face to the bowl. I play around there for a while and, when it quits, I’m happy with my flight so I head in to land.

This is a peaceful part of any flight, because it’s an easy glide over sloping terrain to the lz

There are ongoing debates over whether tractors can trigger thermals. Well, let me tell you, as I rose higher and higher above that tractor on Thursday, I smiled and said to myself, “I’m a believer.”

The sky fills with paragliders on the last day of the paragliding meet.

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I’m pointing my head down. I’m even pointing my toes, trying to make my dirty ol’ Falcon as clean as possible. Now, between me and the lz, there is a single row of very tall pine trees — they must be 200 ft tall. I manage to clear them and I’m home free. A wave of relief passes over me as I glance at the shredded wind sock.

A slight turn to my left and I’m coming straight in on “final.” At 60 ft, my ground speed seems high, so I glance at the sock again. Unfortunately, I misread the damned thing. I’ve got to crank it around 180 degrees, but I’m way too low. I manage 90 degrees and I try to run it out, but that’s tough to do in a 90-degree crosswind.

Eventually, my right wing gets popped and/or I stumbled and I pound it in on my

Pilots pick their places and start setting up. There is a subtle pecking order, so I go right to the back.

I usually set up quietly because I need to fo-cus, but I love to hear the good natured ban-ter and laughter from the other pilots. At this stage, stuffing battens, they’re all relaxed, and it shows. Later, after the task is set at the pilots meeting, they get their “race faces” on (Cas Wolan’s expression), and things get quiet.

Meanwhile, on the mountain, the banter continues, but it stays inexplicably close. We are a small group with a common bond on a big mountain. The air, the trees and the mountain itself all absorb our sounds. A hun-dred yards away in any direction there were only the sounds of nature, of silence. The diminutive sounds of our jokes and laughter

in the valley floor. It’s a beautiful bright day. The valley is green and lush, and the view is forever. There’s a tractor down there mowing hay.

What’s this? I feel the “up” air even before the vario sings. It continues and is big enough to turn in, so I turn. The song continues. Parts of the lift are strong. Parts of my circles are not in lift so I adjust them. I find that I am able to get lift all the way around the circle.

Many full circles later, I realize I’m up above launch. This is my first “low save.” I’ve been grinning from ear to ear for the past few min-utes, but when I start hitting 1,200 feet per minute up and got her cranked right up, well, I’m just laughing out loud and whooping and hollering. (Later, my vario shows I maxed out at 1590 fpm).


STANDINGS(top ten in each event)


I’m staying with the thermal, but the thermal is going way back over the mountain. I began to think about cloud suck, but after checking the sky, I was well below the desti-nation cloud, and there were no cus in sight. I’m “feeling” the thermal now. No longer am I content to ride the large expanse of mild “up” air.

I practice fi nding the core. Oh, there it is. My side wires strain as it boosts me skyward. I crank as tight a turn as I can and stay in it all the way around. At well over 6’000 ft, I de-cide I better play it safe and head towards the valley. I could have gone higher, but I was just happy to boat around high over the moun-tains and enjoy the view. It was starting to get cold up there, but I was dressed for it.

I had to buck venturi on the way back in, but it was no sweat since I had lots of height. When I landed, everybody knew it was my personal best, there was congrats and hugs and cold beer all around. It doesn’t get much better.

On Saturday, I did exactly the same thing and nothing happened. Even the tractor was gone. I played around in some “zero sink” for about six full circles while only 400 feet over the lz, hoping for another low save. It would have been sweet, but I landed and the meet was over.

There are ongoing debates over whether tractors can trigger thermals. Well, let me tell you, as I rose higher and higher above that tractor on Thursday, I smiled and said to my-self, “I’m a believer.”

One of the joys of hang gliding is that you get to meet people from all over the world with common interest and develop a bond in just a few days. Cas came along, Bruce was back and Ralph returned along with the two Robs from Alberta. Tom Pierce came up from the States with his ATOS again, but without Ka-tie. Naomi, also from Washington (originally from Japan), came along for the fi rst time and quickly made a name for herself with her fl y-ing skills and her pleasant personality.

We met Rick Hunt for the fi rst time. He’s an “old school” pilot that did some damn good fl ying. Jeff Remple took over “weather” from Wednesday on, and gave us excellent daily forecasts each morning at the pilots meetings. Mark Kowalski had the scariest launch and carried shrub parts all the way to goal. Chris-tine smiled at the paraglider pilots on their last day, and they all followed her out over the valley. She has a face that could launch a thou-sand chutes. And Moore showed up, a genu-inely good guy who I last saw in Golden three

years ago. Diane was our fi rst-aid person on standby and she drove for us and took lots of great pictures. Wayne and Dave also came up from the States, and Dave came in third over-all. Rob (Saltspring), Kevin and Alex (Van-couver), Jon Orders and John McClintock, and many others. Good to see Brett again this year, one of the world’s top pilots.

It was a time for personal bests. On Wednesday, Dave Scott made goal for the fi rst time in his fi rst-ever competition. Mark Kowalsky got a personal best for distance and time in the air.

On Thursday, Rob Clarkson and Ralph Herten achieved their fi rst turnpoints ever in the Nationals.

On Friday, Mark Dowsett did his longest goal fi nish on Canadian soil and his fi rst time ever winning a day at the Nationals. Also on Friday, I achieved a personal best for altitude at 6,200 ft

Saturday was Christine’s big day with a personal best for altitude at 11,300 ft. Her face must be sore now from grinning so much.

Three pilots with their fi rst ever goal fi nish (Bruce, Kevin and Scott), and Mark Kowal-sky was 150 m short of his fi rst goal fi nish.

There was another fun party at Randy’s again this year to close off the week. Live bands, free burgers and beer for the pilots, a huge bonfi re and lots of neat folks.

The direct fl ight home to Pearson Inter-national was on fi nal for runway 33l when I looked out the window at Centennial Park in Etobicoke. There it was, clear as a bell, the training hill where I learned to foot launch so many years ago, the place where I took my fi rst four-second fl ight. This is where it all started. This is where the dreams and the goals started to take shape. On this trip, I re-alized those dreams. It struck me that I had truly come full circle.

Terry Ryan is a hang gliding pilot from Toronto, Ontario.

Hang gliding winners (l to r): John McClintock (3rd CDN), Tom Pierce (1st rigid), Dave Scott (3rd overall), Jeff Rempel (2nd overall) and Brett Hazlett (1st overall).

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Brett HazlettTom PierceJeff RempelDavid ScottJohn McclintockJon OrdersMark DowsettWayne SayerKevin FergusonScott Gravelle

3,748 pts3,309 pts3,305 pts2,671 pts2,620 pts2,618 pts2,495 pts2,152 pts2,085 pts2,026 pts

12345678910

Kevin FergusonMark KowalskyRick HinesRob CannonClay BrauerRalph HertenRob ClarksonRic HuntMoore NewellEric d’Argent

2,085 pts1,913 pts1,860 pts1,461 pts1,387 pts1,231 pts981 pts935 pts911 pts843 pts

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Pete EvansMike SpencerSean WhiteRobin SatherRandy ParkinDave MerrickBrad MurphyJim ReichRyan LetchfordChristopher Parker

1,950 pts1,802 pts1,763 pts1,675 pts1,312 pts1,114 pts1,080 pts899 pts809 pts381 pts

12345678910

Will GaddAlex RaymontGraeme HerringMark JohnstonClaudio MotaNicole MclearnPetr BrinkmanBrett HazlettMark DowsettKeith Maccullough

3,393 pts3,165 pts3,130 pts2,877 pts2,602 pts2,400 pts2,379 pts2,294 pts2,254 pts2,132 pts

HANG GLIDINGKingposted

Overall

Standard Class

Open Class

PARAGLIDING

For complete results: www.dowsett.ca/cdnnats/


On a flying holiday in the Bavar-ian and Austrian Alps last sum-

mer, John McIsaac and Cathy-Anne David saw something that piqued their interests: camps that took the amenities of an rv park and combined them with services geared to the flying community, complete with pick-up shuttles and a landing field within walking distance of the trailers and tents.

These flying playgrounds are called flieger camps — flieger is German for flyer — and they were part of the inspi-ration for the Golden Eco-Adventure Ranch (gear), a 400-acre spread of land in Nicholson, British Columbia that both

McIsaac and David both hope will soon be a world-class facility.

“I thought, ‘what a great idea?’ and when we came back we were flying in the fall of last year in Nicholson and saw that the land was for sale,” says McIsaac, who also flies sailplanes and powered planes.

The husband-and-wife team, who currently live in Canmore, Alberta, pur-chased the land — which was used as the Mt. 7 landing site through an agreement between local pilots and the landowner — late last year. The land was up for sale for two years without a buyer (David says two previous deals thankfully fell through), and no one was entirely sure

whether the site would still be open to pi-lots once the deed changed hands.

The idea was planted after, shortly after they returned from their trip, a few friends mentioned the idea of buying the land. McIsaac says he was sleepless for a few nights thinking about it, but one question still hung over the whole concept: how could the idea make economical sense? McIsaac, who is a land developer by trade, explains that the flieger camps provided the answer.

“We decided that if we could integrate a campground and an equestrian park and a few other amenities in the adventure of realm of things, like a cross-country ski

FEATURE // GEAR

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A new parking lot and shelter grace the Nicholson LZ, the primary landing site for pilots launching from Mount 7, as part of the Golden Eco-Adventure Ranch.

The Mt. 7 landing site in Nicholson, British Columbia gets a face lift as two pilots transform it into the Goldern Eco-Adventure Ranch

by James Keller


FEATURE // GEAR

lodge all of this sort of stuff, that it would make economical sense and be okay,” he says.

This summer, developments were al-ready underway. Additions already im-plemented include a washroom with sink and flush toilet, the seeding and irrigation of the 20,000 square foot landing field so pilots can break down and pack up on green grass, a new parking lot location to deter pilots from landing too close to the power lines, the removal of barbed wire fences so pilots can pack up and walk straight to their cars, and a spacious timber frame shade hut with three picnic tables.

So far, response from pilots who used the site this past summer has been over-

whelmingly positive.“The feedback that we have received is

that the site has been a huge success,” says David. “People really appreciate the con-venience of the flush toilet and the com-fort of the shade hut on a hot day.”

Even though gear has already proved a huge improvement over what was there before, McIsaac and David are far from finished. Eventually, the park will feature over 60 rv and tenting sites, a 12-room lodge with a restaurant, and trails for hiking, biking and cross-country skiing (when the snow stops them from flying in the winter, both McIsaac and David are avid cross-country skiers). The goal is to the make the site a “centre for adventure,”

McIsaac and David are also aware the land sits on an environmentally sensi-tive area, and that’s part of the idea of the eco-adventure ranch concept. All of the plans have the welfare of the wetlands in mind.

“In addition to establishing a flight park, we will maintain the ecological in-tegrity of the 200 or so acres that is classi-fied as natural wetlands,” explains David.

While hang glider and paraglider pi-lots will still be landing in the same field as they’re used to, they will notice some changes. Before this year, there weren’t many restrictions limiting who could land there (at least, none that were strict-ly enforced). At gear, pilots landing in the field must be hpac/acvl members (which includes third-party liability in-surance), and they must register with the site and sign a liability waiver which they can drop off at the lz (available on the website: www.goldenadventurepark.com). Tandem flights must be flown by pi-lots with a certified tandem pilot’s rating and associated insurance, proof of which should be provided upon registration.

“It is just to protect us from liability,” says McIsaac. “We do not want pilots that are not certified or hpac members land-ing in our field. Please show good air-manship and respect for the property and the Nicholson residents.”

McIsaac says some pilots have been asking whether the he will ever charge pilots for landing at gear. He’s quick to quell these fears, insisting that the goal is to support the project by creating an entire park where pilots will want to do more than just land.

“That has never been our intention at

(Above) The GEAR development plan offers a glimpse of what is coming at the ranch. (Below) Cathy-Anne David and John McIsaac, owners of GEAR, with Mt. 7 in the background.


all,” he explains. “We felt that if we did a good job of the fl ight park, and that if we did a good job of the campground and rvpark, that people who fl ew would stay at our facility. Nothing would make me hap-pier than if that campground was full of pilots, just getting together as a commu-nity of fl iers and have a good time and tell stories.”

The site was unoffi cially opened for this year’s fl ying season, and the offi cial open-ing party happened at the end of July. Developments on the ranch will continue over the coming years, many depending on approvals by regional and agricultural authorities. The bureaucracy involved in a project like this can be slow and full of red tape, which they’ve already seen.

Delays with the British Columbia Agri-cultural Land Commission, the body that governs the use of designated agricultural reserves like the Nicholson site, mean that construction of the campground and rvpark won’t begin until at least September. Event still, McIsaac says the campground and rv park will be open in time for next year’s fl ying season.

With small steps in mind for the near future, McIsaac and David have high hopes for the future of gear.

“One of my big dreams is to obviously hold the worlds here, whether it be hang gliding or paragliding,” he says, adding that he’s also working with Will Gadd and Chris Muller on an extreme eco race, which will include downhill mountain biking, kayaking, trail running and fl y-ing.

His dreams extend far beyond plans for meets and competition. McIsaac wants to create a lasting legacy that will exist for years to come.

“Our vision, Cathy-Anne and I, is to preserve that fi eld perpetually for hang gliding and paragliding, and to turn the ranch into a proper eco-adventure ranch,” says McIsaac. “I would like people to think of this as my project of passion. I am just hoping that my son Keegan will become a fl yer some day and take over the ranch when our time has come and gone.”

For more information on gear, visitwww.goldenadventurepark.com, or stop by and say hello next time you’re in the area.

With an interview by Karen Keller.

The Mt. 7 launch can be seen in the background as Cathy-Anne David lands at GEAR.

WHAT YOU NEED TO YOU KNOW

■ All pilots landing at the gear must be current hpac/acvl members, which includes third party liability insurance group coverage. Foreign group insurance plans may also be acceptable, subject to coverage extending to fl ight activities in Canada.

■ Only hang gliding and paragliding pilots with certifi ed tandem pilot’s ratings and associated insurance can land with their clients at gear. This condition also extends to any pilots landing tandem passengers in a purely recreational, non-commercial mode.

■ Any pilots wanting to land or ground handle at gear must register and provide proof of qualifi cations and insurance fi rst.

■ All pilots using the ranch must sign a waver.

■ Any pilot landing or ground handling at gear without a current registration in good order will be considered to be trespassing on private property.

■ To obtain a waiver, pilots can either contact Jerry Delyea at 250-344-0480 or visit: www.goldenadventurepark.com/aviation.htm

BEFORE YOU LAND

FEATURE // GEAR


Many years from now, the stories will still be told. “Yeah, that’s a good one, but did you hear about

the Willi in ’04?” Just when we thought 2003 was as good as it gets, along comes 20004 and a host

of records are shattered all over again. It’s as though Willi himself was moving the bar higher each

year. With a total of 57 pilots, the eight-year-old meet saw its best turnout ever. Competition was stiff with two of

the world’s best pilots, Chris Muller and Will Gadd, showing the way.

THE EIGHTH ANNUAL WILLIT w o p i l o t s t a k e y o u t o G o l d e n , B C

FEATURE // EIGHTH ANNUAL WILLI

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Just days before the meet, a high pres-sure ridge dug its heels in and by July 24, the first day of the competition, the

conditions were perfect. Light winds made for a great out and return day — and the fall of Randy Parkin’s long-standing re-ward for the first 150 km out-and-return flight from Mt. Seven as Will Gadd breezed back into Nicholson with an out-and-re-turn site record of 160 km.

The next three days brought high winds and only the hang gliders or bravest paragliders ventured downrange, however, day four was owned by Chris Muller on his hang glider. Late that evening, as we all sat around watching movies of paragliding stunts that most of us wouldn’t even dream of trying, word came in that Chris had crossed the u.s. border and landed an astonishing 327 km out in Whitefish, Mon-tana. This was not only a new site record, but it was just 4 km shy of the official Ca-nadian hang gliding distance record set by Willi himself in 1989 and 6 km shy of an unofficial record flight by Doug Litzen-berger of 333 km.

Inspiration is contagious, and by the fifth day, when the conditions had calmed down somewhat, pilots were chomping at the bit to tackle the Rocky Mountain

meet, may have seen most pilots grounded. And so, as records are made in the strong conditions that allow such flights, so too can things go wrong. By the end of the meet, the number of accidents became but another record statistic for 2004.

The first reserve toss came on day one when a pilot reportedly encountered a problem with an attachment point on his old harness. A second pilot landed in the trees on the same day. But the real prob-lems began with the rough conditions on day seven. On final approach, a hang glider pilot encountered problems trying to deploy a drogue chute and pounded in, breaking downtubes, but was otherwise unhurt. A paraglider pilot flying conserv-atively out to land was targeted by a gust with a bad sense of humour and ended up under reserve. With considerable ground speed, the pilot racked up extra xc points before alighting on a 100-foot snag to await ground rescue.

Meanwhile downrange, another pilot (yours truly) took a whack near Radium and lost just enough height recovering from the spiral to drop into the lee of a spine. In the ensuing chaos, the third re-serve of the meet is thrown and, too low to deploy, the pilot crashes into the trees just

the Willi. I have too many good memories to recount in these pages, but one in par-ticular stands out for myself:

After sinking out near Edgewater one day, I flew out to land in a field in the mid-dle of the valley. Adjacent to the highway and setting up on final approach barely 50 m off the deck, my vario suddenly beeped and I instinctively cranked. Twenty min-utes later, I was at cloud base 3,300 m up, suddenly identifying with all those Pent-house Forum letters that start, “I never believed these stories were true until one day…” And while many record flights were made that week, perhaps the most memo-rable of all will be the countless personal bests achieved by pilots at all levels.

One last record by which we all will re-member this year’s Willi was the parties. Thanks to the Mullers, the meet opened with their annual keg, bbq and bonfire bash. Added this year was another keg and bbq party put on in the Nicholson lz by new owners Cathy-Anne David and John McIsaac. Pilots dropped in — literally — throughout the evening, and the crowds were wowed by a routine of helicopters, loops and sat’s by Chris Muller. The wind-up bash at Mark and Deb Fraser’s has be-come a hallmark of the meet, and I’ve fi-

trench. By nightfall, calls were coming in from the far reaches of the valley. Topping the list were Will Gadd and Hugo Tschurt-schenthaller, landing their paragliders 197 km from Golden. Day six turned stronger again, but plenty of gliders were up for the challenge. Nicole McLearn flew 138 km on her paraglider to set a new women’s dis-tance record for the site.

By day seven, the conditions became stronger yet, but with the mix of strong wind and strong lift had become essential-ly marginal for flying a paraglider. Upon landing, Will Gadd was overheard not-ing the conditions as “sporting.” With all of the record flights and challenging condi-tions, it is understandable that pilots’ confi-dence levels had risen all week. This would explain the large contingent of pilots in the air on a day that, had it been the first of the

below the summit. After spending a night in the one-star Chateau Gulley, the pilot walked out the next day, unhurt, with his gear (story pending).

At this point, our injury-free luck ran out. Conditions on the last two days of the meet seemed questionably better on launch. However, a paraglider apparently trying to top-land at the upper launch came in hard and broke a wrist, the other arm and some ribs, and punctured a lung. Day nine saw a low-time pilot take a col-lapse at the lz early in the day, resulting in two broken legs. A fourth reserve toss later that day ended well, but marked the end of a meet characterized by incredible highs and lows.

Without making light of the accidents, the excellent flying and epic stories on the big distance days were the best I’ve seen at

nally realized that the only way I’m going to get the secret recipe for their salmon marinade is to do something illegal.

I also can’t say enough about the dedica-tion, hard work and good humour of the guy who brings this all together: Randy Parkin. Randy’s pancake breakfasts are an-other tradition where the ante was upped to include bacon and eggs by the end of the meet. Randy has established a meet that not only brings friends together from around the world, but provides a forum where pilots at all levels can compete fairly and challenge themselves. And to all you pilots who came from all over the coun-try to fly the Willi: I’m sorry I only see you once a year.

Ian Mitchell is a paragliding pilot in Heriot Bay, BC.

Inspiration is contagious, and by the fifth day, when the conditions had calmed down somewhat, pilots were chomping at the bit to tackle the Rocky Mountain trench.


JULY 24

Today was the first day of the Willi xc Challenge. Blue skies and a few cu’s and south winds (not the best

if you want to go open distance). Alan Dickey and Mark Fraser launched about 1:30 p.m. and got away after a few scratchy thermals. I think they had the right idea, because it got progressively rougher after that.

I launched about 2:30 p.m. into the south wind and found the thermals very choppy and rough. I managed to get high and pushed forward to the peak of Mt. 7. I heard reports of 30 km gusts in the lz. I wasn’t really enjoying the air (I spent a lot of time looking forward at my glider in-stead of up where it should normally be), and I’m still getting familiar with my new glider’s nuances, so after about two hours, I decided to go land at Nicholson (the wind had calmed down by then).

Other pilots who braved the condi-tions did some incredible distance: Will Gadd and Keith MacCollough did 160 km out-and-return (80 km to Edgewater and return, Keith landed 3 km short of Nicholson), and reported flying upwind both ways and taking 6 1/2 hours.

Alan flew 48 km down the range, re-turned and, not knowing about the land-ing bonus for out-and-returns and landing at the Nicholson lz, continued north for 9 km, landing next to the highway in the Blaeberry. Lots of other pilots did personal bests, a couple of 100 km out-and-returns and so on. Despite the great distances flown today, I’m okay with my decision to land. Eight more days to go and only the best three count, anyway.

A couple of incidents, too, pretty stand-

ard fare for Golden. One pilot almost didn’t make the Nicholson lz in the south wind, landing in the first tree line just after the river. His glider was ripped up pretty good in the gusty winds. Another pilot threw his reserve around launch. Not a flying prob-lem but an equipment malfunction; he was hooked in improperly and one of his beaners was slowly sliding up his shoulder strap. Fortunately, he was over the anten-nas at the time, and landed about 50 m from the road He was easily found and ex-tracted from the tree.

Big party at Chris Muller’s tonight; lots of beer and bratwurst, and the annual bonfire and Aurora Borealis display to the north. This year, the display was exceptional, with lots of green glowing streamers moving through the sky.

JULY 25

Another beautiful day in Golden. Unfortunately, it was very windy from the south all day (30 – 60 km/

h). I went up to launch at 11:30 a.m. and ended up staying up there all day hoping it would calm down later on in the evening. It never did, and I eventually went down at 7 p.m. Later on, I found out a couple of hang gliders flew about 8 p.m., but no paragliders flew.

The lz at Nicholson is excellent! The fence is now down, and the parking lot has been expanded. There is now a huge shade area with picnic tables to escape the sun, and a large grassy area has been sown to break down hang gliders or fold up paragliders while staying off the dust. A bathroom has also been added (not an outhouse — it has power and electricity). And no horses! The official re-opening of

this lz will be next weekend. We had a video night last night. Watched

some paragliding videos and Never Ending Thermal. Apparently, this will become the tradition as the week goes on.

Today, there was some haze in the sky — maybe from some forest fires up north? We hope it burns off in the afternoon for some flying.

JULY 26

We were winded out again. This time from the northwest. It was strong on launch when we ar-

rived at about 1 p.m. Mark and Alan both launched, and it didn’t look like too much fun. Both of them landed south of the lz at various fields. Alan recommended not to fly as he didn’t have any fun during the flight.

We stayed up there a bit more in case the winds died off, but, alas, no such luck, so we went back down. The hang glider pilots also packed it in.

Tonight was pizza night at Randy’s campsite, then off to the theatre to watch The Terminal (the only movie playing in town right now).

JULY 27

Today was a busy day: getting up to launch, flying and a whole lot of filing of flight claims for Canadian

records. Now that the rules have changed (see the last issue of AIR), and now that a lot of us have fai sporting licences, we are able to file for these!

I was the first to launch at 1:30 p.m., and I got away from launch after a bit of ridge soaring the knoll. The wind was fairly

THE EIGHTH ANNUAL WILLINicole McLearn

Well, it was that time of year again: the annual pilgrimage to Golden, B.C. for some big-air flying

and distance XC. It’s a long drive from Vancouver (about nine hours for me), so I was hoping the

weather and flying conditions would make it worth my while. Last year, the weather was epic,

and we were hoping for a repeat of that this year.



strong from the north, but manageable. I got high over Mt. 7 and radioed that I was on my way downrange and the winds were okay but strong. Stewart (on his paraglider), Doug Keller, Mark Dowsett and Chris Muller also launched and were after me, but no other pilots launched oth-er than Will, who was tandeming his dad.

I wasn’t high enough to cross over to Kapristo, so had to cross to Pagliaro. I got low over the other side, which is not a nice place to be in north wind. I was in the lee, down to 6,100 ft and getting severely worked. At this time, Stewart asked where I was and I couldn’t answer since I was busy keeping my glider overhead. Eventually I ridge-soaring my way up a little north-fac-ing ridge and back up to the peaks where I could breathe easier.

I was now getting up to the cloudstreet that was forming along the range. Once I parked myself under it, I was able to go on glide, going up, with no turns, for several kilometres at a time (in the end around

25 per cent of my flight was done in this manner).

My groundspeed was steadily increas-ing, and I decided when it reached 70 km/h, I would land to be safe from serious dragging-after-landing issues.

The winds were picking up, and I could see the wind lines on the water and the clouds were looking blown-apart. Cloud-base was low, around 11,500 ft. As I neared the split in the range, I decided to follow the front range, as I have never been confi-dent enough to take the back range and the no-landing-options back there. As I neared Brisco, my groundspeed was approaching 70 km/h, so I decided to land in a nice big field. I landed with a forward groundspeed of 6 km/h, so I was still going forward, but barely. I couldn’t even fold up properly be-cause it was too windy. Total distance: 68 km. I got a ride back to Golden with a lady headed to Kelowna.

Stewart radioed me to say he was headed for the Invermere airport, and so was Doug

Keller. I didn’t hear from Chris until later on that night. He had flown across the u.s. border, landing in Montana just north of Whitefish! We figure that is something like 330 km, and a possible new Canadian open distance record on a hang glider.

JULY 28

Another epic day in Golden. After yesterday’s flights, everybody was up on launch early to get that early

launch and get downrange. Launch was quite crowded when I launched about 1:30 p.m. I got up and away and to the peak of Mt. 7 in about 10 minutes. I found a nice cloud forming above the peak, and glid-ed across the gap to Kapristo. The cloud streets weren’t as formed as yesterday, and the tailwind wasn’t as strong, so getting downrange wasn’t as quick as yesterday.

I spent most of the flight with Mark Johnston. We both got low at one point and had to ridge-soar our way back up to above


Mark dowsett who placed second in the advanced hang gliding category, launches in Golden.

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the peaks after some low saves (it was quite windy, but not as bad as yesterday). Once we got back to cloudbase, Norm Lawlor joined us. Near where the range splits, we got our highest, about 3,700 m, then went on to glide to the front range.

On the front range, the climbs were less, but we kept pushing on. As we were approaching Edgewater, some cirrus was coming in and shading out the sun. But instead of staying on the Brisco side and hanging out for the sun to come back, we kept going for the Edgewater cliffs. There is a bump you have to climb up on in or-der for this to happen, and with the cir-rus it wasn’t working too well. Mark and I found a so-so thermal and were working it, while Norm was in his own. The thermal we were in sort of fell apart, and I couldn’t find anything, while Mark, who was a bit higher, managed to hang in there. I was too low to make it to the cliffs, so I headed out to land at Spur Valley.

Norm and Mark managed to climb up enough in the shade to make it to the Edgewater cliffs, where lift is pretty much guaranteed. As I was working some lift over the Spur Valley gulley, I saw Mark and Norm continuing towards Radium. The lift over the gulley was not very consistent, and the cirrus was still around, so I eventually landed at the golf course driving range (75 km). I have landed there several times after being skunked by that gap. Had I not made the mistake of trying to cross the gap while it was shady (I am still kicking myself for that!), I may have made it as far as Norm and Mark did.

Turns out that many people did per-sonal bests and lots of distance yester-day. Mark and Norm landed at Canal Flats (146 km), Ian Mitchell and Hugo landed at Skookumchuck (172 km), and Will landed at Fort Steele (205 km). Chris went to Invermere and back as far as Spillimacheen on his paraglider.

Back on launch, apparently it got a bit weird about an hour after I launched, with the cycles coming in very north and cross, and people couldn’t get off. The hang gliders couldn’t use the ramp, due to the extreme cross winds, and were sharing the slope with the hordes of paragliders. It was quite crowded and chaotic on launch. A lot of people got off but couldn’t find any lift, and they ended up landing at Nicholson.

JULY 29

Another great day in Golden. We got up to launch about noon, and it wasn’t yet cycling in but

actually cross and over the back instead. We figured it would turn on soon, so we got ready. I launched at 1:30 p.m. (that time seems to work great!) into a strong cycle and got away with Will and Keith up to the peak of Mt. 7. At this point, they decided to glide back to Kapristo, but I didn’t have the glide they did (they are on Boomerangs) so I crossed the gap more to the front. I saw Mark Fraser way below me on the Pagliaro cliffs and was glad I wasn’t down there!

Most of the flight was down lower

than I would have liked. There was lots of shade around, and the lift was spo-radic. I got low a couple of times, my low save came just before Edgewater, where I got to within 150 m agl, head-ed on final glide to a cut-block way up next to the mountains (and probably a several-hour hike out), when I found a little thermal which I eventually worked back up to cloudbase. I thought that was low, then I saw Ian Mitchell headed out to land in Edgewater. From 50 m over the lz, he also caught a boomer right up to cloudbase! There was actually a lot of lift further away from the mountains than usual.

Ian and I continued past Radium to Inveremere. I lost sight of him at that


Dave Larocque of Calgary flying in Golden, BC.

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point as some shade had come in, and I had to backtrack a bit into the sun to wait for the shade to move off (most of the flight was done following little patch-es of sunlight, with most of the range in shade). When the sun hit Mt. Swansea, the lift reappeared, and I thermalled up over a paraglider pilot who was waiting on launch for a cycle. I got back up and continued south. I radioed that I was headed for Fairmont airport and found yet more lift in the shade. It was getting late, and the lift was very light and buoy-ant, so I was able to thermal and fly quite close to the rocks which I didn’t dare do earlier in the day. Around Fairmont the rocks are very jagged and impressive-looking.

I got high over the Fairmont ski re-sort and decided to push on, so I radi-oed that I was continuing south. I saw Ian Mitchell low on the mountain side of Columbia Lake, heading back, so I decided to cross the lake to the highway side and go on final glide towards Canal Flats. There’s lots of lzs on that side of the lake, and the retrieval is much easier from that side! I landed short of the ac-tual town of Canal Flats, 135.5 km from Mt. 7 — a new personal best for me!

Ian landed at the Fairmont golf course, and Alan landed at Windermere. Flying his hang glider, Stewart landed at Canal Flats. Lots of pilots were shaded out and had to land at various places along the range. Mark and Hugo decided to land at Mark’s place for beer as they decided the flying wouldn’t be any good. Will landed at Edgewater, and Keith landed at Radium.

There is a new event every night at

the campground. It’s called “Sink Out Cinema,” so called since the only peo-ple around to watch the videos are those who sunk out and made it back in time to catch the beginnings of the movies. When I arrived, the movies were just ending

JULY 30

I t was windy from the west today (14 knots at 6’000 ft), but sky condi-tions were similar to yesterday (lots

of shade around). I launched about 1:15 p.m., and found a thermal which drifted me to the peak of Mt. 7. I found it very windy from the west and I was actually ridge-soaring the peak. Eventually, I got high enough to jump the gap to Pagliaro by S-turning in the thermals. I got over there above peak height (there was a cloud in the gap which gave me some lift on the crossing) and continued to ridge-soar my way along the range.

There were several other pilots with me. We were all basically ridge-soaring the peaks down the range and had to be careful to not get blown back into the next valley over. There were a few times we would get pinned against the peaks and have to slide downrange a bit to get out again. Fortunately there are lots of lzs for the first bit in case you can’t make the glide out to the main road. When I got near the split in the range, I started to head out to go for the front range. It was slow going towards the valley, but I was headed downwind pretty fast at 60 km/h and more.

When I got to the front range, I dis-covered it was all in shade, and it was

too windy to hang out in the little sunny patches like I did yesterday and follow the sun. We were getting blown down-range whether we liked it or not, sun or not!

At this point, there was no lift, just wind, so I decided to head out to land. At this point, my groundspeed was topping 70 km/h, and pilots were dropping to the ground like flies. I landed at the Spillimacheen rest stop next to Winston (a hang glider pilot) at the 60 km mark, and other paraglider and hang glider pi-lots landed all around us.

On the way back, we passed lots of pilots packing up. One field had four hang gliders and two paragliders in it. At least this way, we were back early enough to relax and have part of the day left.

A hang glider pilot had a rough land-ing when his drogue chute didn’t deploy properly in strong winds and he ended up landing downwind. And there were two paraglider reserve deployments. First, Randy’s glider went below him and he fell through the lines, so he threw his reserve (this was around Parson). He landed in some trees quite near a road and was successfully extracted (and his glider and reserve, too, the next day thanks to Alan). Second, Ian Mitchell was around Radium when his glider spun, so he also threw his reserve. He landed at about 6’000 ft and decided to stay on the mountain overnight since it was getting dark by the time he extracted him-self and his glider (the reserve didn’t actually open, he hit the trees before it had a chance to deploy so it was still packaged up).


(Left) The hang gliding winners circle: Doug Keller, Chris Muller and Mark Dowsett. (Right) The paragliding winners circle: Will Gadd, Ian Mitchell and Bob Clem.

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WILLI XC STANDINGS

JULY 31

Today was a repeat of yesterday, with lots of west wind, although I found it a lot rougher than yester-

day. Mike Waddington and I were ridge-soaring/thermalling around the upper launch, when I had an 80 per cent col-lapse, which then reinflated with a nice cravatte. However, my vario was scream-ing and I was going up the entire time, so I had time and (increasing) altitude to work on the problem. I eventually got the cravatte out and decided I had had enough, so I headed out to land.

Heading out was pretty slow going with the west wind, and Garth and I slowly made out way to the other side of the valley to search for lift over the cut-blocks over there. No luck however, so we landed.

I was glad to have left the mountain when I did as the air was extremely rough and not fun to be in. Most other pilots also opted to land, and Nicholson

1 Will Gadd 6,150 pts2 Ian Mitchell 4,385.2 pts3 Bob Clem 3,472 pts4 Keith McCullough 3,435 pts5 Mark Fraser 3,376 pts6 Alan Dickey 3,192.6 pts7 Robert Pynaker 3,105.5 pts8 Nicloe McLearn 2,801.2 pts9 Norm Lawler 2,600 pts10 Mike Waddington 2,564 pts11 Mark Johnston 2,360 pts12 Hugo Tschurtschenthaler 2,357 pts13 Stewart Midwinter 2,330.3 pts14 Chris Muller 2,030 pts15 Jug Aggarwal 1,555 pts16 Robert Samplonius 780 pts17 Alan Polster 745 pts18 Mike Spencer 578 pts19 Randy Parkin 577 pts

1 Dale Fraser 1,929 pts2 Janet Morris 1,195 pts3 Kevin McCarthy 455 pts4 Yolande Tarnowski 450 pts Mike Werner 450 pts6 Louis Vaconcelos 300 pts Andrew Makuch 300 pts

1 Andy Besserer 450 pts Kitty Goursolle 450 pts Brian Amos 450 pts4 Robert Bakewell 406 pts

1 Chris Muller 5,457.9 pts2 Mark Dowsett 4,278.9 pts3 Doug Keller 4,182.7 pts4 Steve Best 3,608 pts5 Stewart Midwinter 3,391 pts6 Scott Gravelle 3,261 pts7 Serge Lamarche 3,162.4 pts8 Rob Clarkson 2,890 pts9 Jeff Runciman 2,480 pts Winston Hope 2,480 pts11 Ralph Herten 2,254 pts12 James Lintott 2,242 pts13 Jon Orders 2,191 pts14 Rob Stagg 891.8 pts15 Mike Reibling 788 pts16 Michael Thorn 550 pts

1 Charles Mathieson 1,066.56 pts2 Christine Nidd 977 pts3 Steve Milchak 705.3 pts4 Michael Suchocki 450 pts5 Eric d’Argent 150 pts

PARAGLIDING: ADVANCED

PARAGLIDING: INTERMEDIATE

PARAGLIDING: NOVICE

HANG GLIDING: ADVANCED

HANG GLIDING: INTERMEDIATE


was very busy. Other pilots didn’t make it to Nicholson, and landed in cut-blocks behind launch after being blown back. Not a good day to be in the air.

That evening, we had a big party to celebrate the new ownership of the Nicholson lz, and several of us went back up at dusk hoping to catch a glass-off. However no lift, and we all had sled runs into the lz as the sun was setting be-hind the mountains. The party was well-attended with lots of food and drink. John and Cathy-Anne plan to make the lz into a flight-park/conservation area. In a year or so we will be able to camp there with all the amenities. [Ed. note: Check out pg. 13 for a story about the new landing site.]

AUGUST 1

Today was the last day of the comp, and conditions looked similar to yesterday. I opted not to fly, as it

would be hard to better my best three

flights in such conditions, and, anyway, we had another party planned that night at Mark’s house. Several other pilots flew, however. I think Mark Dowsett did the most flying that day, flying his hang glider downrange and back with enough points to move him up a spot in the rankings.

The party that night was the usual epic bbq’d salmon and beef. Lots of people showed up, and Keith showed up late af-ter throwing his reserve downrange and extracting himself in time for the party.

This year, the weather was a bit on the windy side compared to last year, but in the end I think more xc km were done this year compared to last year. There was an unprecedented number of pilots making Canal Flats and beyond, and lots of pilots did 50 and 100 km out-and-re-turns to attain the bonus points. And we didn’t get rained out once!

Nicole McLearn is paragliding pilot from Vancouver, BC.


LOGBOOK // GOLDEN TO MONTANA

O nce again Golden was on this year!

The week of the annual Willi xc com-petition brought great weather, and some outstanding flying (most notably Will Gadd and Keith McCullough’s 160 km out-and-returns), and today was shaping up for more of the same. I was busy with some students and a couple of tandems, but I had cleared it as a free flying day, so I was feeling pretty fired up. I had already decided I was going to fly the hang glider and was going for a rip down the range.

Since I have been flying down the Co-lumbia Valley Trench range for most of my flying career, I consider it as much of a home site as Cochrane hill, which

literally is my “home site.” I have had many of my most memorable flights here, and while some people have child-hood memories of baseball or soccer, I have memories of the range. After years of flying and competing internationally at the most famous flying sites around the world, I always look forward to com-ing back to Golden for some real flying.

I don’t think people realize the true potential of the site (especially with today’s wings), and I have been dream-ing of some big flights there for quite a while. One flight I think is possible is the 400 km out-and-return (down to Wasa and back), which was kind of a motivator for the day’s flight. I had only been past Wasa once, but that was on my

paraglider, so I was keen to do it on my hang glider to get an idea of how long it takes.

Only two other people have ever flown past, both on hang gliders’s, one being Randy Haney, who set a world record (which was still the site record) back in 1986, and the other J.C. Hau-checorne. What really makes Randy’s flight impressive was that it was done on a glider with similar performance to a paraglider, that he stayed in the air for 11 hours, and that no one had surpassed the flight for 18 years, even with the lat-est equipment. I certainly had no inten-tions of flying further, and since getting more into paraglider aerobatics over the last few years, I haven’t put much effort

Chris Muller recalls another epic day in Golden

BordercrossingChris Muller off launch in Golden before heading to Montana.

photos by Vincene Muller



More impressive to me is still Randy Haney’s 1986 flight on a glider with a little over half

the performance of my Talon. In my mind anyway, his flight was far more of an accomplishment.



in to xc flying in Golden. Still, the 400 o.r. still intrigues me,

so I figured a quick run down to Wasa would be a good way to get the xc juices flowing again. At 200 km, I figured on four hours maximum down to Wasa, so I wasn’t in any hurry to get up the hill again after my morning flight. I went back to my ‘campground’ packed a para-chute, and relaxed a little.

At around 1:00 pm, I went back up to launch with my mom. Arriving just after 1:30, I was pleasantly surprised to find some early paragliders climbing out, and I hurriedly jammed battens into my glider. Once set up, I opened my harness (only to find that I had forgot-ten the boot cone at home, leaving me to stuff bags in to give me something to push against), put it on, and turned the glider around ready to go. In front of me were Doug Keller (the first hang glider to launch) and Midtoad (paraglider).

I looked at my watch and it was ten after two.

After they launched, I took off into a nice little climb (around 400 feet per minute), did a few circles above launch, and upon seeing all of the same people still there whom had already been set up when I arrived, decided to go back in for a little buzz action.

You see, this is where the ridge rat character of my young flying career comes out. I have a really hard time fly-ing around watching people loitering on a takeoff without going in for the kill. As happens so often, what seemed like a good idea at the time tragically backfired when I blew my harness zip-per open on the pull-up. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed making everyone duck, and would do it again if given the chance, but hanging off of the harness buckles was not going to be comfort-able, and without the boot cone, I could not zip the harness all the way up so, wearing only shorts and a light jacket, I had the feeling I was going to have a cold flight (apparently it was only -3 degrees at cloud base).

I briefly considered flying out and landing, but as the climb turned on, I quickly rejected that idea. Being cold is nothing new for me, as I always seem to under dress, and have had more flights that I can remember that have ended with me bent over cursing with my

hands between my legs trying to thaw them. For some reason I never learn…

As the climb turned from a leisurely 400 fpm to 1,000 fpm, I realized that I had been a little late getting in the air, and that I would be able to start mak-ing time early. This realization turned out to be an understatement! Over the first 100 km I only had to stop to climb four times. The lines of lift were long and easy to follow, and I stayed mostly between 9,500 and 10,500 ft. Any higher, and I started to get very chilly!

I passed over Mt. Swansea (110 km) at around 4:00 pm, one hour forty-five minutes after taking off, which was ahead of the pace that I was anticipating. I started to think about the possibility of going into the states.

The flight remained fairly unevent-ful (which translates to fast) until Wasa (200 km). The gap in the mountains be-hind Canal flats, which is where most of the flights down the range end, proved to be relatively easy with lift all the way across. At Wasa, however, a thick layer of cloud shaded the range, so I was forced to hang around in lighter lift since the range gets significantly broken up from that point on, and I could see big areas of shade further on, so it seemed like a good idea to change gears.

After a couple more climbs I arrived at the Steeples, which is easily the most prominent feature, and one of those mountains that you can’t help and stop to look at, regardless of how focused you are on making time. As the name suggests, there are five or six huge tow-ers protruding out from the mountain, which stand out significantly taller than the surrounding peaks. Adding visually to the contrast is that the surrounding mountains barely rise above tree line.

When I flew down here a few years back, the Steeples gave me my last thermal before I went on glide to land near Jaffrey, so when I climbed out to 12,000 ft and started flying towards the next cloud street, I was feeling pretty excited about the prospect of covering some new terrain. As I was gliding I was surprised to see Fernie off to my left, not having realized how close it would be. After crossing over highway 3/93a, I re-alized that I would most likely be flying into the states, so pulled out my radio and I radioed my mom to let her know.

The conversation went something likes this:

Chris: Hi Mom, I think I will be going

into the states. I have crossed over the highway to Fernie and am still high.

Vincene: I’m sorry, but all I heard was static. Are you still in the air?

Chris: Yes, I am still flying, can you go to the border?

Vincene: Didn’t get that, I’m in Jaffray, do you want me to keep going South to the u.s., or towards ( Fernie) Alberta.

Chris: Go to the u.s.Vincene: All I’m getting is static, press

the button once if you want me to go to Fernie, and twice if you want me to go to the u.s.

Chris pushes twiceVincene: I will go towards Alberta

thenChris: Go to the u.s.a, u.s.a, America,

United States, u.s.a, u.s.a, u.s.a., a-Okay…and so on

Vincene: Did you want me to go to the u.s.?

Chris: YES, u.s.a., u.s.aVincene: I will go to the border… South on highway 93a, the mountains

get considerably smaller, but then the range starts up again and remains fairly consistent. Even though it was starting to get late and the lift was down between 600 - 700 fpm, it was fairly easy to stay in the air.

I wasn’t sure exactly where the border was, but as I flew on, I figured that I must have past it and I started to wonder if I would be greeted by some kind of patrol aircraft. Unlike Mexico there is no dis-tinct line showing the border, so I didn’t know if the towns I was looking at were u.s. or Canadian. The sun continued to get lower, and there came a point where the range dropped back away from the road, and all that lay ahead was a heav-ily treed area that didn’t show signs of any landing fields. I topped out one last climb and decided to go on final towards a small town on the highway.

Soon I realized that I was going to ar-rive quite high (4,000 ft agl), so I de-cided to keep going down the highway thinking that if I didn’t find any landable fields, I could always land on the road. I could also see a small field on the road 6 or 7 km ahead that looked promising.


Arriving at that field at 1,500 agl, I was seriously considering going on, but the prospect of landing on the highway just wasn’t that appealing, so I decided to stay put. The field I had been eyeing wasn’t overly big, but it seemed like it would be okay with a good approach. Unfortunately I hadn’t counted on the horses being there — at 5oo ft agl, I noticed a group of horses that had been hidden by a group trees, and I quickly reassessed my options.

Landing in a field with six lively hors-es (they were now running around the field), in the states seemed like a bad idea, so I decided to land in the field at the end of the horse paddock. Un-fortunately, this field was considerably smaller, and would require an approach slaloming through some smaller trees, and finishing underneath a power line. The approach went well enough (should

have had my drogue with me), but com-ing into ground affect on final, I soon re-alized that the grass was quite thick and long, leaving me with a really high flare and a less-than-perfect landing. Oh well, no one around to see.

As usual, my mom pulled up shortly after I landed, and I was quickly packed up and on the road home.

It turned out that the town that I was originally planning on landing in was Trevo, Montana, the same town Randy Haney landed in 18 years prior, so the flight was (barely) a new site record (and my longest flight by 100 km).

As is common with so many long flights, there was nothing particularly remarkable or exciting about this one. The conditions were superb, making it easy, and I didn’t really have to scratch or struggle anywhere along the way. Much like Manfred Ruhmor says in his

victory acceptance speeches time after time, “It vas eesay.”

More impressive to me is still Randy’s flight on a glider with a little over half the performance of my Talon. All of the crossings that I made that were “une-ventful” were major hurdles for him, and therefore, in my mind anyway, his flight was far more of an accomplishment. I think it did however, show the potential of the Columbia Valley and I really be-lieve a flight of 500 km or more and the 400 out-and-return are possible, and I look forward to trying in the years to come.

A big thanks to my Mom, for once again coming to pick me up. Hopefully, I will be able to return the favor with a few more morning sledders.

Chris Muller is a paragliding and hang gliding pilot in Cochrane, Alberta.


This is where the ridge rat character of my young flying career comes out. I have a really hard time flying around watching people loitering on a takeoff without going in for the kill.


BY ANDRE NADEAU

P ilots have been gliding in the Ot-tawa area for about 30 years. De-spite that long history, five years

ago, Ottawa pilots could only count on two regular flying sites and one station-ary winch. Flying was mostly limited to the weekend when the stationary winch was available.

Our main site, Champlain, then con-sisted of a 350-foot, tricky foot launch and a large lz/small tow field allowing tows to an average of 500 ft on a good day. The launch and lz/tow field were leased from the National Capital Com-mission (ncc). The secondary field, Embrun, was (and still is) a flatland site belonging to a farmer and was (and still is) available depending on the crop rotation in any particular year. For example, in 2004, it is unusable.

What a difference five years make. Gliding is alive and well in Ottawa and getting better all the time. Though the efforts of dedicated club members and local schools, we now have more sites, more winches and, of course, more pi-lots. We have also accomplished some-thing that is priceless: visibility and ac-ceptance by the recreational powered community.

By now you are probably thinking that I am gloating, and you would be right. I am proud of what our community has accomplished.

In retrospect, there have been cata-lysts that promoted the growth of the

sports in the Ottawa area. The rest of this article will review some of these as I see them. Maybe other clubs can learn from them. Those catalysts have been:

■ The establishment of schools;■ The increased number of tow systems; and■ Becoming a part of the recreational flying community in the area.

Antoine Chabot formed his paragliding school, Air Sensation, a few

years back. After unsuccess-fully searching for his own site for a long time, Anto-ine finally set up permanent shop at Champlain under an arrangement with the club. After long and difficult ne-gotiations, he managed to make an agreement with his neighbour to extend our tow lane into the adjacent

fields, doubling its distance and allow-ing 1,000-foot tows. He then made an-other agreement with his neighbour to open another tow lane of similar length but at 90 degrees to the first one. Finally, Antoine purchased the lz from the ncc last year to secure the site permanently. For the last three years, Antoine has of-fered club members tow services every day when it is flyable. He operates two winches that can be set up and operated in parallel when the volume demands it. None of this happened overnight, and Antoine had to work hard to achieve all of this. Many kudos to him.

Then there is the “little truck that can.” Jim Scoles, handyman extraordinaire, first installed a payout winch on the “lit-tle tow truck that can” a few years back to give us more flying options at a time when flying at Champlain was not very convenient. We first used the truck on a road at the Embrun site. We slowly ex-panded our towing at another local road

Winds of change blow through OttawaAfter decades with few sites to turn to, Ottawa flying has come along way in just five short years

The Kars aerodrome (above) is the permanent home of Jim Scoles’ “little truck that can” (below left).

photos by Andre Nadeau

FEATURE // OTTAWA


and made a few visits to the small aerodromes in the area. Finally, the lit-tle truck found a perma-nent home at the Kars aerodrome where Jim purchased a hangar last fall. Kars is now a regular towing site for hang glid-ing.

Siamak Mardani was looking for a site for his hang gliding school. He built a winch last year and reached an agree-ment for the use of a small aerodrome at Win-chester. He now operates permanently out of that field. Although his op-eration is still relatively small, it is well estab-lished now and expected to grow with time.

A few years back, we had no idea how well we would be received by the powered recreational air-craft community. We were staying away from them because we thought we would be spurned for a variety of reasons. I was not so sure and I really wanted to know, because there are plenty of small aerodromes in the area that are suitable for towing.

So, over the last few years, some local pi-lots, including myself and Siamak Mardani, took the opportunities to end our cross-country flights at small aerodromes to see how well we would be received. I personal-ly targeted the sailplane fields, as I figured I would likely be more welcome there.

The reactions have always been very positive, encouraging us to tow at some of these fields mentioned above. In ret-rospect, we should have approached the powered recreational powered community a long time ago.

Now that we have infiltrated the powered recreational community (or have they in-filtrated us?), we have more potential sites than we need. That is an enviable position to be in.

In conclusion, schools, more tow sys-tems and building relationships with the powered recreational aviation com-munity have been the three elements of growth in the Ottawa area. Five years ago,

we were struggling to survive from year to year, never knowing if we were going to be able to preserve our existing fly-ing sites. Now, we have plenty of flying sites and potential flying sites to sustain a large growth to our pilot population. And

FEATURE // OTTAWA

Steve Keppel Jones flies at Champlain

that is a nice place to be.

Andre Nadeau is a past president of the Ottawa Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club,

past Director of OHPA, past Business Manager and President of HPAC/ACVL

and a regular contributor to AIR.

Paul Morris waits for the line so he can tow up at Champlain


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It is MANDATORY to carry third-party liability insurance to fly most sites in Canada. HPAC/ACVL Liability Insurance is only available tomembers of the HPAC/ACVL. If you are applying for membership please complete the following:

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

Did you have an accident in the past year that was not reported? (Circle as appropriate): Yes No

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/Paragliding programs or activities, not withstanding that such injuries or losses may have been caused solely or partly by the negligence of the Releasee

1. 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, my preparation 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 be bound by its terms.

Signature of Participant: ___________________________________________ Date: ______________________________

Participant Name (Print clearly): ________________________________________________________________________

Signature of Witness: _____________________________________________ Date: _______________________________

Witness Name (Print clearly): __________________________________________________________________________

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.

LOOK UP! UP GLIDERS available from: Muller Windsports Ltd

Ph: (403)932-6760E-mail: [email protected]

UP GLIDERS available from: Muller Windsports LtdPh: (403)932-6760E-mail: [email protected]

hpac acvl airmagazine · acvl newsletter ofﬁcially became air. to celebrate the occasion, the...

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