AIR S p r i n g  In the Air Department’s

3 President’s Message

4 Editor’s Message

6 AirBuzz

13 AirTech

14 AirEvents

15 Transport Canada 16 AirSafety Air Feature’s 23 AirBag 9 Tow Nationals 2000 19 Triangular Madness by Dean & Margaret Lutz by Tomas Suchanek 31 AirImages

37 AirTech 10 From Hero to Zero 24 HPAC 38 HPAC Membership By Chris Muller By Andre Nadeau

39 AirTraffic 12 Golden Airtime 29 Radio’s &Wizardry by John Janssen by Peter Bowle-Evans

Air is printed four times yearly and is a publication of the Hang Gliding and Paragliding AGM 2001 SOGA Updates Association Of Canada / Association 17 32 Canadienne de Vol Libre. by Andre Nadeau by Mike Gates Designed and produced using an Apple G4, Imac and G3 Laptop Powerbook. Air design, editorial and Rescues at MT 7 Iparaglide.com production completed by 18 40 Tony P. McGowan. by Peter Bowle-Evans All views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of HPAC / ACVL, it’s directors or editor. Printed by Winnipeg Web Press. Cover: Chris Muller wangs it over Cochrane. Above: Jayson Biggins takes advantage of the coastal winds. YOUR DEALER FOR : Flex Wings: Wills, Aeros, Airwave, North Wing Fast Service Rigid Wings: Flight Design, AIR High Quality Varios: Flytec, Ball, Suunto Hang Gliders and Trikes Low Prices Harnesses: Woody Valley, High Energy, C of G Support Chutes: High Energy, Free Flight, BRS Satisfaction Helmets: Charley Insider Ultralights: North Wing, Rotax, Wasp Harness

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When to Submit Where to Submit Design and Layout Next deadline is May 15 By Email at [email protected] Please call me for pricing if you need What to Submit Tony McGowan your ad designed or touched up. All articles must be submitted before the c/o 1430 Church Ave. deadline to be considered for publication. Winnipeg, MB, R2X 1G4 Sur Vol Editor - Line Turcotte If you do not see your article or submis- Advertising Rates [email protected] sion please be patient. I will make every Rates can be viewed on the web at: 850 Claude de Ramezay, attempt to get your article printed in the http://www.hpac.ca/hpacsop/air/ Marieville, Québec J3M 1E8 upcoming issue. backissues.htm Deadlines: Feb. May, Aug and Nov 15th.

 Spring  www hpac ca Presidential Address or Peter’s Way From the President

here are parts of Ottawa that have a certain comfort level and character that can explain to me why it may be a desirable place Tto reside. Alas, the resources of the HPAC are not sufficiently embellished to permit me such luxury, or I too could become ensconced in that same reverie. Rather, I know what I cannot have, and that I am bound by duty, conscience and plain lack of sur- plus funds, to get a job done.

"Presidential Address". My oath, it sounds as though I should be fat and well rounded, which I patently am not, and pompous and insufferably boring, which I pray that I do not become. Look, you can go to the web site at http://www.hpac.ca/ , and under a but- ton that says Link to Presidents Page, you will find your way to where I have to express myself more formally for the world to read. Further, between this AIR and the web site, there are enough details to satisfy the most ardent beauracratics and political enthusiast. Now the web site, like any web site, is a living animal, so the buttons could be arranged a little differently when you get there. Under many, many more buttons you will find just about anything that ever was done or ever, ever happened in the name of the HPAC. I said ‘just about’. That’s my out for anyone who rushes in there to furiously ferret out some pristine jewel of data only to find it miss- ing, and fearsomely point The Finger at me and declare massively, "Peter did not know...... !"

Like all things, the more you learn, the more you realise you do not know. Being The Pin, as I sometimes call it, of the HPAC, is no exception. So when I set off to Ottawa, knowing that from a little stirring of interest on the eGroups mail, that at least noone was openly declaring, "Ugh!" in relation to me, I did have a little feeling about things. After participating in the weekend’s proceedings, I had once again been impressed by the stirling qualities of the group. There are some very, and I mean very excellent people in this group that shepherd the HPAC on its way, and yes, it does feel like an honor to have this group promote you to its leader. This is a challenge, and I have accepted it.

Now there is much detail of where we are going elsewhere in this publication, assembled by Andre Nadeau, aided by Kevin Thomson, and adjusted very recently from input from the BoD (Board of Directors - one of the keys is not to become the Bored of Directors - I do hope this translates the emotion in French). Now that I have met Andre, and along with the others have exchanged a little shop about our personal lives, I can relate with confidence to where his energies are focused. So I will attempt to provide you with what I like to call a translation of where you are going. That’s right, you. This is about you, not me. YOU are the pilots, you are the members, and you are the association. I and the famous board and its many officers and associates like to think that we are each individually one of you too, but we are not IT - You are!

As I write, what follows is still up in the air - inevitable pun - as this is still being fraught with in terms of voting motions, Vs the AIR deadline. If it flies, this is how it will go.

You will become members of the HPAC. OK, conceivably the name may have to change slightly. There will be 7 regional directors, one from each region. The regions currently are the same as the provincial associations. The provincial associations, by the way, although they will no longer be members of the HPAC - remember you are now the members - will be free to proceed as they wish. Persons standing for directorships will state their cases, most likely via the web site. You will vote, on a national basis, for these direc- tors. They become a Board of Directors (BoD), from which they will elect a President, Vice President, and a Secretary, who will still be voting members of the BoD, and will be known as Executive Officers. There will be two other officers, a Treasurer and a Safety Officer, who will be appointed by the BoD. They will not be members of the BoD, and so they will not have votes on the BoD. Then, and here is a very big item, there will be a Business Manager. Think of it as a hugely expanded version of the present administra- tor job. This person will be paid. How much is yet to be determined, but there will be a budget, and it will be setup to balance, or better. I will say here though, that without memberships, none of this will fly. The directors will be there to take input from you, the members, and make policy and decisions, rather than being workers. The President heads up the Board, assisted by the other two executive officers. The President will coordinate with the Business Manager, the Treasurer and the Safety Officer. Since you will be directly members of this HPAC, all business relating to its membership will be your business, and a great deal of this will be readily available, and up to date, within the web site. In fact, much of this is not new. If you go to the website and find your way to AIR back issues, Dec 96 p27, the similarity between that and what is happening now is uncanny.

Once the big AGM was over, the work began. I now know better what was behind Kevin’s little smile as we said goodbye at the airport. HE was off the hook! We have had 6 motions, and more emotions about them. One of these is pivotal. To do the easy stuff first, we had a couple about the AGM minutes, then set about setting instructor fees at $65 per year, really as an alternate to school fees - this one is still voting, but I think it will have gone through by the time you read this. We have dropped the price of named insured certificates to $10, with one name per certificate. There should be splashes about these last two elsewhere in this AIR. Now come the ones about the re-structuring. In importance, #6 came next. This was to agree to an initial working set of documents from which to commence the restructuring work. So we have some new By-Laws, and where we had SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) we now will have PRDs ! (Policy & Regulatory Directives). Again, still voting, but looking like it will happen. At some point, when they have been completed, you should be able to read these By-Laws and PRDs, and even have input to their revision if required. The great thing is, they are way simpler than the old, hashed about SOPs were. ...continued on next page www hpac ca Spring  Presidential Address or Peter’s Way (cont’d) Motion 5 is the pivotal item, the cruncher. It is the Terms Of Reference of the Transition Committee - so this becomes the TC-TORs. The core of it defines the Chair of the TC, as Andre Nadeau, defines a budget of up to $3000 in $1000 increments, and endows this chair with the ability to enact PRDs if the BoD fails to respond. This is the pivotal issue, and at the time of writing, is still in the process - and believe me, it is some process. It puts pressure on the BoD to do our part. It is a good thing I can survive on minimal sleep.

This document should also be up on the web site if passed. It sounds wild, but the idea is to actually get something done. Once all enacted, we can amend, add, and change as is seen fit as time goes by. The terms of reference of the Business Manager have still to be fleshed out. Indeed, that is a key component of the re- structure. The Board gets to define the manner of appointment of the Business Manager. We have our work cut out.

If you are new to the sport, and are still in that state of euphoria where, like being in love, all rational thought has vanished and you are blinded by obsession, all you need to know is that once you have left the shelter of your instructor, the HPAC is the organisation that keeps the whole thing going. Support us by joining, and we will support you. Note, however, that there is no portfolio of Divorce Adviser on the Board. You may be on your own there.

In closing, and if you can bear with me for a few more lines, substantial thanks go to Andre Nadeau, whose exemplary ground work has brought us to this point. It is our wish that we will be thanking him for a great deal more in the future. It is the intention of the Executive and the BoD to capture Andre's energy, enthusiasm, expertise and work to the best possible advantage. Many thanks go to Kevin Thomson, who has ably shouldered the Presidency for many years, and who has been continuing to work for us.

I have known the other two members of the executive, Phil Siscoe and Martin Polach, for many years, and am very pleased to have them to work with. The fact that we live in relatively close proximity to each other means that we will have the opportunity to get together in person on a regular basis. I can tell you that when I brainstorm with these guys, we get something out of it.

I am in this for flying, for fun, and to make a contribution. I am a firm believer in the need for our national association, representing each individual member. My thoughts and opinions expressed here are echoed by Phil and Martin.

When I pass this job on to whomever may be my successor, it is my goal to pass on a clean, efficient, and happily run association.

Anyone who made it all the way through this - Bravo!

Peter Bowle-Evans President HPAC/ACVL Golden, BC

...if you build it they will come From the Editor

an you believe it! Here I was thinking that this would be a piece of cake, after all the first issue was easy. Well little did I know...”if Cyou build it they will come”...the flood gates were officially open. Awesome! was the only word I could use to describe the response I got from the last issue. The amount of articles I received for this issue was absolutely staggering, which made it hard to choose the final pieces. I now have enough material to last the rest of the year. But don’t let that stop you, I still need quality articles for feature pieces and general interest.

You can always tell when Spring is in the air. Suddenly you see cars and trucks driving around with long tents on them, groups of strange men looking around for anything that wasn’t flooded to run off, hillbillies showing up at monthly meetings with long beards and smelling like they’ve been in hibernation with their cats all Winter...ahh the fun of being a hangbum.

It always boggles my mind at how pilots, and I use that term loosely, show up at club meetings (which have been going on all Winter) in the Spring, hang around in the back of the room, say a few words, then disappear till next year. What’s up with that! Do these ghostly apparitions long for a time once forgotten, or do they just need some human companionship after a long cold winter, I can never figure this out. Does every club experience this strange phenomenon?

Anyway...I hope you enjoy this issue and remember your suggestions will always be appreciated in helping me move closer to final- izing the look and content of our national magazine. Let me know what you think.

Tony McGowan Air Editor Spring  www hpac ca Departing Prez Message

s I leave the position of President to insurance policy and our relationship with took on the work and did it themselves. I Amore capable hands a new phase in Transport Canada. think that is just the nature of an volunteer our national association begins. The last organization like this. You can imagine four years were fun and probably many of However, in the past number of years the the frustration of Andre, an ex-military offi- you will find that suprising for someone to demands on our lives are making it hard- cer who is used to having things run effi- say about volunteering their time. er to find volunteers with enough time to ciently on command, who comes into the look after even the important things. This association with big plans but unable to The experience of working with others, is part of the reason why the new structure get any action out of the BoD. whose main interest is in airtime but has been defined and why we are making whose commitment and concern is high some changes. The new structure will allow things to hap- enough to agree to give up some person- pen fast if there is someone with the inter- al time to help run the show, is a reward- Other articles within this issue will est and the willingness to try. It will still ing experience. describe what we are doing so I won't rely heavily on the commitment of volun- waste ink here but I think that the feeling teers but our hope is that it will be more I've been involved at various levels of the is that this is only something that has just efficient and less frustrating to those who executive of the HPAC (started out as begun to happen in recent times. Having want to make something happen. I look HGAC) since 1983. The association has been invlved for almost 20 years now I forward to the ongoing experiment. always had to depend upon the efforts of know that is not true. volunteers which means that on average, Fly safe! very little gets done quickly. The important The work that got done always depended Kevin Thomson reasons for the HPAC existing were on a few key individuals but when it always taken care of, such as our worked the best it was when those few WOW Here’s what you had to say! WOW does not begin to describe The new AIR Magazine looks Tony, What a spectacular produc- what I felt when I check the issue. I great! Nice change in today's tion. Quite tremendous. BTW, I pre- am flabergasted at what you have "world of color" to actually get fer this non-glossy paper. I know it done. This issue will do more for something in color from HPAC! may seem cheaper in quality,but the good of the HPAC than all my Keep up the Good Work! without the glare it is more readable. effort to date. That is what was Jim Reich Fantastic. My accolades could go required to kick some life into this on for awhile. thank you very much. moribund association and that's Love the new Air! Great layout and Peter Rodrigues the break the Executive needed graphics, with articles to match, before heading into the AGM. I and at a fraction of the cost of I just got my copy of "Air" and want- cannot thank you enough for vol- USHGA's mags. ed to tell you that it looks GREAT! unteering to do the job. Steve Wodz, Kelowna, BC (although if you cross your eyes a lit- Andre Nadeau tle bit, you can see an "Auto Thanks for taking on the challenge Trader"...). I think you have come May I say you have done "A of Air Editor. I truly enjoyed the across the right size and format for DAMN FINE JOB" It's the best new format; the addition of colour our national magazine. (anything effort I have seen for years...There is definitely an outstanding could better that terrible waste of the is actually something to "READ". improvement. Keep up the good last issue) Any ways, I just wanted to Sort of harken's back to the old work! say good job, I look forward to days of the British mag ..Wings.. Guy Leblanc, Cold Lake, Alberta more. back when Brian Milton was the Cas Wolan, Saskatoon,Sk editor. Cheers! Great job on the new look and con- Martin Pollach tent of Air Magazine. This is a sub- Firstly, I’d like to congratulate you on stantial, good looking magazine, the stellar job relaunching Air. To say Wow. If the cost to the HPAC is and I like the colour. Keep up the the new look knocked my socks off is close to being within the limits good work! an understatement. I read it back to we've set then this is even more Phil back to back. Loved it, loved it, impressive than it already looks to loved it. A few pilots I’ve talked with be. Congratulations on a great I just finished reading that snappy in Vancouver agree that the new look job! new issue of AIR (Yes, I'm that slow) (and the pride of ownership they Kevin Thomson and I gotta say; that was a great feel) has motivated them to think job. Congratulations to Tony about writing articles. I’ll keep bug- I just got to see the new AIR at the McGowan for having the vision to ging them on your behalf (one local AGM in Ottawa. I think you did a make a change AND the determi- pilot in particular has just returned great job. The look is exciting. Just nation to actually pull it off. Way to from flying in Tibet, and I’m person- a nice all round job. Cheers! go, Tony. ally keen to hear about it!) Judith Newman Terry Ryan, Toronto Dean Trueman

www hpac ca Spring  airbuzz Flying and Stargazing d TOW GROUP A yahoo group has been it doesn’t get any better! set up specifically for The South Okanagan Soaring Association is hosting a weekend dedicated to kids and hang glider towing spouses. For once, pilots take second stage to one of the mostg fantastic weekend getaways issues. Some of the issues you will every experience. to date discussed have Join the Kobau Star Party and Fly -In, Friday night Aug.17th to Aug. 19th at Mt Kobau included: Summit, Forestry Campground, Oliver / Osoyoos BC. Circle towing,winching, type of rope to use etc The Oliver area is home to one of the most spectacular flying sites in Canada. Kobau etc. mountain - with multiple launches at the 6000 foot level and staggering scenic views of the Okanagan valley and the world famous Cathedral Parks mountain range. The reason for setting up a different group to the The XC potential is a triangle including Midway, Hedley and Penticton. Altitude gains to ops and safety listis that 11,500' are common - and now legal thanks to a new Class E airspace designation for we wanted to only have the whole area. Think of Chelan with a 6000' Launch. And if you have always dreamed those people on the list of landing at an Airport, now's your chance. The LZ is the Oliver Airport! that wereinterested in d towing. In doing so it is But all this pales in comparison with what happens August 18 - 26 during the week of new moon. You see, Oliver is home to the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory hoped that towing issues http://www.drao.nrc.ca/. Each august, astromoners and enthusiasts bring their personal can be more deeply telescopes to the summit of Mt Kobau for a week long star party and let the public view debated without boring the night sky. Some of their "toys" are worth in the tens of thousands of dollars! Read all about it at http://www.bcinternet.com/~mksp/ those who are hill flyers only. THE TALKS The current topic is using The scheduled night time talks include a presentation by one of our own. Sean Dougherty pulleys in short fields. is an employee at DRAO. Plus, Sean has offered to host a tour of the Dominion Radio All hang glider/paraglid- Astrophysical Observatory. er/sailplane pilots who Osoyoos is a recreational paradise - with lakes galore and more things to see and do than are interested in towing you can shake a stick at. But for one week each year, starting August 17th, it is the best are welcome to join. If place on or off planet earth for kids and dfamily. you would like to join simply go to: Camping is under the stars. Blackout rules apply. See you there. http://groups.yahoo.com Fred Wilson /group/skysailingtowing

News Dribbles Ever had that potencially fabu- Camping with the “TOW”ban’s lous flight cut short buy the Join 2 experienced Manitoba pilots who are planning to take the pressures on your bladder and week of May 28th off to try some towing at a couple of pre- the dire need to pee? Ever not planned locations around the province. This may include up to 3 towing locations in southern Manitoba. A tandem glider will also wanted to take a single sip h accompany the crew. from the camel back so to not Anyone interested in participating in this fun camping and towing risk explosion? Well there is week please feel free to call Hans at 204 791 5733 or Doug at 204 489 4762. Any help - guys! and all are welcome for 1 day or one week. Book your spot now! At www.stadiumpal.com you can order your very own " sta- High Perspective Instructors Course dium pal". Yup you guessed it, We are having an Instructors course (HG) at the High Perspective Tow Field Toronto on the product is sized providing Victoria Day weekend. It starts the evening of the 17th of May (Thursday) and runs until you enter the correct info and the 21st. We are also having a Tandem course (HG) on the 5th & 6th of May. Details can it attaches to a pantleg - likely be found on our web page under upcoming events or contact Peter Darian @ High not meant for strolling those Perspective HG & PG School. [email protected] www.flyhigh.com hot 35 degree launch days but the condom like catheter looks Check out the NEW Vancouver Island Hang/ParaGliding website like it could be quite effective. www.islandsoaring.com

Spring  www hpac ca airbuzz Meet Head Wanted! PG NATIONALS MEET DIRECTOR - New Tow Manual LAST YEAR FOR RANDY PARKIN For the eigth year in a row Randy Parkin is running the Paragliding Nationals at Mt 7 on the August long weekend. His past record ensures us all that the meet will be another success. However, all good things come to an end, and Randy has notified me that he must retire from this job, and that this will be the last year that he will be running this meet.So, three things:1.

The 2002 PG Nationals is looking for another meet director. Mt 7 is open, but the whole thing is open for bids. Don't anyone try to tell me this is not enough notice! We want to see bids for the 2002 PG Nationals at the AGM next February - if not before.2. This is your last chance to give Randy your support for this meet. The HPAC has started the job of putting together a Towing Procedures Manual for hang glider & paraglider towing in Canada. The Australians already have one I am looking forward to hearing him tell that's fairly complete, so we thought that we'd start there and adapt it to Canada me how helpful everyone was at his last and to how we do things here in ManiTOWba. play at PG Nats Meet Head.3. This is my The original document (text only) from the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia, and first, but by no means last, place to say the same one converted to HTML without any changes are posted at the MHPA web "Thank you" to Randy for all his work. site: http://www.soar.to/mhga Take a look through it if you'd like. Much of his fun and easy going but still The most current version of the new Canadian Towing Procedures Manual is here at business like personality is embodied in http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/mhga2/towManual/HPAC_Tow_Manual.htm this meet. I am sure all those of you who Give us a hand! Figure out what you'd add, remove, or change, and email your have participated in his meets will concur. comments to Gerry Email: [email protected]. Please be specific about exact- Peter Bowle-Evans ly where and to what section your comments apply to. President - HPAC/ACVL Paraglide Canada Instructors/Tandem Course

Paraglide Canada Instructors and Tandem WAG Certification Course. Instructors will be Glenn Derouin, Wayne Bertrand, both The FAI and 2001 ECO are pleased to announce the opening of the WAG on-line Senior Instructors and Senior Tandem store. This new E-commerce store will offer a wide variety of merchandise fea- Instructors. turing the WAG II logo, the FAI's WAG logo, "Quillo" (the WAG II mascot), and Dates are April 28, 29th, 30th, 2001 customized embroidery for FAI teams. http://www.worldairgames.com Tandem course 1st, 2nd, 3rd of May. Location: Vernon, B.C. As a start, the store will offer apparel items for cooler weather, such as high Come and recertify or become a new quality sweatshirts, long sleeve T-shirts, and hats with embroidered WAG instructor. Check out the requirements for logos. Soon, items will include warmer weather apparel such as T-shirts and instructor / Tandem on the HPAC website. shorts with silk screened WAG logos. As the Games approach, many non- For booking or more info Ph./Fax 250 apparel items will also be offered, such as sport bags, hand-telescopes for 503-1962 or E-mail glennderouin@hot- watching air sports, and children's items related to flying. mail.com Or my site at www.paraglide- cancada.com As a special service for teams attending the World Air Games in Spain, the WAG Also Paraglide Canada hosting a Reserve store is offering custom embroidery on all of its apparel. Team names, ath- Deployment Course. letes' names, national flags, etc., can be embroidered right on the official WAG Location: Blue Grouse Mtn, Kelowna apparel. Custom embroidery with sport-specific Quillo logo's will also be Dates: June 2nd 3rd available for all WAG apparel. We will be tossing out laundry over the water, and landing in it !! For those of you The website for the WAG store will include a photo gallery of air sports images, who really want to know what it;s like to and links to many FAI-related sites. The WAG store will take orders on-line, land under a reserve chute... Instruction and Boat will be provided. and accepts several major credit cards. Please visit the new WAG store at: www.paraglidecanada.com for details or http://www.worldairgames.com . email [email protected] Ph /fax 250 503-1962 www hpac ca Spring  airbuzz News from Golden Mark Fraser, Hugo Tschurtschenthaler and Then there was a lot of clattering and it was set. I really don't think the set up of Florian flew PGs from Mt 7 on New Year's things felt even more wrong. However I the glider was at all relevant to the acci- day. I think it was short, but a couple of still had a logical thought sequence in dent. days ago Mark & Hugo got 45 mins. They seeming slow motion and I decided to are helicoptering up. throw the chute now as height was mar- Major things that contributed to my safety ginal and it would soon be a waste of was the impressive strength of the glider Gordon’s little incident time. I ripped it off my right side and that meant it was still there to slow my fall Gordon [email protected] wanted to throw it into the blue with my right arm. I and might have flown on if I'd been high- tell his own story of his little incident. He's saw the bridle go straight but not the er. We rebuilt it this afternoon and it was staying in a cabin next to us here at the deployment bag come off. test flown this evening. We replaced all Hay Caravan Park, and came over this the sprogs some of which only had very evening to type in the following report: I think I still had the control frame with one slight bends, the keel which had a slight hand, and looking at the ground it didn't indent in the top from the cross bar, and Things were fairly laid back as regards seem to be coming up too fast. Moments just one batten at the root that was setting off until one of the tugs broke a later the bridle pulled tight and the creased. Only one other batten needed prop and then all the top pilots pulled descent slowed to something definitely reprofiling! The centre section of the cross rank and pushed in the queue. I followed survivable. I landed on my feet somehow bar we also replaced but you had to close suit ending up third from the front of the even remembering to bend my knees and one eye before you could see the slight right hand queue when Gerolf joined at roll to the side ending up resting on a bend in that. I guess Steve wanted to the front so I shifted to the left-hand line in nose wire. I was immediately becoming make sure I had everything like new in front of Oleg. Guess it was Oleg's lucky more concerned about the subsequent case anything might make me nervy! The day! Things went OK for about 400 ft of dragging which lasted 20 yards or so harness, a prototype M2 Cigar has the climb straight into the 10-15 mph of wind. until Matt out driver (a local non pilot from front section back plate creased along the There had been a long delay calling a Hay) arrived and sat on the chute. centreline and we are working on that task because the wind seemed strong and now so I can fly it at Forbes. It looks like was blowing us away from the good Bill carried the glider back and Zupy this was broken in the tumble, as my chute roads, but they'd set the task quite cross helped carry the harness and chute. I felt goes to the shoulders not the hang strap. wind following the unmetalled roads. fine and wanted back in the air. Later inspection showed the harness back plate Eyewitnesses reckon it was much less than At about 450 ft the tug went through a was broken. The glider was quickly a second from the glider pitching to my boomer and as I followed through it my shown to have bent sprogs on one side deployment bag coming off the chute. The efforts to stay in line accelerated me over and not flyable but with a pretty good chute filled with me at less than 100 ft. the tug as he fell out the front. This big lift chance of surviving again. Certainly the M2 side mounted chute sys- hadn't tipped me or thrown me off line, tem worked really well and my occasion- just lifted me and when I pulled in I shot Hero of the day was Oyvind Elleffsen al searches for the handle while ridge forward over the tug (this was common in (NOR) who called me from the launch soaring probably made the difference in Hungary with the low power tug trikes queue on the UHF to offer me his glider to saving a few milliseconds. The harness they use). I'd considered releasing to use fly the task. I also loaned his harness and shell and hang strap are all OK the only this lift and glanced at my altitude (600 came in 15th on the day to hang on to damage there is the back plate. I'll never and something) but now I was just trying 3rd place for now. get a chute behind my legs! to get myself in line with the tug again and save the weak link. In hind sight it was stupid to fly back into Glider: Moyes Litespeed 4 - Very strong such a radical thermal, though to me on indeed and I'm very sorry to have regis- I slowed up to let the tug pull in front and the tow it didn't feel that bad. For now I'll tered the first tumble on this very stable then dived, but not enough and the rope have more respect for anything rough glider! twanged tight and broke my weaklink. near the ground and I'll be well away Harness: M2 Cigar prototype Now at I suppose 550 ft or so I turned from any dust devils that might seem to Chute: Apco Mayday 18 PDA. back thinking that the boomer was still offer a low save! I know that several wit- there (and it hadn't seemed rough to me nesses have landed out rather than use tur- My first deployment. I've been flying all on the tow). I needed to go that way for bulent low saves in the last two days too! the hours I can since 1984. Mr Miskin another tow anyway. The strong pitch up to the glider robbed might have been wrong when he said it the airspeed so any inherent stability in was so small I'd probably die. Could I I accelerated in the sink toward the lift and the glider was irrelevant in my opinion. have thrown a bigger one hard enough? I was just thinking that it was taking too The glider had 1/4 VG and the sprogs Who knows. If there's a next time maybe long to get to the lift and I was getting too were one turn of the thread below what I'll be looking at it for ages hoping it was low when suddenly the nose pitched up came out of the factory (which put the bar bigger! violently and ignored my control input pressure quite a lot higher than the glider (bar to my knees). The glider was so I was flying all last year, including very Oh and in the comp I'm still third and the upright that I was just lifting myself up and turbulent stuff in Innsbuck and St. Andre first two Attilla and Gerolf have beaten me not getting through the control frame at without any frighteners). The opinion of slightly every day so far...... My day will all. Everything felt wrong and all the air- the experts is the glider would have easi- come, after all I'm feeling VERY VERY speed was gone. ly passed pitch tests at this VG setting as VERY VERY LUCKY!!!! Spring  www hpac ca Canadian Towing Nationals 2000

By Margaret and Dean Lutz nce the domain of T-Rex, in July Eastend, Saskatchewan was the setting for the OCanadian National Towing Competition. They refer to "The Valley of Hidden Secrets", now it is home for deer, antelope, pheasants and gray partridges. The Cyprus Hills, Frenchman River Valley and fields of wheat, canola, and peas all contributed to the striking beauty of this setting.

The competition opened with a pancake breakfast and welcome from Rob Johnston, local organizer and Ian McArthur, meet director from Kamloops, BC. Maps, competition infor- mation and GPS instructions were distributed. The pilots were told to meet at TOW site #1 by l:00 p.m., where the task for the day would be announced. This was the routine set for the week with a morning pilots meeting occuring at the T-Rex museum. Each day was unique due to the changes in weather and cloud cover. Some pilots left, others arrived - the gallery of local observers varied and, of course, tasks were set according to wind direction.

Pilots from Calgary, Edmonton, Moose Jaw, Kamloops, and Winnipeg each had their tow rigs. Pilots were launched alternately. Each tow rig had its own cachet with Craig Lawrence's, "Towzilla", being perhaps the most impressive! How appropriate the setting was for him there in T-Rex country! It had 8,000 feet of line, pilots could sky out without even leaving tow! This countryside was conducive for towing due to miles of straight, unob- structed, low traffic roads. Lots of fallow ground provided great LZ's.

Congratulations to all the Manitoba pilots who participated. Special mention goes to Gerry Grossnegger who won the competition. Gerry accumulated the most points and was the only pilot to reach goal! It was the last day of the competition, with a light southwest Top: Steve Pederson, James breeze and a short launch window with only light lift. Gary flew 80.4 kms. in four and a Gross, BJ McCaskill and half hours! The window closed and half the pilots sank out! Dean Lutz wait for launch. Above: Comp winner Gerry Special mention goes to Barry Morwick who flew the farthest on day two and won the Grossnegger launches. day! He flew approximately 37 kms.! Barry took third place in the competition. Congratulations Barry! Two Manitoba pilots flew cross country for the first time, James Gross and Dean Lutz! We may have trouble keeping them home now!

On day six Dean Lutz won the day by flying 12.4 miles. The lift window was very narrow and many pilots sank out early. If one listened to the whispers of a twenty year veteran pilot, you could hear some strategy planning. "I'm going to get some of those big wheels and a tail fin so that I can get ahead of Dean tomorrow!" There were a lot of laughs and joking especially over dinner at Jack's Cafe.

Steve Pederson did well and came in sixth place! We used his truck to pull the club winch and launch pilots. This was very generous of Steve. The air conditioning and supply of peanuts kept the driver comfortable and fed! B.J. McCaskill also did well by coming in eighth place! He was acknowledged for being outstanding in his willingness to help other pilots in various ways.

Margaret Lutz was given the driver award for her help to the Manitoba team.

Finally, a special thanks goes to Ian McArthur, affectionately known as "meet head". He gave a great deal of time to insure that the meet ran smoothly and all important bases were covered. His attitude was that this should be firstly a fun meet! And it was! Congratulations to Ian who came in second place, narrowly edging out Barry.

www hpac ca Spring  from By Chris Muller Heroto Zero y trip to Tapalpa was fairly be heard saying "good thing its a rental", uneventful. Two days of airline, and" there’s nothing important under Mcab, and bus travel took me from there, just the floor pan", as the large, Calgary international through LA, Mexico jagged rocks grinded the belly of the bug. city, Guadalajara, and finally Tapalpa. The Mexicans at the takeoff couldn't Tapalpa is the site for next years first believe our little bug was up top parked PWC, making this years event a Pre- next to their SUV's. Jim and I had really PWC. nice flights down the range, in pretty epic conditions, and landed with plenty of time The town of Tapalpa is small, quaint, and to drive to Guadalajara to pick up my girl- is a tourist town for residents of friend, Kristi. Guadalajara. It is also quite cold (for Mexico), as it is situated on top of the The next day, Sunday, was the first day of plateau we were launching from at the comp. There were approximately 40 approx. 7000 ft. The night I arrived there pilots entered with a large Swiss contin- was a huge fiesta going on in the main gent, a handful of Brits & French, Othar square with lots of music and of course, Lawrence and Ryan Swan from the US, fireworks. Mexicans defiantly know how two of us from Canada, and a couple of to do fireworks. Mexican pilots rounding out the field.

One of the main attractions involved a For the first day we called a short 45km guy running through the crowd with a out and return. It wasn't a great call wooden bull above his head that was because we knew we would have to come loaded with firecrackers. Risk of injury: back into the lee of the plateau to get up, High! The main event featured a 30ft tall but the organizers wanted us to finish in apparatus with various sorts of fireworks the Tapalpa lz. Been here before, media staged to go off. Spiny things, roman can- before safety... Anyway, the day started dles, and even the Virgin Mary would pretty light while we waited for the start light up, hiss around, and launch into the but improved as we headed out on crowd. Not safe, but a course. Watching OJs SATs while we wait- super good time! I managed to look over ed for the start was pretty cool, and defi- and catch a ten-year-old kid take antly passed the time! one of the big pieces of shrapnel in the face. His good buddies just laughed as he The race was straight forward up until we dropped to his knees covering his face. had to return to the ridge after the turn These fiestas had apparently been going point, and as expected, we were in strong on all week. leeside conditions! FUN! I was 20 ft away from my buddy Matt when his wing There are two launches that were used played hide and seek on him and one of during the comp, one off of the plateau, the hill side trees played catch. Not pret- and one at San Marco, on the other side ty. Anyway, he yelled up that he was OK, of the Valley. The next day, I met up with and I was outta there. I had a couple of fellow Canadian Jim Reich, and we made Swiss guys to catch up to. our way to the launch at San Marco as the wind was blowing over the back at The ride home was pretty uneventful once Tapalpa, a common occurrence. we escaped the gulch, and just before goal I was able to pass the Swiss, and The ride up to the launch at san Marco managed to bring it home first. Not bad defiantly pushed the clearance limitations for a days work. As it turned out Matt was of our VW bug, and Jim could repeatedly fine, and made it back to Tapalpa before

Spring  www hpac ca buddy Tihi and chill on the beach for a couple of days. Yelapa, for the most part it is only accessible by boat and is part tourist venue, part hippie colony, with no electricity, and few of the material com- forts we were used too. We spent three days there doing sled runs, and hanging out on the beach. After that we made our way up to Bucerius, and spent a few days surfing.All in all the break was awesome, but after dropping Kristi off at the airport it was time to make our way to Valle de Bravo for the millennium cup. It was tough to leave but we hopped on the all night busI forgot to mention that the econoline Talapa Awards Ceremony started acting up so we decided that the Photo by Kristi Ohlhauser bus might be the 'safer' option) and by ten the next morning we were in downtown we did. More than half of the field went and Shaun Stone. This meant the next day Valle. down at the turn point, so I wouldn’t say would be a showdown between myself the task call was a good one. Following and Patric Berod, as he was within a hun- If I had to recommend a destination flying me in were Christian Maier, and Kaspar dred points spot based on good, consistent flying, it Henny, Switzerland. would be Valle. I had been twice before, Day 5 and had not missed a day of flying yet! Day 2 A similar task as the day before, with the The town of Valle is a lot like Tapalpa, We had a similar race along the ridge this exception of goal, which was on top of only a little more touristy. Also, I think time jumping out to the flats near San the plateau. All I had to do was finish Valle is a little more suited to the après-fly- Marco, approximately sixty km. The day close to Patric to maintain the lead, but ing crowd with more restaurants and was almost a repeat of day 1 with the early on I managed to get really low mak- shops, and the landing area by the lake is conditions getting better as the day went ing things a little more difficult. After get- a nice place to hang out. There are two on, and I managed to get home first ting low I had to launches in Valle, one, a nice ridge soar- again, with the help of a bit of lift a half pretty much haul ass to catch up. As it ing site over the lake, and the other at El km from the goal. turned out, I was able to close the gap to Penon, approx 20km out of town. The within a minute of Patric Berod, and finish Penon launch is where the competitions Day 3 third for the day, with Kaspar Henny in take place. The wind at the Tapalpa launch was over first. We would have been a little further the back so we made our way over to the down the list but a couple of the early Well, that’s pretty much where my vaca- San Marco launch. The route to San guys landed just short. tion ended. On day 1 of the comp., I tried Marco included having to too 360 in to close and managed to peg cross a dry lakebed. The bus driver taking The gap was small enough for me to hold a good sized Mexican pine. The rescue the pilots to San Marco decided to switch on to the lead, so it was party time! We was excellent; I was quickly immobilized tracks crossing the lake and managed to were treated to free alcohol, and food at on a backboard, loaded into an ambu- dig the wheels in and high the awards ceremony that night, and we lance, and sent to meet a helicopter. center the bus leaving the pilots stranded. took full advantage of it, or maybe it took Obviously no one wants to be in that posi- By the time the organizers sorted every- advantage of us! The poison of choice tion, but it is nice to know that such a high thing out, and we shuttled everyone to the was called 'pancho', and it did a number quality of rescue exists there. I can't thank takeoff, things were getting a little late. on us! Kristi was the international chug- the pilots enough who helped with my Still the task committee decided to call a ging champion, as she took out the com- evacuation, and who helped pack my 75km task up and down the ridge. petition one by one. That’s my girl! gear.

The conditions were strong, and a strong The Results were me, followed by Patric So what did I do wrong? Well, basically, headwind at the first turn point turned out Berod of France, and third was Christian I thought I had more room than I actually to be the deciding factor, decking a lot of Maier of Switzerland. The comp was a did. When I turned back towards the hill I pilots. Only three to goal, with me fol- huge success, and next years PWC should was anticipating lift, lowed by Patric Berod (f), and Steve Ham be even better! which would have kept me above the (gb). While the results didn't show it, I ridge, and it just wasn't there. Just poor can't say enough about the young Swiss The next day was spent regrouping, and judgment. Kind of a letdown after the pilots, who were constantly out front push- packing. A bunch of us decided that we Tapalpa meet... The end result is that I am ing. Give these guys a couple of years... would head to Puerto Vallata to try and wearing a neck collar right now, and will get in some kite surfing, surfing, and fly- be wearing the apparatus for Day 4 ing. When I say a bunch, nine of us a three months. I had a surgery to fuse Back to Tapalpa. A couple of turn points packed into an econoline 350, and tested together C4 and C5, plus I have a little out front made this task a little more diffi- its max load capacity! We actually got titanium in there now. Not bad consider- cult, with a lot of good pilots going down some kite surfing in that afternoon near ing what could have happened.… early. One of the young Swiss guys, Manzanillo on a piece of deserted beach. Christian Maier, was in first, closely fol- What a blast! lowed by Patric Berod, then after a fair gap I came in just ahead of Ryan Swan, We decided to go to Yelapa to visit our

www hpac ca Spring  hat was how Peter Bowle-Evans described (in the last Air issue) a very special day Tabove Mount Seven. It was also one of my most memorable flights of the season.

Classic The day began with thermals kicking up dust in the campground just after breakfast. With thermal activity this early, I was optimistic about good lift later in the day. Over several years of camping in Golden, my family has established a bit of a daily routine... break- Golden fast, bike ride, lunch, flying and then a dip in the pool to cool off after a hot day. On our bike ride, we stopped at the skateboard ramps to get airtime of a different sort. Then we were off to the airport to check the weather. As we rode through town, I detected a south wind. The airport wind socks indicated that it was a strong south wind. My hopes of great Airtime flying conditions began to fade. A south wind at Golden means no XC to the south (the By John Janssen preferred direction), and a strong south is usually no fun at all. Hoping the wind would subside, we decided to change our daily routine and go swimming first then fly later.

By 4:30, we were on launch and several pilots were already start- ing to set up. The wind had just started to calm down. Although a cou- ple of pilots had launched earlier, they had not been able to stay up. Pilots were waiting for someone to launch first to test the conditions. Serge LeMarsh (local Golden pilot) was willing to oblige. He didn’t appear to be having any trouble with the wind strength and was even starting to climb out. As Serge circled several hundred feet over launch, the scram- ble was on and the remaining gliders took shape rapidly. Pilots "August evenings did not let us were wasting no time and launched like lemmings. At that point my wife came over and down. After years of flying here, said, "Don’t be the last one off, I’m not getting out on that ramp to hold your glider." there are still a few of these Conditions were still on the strong side and a wire assist at launch was required. Tom Korte, who is usually one of the first to launch, had already assumed the roll of launch mas- evenings that I will remember. ter and had launched several others before he helped me launch. After I took off, he had The one to single out was the to finish setting up his glider and then launch on his own. Thank you Tom. one with Serge Lemarsh and John Janssen, where the coming The first thermal is often the most elusive, and that was also the case on this flight. The lift of darkness did nothing to was there, but not the type I was willing to commit to doing a 360 in. So I "S" turned try- diminish the everlasting lift, and ing to share the lift with a paraglider who had launched immediately after me. Eventually even when we finally gave in to we both got above launch, and went our separate ways. That first thermal took me to the need to see the ground on 2500 feet above launch. That should be plenty, I thought, to get me over to the summit of landing, it was lifting Mount 7. over the LZ too." Three quarters of the way across the bowl south of launch, I had lost 1000 feet and I was- n’t even close to the summit yet. There was definitely still a south wind. I was beginning to have second thoughts about my decision to go to the summit. I was well below summit height now, and even below the upper paragliding launch. I glanced back at launch but immediately dismissed the notion of going back there to find lift. It had taken me almost an hour to get this far, and I didn’t like the idea of starting all over again. I worked the cliffs below the paragliding launch, and was soon climbing steadily. A few more turns and I was above the PG launch. This gave me enough height to work the bowl just north of the summit.

It only took a few turns in that area to connect with a thermal that took me to 10,500 feet (about 2000 feet above Mount 7). I breathed a sigh of relief. It is usually a lot easier to maintain your altitude above the mountain than it is to get there in the first place. I had ...continued on pg. 35  Spring  www hpac ca airtech

humans, lack. After analyzing nerve Eagle population threatened impulse patterns, researchers learned that Pilots that have flown with bald eagles the microscopic hairs covering the organ, can testify to being held captive by their which sticks out their back end, could beauty and flying skills. Recently, a myste- sense minute changes in wind patterns rious disease has killed more than 80 Sci from an approaching predator or an birds, and may upset the delicate eagle qFly armed human. The hairs, called cerci, typ- population. The afflicted birds initially Technology and Science ically allow the roach to determine the have trouble flying, walking or swimming, direction of the danger soon enough to begin to develop lesions and ultimately escape. Even with wind blowing around die. Scientists have yet to discover how By Dean Trueman them, the insects can detect the particular the eagles are contracting it, and are con- gust created by an approaching animal. ducting autopsies to search for clues. Artificial Lift NEC, known best as a computer compa- The diagnosis work so far has not found Aviation Engineers are tinkering with one ny, funded the study to learn more about any evidence of bacteria, virus or para- of the most radical concepts since pow- the cockroach nervous system, to aid in sites, so researchers are now looking for ered flight began: artificial lift. The basic developing sophisticated electronic some type of compound, either natural or laws of physics dictate that for an aircraft devices in tiny packages. manmade, in the environment that might to stay in the air, it must have air flowing be causing the problem. across its wings. Airflow creates a lower Goodbye to the PLF Over the last three decades, bald eagles pressure on the top surface than on the Parachutes may glide serenely through the have made a remarkable recovery in bottom, and the ensuing difference preses air, but their landings can be anything but North America, thanks in large part to the an aircraft upwards. The more air pouring graceful. Parachute landings are a major Endangered Species Act, which protects over the wings, the more lift. As an aicraft cause of injury and damaged equipment, them and their habitat. slows, it loses the necessary airflow and but engineers now believe they have stalls; nothing is keeping it up and gravity solved the problem. Self healing down-tubes is in command. Scientists say they may All it takes is a simple distance sensor, Researchers have developed the first have found a way to reduce stall, by similar to the type used to help truck driv- material that automatically repairs itself, directing small jets of pulsing air through ers reverse safely, and a pneumatic piston offering a potential way of fixing the hair- holes near the rear edge of a wing. This that decelerates the load just before line cracks that develop in the space-age airflow can help keep the aircraft from impact. The retraction mechanism rests composites used in everything from tennis stalling and even do the steering. between the parachute and the load, and rackets to aircraft. The scientists' secret: Using the technique to pump extra air contains two pulley blocks, through which tiny capsules of glue that are added to the across the wings, a team successfully initi- the parachute cable is attached to a pis- composite material. Composite materials ated a roll maneuver on a remotely pilot- ton. When the chute opens, the sudden consist of fibers of glass, carbon or other ed aircraft during a recent flight. deceleration on the cable pulls the lower substances mixed with a resin. Damage to Equipped with a small tank of pressurized pulley block upwards, compressing the air composite materials often begins as tiny air, the test planes wings were fitted with above the piston and in the gap between cracks, and as they grow, they weaken holes about the diameter of a cocktail the two cylinders. the material until it breaks. To heal tiny straw, allowing the air to exit at a speed The damping from the piston's motion cracks automatically, the researchers slightly faster than an adult could blow air halves the impact of the jerk. During sprinkled capsules about the thickness of through that same straw. The air jets are descent, the radar system, which is fitted a human hair throughout an experimental activated only when needed, preserving to the bottom of the load, monitors the dis- fiberglass-like compound. When a crack pressure in the tank. When the air jets on tance to the ground and relays this infor- appeared, capsules in its path broke the left wing were activated, increased lift mation to a microcomputer. At a critical open, spilled their contents and sealed the on that side caused the plane to roll on its point just before impact, the microcomput- cracks. The compound retained 75 per- horizontal axis. A second flight gave the er triggers a solenoid valve, which releas- cent of its original strength after the cracks same results. Now that the aero-engineers es the compressed air back into the inner had healed for 48 hours. The material have demonstrated that their flow device chamber. This drives the piston to the bot- contains 100 to 200 capsules per cubic can actually steer a plane, they can tom of the cylinder again and draws the inch. While all of the capsules will even- explore the possibility of creating an cable back into the cylinder, pulling the tually break, objects made with the mate- emergency lift system for stalling aircraft. load upwards relative to the canopy. rial could last several times longer than If enough air streams could push sufficient The process is timed to draw the load up those made of current composites. flow over the wings, there may be a at the same speed at which the load is Objects such as spacecraft, artificial joints chance of recovering height and control. descending, momentarily stopping it a and bridge supports, which are difficult or As well as avoiding that mountain.... few centimeters above the ground. During impossible to reach, are prime candidates testing, the retraction mechanism reduced for self-healing materials. Materials such the deceleration to 2.7 g. (about equiva- Natures Vario as the self-healing composite are part of lent to the force on your foot when you Researchers say that a cockroach's ability the infant field of smart materials. to scurry out of the path of an oncoming step up onto a curb). Although designed to handle large cargo shoe or rolled up newspaper is aided by Dean Trueman is a Vancouver-based drops, the researchers believe a similar an organ that senses the slightest changes paraglider pilot. On rainy days, he works mechanism could reduce injuries to para- in wind speed and direction. It's an organ in the technology sector. that most other creatures, including chutists. www hpac ca Spring  airevents Canada / USA June 2 - 3 Mt. 7, Golden, B.C. Fraser Valley 4th Annual XC Paragliding Format and scoring TBA April 7 - 8 Competition - week #3 Contact: Karen Keller, 403-293-4008 Fraser Valley Annual XC Hang Gliding email: [email protected] Competition - week #1 (Brett Hazlett) July 1st Aug 4 - 6 April 13 - 15 SOGA Fly-in & Open House Canadian Paragliding Nationals The Kamloops Valley Racers will be hold- The normal introductory rate of $25 for Mount 7, Golden, BC ing the annual Easter meet HG event. This non-members will be waived for the 3 day Meet Sanctioning: As last year, our intent year we will be requiring all comp pilots weekend. Pay only for your earotows up is to seek Category 2 sanctioning from the to fly by GPS co-ordinates for ease of scor- to 2500 feet. We encourage you to join FAI for this event. Those intending to gain ing. We will also have a rec comp for us chasing thermals instead of the wind. points for world meets will need Sporting pilots wishing to fly that don't use GPS Camping is free, just make sure you take yet. This is a great get together for HG Licenses. your garbage home with you. pilots and paraglider pilots both. Aug 11-12 Aug 18-19 For more info contact Ken Kinzie Grouse Mountain Fly-in (HG & PG) e-mail DaveFerguson [email protected] [email protected] or (519)524-1689 Aug 18 - Aug 25 April 15 - 21 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SOGA Flytec Championships US Nationals - Texas July 28th - August 3rd Aug 25 - 26 @ Quest in Florida 2001 HG Nationals to be held at Mt 7, Can-Ams at Black Mountain April 21 - 22 Golden.This meet will also constitute the Washington (Mark Dowsett) (HG & PG) Fraser Valley Annual XC Hang Gliding HG part of the Willi Muller XC Challenge Competition - week #2 this year.Check the HPAC Web Site for Sept 1 - 3 April 28 - 29 further details. Cache Creek Team Meet Fraser Valley Annual XC Hang Gliding July 28 - Aug 3 Sept 1 - 3 Competition - week #3 Willi HG and PG Challenge in Golden Qu’Appelle Valley Classic, Saskatchewan May 5 - 6 Competition run by the MHGA. Pilots meet Aug 4 - 6 at the Waverly Hotel in Melville Friday. Chelan Speed Gliding Comp SOGA Competition Contact: [email protected] for info May 12 - 13 This is a fun competition with something Fraser Valley 4th Annual Paragliding XC for everyone. Open distance XC, spot Competition - week #1 landing, and a XC seminar. The 5 days The World May 19 - 21 preceeding this event will be June 6 - July 1, 2001 practice/free flying days. This is prime Lumby Club Cup (WCSC) World Air Games HG Championship time for this site. For more info contact Algodonales-Cadiz (Spain) May 26 - 27 Ken Kinzie [email protected] June 6 - July 1, 2001 Fraser Valley 4th Annual XC Paragliding Aug 4 - 6 13th World Hang Gliding Championship Competition - week #2 Western Canadian HG Championship Algodonales-Cadiz (Spain)

Spring  www hpac ca TRANSPORT CANADA TRANSPORT

Regulations Part Hang Gliding and Paragliding2 n the first article of this series, I described the process for Iamending the Canadian Air Regulations (CARs). I also men- tioned that there are a number of amendments to the CARs that pertains to HG and PG that have already been approved by the Canadian Air Regulation Advisory Committee (CARAC) and that are currently being reviewed by the Justice Department – they are still there as of 27 January. In this second article, I summa- rize the most significant amendments and I explain their signifi- cance. I break down the amendments into two categories: structure and content. I will tackle each in turn.

Structural Amendments Structural amendments relates to the way the regulations are organized in the CARs, not changes to the individual regulations. Currently, the regulations for hang gliders are com- bined with regulations for ultralight aircraft in CAR 602.29. Transport Canada has rec- ognized that this is less than ideal and is reorganizing the structure of the CARs so that hang gliding regulations are consolidated into their own sections. In fact, there will be two sections that deals specifically with hang gliders. The first one is CAR 603.77 that speci- fies the general hang gliding operation rules. The second one is CAR 605.114 that spec- ifies equipment requirements for hang gliders. Note that this does not mean that the only regulations that apply to hang gliders are in those two sections. There are other CARs that apply to all aircraft and those are still relevant to hang glider pilots.

Content Amendments There is nothing earth shattering in the amendment to individual CARs themselves. The amended regulations, for the most part, close existing loopholes, clear up some confusing issues and eliminate some regulations that are not necessary. This list is not exhaustive but these are the changes that will interest most pilots. I will cover some of the more eso- teric amendments in future columns.

Flights in Class B, C, D and E: The current regulations only addresses hang glider flights in Class E airspace. There is no mention of other controlled airspaces. The amended CARs specify the conditions that hang gliders must meet to fly in Class B, C, D and E controlled airspaces. This eliminates a potential source of confusion.

Cross-Country Flights: The current regulation specifies that hang gliders are only allowed in Class E airspace if they conduct XC flights. The CARAC has approved the deletion of the above regulation and non-cross-country flights are now allowed in Class E. Furthermore, there has never been any regulation spec- ifying that flights in Class B, C and D had to be cross-country flights so non cross-country flights are also allowed in these airspaces as well as long as the pilot obeys the other reg- ulations that apply to those airspaces. This change eases regulations imposed on hang gliders.

Requirement to Contact FSS: The current regulation specifies that hang gliders must informs the nearest flight service station of the time of departure and estimated duration of the (XC) flight in Class E airspace. The CARAC has approved an amendment that removes this requirement entirely. This change eases regulations imposed on hang gliders. Note that since a pilot must be in radio contact with an ATC unit when they fly in Class B, C and D, there is no requirement to inform an FSS of a flight in those airspaces either.

Requirement to carry a compass: The current CARs specify that a hang glider fly- ing in Class E must carry a compass. The CARAC has approved two amendments to this regulation. First, a GPS can now be used in lieu of a compass. Second, the new regulation specifies that a compass or GPS must be carried in Class E for XC flights and at all times in Class B, C and D. This means that a compass is no longer required in Class E for non cross-country flights. ...continued on pg. 36 www hpac ca Spring  airsafety

Safety Notification’s FSS (Flight Service Station) Services

1. Parachute Deployment Pouch NAV Canada is centralizing pilot service province wide across the country to new "Flight design flaws. Information Centres" (FIC) Your new 1-800- HAGAR Flight service calls will soon be rout- The HPAC has confirmed that several ed to these new facilities. FIC will be responsible for Advanced Pilot Weather Briefing, manufacturors have sold Harness mount- Flight Planning and Enroute Radio Communications. ed Parachute Deployment Pouches with serious design flaws which could result Smaller Airports FSS will stay operational, but their sphere of influence will be reduced to in a failure to deploy. primarily the 5 NM radius around the airport, plus the upside down wedding cake con- trolled airspace around the Airport. They will become responsible for local traffic advi- Problems to various degrees have been sories, vehicle control and emergency services. experienced with some models of Charly, Sol and Edel harness mounted deploy- A couple of BIG messages come out of us for this. ment pouches. Please note that I am not picking on these particular manufacturors. 1. NAV Canada is prepared, at NOT COST TO US, to schedule in extra staff - even on We know of other harness pouch prob- overtime! - if we need extra help for major events, given the need. Talk about Flight lems but can not identify the manufactur- Service! ors at this time. 2. FSS is no longer a part of Transport Canada. They are private enterprize as part of Several different problems have been NAV Canada. identified. Some parachute pouches are made of neopreme which stretches and This has very important implications for us. compresses the the reserve parachute in a vise like grip. Other harness pouch Canadian Airspace is grossly over-regulated in Canada. If you compare a US VFR chart designs may eliminate or severely restrict with any Canadian version, our over regulation is glaringly obvious. You can fly to timely deployments. Other problems are 18,000' ASL just about everywhere in the USA - where there is 10 or 20 times the air traf- commonly identified. fic in a country half the size.

THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE IS TO I firmly believe that controlled airspace should only be where there is effective control. If ATTEMPT A PRACTICE DEPLOYMENT you take a look at most populated areas in Canada, you are hard pressed to find any- IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT. thing but controlled airspace. FSS is totally focused on the 5 - 20 NM controlled airspace "wedding cake" around there airport. A few years ago, we would phone our HAGAR into Attend a Parachute Deployment and Kamloops etc from places like Golden - hundreds of miles away and get our ears burned Repack Clinic. It could be a critical factor off by busy FSS attendants. Thankfully this has changed. in saving your life. But the real message is that now, we finally have an opportunity to lobby Transport 2. PRACTICE DEPLOYING WITH Canada to get rid of the vast majority of this grossly over-regulated "controlled" airspace. BOTH HANDS. Nav Canada, FSS are no longer part of Transport Canada. TC will listen hard to lobby If you have a side mounted reserve, prac- groups like the Canadian Sport Aviation Council (CSAC) who represent us, and COPA tice deploying with the other hand. among others. Dislocated shoulders has made this requirement a reality. The TC contact relating to Ultra-Light Aeroplanes and Hang Gliders is the Recreational Aviation and Special Flight Operations Division of Civil Aviation in Ottawa. The Chief of 3. INSPECT NEW RESERVE that Division, encourages HPAC officials to contact him on issues important to us. That is PARACHUTES. his job. I encourage owners of new reserve para- chutes to inspect the contents inside To find out if your sites are affected by Controlled Airspace, your and / or your club need deployment bags. At least one manufac- to buy VFR and LE charts for your area. The VFR charts are semi topographical maps that turor has supplied products which were show where controlled airspace and Airways are. LE charts are what you need to find out "packed for shipping purposes" - not how high you can go. They tell you the base altitude of the controlled airspace level above "deployment purposes"...Meaning four you and the base altitudes of Victor / Radial Airways. rubber bands were wrapped commpletely around the parachute. Deployment would In extreme situations, you may need to refer to the Designated Airspace Handbook - which have been impossible. gets down into really fine details on this topic. The downside is it's expensive because it is updated every couple of months... but this is no longer a problem. Tranport Canada has A large and growing collection of posted it for free in Acrobat format on the Web at: http://ats.nrcan.gc.ca/ (look in IFR International Safety Notifications are products) posted at: http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/safe- Note: you can buy your VFR / LE Charts from an HPAC member pilot! Roger Nelson at ty/safety_notices.asp Map Town. Web site: http://www.maptown.com/ or Toll Free 1-877-921-6277

Fred Wilson Fred Wilson

Spring  www hpac ca AGM Record of Discussion at the HPAC AGM, Ottawa, Jan 20-21, 2001 he main topic of discussion at the AGM was the restructure of HPAC. Following a presentation by Andre TNadeau, the Directors spent most of the AGM discussing various options to get the Association back on tract. Andre Nadeau’s article in this issue of AIR describes the rationale and the end result of the new organizational structure so I will not discuss it further. The BoD had some time for a few other items and made some decisions that we hope will be beneficial to the Association as a whole. The items that were discussed and the associated decisions are as follows:

Investment of HPAC Funds The BoD recognized that it would be advantageous for the Association to invest some of its reserve in financial instruments that would return a better yield that GIC over the long term. Martin Pollach will inves- tigate.

Master rating for Philippe Thibodeau Philippe Thibodeau died in February 2000 of a trike accident in Mexico. The AQVL nominated Philippe for a posthumous Master rating. The rating was awarded unanimously.

Philippe may not be well known to pilots outside of Quebec but he has made an important contribution to hang gliding and paragliding in Canada. The following are but a few of his many accomplishments over eighteen years:

• Philippe opened l’Ecole Vol Libre, the older school still operating in Quebec. Philippe trained hundreds of pilots over the years including a significant portion of the flying population in Quebec. His school was featured in a USHGA Hang Gliding magazine in 1994; • A Senior instructor with a Tandem II endorsement for hang gliding and paragliding, Philippe trained numerous instructors over the years; • Philippe taught in France, Mexico and French Antigua amongst other places. In 1995, he was invited by the Sultan of Oman to demonstrate hang gliding, conduct interviews and such to help Omani open a local school; • Philippe was featured in multiple print articles and TV programs over the year; • Philippe promoted our sports through his participation in numerous static displays and air shows that were seen by thousands of people; and • Philippe authored a pilot formation guide for the AQVL.

Air Magazine The BoD recognized the high quality of the December issue of the Air magazine. The BoD unanimously agreed to raise the compensation of the AIR editor to $500 per issue in addition to 25% of the advertis- ing revenues the Editor raises. In addition, the BoD unanimously agreed to raise the budget of the next two editions of Air by a thousand dollars each. Finally, the BoD decided that the Editor would be respon- sible for mailing the magazine to pilots and $100 per issue (in addition to the cost of the stamps) would be provided for handling. The BoD discussed a proposal to add an on-line magazine but that decision was deferred until there was a better feeling that there were too many articles for the current four issues of the AIR magazine. 2001 Translation The lack of translation was recognized and this will be addressed in the restructure of the Association. In addition, it was decided that Phil Siscoe would investigate the availability of Federal grants for translation. Nationals There was only one bid for the PG Nationals. That submission was accepted. The PG nationals will be organized by Randy Parkin and will take place on Aug 3-6 at Mt 7. There was no bid for the HG nationals. The directors will solicit bids from within their Provincial Associations and will forward the bids to the Competition Director and the President. Web Site The BoD noticed that the web site(s) were disjointed and confusing. It was decided to create a new site from scratch. It was also decided that the BoD would approach Charles Warren who has offered to take the site over. Judith Newman volunteered to work with Charles on design. The implementation of the new web site will be a responsibility of the Transition Committee. School Insurance The purpose of the school insurance was discussed. It was noted that the school insurance is just an instru- ment to raise funds towards paying the annual insurance premium and does not provide additional insur- ance per se. The third-party liability insurance for instructors and their students is automatically provided under the current policy. The BoD discussed a few methods to raise insurance premium from instructors. It was agreed to discontinue the school insurance, but the matter of instructor fees was left to be addressed later. At the time of writing a motion on this is in progress. We are hoping that voting will be completed in time for announcement in this AIR. Election of New Executive The new Executive for 2001 are President – Peter Bowle-Evans Vice President – Phil Siscoe and Secretary Treasurer – Martin Pollach. Andre Nadeau

www hpac ca Spring  Rescues at irst off the bat, this is not bad, it is all good! It is about where the current arrangments Fare at, not about a series of happenings. Is has nothing to do with skeletons or close, not that any of the readers will have any of those things, of course. So here goes:

HELICOPTERS & CREWS Wire sling helicopter rescues are now much more available than previously. Some Mt.7 changes happened last summer, actually during our meets here. Alpine Helicopters, who setup a base here the previous year, and who scooped the best two local pilots in the process, were already in the current dictated state of the art rescue business. This means they were fielding machines equipped with the latest equipment demanded by regulations, although they did not have one in place at Golden at the outset. This happened last sum- mer, when they stationed one of these machines here.

Both resident, local Alpine pilots have not only the necessary endorsements to operate this machine and its associated equipment, but they have the so important experience. The placement of this machine was well coordinated with Parks Canada. Now although the new regulations do permit people other than Parks wardens to be certified for sling res- cue, for the time being that is where the presently certified personnel are. In relation to Golden, there are wardens at Glacier Park to the West, and the Yoho and Banff Parks to the East. This means access to wire sling crews from the Rogers Pass summit, Field or Lake Louise. The point is that they are close by. I have worked in machines between Golden and Rogers Pass. You are there faster than you can drink coffee.

The situation of a machine having to be dispatched from as far away as Canmore should now be a thing of the past. This means quicker response and less cost, a good combina- tion. In addition to the adjacent Parks crews, the are moves within the Provincial Emergency Program to train wire sling crews. This is likely several years away from crews in place, but this is the direction of intention.

COMMUNICATION We need to avoid unnecessary searches. Last summer we had some, through nothing more than good intentions all round. Helicopters flew several hours looking for pilots who, although they had gone down sort of unexpectedly, were in fact doing OK, and did not need helicopter rescue. What happens sometimes is that one event is seen by several com- pletely different people. I have been able to field a few of these in the past, when the local RCMP has called me up at work and told me they had just received a call from someone who was say hanging up their washing on the line and had seen a PG going all over the place and must have crashed.

A phone call or two or a quick spin out the NLZ and I have learned that nothing of the sort has happened, or so-and-so was doing wingovers or the like, and I call back and tell them thanks but relax. Last summer we had a PG who most definitely spun in, in full view of Nicholson and probably all over town. He spun in just below the cliffs just below the upper PG launch. Some pilots there saw it all, ran down and discovered that clean underwear were the greatest need. Others further away feared the worst, and pretty soon those of us on the HG launch are wondering what this chopper is doing buzzing around just about where we want to go thermalling.

After a while we were able to get enough confirmations of events to call the pilot on the air band and tell him he could stand down. By a scramble of rescue organisations' errors, there was never any bill for this. In subsequent debriefings about this with Alpine, PEP and the RCMP, here is what we came up with: If something has happened that could be construed as requiring a rescue, but either does not at all or that we have in hand by whatever other means, then please do call the RCMP at 344- 2221 and inform them as to what is going on, where and so on, and give them a name and phone number or even a radio frequency to call back to. Then if other third party calls come in to them, they will either know right away if this is the all the same thing, or can at least call to discuss. They will be much happier doing this than sending out unnec- essary rescues.

Obviously, do your best to cooperate with whatever they may ask. I have personally been through the routine of calling in for a possible rescue from a phone about 50 kms down range, on a weekend when the calls are all routed to a central dispatch in Cranbrook, which is about 240 kms from Golden, and been asked, 'which one, there are three going on already'. In this case, there was enough information properly called in that a fifteen minute round of phone calls determined that my sighting was under control by other means. ...continued on pg. 36 Spring  www hpac ca Wilcannia...thrills in the outback

By Tomas Suchanek

Preface by Bill Moyes

erolf Heinrichs returned to Europe with his new design the Litespeed and he took one for Tomas Gto test fly. A few flights later Tomas told Gerolf that he believed that the glider was capable of a 600 km flight.

Gerolf relayed Tomas's opinion to me and I called Tomas to tease him into a return to hang gliding from his new love, sailplanes. I said " Are you going to just tell us of the gliders capability or are you going to show us." Tommy's answer was "Are you going to send me a ticket to Australia or are you just going to talk about it!

The next day the word was out that Tommy was coming to town. The phone rang hot from pilots wanting to join the trip to our favourite record site Wilcania. Bob Bailey and I decided that we would need to take two dragonflys, as the towing from the flat dessert terrain would be my responsibility. The choosen time period was December to gain an advantage on the length of the day's summer heat.

The final crew...A totally international assault. Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic Attila Bertok - Hungary Gerolf Heinrichs and Thomas Weissenberger - Austria Conrad Loten - New Zealand Victor Becan - Slovenia Radek Bares - Czech Republic Noma Yasuhiro -Japan Bob Bailey - USA Bill Moyes - The only Australian

Daily launches were from a clay pan on the Riverside property. The hard clay was a good smooth surface for the tug and the dolly but was like standing on a mirror with the sun’s heat reflecting up. 40 degrees plus every day and an extra 10 degrees in the clay pan. The pilots were all pleased to get out of the clay pan and the crew were pleased to see them go so we could get into air con- ditioned chase cars.

The guys flew up to eight hours each day. This was the most gruelling week I have witnessed. Tommy never missed an opportunity to better a record and pushed the envelope to its limit.

When the lid was nailed on the coffin of the last record , we were all pleased to pack up and drag our poor dehy- drated bodies back to the cars and some moisture. Tommy was the exception. He treated the exercise as a warm up for the World Sail Plane Championship to be held in South Australia in January.Twenty four hours after completing a 300km flight Tommy was in a sail plane in Naromine flying a 750km triangle.

That guy is different!

www hpac ca Spring  ack in ‘’93 the Moyes gang started to explore the Australian outback with the vision of long flights, which would move the existing distance and speed hang gliding world records fur- Bther forward. When looking back, I can say, that we succeeded with three tandem world records flown from Hillston in December 1994 and also the speed over 150 km triangular course in 1997 from Hay. The little town of Hillston was no longer suitable due to the relatively closeness to the Great Dividing Range, where we had to land on the tandem flight with Corinna after covering 360 km, so Captain Bill yelled that famous saying "go west young men", and we went. The last frag- ment of civilisation before running into the Simpson desert appeared to be a little town on the Darling river called Wilcannia. It's a pretty rough place with an 80% aboriginal population and the highest number of policemen per citizen in Australia, of course a few wild stories kept us on our best behaviour, but I tell you, the thermals there can be even wilder and stronger, than the ground stuff, and that's why we based our operation nearby at Riverside farm.

Lots of pilots did their personal longest flights out of Wilcannia and Hillston including mine, Corinna's and Bob Baiers 367 km with the landing in Corryong, Attila Bertok's 405 km to Victoria, Darryl Cooners 360+ or Drew Coopers longest flight in OZ, 428 km from Hillston to St. Arnaud in the state of Victoria back in 93. Because of this potential, Bill Moyes kept encour- aging the old crew during the year to try once again and that's why the wheels started spinning on December 5th 2000 in the Moyes factory at Botany, chopping down the 1000km drive to Wilcannia.

Above Left - Left to Right The first little bunch included my Czech mates, Leo the driver and Radek and Kiwi pilot Conrad, Back Row: Attila Bertok, Conrad Loten, in civilian life working as an emergency doctor, (he was considered a great support for our inten- Bobby Bailey, Tomas Suchanek, tions), and tow pilot and designer of the Dragonfly, Bob Bailey, whose only fear was the total Viktor Becan, Bill Moyes absence of any McDonalds restaurants in our destination. But he survived it for next two weeks Front Row: Tomas Weissenberger, anyway... Gerolf Heinrichs, Noma Yasuhiro, Leo (Tomas’s driver) The Dragonfly was assembled the next day and on the morning of December 8th, Wilcannia welcomed us with a south westerly breeze and blue sky. We decided to have a little warm up Above Right - Left to Right flight up the Darling river, taking off with our stock Litespeed's around 1PM in good hot 25 km/h Leo (Tomas's driver that came from Czech with him), Gerolf Heinrichs, wind. Struggling between five to fifteen hundred, I was the only one reaching the first clouds two Attila Bertok, Tomas Suchanek, hours later near Tilpa, while Radek and Conrad landed and started their longest sightseeing trip Radek Bares, Tomas Weissenberger by car in the Australian outback. The first cloud surprised me with a solid five meters per second and suddenly everything looked much better from 3500 m AGL at cloudbase. Not taking any- Above: thing under 3m/sec I covered 180 km in the next two hours to reach Bourke and the 300km dis- Atilla poses after his tance mark at half passed five. The gap between my position and the retriving car became much 200km record flight wider, some 120 km, although the boys were probably breaking all speed limits on the dirt roads and the police cars could simply not keep up with them anymore. By the way, when passing the town of Louth, I hit the strongest thermal of my life, wide and solid 8.5 m/sec on my Flytec aver- ager all the way to the cloudbase!

The afternoon and evening part of the flight was considerably slower, recent flooding of the Darling river affected the thermal conditions there and twice I found myself down to 400m above the deck of course in the middle of nowhere, but I managed to get the lift as well as the radio connection with my retrieval and finally I landed at 19:45 on a dirt road some 50 km NE of Brewarrina and 430 km from our Riverside take off. I passed Drew Cooper’s old distance record by only 2 km. Not bad for an afternoon joy flight, except that the landing area was full of thirsty mosquitos and the nearest farmhouse was beyond the horizon. I started walking towards civili- sation, that is the least pleasant part of nearly every distance attempt here in the outback.

I had only covered some 8 kilometres, when suprisingly I could hear my crew on the radio. Rest was easy, we made it back to Wilcannia the next day to meet hungry Attila (the Hun) Bertok from Hungary, known in the flying community by his nickname, and the rest of the pack also includ- ing our legendary driver and psychologist Jed Gilmour from Stanwell Park.  Spring  www hpac ca The next morning there was no wind at all and we decided to take advantage and have a go at triangular courses. Attila, suffering from his, as Gerolf says "kilometre bug", declared the longest triangle in the world of 249 km , we left Riverside shortly after midday together with Japanese Noma and Conrad. I prefered a shorter course and tried speed over 100 km triangle. The sky stayed blue the whole day, although some lifts strenghtened to 5 m/sec and I rounded my trian- gle with a start and finish point at Riverside and turnpoints White Cliff JCN and Capon farm with- in 2 hours 39 minutes in the new world record speed of 40.54 km/h. Celebrating in the evening we were pleasantly surprised, when Attila rounded his triangle and landed after seven and a half Below: Set-up on the clay pan hours, establishing the new world record for the longest triangle flown on a hang glider, 249 km Center: Bob Bailey waits for his next victim FAI. He later reported strong lift over the red ground area southeast and east of Wilcannia, with Bottom: Tomas declares 357km triangle the strongest thermals reaching 2900 m AGL. There are only two major roads this way, Barrier Highway going to Cobar and Cobb Highway to Ivanhoe, but the second leg, Cobb highway is a dirt road and there is a very poor track system in between. We all admitted Attila’s courage, when crossing the road between his first and second turnpoint. We were not to know that we would be crossing this area ourselves every second day during the next week .

December 11th and 12th could be considered as serious rest days, we only flew some 140 km to Ivanhoe and to Tilpa, although the boys reported very strong lift on the second day, reaching altitudes of 4500m AGL, the highest in Australia as long as I can remember. They were stopped by cold, the cloudbase was another 700m higher!

December 14th was the start of an excellent period of weather, the sort of weather that allows you to fly more then you can handle and start praying for rain after a couple of days. Bill Moyes pushed delicately, as he only knows how, for long ones. A very light southerly with early clouds encouraged us to say "why not" and we all went for a 300 km triangle from Riverside via Mount Manara and Narraport. The heavily populated area on the second leg was really promising regarding some walk and fun in the case of out- landing, but not one of us fortunately did. The first leg was pretty rough going light headwind, average thermals between four to six meter per second, but the 3500m cloudbase saved us from the unexpect- ed! Both Attila and I had a low save after the sec- ond turnpoint near Emmdale surf club, while Attila also scratched the ground right after the first one, but finally we both rounded the course in the new distance world record around a triangular course. I could also claim the speed world record over 300 km triangle with the average speed of 45 km/h. Two in one, I never can resist a good offer! The smile on Attila's face also documented his mood, I suppose, he completed one of his dreams this day, he was always pushing for the long ones, home in Hungary or home in Australia. I still remember the first day after the Forbes Flatlands six or seven years ago, when he completed a 200 km out and return, while the rest of the field was recovering from the previous day's party!

Gerolf Heinrichs and his mate Thomas arrived in Wilcannia on December 15th, the boys went for speed over a 200 km triangle, declaring the course from good old Riverside via Bushleys and Alma Park farmhouses. Finally Attila went around in less than five hours, establishing the new world record with a speed of 41 km/h and Conrad also managed to complete the task. They reported strong lift and cloudbase at 3200 to 3400 m AGL and a bit stronger SE wind. I took the day easy and declared baby tasks, first 50 km and second time 25 km triangular cours- es near Riverside, with the landing in between them. That was a good day again, some 7 m/sec thermals were found around and I completed the first triangle via Nettalie farmhouse and Wilcannia airport in 1 hour 05 min in the new world record speed of 46 km/h and then later on the little triangle I averaged 50 km/h, also the world record for speed. Three in one day, even better!

December 16th started pretty early, first clouds appeared in the sky shortly after 11 am and after a short discussion we declared a 357 km long triangle via Cobb Highway and Marfield RD JCN and the second turnpoint at Bulla farmhouse. Bob took us gently to the thermals with good help from Bill Moyes and we all could head down following Cobb Highway. A light NE breeze formed nice cloudstreets, making the first leg easy for me. Attila and Gerolf went a little bit later on the course and suffered some delay from different conditions. The second leg to Bulla farm headed more east compared to previous days, where 'no man's land' turned into tiger plains with an absolute lack of roads and farms in some sequences of the flight. Cloudbase rose from 2500 to 3200m later and I had to test the abilities of my Litespeed to climb from low right after the second turnpoint on the edge of heavy rain. Well, nothing special, but I managed to climb and to get away. But my exposed hand held radio suffered some damage from the rain so I could not rely on help from the ground crew anymore. The second critical point came at half passed six in the evening, when I went down to less than 200m AGL in the middle of the bush and far www hpac ca Spring   Check out the records flown at Willcannia:

Record 1 Date: 10.12.2000 Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4 Record type: Speed over 100 km tri. Start point: Riverside Finish point: Riverside Reached speed: 40km/h

Record 2 away from the road. One hour of torture, when low, was finally remunerated with 1 m/s gain Date: 14.12.2000 some 28 km from goal, final glide was a piece of cake and I crossed the finish line at 7.52 PM Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic after an 8 hour flight, averaging 45 km/h speed on the course. Unfortunately, Attila could not Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4 cross the death area due to the later time and landed some 50 km short, while Conrad cut the Record type: Speed over 300 km tri. corner to Emmdale and made it back home flying some 300+ km triangle. Gerolf and the others Start point: Riverside went down on the second leg and they all had been picked up by Bill or Thomas and made it Finish point: Riverside back home right in time for Bill’s barbecue. Reached speed: 45km/h December 17th started with a fresh NE breeze on the ground, although the pressure gradient up Record 3 higher was not too promising regarding the strong wind. We declared a far goal in Horsham, Date: 15.12.2000 Victoria, just to give it a go. Bob was excellent with the Dragonfly once again and placed all of Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic us near to the Riverside start gate. The first one hundred kilometers were in blue, some stuff Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4 exceeding 4 m/sec and then we reached the troughline and cloudsbase formed at 3400m. The bad news was the wind stopped. Some of us kept going and I finally landed 311km from Record type: Speed over 50 km tri. Riverside just SE of Mildura, close to where Attila landed four years ago. Typically a pre frontal Start point: Riverside day, the last two thermals went to 4050 m AGL and even my special Moira thermal wear did Finish point: Riverside not keep me warm enough. Seven hours after take off, I had to land just before a gust front of Reached speed: 46km/h the approaching southerly. Radek reached his longest distance when he landed 260 km from the start point and was saved by a local farmer from hail and thunder. Bill picked up the rest of Record 4 the pack except Lukas, who decided to follow the Cobb HWY and then spent an unforgetable Date: 15.12.2000 24 hours waiting for retrieval at the Ivanhoe pub. Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4 Finally I would like to thank all who helped us on this trip, especially to Bill Moyes and Bob Bailey Record type: Speed over 25 km triangle for getting us airborn, to Moyes Gliders for providing the best tool and I should also say, that all Start point: Riverside the records were done with serial Litespeeds in standard configuration, not equipped with funky carbon uprights or base bars. Finish point: Riverside Reached speed: 50km/h Jed, Leo, Thomas and Bill were excellent as the pick up drivers and my personal thanks goes to Attila for his "pushing for distance" force. Record 5 Date: 15.12.2000 That’s all folks. See ya there next time! Pilot: Attila Bertok - Hungary Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 5 Record type: Speed over 200 km tri. Tomas gets congratulations from Bill! Start point: Riverside Finish point: Riverside Reached speed: 41km/h

Record 6 Date: 16.12.2000 Pilot: Tomas Suchanek - Czech Republic Hang glider: Moyes Litespeed 4 Record type: Distance over 357 km tri. Start point: Riverside Finish point: Riverside Reached speed: 45km/h Reached distance: 357 km over triangular course

Please consider these performances named above as new claims for world records pending FAI approval.

 Spring  www hpac ca airbag

through the week gazing out of their office windows at a bird soaring on an odd thermal or a cloud passing by, reminding them of great flying conditions. This small but increasing number of paraglider pilots have been silently building up as the sport’s popularity catch- es on in the state. According to Sandeep Dikshit, Equity Research Director with W.I.Carr Securities, it is "a fulfilling passion, relaxing hobby and completely in harmony with nature".

110 Km from Mumbai enroute to Pune, soon after Lonavla, lies Kamshet, the paragliding hub of the region. Here numerous favorable takeoff sites, great flying conditions and dra- matic scenery provide a splendid backdrop to some excellent flying. Add to this the fact that flying is possible almost every day of the long season and you have the perfect paragliding destination. All these factors and more have converted this sleepy area into the paragliding stronghold in the Western Ghats!

The area is fast becoming a popular flying destination in the world paragliding communi- ty. The low hills, rocky terrain with endless flatlands around that once lent itself perfectly to guerilla type warfare today seems to be sculpted specially for paragliding. Pilots trudge uphill, spread their vibrant wings and fly effortlessly along the ridges, limited only by the weather, their skill & endurance. Around them the ruins of the Lohaghad & Visapur forts, and the Bhaja and Bhedsa cave temples that have stood sentinel for hundreds of years gaze upon the colorful canopies and their exhilarated occupants, silently watching as man’s age old dream of free flight finally becomes a reality.

In India, paragliding is still a relatively new sport, introduced as late as 1991-92 by some visiting foreign pilots in the Kullu valley. In fact some of the sites in the big mountains are believed to constitute the best in the world. The Himalayas may have experienced the first wave of paragliding in India but in certain pockets in the western region the sport is fast catching on. In the scores of sites around Pune, Kamshet and the further reaches of the Western Ghats a few paragliding outfits have been operating in the last few years. Notable amongst them are Harley India and United India Paragliding at Pune, Omair in Panchgani and Nirvana Adventures in Kamshet. Nirvana Adventures set up operations in Kamshet Kamshet about three (3) years ago and have since then discovered a variety of flying sites A Paragliding Getaway within a 30 km. radius of their base at Kamshet suited for beginners training, hobby pilots and the more adventurous pilots. Say’s Sanjay Rao of Nirvana Adventures " Our main he Mumbai–Pune road is an arterial emphasis is on teaching people how to fly and enjoy the purest form of free flight known Troadway leading out of the city tracing to man". an ancient trade route that once connect- ed the coast to the hinterland. Rock cut Nirvana Adventures course pattern, flying operations and pilot rating is in accordance cave temples and hill fortresses along the with the United States Hang Gliding Association’s standard operating procedures and pilot route stand witness to the silk & spice proficiency systems. Residential courses running through the week and on weekends, great bearing caravans accompanied by accomodation overlooking the serene Vadivali lake and a sizeable fraternity of recre- adventurous Greek merchants, Chinese ational pilots - an amazing mix of people of varied age groups and diverse backgrounds travelers and Buddhist monks that braved is what one may expect to encounter on any given day of the season. the perils of wild animals and fierce tribal marauders, praying to goddess Tara to In July 2000 a team from Nirvana Adventures made a trip to Oludeniz, Turkey to fly at lead them out of danger. Babadag the ‘Paragliding Mecca’ of the world. This was the first Indian paragliding expe- dition of its kind till date. The purpose of the trip being to fly at one of the worlds best rated Over the past few years a strange breed sites and to get a first hand experience of ‘Safety in flight’ which the site is famous for. of adventure seekers have been plying this route. They too pray for a speedy Back at Kamshet, the paragliding capital of the Western Ghats, the sport bridges the gap completion of the Mumbai Pune between tradition and modernity. At one end of the spectrum is the paraglider, an aircraft Expressway that will whisk them to made of a combination of advanced aerodynamics with space age materials, and the Kamshet (about 11 Km from Lonavla) in other is the bullock cart, an ancient mode of transportation on which the pilots sometimes time to alight from their cars and attach a hitch a ride to the takeoff site! pair of " wings" on their backs and step sanjay rao off the hillside and fly in solitude as the evening sun casts a golden hue over the Copyright © 2000 Nirvana Adventures (Bombay) countryside below. For more information on the sport log onto Consisting of an unlikely group of people; professionals, executives and business- www.nirvanaadventures.com men from Bombay and Pune, these Email [email protected] ‘paragliding enthusiasts’ wait patiently Telephone (91-22)- 6493110 / 6053724

www hpac ca Spring   HPACHPAC ...a new beginning Background The HPAC has not been in great shape over the last few years. It has suffered from a decline in membership and a general disinterest by the Canadian pilot population at large. This threatens the ability of the Association to defend Canadian pilot interests.

Over the last year, considerable effort has gone in identifying what ails the Association. The following have been identified as some, but not all, of the problems facing the By Andre Nadeau Association. In no particular order:

• Lack of focus; • Lack of prioritization of activities; • Unreliable and untimely decision-making; • Lack of empowerment of people doing the work – too much micro-management; • Failure to adhere to Government Regulations; • Failure to adhere to By Laws and SOPs; • Inability of the Provincial Association to meet their commitment; • Poor utilization of scarce volunteers; • Uneven service levels; • Marginal allocation of financial resources; • Poor Communications with Canadian pilots; • Poor configuration control over documents; • Dismal maintenance of historical records; and • Lack of French Services.

Once the problems were identified, the Association conducted an option analysis to deter- mined how best to resolve them. It was determined that incremental changes to the struc- ture of the organization and in the way the HPAC conducts its business would not resolve the problems effectively and timely. Consequently, the BoD decided at the January AGM that a major restructure of the Association is necessary. The first steps towards this restruc- ture are now under way.

This article describes the objectives of the restructure of the HPAC, describes what the new HPAC will look like in the future and explains how and when we are going to get there.

Objective The criteria that have been considered when selecting the new organizational structure are listed below. It was felt that a new organizational structure meeting these criteria would go a long way towards resolving the current problems:

• Representative. The Association should be responsive to the need of Canadian pilots. Thus, pilots should have a say on the selection of the HPAC Directors; • Simple. Adopt the KISS principle and avoid unnecessary complexity; • Flexible. Do not handcuff the association needlessly through over-regulation. Put in place only those regulations that are required and ensure that they can be amended easily in the future if there is a need to do so. Trust the Directors and their represen tatives to make the necessary decisions when faced with issues and problems; • Focus. Ensure that the HPAC focus on activities that are achievable and does not get dragged down by activities that are outside its mandate or that it does not have the resources to do properly; • Effective. Ensure that the HPAC performs all activities correctly and to the satisfaction of its members; and • Efficient. Perform the activities in a timely manner with the minimum use of resources consistent with effectiveness.

The intent of this restructure is not to achieve perfection but to create a structure that is supe- rior to what currently exists. It is expected that future BoD will continue to improve the Association incrementally over the years to the benefit of all members.

 Spring  www hpac ca Vision, Mission and Objectives The HPAC has been lacking a clear vision, mission and goals for years. The recognition of this problem has lead to the establishment of the following.

The Vision of HPAC is to have 2,000 members by 2005. The Mission of HPAC is to provide its members with those services of a national nature that enable and facilitate their participation in hang gliding and paragliding in Canada. The Goals of the HPAC are to:

• Promote the growth of hang gliding and paragliding in Canada to maintain a viable population of active pilots; • Promote the safety of hang gliding and paragliding in Canada; • Provide and manage a national third-party liability insurance program; • Develop and manage a Cdn. pilot rating program to help standardize pilot skills in Canada; • Support a hang gliding and paragliding instructor formation program; • Manage a national competition program to select a Canadian hang gliding and Canadian paragliding champions; • Represent the interest of hang gliding and paragliding pilots at Transport Canada; and • Represent the interest of Cdn. hang gliding and paragliding pilots internationally.

The New Organizational Structure The new organizational structure of the HPAC will be as shown in Figure 1. A BoD con- sisting of seven Directors, each one elected by the pilots from within one of seven regions, will lead the HPAC. The regions are BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. This smaller BoD will improve communications between directors and will make it more affordable to hold the annual meeting of Directors. The BoD will focus on policy.

HPAC Organization The officers will consist of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Safety Officer. All officers will be appointed by the BoD and will report to the President. The President, Vice President and Secretary will also be Directors. The President will head the BoD and the Vice President will replace the President as required. The Secretary will be responsible for the minutes of the meeting of the BoD. The Treasurer will manage the budg- et and funds.

The Business Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day activities of the Association. The Business Manager will be responsible for implementing the policy and he will have the authority and responsibility to do so. His duties will go well beyond the current Administrator functions. He will report directly to the President.

All standing committees will be dissolved. Committees will be formed as required by the BoD to tackle specific projects and will be dissolved once those projects are completed. Volunteers currently doing some activities as members of existing committees will continue to perform these activities if they wish, but will do so under the direction of the Business Manager who will retain responsibility for the effectiveness and timeliness of these activi- ties.

All the roles and responsibilities of the BoD and officers will be captured in the documents described further on in the next section.

HPAC Documents The current HPAC documents consist of the By Laws, a constitution, operating procedures and tens of forms. None of these documents have been under configuration control over the years so their accuracy is suspect. In addition, few people know that they exist, they are not widely available, they are difficult to find and, for the most part, they are only available in English.

The new organization will replace all these documents with a new By Law and a set of documents called the Policy and Regulatory Directives or PRDs. These documents will be available in both official languages.

The new By Laws will be written to allow as much flexibility as possible, while meeting Industry Canada's guidelines, to minimize the need to amend them in the future. Most details about the structure, policy and regs of the Association will be captured in the PRDs.

www hpac ca Spring   Lessons Learned... I thought some of you may relate What a Winch! this to what we do and how we should respect what some of the vet- erans in our sport have to offer. Think about it...

There's something about Remembrance Day that makes me think of the enormous contributions of our veterans to aviation progress.

My friend Art had to bail out of his bomber at night over France, and lived to fight another day. When we meet in the coffee shop, and I listen to Art's stories of those times, I real- ize how incredibly smooth, power- ful, and reliable our modern aircraft have become. Heck, we don't even have to wear fur-lined boots any more! And nobody has to "bail out" Check out this stationary winch system designed by the Hang any more. Glider Dudes from Neepawa, Manitoba. If you wanna take a ride on this baby then attend the Neepawa Fun Fly-in Tow Out at the airport, a bunch of skilled enthusiasts were pre-flighting an Comp being held this May Long Weekend, 2001. enormous Grumman Albatross for This comp will be a pre-event to the possible hosting of the the Remembrance Day fly-past. This 2002 Tow Nationals in Neepawa by Manitoba. spotless monster WWII seaplane is powered by almost unknown Check out the details in “airtraffic” or contact the Meet engines, and is flown using Director John “Downtube” Rempel at 204-667-8464. unknown flying techniques! How do these guys know about these rare, complicated, old aircraft? Most of My wife's impression of PG them weren't flying when Art was shot down over France, and no fly- Husband gets up at ungodly hour of 4am. ing schools will teach you how to fly Drives 5 hours for best thermalling launch. an Albatross. Either: A. Hikes 1 hour to the top of a really high place B. Drives 15 mins to the top of a really high Well, it's the old principle of one-on- place...in the process losing muffler on car. one. Each one teach one. Each one Shakes out an assemblage of brightly coloured of them collects old information, bed sheets. Ties himself to said bedsheet assem- and they share it with each other in bly, Yells Banzai!! and jumps from the really order to keep these old birds flying. high place. At this point Husband either: I was thinking of these guys after my A. Reaches terminal velocity prior to suddenly visit to the airport today when I was stopping when confronted with planet earth. looking through some of the new B. Floats around aimlessly watch the stitching titles in our "History" catalogs. come undone on the bedsheet assemblage. There! That's how they do their "liv- Once wife is suitably driven insane with anxiety ing history"! They collect informa- husband then: tion, restore aircraft, fly them, bend A. Lands in field covered almost completely in them occasionally, and write more the dung of large herbivorous animals. books for the rest of us. Over and B. Approaches the ground and sticks his leg in a gopher hole. over again. C. Approaches the ground only to decide that it looks like fun to hang from high-voltage wires Thanks, Art, and all your mates, for for a bit. all the pioneering that you've done D. Lands without incident only to approach wife for us! See you at the Cenotaph. with huge grin on face because he is a sh*t and enjoys watching her suffer. Reilly Burke Husband then talks incessantly for the next Technical Advisor week about how great the next outing will be. CFI Aerotraining  Spring  www hpac ca HPAC - A New Beginning (cont’d) The following motions have The PRDs are documents that are issued under the authority of the Board of Directors (BoD) been passed through an on- of the HPAC. They contain policy, regulations, procedures, responsibilities and other infor- mation to be applied to the administration of the HPAC. Basically, if an activity is not iden- line process since the AGM. tified in a PRD, then the HPAC does not do it. The PRDs will be under tight configuration control and will be made available on the HPAC web site. Printed copies will be made Motion 2001-02-#01 available to those members who do not have access to the Internet and who request them. The BoD has passed a motion to charge an annual Transition instructor fee of $65 per A Transition Committee of three members is being formed to manage the transition to the new organizational structure. The Transition Board Chairman is Andre Nadeau who will year.This followed from the also act as the Program manager for the transition activities. Andre Nadeau will report to discontinuing of the school Peter Bowle-Evans, the current President. The Transition Committee will be responsible for insurance fee previously all transition activities that include, but are not limited to, the following: charged, that was agreed • Develop the Transition Plan and all timeline associated with the transition; at the AGMNet proceeds to • Develop the new by-laws and PRDs; HPAC are expected to be • Organize and conduct the election of the new directors; and • Improve the HPAC web site. less than previously rather than more . The Transition Committee primary objective is to ensure an effective and timely transition to the new organizational structure. The Transition Committee will have broad authority to make decisions to ensure that these goals are achieved. Motion 2001-02-#02 The BoD has passed a Tentative Schedule for Transition motion to reduce the fee The tentative schedule for the transition is below. This schedule will be reviewed during the development of the Transition Plan: charged for named insured certificates from $50 to $10 • The new By Laws will be approved by the BoD by mid March 2001; • Candidatures for Director will be accepted in July and August 2001; • PRDs will be promulgated NLT than end October 2001; Motion 2001-02-#05 • Election of Directors will be conducted in October 2001; The talked about re-structur- • The first meeting of the BoD will be held in January 2002. The new BoD will take ing is now able to over control of the Association at that time. begin!The BoD has passed Information Dissemination a motion that enables the The Transition Committee intends to disseminate information as widely as possible. The establishment of a following means will be used: Transition Committee to Information about the transition and transition activities will be posted on the Transition engage in the business of Web site at http://members.home.net/andre.nadeau/transition/home.htm. effecting the HPAC re-struc-

A mailing list has been created to disseminate information to those pilots who do not have turing. The motion includes access to the WWW. To register to this mailing list, send an empty e-mail to: HPAC- that the Chair of this com- [email protected]. Note that this is not a discussion list. The mittee be Andre Nadeau. only individual that will be allowed to post e-mails on this list is the Chair of the Transition Committee and the only information that will be posted is about the restructure. Postings will be made in both official languages. Motion 2001-02-#06 The BoD has passed a The AIR and Survol will be used to disseminate information to those pilots who have no access to the Internet. Because of the delay associated with page setting, printing and dis- motion that agrees in princi- tributing these magazines, the information may be slightly stale by the time it reaches pilots ple with a set of documents through those means. that form the basis for the

Request for Volunteers commencement of the The Transition Committee is looking for volunteers to help with transition activities. A list- HPAC re-structuring process ing of activities for which volunteer assistance is required will be kept current on the tran- that the Transition sition web site. If you are interested in helping, please send an e-mail to the Transition Committee Chairman at: [email protected]. Committee will start work from.

Andre Nadeau Chair Transition Committee Peter Bowle-Evans President HPAC/ACVL

www hpac ca Spring   • Under the old system, no school actual- I agree that the instructor's fee is not a per- Instructor ly needed to pay for "school insurance" fect solution but money has to come from Insurance Fees because they were not getting anything somewhere. An increase in the number of more than what their certified instructors HPAC members would help raise the nec- he HPAC holds a third-party liability already received automatically under the essary funding and would allow the HPAC Tinsurance with our insurer. This insur- HPAC insurance policy i.e. their students to reduce or even eliminate the instructor's ance provides up to three million third- are automatically covered. If school oper- fee as the Director really wanted to do. party liability insurance to pilots AND TO ators knew better (sometime a lack of Since I estimate that up to half of the pilots STUDENTS that are under the direct super- communication is a plus?), they would not in Canada are not members, we have a vision of HPAC-CERTIFIED INSTRUCTORS. pay the "school insurance" fee since it has significant potential source of funding out In turn, the HPAC recoups the cost for the no real value and the HPAC would loose there. One of the reason we are restruc- insurance policy through membership an important source of revenue; and turing is to try to offer these pilots some fees, school insurance (now instructor good reasons to join (or rejoin) the HPAC fees) and site insurance certificates. The • The school insurance process added so we can generate the additional fund- school insurance and site insurance cer- unnecessary administrative overhead ing to subsidize instructors and undertake tificates were only instruments to generate because the HPAC had to track schools in other useful projects that will benefit the revenues. They did not confer any addi- addition to instructors while there was sports in Canada. tional insurance per se to school or sites. really no need to do that. The concept of "school insurance" was In response to Charles Warren's comment found to be less than ideal for the follow- Eliminating the "school insurance" alto- that he did not hear anything about this ing reasons: gether and not replacing it with any issue until it was said and done, I just instructor's fee at all was actually passed want to mention that this topic was added • Student and school operators were eas- in principle at the AGM pending a finan- to the AGM agenda in mid-November ily confused about what "school insur- cial analysis of the cost. That analysis and a discussion paper was posted on the ance" was all about. For example, a showed that the HPAC could not afford AGM web site. Having said that, it is the school could hire a non-certified instructor the loss of revenues. Since all directors responsibility of the Directors of the HPAC and still think that their students would be were heavily opposed to raising the mem- to communicate with their provincial protected under the "school" policy while bership fee, the logical solution was to members. this was not the case since the student was charge instructors a fee as a condition to actually protected by a certified instruc- retain their instructor's rating. This may, or may not have happened. In tor's personal insurance. Similarly,students any case, another reason for the restruc- may have thought that they were covered Notmaking the fee a condition for the ture of the HPAC is to make sure future by the "school insurance" under these cir- retention of an instructor's rating would be directors are elected and accountable to cumstances when that was not the case. pointless because the instructor's student the pilot who elects them. This should Thus, there was the risk that both the would be covered automatically under our help foster bettercommunications in the HPAC and the school was misrepresenting insurance policy just by virtue of the certi- future. the "school insurance"; fied instructor holding the certification. Andre Nadeau

 Spring  www hpac ca Radio’s Wizardry By Peter Bowle-Evans &

here would we be without the wonders of technology in free flight today? Unable to communicate, not Wknowing our altitude, rate of ascent, heading, airspeed, windspeed, speed to fly to goal, or to direct our drivers, order dinner ahead of time, call home, call the office, check up on the staff, check the email, make a few quick stock trades, download an audio-visual and space-and-time record of our flight and analyse the fine details with mathematical precision; indeed, even to know where the heck we are in at least three co-ordinate systems - we would be like space travelers projected into the ever expanding universe that leaves them further and further marooned in nothingness and nowhereness.

From the marvels of the vox unit, I now know just how much effort some of my friends exert in the flying of their hang gliders, as one day every huff, puff, pant and grunt was relayed faithfully to my ear. Just how much grunt he exhorts while engaging in certain other physical activities is open to speculation, but I know what my lean- ing is toward.

The simple radio is a truly a masterpiece on its own. I have yet to come to the end of the permutations by which one can function other than as the manuals describe. At one time I had as many as eight or more connections on my system, by the time I was hooked in, any one of which alone could, and did, provide puzzles and amuse- ment. After I got smart and re-configured the system, getting it down to half this number, things got much more challenging as more quirks arose from less obvious sources. A good radio livens up the dullest flight. You just never know what it will do. Well, actually you, because they follow every version of murphy's law that ever was.

So, when you wish to convey something of importance and immediate relevance, such as 'this air is not suitable for novices', as happened to me one evening, or 'I will be landing at such-and-such spot in five minutes and it is in the opposite direction to the way I said I was going to fly before I launched' - there is, of course, no con- ceivable way that anything will be received, at least by anyone that matters.

Whether these messages are actually transmitted could be a subject for a post doctoral thesis on space-time continuums. If they are, then there must be a huge repository of them somewhere. Anyone gaining access to it should be able to trace many pilots' entire life histories, just supposing that there was a web browser tailored to searching through it. Conversely, of course, should you inadvertently curse - not that any of you do, you understand - or if you should be chatting with someone about the hamburgers you at for lunch, then every syllable, complete with tone and inflections, will be meticulously both transmit- ted and received far and wide.

Skips will jump several hundred kilometers, and the content will be relayed from HG to sailplane to base stations to 747's, and pretty soon multinational astronauts will be coming back with requests for details on the fries and gravy. We must realise that the humble hamburger is very likely a much dreamt of luxury for those marooned space men, and seeds of discontent must not be sewn. This must be the real reason behind the regulations against frivolous talk over the air bands.

Partial receptions are always good IQ tests. Notice I say receptions, as the rela- tionship between transmissions and receptions seems to be an unknown akin to life after death; you just are not able to be at both ends at once - at least until

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www hpac ca Spring   we all fly with flight recorders, and until there is a UTM zone line running plumb now and then too, but so far I have not. hijacking of HGs and PGs becomes a through the middle of Calgary, don't Myself, by the time I get away from the problem, this is hardly likely. Come to you?, declination - this one is for real in office and all the PCs, RAMs, DRAMS, think of it, close to some international bor- Canada, and possibly angle of dangle. SDRAMS, RAMBUSSES, GIS, GPS, SA, ders, this could be not so far fetched. 'You UTMs, NADs, EDMs, TTMs, TINs, DEMs, vil vly me to town Greener Grass in coun- We will have no trouble at all charting our DTMs, PLYs, GWN, USTN, UCMs, BATs, try of Utopia or I vill shoot you to death, course, following our coordinates, CFGs, GBs, NSs, routing, cabling, trans- avter ve land.' How about a section on inputting our requirements, and obtaining fers, protocols, gender benders, pass- hijacking in the tandem manual? It should- projections of our necessary speed and words, codes, equipment that is NFG n't be boring. I digress. Take the word heading to fly to arrive precisely at our right out of the box, incompatibilities, mul- 'die', or was it 'dying'? - on its own. No intended goal and at an equally precisely titudinous mismatching formats and one in their right mind would say they pre-calculated time. Plainly we will have medias, data recorders and downloaders were dying, would they? Obviously, their no difficulty evaluating the windspeeds ...anyone in this domain will have their battery is dying, maybe for their vario or along the intended route. Why, we can own pet list, I have had enough of it! For radio, so we just won't hear anything call up any number of meteorological pleasure and fun, I want as little of all this more from them till they show up some- services, which should be able to auto- as possible. where. Great, let's have a beer! Too bad matically input a steady stream of data to we will have to drink theirs too! You know, our equipment. Once I am airborne, in a sense, I don't one day, the message really was, 'I am care where I am, just that I am flying. In going to die'. It was one of those What do you mean, you have never fact, I quite like that I simply disappear for episodes, although happily he thought heard of Yahk? Actually, we could do the several hours. With my simple gaze that wrong, and lived. whole thing from our PC at home, without has retained its long range faculties very all the messy details of not having a driv- well, I find I can tell where I am quite Never mind for a moment whether or not er, wearing out the SUV, getting cold, effectively. As to how high, the mountains we can tell anyone what we are doing or scared or sweaty and dirty. We could get are a pretty good yardstick, and vario where we are going right now, so long as a much better print out from the laser than does his job, although the pit of my stom- we know. Providing we have taken the the minuscule inkjet we plug in to the cig- ach, which requires no batteries or pro- few simple steps of programming all the arette lighter. You mean you don't have gramming, also tells a story. Some of the world's airports' coordinates into our one of those yet? sensations that flow from my hands, along GPS, along with some of the more likely my arms and through my shoulders tell me places we might actually fly to, have As a friend pointed out one day, it is so all sorts of things about the air and ther- flown the requisite umpteen sledders to much more satisfying to know that instead mal conditions I am actually in, and the calculate our polar - we won't discuss pilot of having flown about forty-five kliks, you clouds and soaring birds tell me things weight gain just now, have successfully flew 38.2, or as I can imagine that about the air currents in other places. My correlated all the corrections between the instead of 'blasting me out of there like a ears, dulled as they may be from years of input from our airspeed indicator, our cork out of a bottle', it was 1813.02 fpm air driven equipment, loud stereos, and GPS, and perhaps that polar, for 79.75 secs. just plain years, still hear the sound of the and have kept it straight in wind going by with so many varying our head - no, in our pro- At least when we do get down on the tones, and my face can feel the coolness gramming, that altitude ground again, even if noone else knows or warmth of that same air. In this, per- does not require a correc- where we are and how great our adven- haps the most free environment I know, in tion, have correctly set our ture has been, or even we do not our- the absence of a bank of electronic beeps launch altitude in relation to selves, it is comforting to relax in the and bops requiring constant attention, I our potential LZs, bearing in knowledge that we can check our invest- can enjoy - what do you think? Free mind AGLs, MSLs, Ms, ft, ments and make whatever trades we flight !! inches or mms of mercury, deem necessary - providing our cell time zones, phone is not so small that we cannot find One of my friends with whom I fly most UTM zones it without our glasses on. We will assume regularly does not even own a vario, let - you do that we were thoughtful enough not to for- alone all the other wizardry. Know what? know get those glasses, or the little gizmo with He flies, perhaps not quite always, but which we connect the cell to the palm PC. most often, higher, further, and for longer Further, now that the location of any cell than any of the rest of us - and his wing is phone can be traced once it is turned on, not new either. we can be retrieved with no problem. At least the cell phone can, even if it is in I read several articles now about HG bears stomach. Biologists need to develop pilots who have sort of re-adopted a slow- an environmentally acceptable puke er wing. The more usual term for these potient for the retrieval of non- biodegrad- wings is beginner or novice, but since able cellular telephones from man eating these are very far from beginner pilots, I carnivores. As a Parks Canada warden am just calling it slower, which they are. It once remarked to me, 'we do not want the seems they are having a lot of fun, and bears to have indigestion'. Please fly in they are also competing with them, in var- digestible, biodegradable clothing. ious ways. What about a meet where the big rule is, "No electronic wizardry"? In Me, I like my simple vario, with numerals the interests of safety, I am sure we would large enough I can read it without my have to allow radios. All the rest - leave it glasses on, and buttons big enough I can all behind. press them with gloves on. It dies every How about it - free flight anyone...? Spring  www hpac ca The Nationals Left to Right... Barry Bateman Andre Nadeau Tyler Borradaile Chris Muller Paul Thordarson Phil Siscoe

Shots from Jayson Biggins

Jayson gets ready

Spring launch at Woodside

www hpac ca Spring  he S.O.G.A. club competition has always been a primarily fun event, with friendly rival- Tries and spot landings for entertainment!

Last year we decided to alter the X.C. scoring system to take into account the ever-chang- ing conditions in Ontario. (Three days of comp-one rained out, one perfect-one blown out) The tasks were all open distance, the furthest pilot would have his distance multiplied to one thousand and all other competitors would have their mileage multiplied by the same factor. It actually worked out! - The lead pilot always received the maximum points-no mat- ter how far he flew, and the rest of the competitors always scored no matter how far (or not!) they flew. A real confidence boost for some of the less experienced pilots. Prizes were awarded for spot and X.C. but the scores were kept separate so that those that didn’t want to go (or couldn’t) could always try for the spot points.

The second day of competition dawned with winds W.S.W. 10-15 K, puffy cumies started early and the pilots rushed into line by the dollies. Ken Kinze all business and on the launch cart first, had a good tow and was soon on his way. Most of the pilots got under way in one tow and conditions were good all day long.

Ken took the day with an outstanding flight of 81 miles landing just short of Orillia fol- lowed by Joe Hockin with an excellent 53 miler that was cut short by Georgian bay (he landed on the beach in Collingwood!) Martin McLeod came in third with a 42 miler. The rest of the field was as follows: Steve Younger 30.5 , Mike Gates 22 , Gary Ticknor 21, John Pop 16.5 and last a rookie, Shane Wright with 15 miles.

The last day was virtually blown out and most of the pilots decided to stay home, strong Westerly winds gusting 25-30 K were called for and only the die hards (sorry-optimistic) set up. As you can tell the winds abated somewhat at the end of the day and Ken again beat out the rest of the pack with a hard fought 28 miles. The rookie Shane followed with a 17 mile flight which seriously threatened Joe Hockin’s second place standing as Joe was not going to bother to compete that day. He called from Toronto and upon hearing that we were setting up, raced up to fly just before the window closed! Gary managed to fly 7.1 miles, Joe 7 ,I man- aged only 6 miles after getting dumped in the turbulent air and watched Shane sail over me at 5 grand! Martin faired even worse with a 1.7-mile hop!

The final scores for the X.C. portion are as follows; 1st Ken Kinze………….2000pts 2nd Joe Hockin………….905 pts 3rd Shane Wright……….792pts 4th Martin McLoud……..579pts 5th Gary Ticknor……..512pts 6th Mike Gates………..486pts 7th Steve Younger……377pts 8thJ ohn Pop…………204pts

In the spot-landing portion Rick Hines nailed the spot on his first try, dead center! (The spot was laid out like a dart board-no pun intended) and recieved50 points for his trouble, fol- lowed by Kevin Thompson who also nailed dead center for 50. Steve Younger made the spot (but not in the center bullseye) for 10 points. Many other tries were made but as the pilots were unable to hit in the spot they made no points.

The final scores were as follows; 1st Rick Hines………….50pts 2nd Kevin Thompson…...50pts (2nd flight tie breaker ) 3rd Steve Younger……...10pts

Special thanks go out to Christene Nidd who put hundreds of miles in her car chasing pilots, Joel, Greg and Steve for driving the tug and to Pam and Graham for their assistance as ground crew.

As meat head for the second year running I can honestly say that I personally had a lot of fun at this competition, there were no incidents/accidents and we all had a good laugh. I would recommend any pilots to come over to S.O.G.A. and experience the fun and easy airtime!

Mike Gates  Spring  www hpac ca H a n g G l i d i n g a n d P a r a g l i d i n g A s s o c i a t i o n o f C a n a d a # 1 3 , 1 3 6 7 0 - 8 4 A v e , S u r r e y , B . C . , C a n a d a V 3 W 0 T 6 P h . & F a x : 1-6 0 4 - 5 0 7 - 2 5 6 5 A P P L I C A T I O N F O R 2 0 0 0 M E M B E R S H I P

HPAC MEMBERSHIP Full membership in the HPAC: with all the benefits and privileges. Worldwide $3 Million third party liability insurance. Aero club of Canada / FAI membership. Air or Sur Vol Magazine Subscription. Choose one of the following:

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www hpac ca Spring  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 Canadien 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; e. 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 towing programs and activities as well as all other competitions, fly-ins, training sessions, clinics, 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: ______Print Name: ______Address: ______Phone: ______Date: ______

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Spring  www hpac ca Golden Airtime hours into his 2.5 hour flight. He wanted As I followed a ridge line away from the ...continued from pg. 12 to know what my position was. mountain, the vario beeped once more. "Well O.K. just one more." I banked the now been flying for over an hour, and I My reply was, "I’m directly above the glider and lazily began to climb again. hadn’t seen anyone in the air besides the summit of Mt. 7 still duke’n it out with the This is crazy I thought to myself. It is after initial paraglider. At 10,500 feet the two local boys." At that point Peter, Serge 9:00 and I’m hitting better lift than I’ve shapes below get very small, the air is and I were the only ones still in the air. I had mid afternoon on some flights. I only cool, and the space around you is limitless later found out that the two Cold Lake climbed about 600 ft before I left the ther- ... until you spot another glider. There pilots, Guy and Corey, had gone south mal and continued toward the LZ. Peter was one at my altitude coming back from (25 km). It was Corey’s first ever cross and Serge were now well away from the the south end of Mt. 7, and another one country flight. James Lintott of Medicine mountain and heading slowly for the LZ as working its way up the spine north of the Hat and Charlse from Vancouver had well. summit. flown, but I don’t know where they finally ended up. Since Peter and Serge were As we flew over the middle of the valley, Tom was also airborne by now and we still up, I figured I was in good company an evening convergence had set up and discussed the conditions over the radio. and was willing to keep flying as long as there was lift everywhere. The view of the Both of us were experiencing sink at that they were. valley in the purplish twilight from 4000 moment. He was barely maintaining sev- feet above the LZ was awesome. Some of eral hundred feet above the summit and I Sometimes you get a particular instance the street lights in Golden had now come was on a steady descent from my perch at during a flight that sticks in your mind like on the town looked like SPARKLING 10,500 feet. He suggested that we were a photograph, only it’s more vivid than a GOLDen. probably just between cycles and we just photo because it is three dimensional. needed to hang on till the next thermal One such instance occurred when I had It was time to pull in the bar and get seri- came through. just flown out of a thermal that was drift- ous about getting my feet back on the ing me east of the summit. It was taking ground. Bar to my waist and a few steep Since I had hooked such a good thermal me too far back and I wanted to get back turns finally got the glider descending. It in the bowl north of the summit, I decided out in front of the mountain again. was ironic that the hardest that I’d have to to return there to find lift to get me back up work all flight, would be trying to get again. The bowl did not disappoint me, I was flying in a straight line to the west, down! and up I went again. I revisited this area and just about over the summit at 9800, half a dozen times throughout this flight when I noticed Serge was flying straight My daughter’s (Nikkia) voice came over when the altitude tank was getting low. It out as well just off my right wing,. Peter the radio, "Dad, where are you?" "I’m was like pulling up to the gasoline pumps was off my left wing doing exactly the 3000 feet directly above you," I replied. and saying "fill’er up," and up I’d go. same thing. It was like we were formation "Can you see me waiving at you," she One of the thermals was soooooo big, flying without any prior communication. said. "No," I said, "you look like a little (how big was it?) ... it was so big that I 45 degrees to the right the sun was get- dot from up here." To which she replied, flew straight for 10 seconds and the climb ting low over the Purcells, and at the same "I’m jumping up and down. Can you see rate was still increasing. Just out of habit angle to the left a full moon was creeping the dot moving up and down?" Of I began to circle and went right back up into the sky. course I told her I could. to 10,500. Formation flying above Mount Seven and Serge landed first (4.5 hours flight time), The Purcell Mountains were beginning to the sun and the moon in opposing posi- then I came in two minutes later (3.5 hours cast a shadow on the entire valley. I knew tions: A 3D image that words can hardly flight time), and Peter landed two minutes it would not be too much longer before do justice, but an image I’ll not soon for- after me (4 hours flight time). My wife that shadow would start to creep up the get. and kids greeted me with an icy cold slopes that had so consistently provided Coke! me with lift. I figured that I had probably With the light starting to fade, I began to been up there a while when the Gob wonder when to land. On most flights, They helped to quickly disassemble the Stopper gum, which my son Conner had the lift runs out long before the light does. glider before the mosquitoes had a given to me prior to the flight, began to It was now just after 9:00 p.m. and there chance to fill up on their drink of choice. disintegrate in my mouth. was no sign of the lift running out. From It was hugs for all, as we discussed what this height a straight glide to the LZ would a spectacular flight it had been. They should put a warning label on the still take 30 minutes. Just as I was pon- gum package stating, "This gum will self dering how much light there would still be Thanks to Tom for helping me get off the self-destruct in two hours." in 30 minutes, Peter and Serge began fly ramp. Thanks to Peter for guiding me north toward launch. around the sky over the mountain in his Another indication it was getting late was back yard. And thanks to my family for my wife’s last radio transmission, "John, I took this to mean that they too were get- their support. there is no sun in the landing field, and ting ready to head for the LZ. However, we’re getting eaten by mosquitoes. We on a warm summer evening floating A candle light (Coleman lantern actually) are going back to the campground to get around in endless light puffy thermals, it’s dinner at 10:30 was the conclusion to a more clothes. We will be back in a bit." difficult to ignore lift and fly straight to the perfect day. I didn’t fly cross country and The sun was getting lower and I could see landing field. It’s kind of like a kid walk- it wasn’t my longest flight, but sharing the Tom heading out into the valley. ing to school and finding all kinds of air with friends at a special site, like things to investigate before actually get- Mount Seven in Golden British Columbia, When he got to the landing field, he used ting there. The destination is inevitable, is what flying is all about! the radio in my truck to contact me. The but definitely not the focus. battery on his radio had shut down 1.5 www hpac ca Spring  Transport Canada Rescues at Mt. 7 refer to as BC Med. There may be other ...continued from pg. 15 ...continued from pg. 18 plans, but for ordinary folks, this is the THE COSTS one, and it works. Now, many of us have Requirement to carry an altimeter: the premiums paid for through our The current CARs specify that a hang glid- There is nothing new about the allocation of costs, more than the reduced costs from employment, and a number of those er flying in Class E must carry an altime- employers have extended benefits plans. ter. less flying time. Flying time also depends on more than point of dispatch. There is Whichever way, we are covered. This BC The CARAC has approved an amendment Med coverage pays for the lions share of to this regulation. A hang glider must search time and rescue site location to consider, and there can be others. For the ambulance services. There is a minimum now carry an altimeter in all controlled fee of $54, and Golden to Calgary last airspace. This change just acknowledges time being whether we or you get a bill is dependent upon whether or not it is an summer was $137. But pay attention now that hang gliders can fly in Class B, C and - that is NOT the full cost. D airspaces and removes a potential loop- ambulance call. This means whether an hole. ambulance would be called for due to pilot injuries. I happened to have to assist a friend with ambulance trip fees recently, and in the Aerotowing: The current regulation envelopes were cards describing some specifies that a person operating a Flight So, picture a pilot hurt in the middle of a field in the valley bottom, and ask the quite sobering information. One part con- Training Unit (FTU) can use ultralight air- tains the preamble over how the ambu- craft to tow hang gliders for the purpose question, does this need an ambulance? If the answer is yes, then an ambulance lance costs are subsidised by the BC of providing hang gliding flight instruc- Government for residents of BC covered tion. should be called for. There is a discussion about where the injured person is, and by BC Med insurance. The other side pres- The CARAC has approved an amendment ents a different reality. that specifies that a FTU can use ultralight very quickly the questions, "Is there a road?" and "Can an ambulance get aircraft to tow hang gliders for recreation- For Non-Residents/Non-Beneficiaries, the al flights as well. there?" get asked. When the answer is plainly "No", because this person is not in costs are $396 for ground service, The significance of this change is obvious. $2400 per hour for helicopter service, After a pilot completes its training, he can a hay field but in the middle of a cliff half way up a mountain, this is the point at and $6 per statute mile for fixed wing continue to be aerotowed for recreational service. While you are absorbing this, do flying, something that is not currently per- which to start requesting a helicopter res- cue. In these cases then, the helicopter not think that these costs will not increase mitted by the CARs but is happening on a over time. regular basis at Canadian flight parks. takes the place of the ambulance, and its cost are charged as such. Note however, that recreational aerotow- Now lookup your own personal medical ing is still permitted only at FTUs. Note If you are properly covered with medical coverage. Does it cover out-of-province also that there are some conditions that costs? This applies equally to BC pilots must be met before aerotowing operations insurance, then no bill is issued for the res- cue. More about the medical coverage going elsewhere as to non-BC pilots com- can begin. I will address these in a future ing here. Of course, ambulance fees are article. later. If the answer to the need for an ambulance is a "No", then we or you will just part of out-of-province costs that may be getting the bill - and this is where our be incurred. There are all sorts of medical Flight Training: Presently, a "person" and emergency insurance plans all over cannot conduct flight training for a glider Contingency Fund comes in, because then one of the designated site persons will the place. I must urge everyone to look up (including hang glider and paraglider) these boring details and make sure you unless they are a club, school or other assess the need and if appropriate autho- rise the rescue to proceed, acknowledg- are covered. When you get right down to organization. the number of days or length of time that The CARAC has approved an amendment ing that the costs will be invoiceable to our fund. you need this coverage for, as a HG/PG that specifies that a person can now con- pilot, for most it is not really that long that duct flight training as well. That is self- you are away from home base. The plan explanatory. Alpine personnel in Golden know that we have the funds in place to adequately that I know of, thanks to Fred Wilson, and which Andre has highlighted too, is Note that the new regulations are not cover this scale of cost, and they will pro- ceed. If the pilot in need of rescue has not through the Canadian Automobile effective yet. I will advise the HPAC mem- Association. bers when that has occurred. Also note contributed to our fund, then there will be that I am using "hang glider" throughout the discussion of who IS going to pay, and their personal family and/or friends will The CAA has a plan that you as a third this article. I do not wish to offend party can even sign up a visitor for who paraglider pilots but a paraglider is a be invited to put down their credit cards on it. We have to hope that the event of does not speak either of our languages. hang glider so the CARs apply to Start from www.caa.ca and browse from paragliders as well. no contribution, and no solvent family or friends does not arise. there. It is divided into provinces, and all have 800 numbers. At the last count it I intend to make this a regular column in was of the order of $2 per day for a plan the AIR. The next article will look at my MEDICAL COVERAGE This has been brought up a number of that would look after everything from planned efforts for this year. Bureaucracy crash to getting home. Read the small never stops. times, by people like Fred Wilson, Andre Nadeau and others, and I am going to go print of course, and ask questions - things do change. Fly safe, through it some more. The lack of it was highlighted by the horrendous situation that a Quebec pilot got into one or two Hoping you all protect yourselves fully - Andre Nadeau and then never need to use it. Transport Canada Liaison winters ago, and I dare say there are oth- ers. This site is in British Columbia. So, those of us who live here make use of the Peter Bowle-Evans British Columbia Medical Plan, which we Spring  www hpac ca airtech

more gliders or other soaring craft, should use Q. Are there other FM Frequencies we any reasonable method that will allow for can use? the identification of their station. We sug- A. The Department would be extremely gest that you use "Hang glider SUR- reluctant to allocate any other such spec- Radio trum outside of the Aviation Band. Soaring NAME" as a means of identification. Q & A's is an aeronautical service and should Q: Would Regulations re aircraft radios have it's radio communication needs serv- ndustry Canada & Spectrum discourage, if not prohibit, air to ground iced from within the aeronautical bands. Management are here to answer ques- communication, unless the ground is a As a national group, if more frequencies tions on radios and frequencies; and to I control tower? are required then this should be sufficient- provide a couple of "news items on the A: No. Quite the contrary. Soaring pur- ly put together in a comprehensive letter topic. This is a timely topic due to an poses includes ground crew communica- of intent to the Department and possibly increasing proliferation of Radio types tions. Nav Canada as well. and frequencies in the sport. Q: Can additional frequencies be obtained for special events / competi- Comment The HPAC has been issued two official fre- tions? One frequency gets jammed. Illegal use of commercial FM frequencies quencies for Air to Air and Air to Ground is becoming an increasing problem in operations: 123.4 MHz Aircraft Band for NEWS Canada. Many pilots use a local frequen- Soaring Purposes and 173.64 MHz FM A. It is possible to be granted authority by cy but fail to realize that a commercial FM for Hang Gliding Club Use. Industry Canada, on a short term basis, to frequency is resold to many different com- use other aeronautical frequencies in the panies in different regions of each There are other radio types in use, includ- General Aviation Communication (GAC) province. Example: a business band sold ing HAM and the Family Radio Service, band for hang gliding purposes during in Kelowna will be resold in Kamloops. but this article will begin by focusing on special events. For authorization of specif- Secondly, outside of 173.64, commercial our two official channels. Q's come from ic frequencies, the event organizer should FM frequencies are sold with the expecta- the HPAC forum. Answers are from contact the local office of Industry tion that they will be used for ground Spectrum Management. Canada well in advance of the scheduled based transmissions. As soon as you gain altitude the probability of interfering with Aircraft Radios event. (up to 60 days) As long as the fre- quencies to be used are for hang gliding other users increases. There are many benefits to using Aircraft operation and are in the aeronautical band - often stated, but still worth repeat- mobile band, there is no fee associated The advantage of FMs the possibility to ing. It remains the easiest way to both file with this authority. engage in idle chit-chat with flying bud- your HAGAR and get an up to date dies in the air. But once again, many weather forecast. It allows you to land at If deemed necessary, Industry Canada pilots are using the radios illegally and some airports and to fly through uncon- may direct the event organizer to liase ignorantly - they don't know that there are trolled airports. with a contact person in NavCanada with special frequencies for repeaters, special respect to coordinating this short term communications purposes, restricted fre- Q. What licenses and fees apply to operation. quencies, and the like. You can't just go Aircraft Radios? picking any frequency and start talking. A. Aircraft Radios on board aircraft no FM Radios So the apparent infinity of channels that longer require licensing fees or registra- Q. Is there a designated FM Frequency FM provides is only an illusion. You can tion in Canada and the USA. A consider- for Hang Gliding in Canada? legally transmit on just one frequency. able cost savings over a lifetime. A. Yes. 173.64 MHz is designated for "Hang Gliding Club Use." It is a Private HAM Radios From a licensing aspect, the radios on the Commercial Band shared with the Message, Caps locks from Spectrum ground require a license. "This becomes Canadian Ski Patrol and the Royal Management "I can't emphasize strongly some what of a hard sell when you are Canadian Golf Association and is restrict- enough except to say..... AMATEUR likely dealing with the same portable ed to 1.0 watts. (HAM) RADIO EQUIPMENT CAN ONLY piece of equipment either strapped to the BE USED BY CERTIFIED AMATEUR RADIO pilot or used on the ground. Nevertheless, "The reason no hang gliding is assigned OPERATORS. As we discussed, the this is the current regulatory regime." on 173.64 is because FM radios require process of becoming certified is quite a license and no Hang Gliding clubs have arduous and time consuming. There are Q. Do I still require a Radio Operator bought a license." no regulations regarding altitude restric- Certificate? tions although the Amateur fraternity may Yes. The Radio Operator Certificate is still have self imposed limits to help prevent a requirement for anyone who may be Clubs? interference." operating the aeronautical radio equip- Yep. You heard right. Clubs are permitted ment, regardless of whether a radio to buy a bulk license for all radios in use "We are highly dubious that all your mem- license is required. by club members. Unlike other Commercial FM frequencies you are not bers are meeting the licensing require- ments of Ham radio." Q. How should I identify my hang glider, restricted to local area use. This frequency if I no longer require a radio license? is allocated for hang gliding Canada ...continued on next page A. Non-registered aircraft, such as hang wide.

www hpac ca Spring  Radios Q/A ...continued from pg. 37 www hpac ca Using a Ham Radio Air-to-Air or Air-to- Ground IS NOT illegal. However the bot- tom line is that Spectrum Management President Ratings Officer feels that it is inappropriate to use Ham Peter Bowle-Evans Gerry LaCroix radios for flying. The problem stems from Box 2035, Golden, BC, V0A 1H0 310 Bouchard Rd. repeaters. Simplex repeaters may pick up H: 250-348-2227F: 250-344-5260 Petersfield. MB, R0C 2L0 your transmission and rebroadcast it on [email protected] [email protected] another frequency. These users would Vice President Instruction have no way of reversing the process to Phil Siscoe Chris Muller speak to you to say you are creating a 502 19th Ave NW, Calgary, AB, Box 2, Site 13, RR#2 problem. T2M 0Y6 Cochrane, AB, T0L 0W0 Hm: 403-289-7750 Wk: 403-295-5419 1-403-932-6760 Cell: 403-809-7750 [email protected] With good antennas, Ham radios have [email protected] excellent range - in excess of 100 km air Competition to air without repeaters and on low power Treasurer Bernard Winkelmann output. They have nifty new features such Martin Pollach 2012 - 35 St. SW as APRS available which integrate GPS. Box 1442, Cochrane, AB, T0L 0W0 Calgary, Alberta 1-403-932-3680 1-403-249-6763 Family Radio Service [email protected] [email protected] A New service for Radio users is the Administrator Accident Review & Family Radio Service FM UHF 450 MHz Gerry LaMarsh Safety Committee Chairman frequency range. This has 14 Channels, is #13-13670 84th Ave. Ian McArthur restricted to a low: 1/2 watt power which Surrey, BC, V3W 0T6 Box 41 Heffley Creek, BC 1-604-507-2565 VOE 1ZO, Canada is good for 3-5 km and would be appli- [email protected] [email protected] cable to teaching purposes or local soar- ing. There are no Licensing requirements Air Editor Insurance or fees associated with its use. Tony McGowan Gregg Humphreys c/o 1430 Church Ave. 2388 Epworth, For further information: Winnipeg, MB, R2X 1G4 Victoria, BC, [email protected] V8R 5LI Statements from Industry Canada and 1-250-592-8428 Spectrum Management are posted on the CIVL / FAI [email protected] HPAC web site in the Safety Section Stewart Midwinter Articles. The HPAC Links page will also 213-24 Ave. NW Cross Country / FAI get you to Industry Canada and Calgary, AB, T2M 1X2 Vincene Muller [email protected] Box 2, Site 13, RR#2 Spectrum Management web sites. "The Cochrane, AB, T0L 0W0 topic of radio communication is obviously Transport Canada 1-403-932-6760 a complex one. If anyone has any doubts Andre Nadeau [email protected] or questions call any of our District Offices 1-613-837-5482 listed on our website.' [email protected]

Spectrum management does get out in their vans and hunt down evil radio B.C. Hang Gliding and Saskatchewan abusers but in reality the radio usage is built on the honour system. Paragliding Association Hang Gliding Association Mark Dowsett – BCHPA President 741 King St. Very few Paraglider pilots have bought 353 East 19th St. Regina, Sask. S4T 4E1 into Aircraft Radios. For HG / Pgers alike: North Vancouver, BC V7L 2Z4 if you are not calling in your HAGAR, Hang Gliding and 604-984-2588 don't hold your breath waiting for the Paragliding Association of HPAC Insurance policy to pay out in the Atlantic Canada event of a mid-air. It won't. Filing your Alberta Hang Gliding and 32 Chelsea Lane, Halifax, NS HAGAR is like filing a flight plan: the Paragliding Association B3M 1K9, Canada legal minimum to warn other VFR / IFR PO Box 2011, Stn M. Calgary, aviators of your presence. Alberta, T2P 2M2 L’Association Quebecois De Vol Libre On an airway, airspace above 12,500 Manitoba Hang Gliding ASL is class B, 12,500 ASL down to 4545 Pierre de Coubertin, C.P. Association 2200 AGL is class E, except a transition 1000, Succ. M, 200 Main St, Winnipeg, area (such as where there is an approach) Montreal, Quebec, H1V 3R2 and then class E goes down to 700 AGL. Manitoba, R3C 4M2 Below 2200 or 700, other than control zones, it is class G. Ontario Hang Gliding and For more info on clubs in your area Paragliding Association check out the new and improved Fred Wilson Box 151, 1792 Liverpool Rd. HPAC website @ www.hpac.ca Pickering, Ont. L1V 4V9 Spring  www hpac ca airtraffic Stuff for Sale Airwave Calypso Low airtime HG, excellent shape, light blue. Perfect first glider for less than $1500. Contact Guy at 780-594-7282 or [email protected]

Airwave Pulse 10M, 35 Hrs, Hang Gliding Champions new wires, spare base tube and down tube. 2000 Great shape! A decision has been reached on the HG Champion for 2000. In discus- sions with the competition chair, Bernard Winkleman, it became apparent $3300.00 that there was no mathematical procedure available to accommodate the Contact Dave at dual meet format that was run last year. Therefore, it has been decided that Box 336, we shall have two champions for 2000, being Chris Muller from the Lumby Stonewall, Mb meet, and Gerry Grosnegger from the Saskatchewan meet. Both names will be engraved on the trophy. Congratulations Chris and Gerry! R0C 2Z0 1-204-467-8643 REMINDER STOP THE PRESS The Manitoba Hang Gliding PG Instructor/Tandem Remember deadline Association in conjunction Course for the Summer with the Neepawa Club have just announced a April 5-8, 2001 edition of Air will be Tow Competition Savona, BC May 15, 2001. to be held this coming May Long Weekend. $ 300 for 4 days The comp will be a $ 175 for recertification If you do not see your pre-cursor to the possible article in this issue it hosting of the 2002 Tow Nationals Instructor Requirements: will be in the by the MHGA. HPAC Intermediate rating The competition will be held Tandem Requirements: Summer edition, in the town of Neepawa,Mb HPAC Advanced Rating so don’t worry. May 19 to 21, 2001. (with Advanced Manouevers course recommended) I still need some Contact: Meet Head John Rempel @ Seminar in Savona Location to great photos...so send 204-667-8464 for more info be determined. Space is limited, them in and you could please book early! be on the next cover. If you got the time come on out and explore the XC Email is: [email protected] potential of this fantastic site www.flybc.org Email Articles to and get a jump on next 604-618-5467 year. It’ll be tons of fun!! Sponsored by FlyBC Paragliding [email protected] www hpac ca Spring  For more details on these adventures go to www.iparaglide.com

Fly Hard Southwestern USA, April 7 to April 22, 2001. Join us for a 16-day "Fly Hard" adventure tour through California, Nevada, and Arizona USA. The tour will commence in San Diego, California on Saturday April 7 and end in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday April 22. On April 16, 17, 18 we will meet up with Anne and Enleau O’Connor at Lake Havasue for Simulation of Flight Incidents (SFI) training.

3-Day Simulation of Flight Incidents (SFI) Clinic, April 16, 17, 18, 2001, Lake Havasue, USA. We teach you recovery and prevention techniques for all possible unintention- al, non-standard flight occurrences. We will emulate the entire series of DHV test maneuvers that are used to certify your glider. In this manner, you will gain valuable insight of the DHV test Calender process and see first-hand how your glider reacts at the limits of the flight envelope. Emphasis during the course will be on: deliberately inducing the particular non-standard flight configuration to understand how it may occur inadvertently; maintaining the configuration to be able to see and recognize when it has occurred; and then learning the most efficient techniques of Events for rapid recovery to normal flight. Your instruction team will be comprised of Anne and Enleau O'Connor, top US aerobatic pilots of Seattle Aerobattle fame. These pilots have executed thou- sands of aerobatic maneuvers and have mastered control of their gliders at the limits of the flight envelope. They are capable of controlled changes of heading during spins and stalls, backward flying, asymmetric spirals, loops and the all-new SAT maneuver!

For your safety, all clinics will be conducted over a lake with a rescue boat on standby. We use a specialized tow rig and boat to tow you to three thousand feet above the lake where you will release and begin your routines while guided from the shore by your instructor.

Fly Hard Central West USA, April 28 - May 13, 2001. Join us for a 16-day "Fly Hard" adventure tour through California, Nevada and Utah USA. The tour will commence in San Francisco, California on Saturday April 28 and end in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday May 13. We will have the great opportunity to meet up with top US aerobatic pilots Anne and Enleau O'Connor of Seattle Aerobattle fame (Redding, California). They will be available for guiding and for theory sessions and question/answer periods.

Fly Hard Northwestern USA, May 19 to June 3, 2001. Join us for a 16-day "Fly Hard" adventure tour through Washington, Oregon and Idaho USA. The tour will be a circuit, com- mencing in Seattle on Saturday May 19 and ending back in Seattle on Sunday June 3.

Fly Hard Beautiful British Columbia, September 1 to September 16, 2001. Join us for a 16-day "Fly Hard" tour through British Columbia (BC) Canada. The tour will commence in Vancouver, Saturday August 18 and end in Calgary, Alberta on Sunday September 2. This will be a great opportunity to fly with Dani Loritz, Firebird test pilot and one of the world’s top aero- batics pilots.

Fly Hard Southern Europe, September 22 to October 7, 2001. Details to be announced. Dani Loritz, Firebird test pilot, world class aerobatics pilot, and close personal friend, will be organizing this for us. Not sure exactly where, but Dani knows Southern Europe better than any- one, and this trip is guaranteed to be GEIL! (Swiss slang for "the best?").

Fly Hard Mexico, November 17 to December 2, 2001. Join us for a 16-Day day "Fly Hard" adventure tour through Mexico. The tour will commence on the Pacific in Puerto Vallarta on Saturday, November 17 and traverse Mexico arriving at the beautiful waters of the Gulf of Mexico in Vera Cruz to depart December 2.

CANADA Canada’s first paragliding e-commerce site has been launched at iparaglide.com. The site offers convenient, fast and safe on-line shopping for the very finest paraglider brands including Airwave, Firebird, Gin, Nova, Ozone, Renschler, Sup’Air, Windtech and XIX. Also available is every imaginable accessory from large to small: harnesses, reserves, safety equipment, instru- ments, clothing, books, videos and cd-roms. Worldwide delivery is available to your door. The firm is first to offer paragliding adventure tours that span the entire west coast of North America. The flight school offers advanced levels of training with world class pilots flown in for mentoring at clinics including simulation of in-flight incidents and aerobatic maneuvers.

Big Vision Productions, iparaglide.com’s sister company, presents the new digitally mastered video, Seattle Aerobattle, North America’s paragliding aerobatics championship. Marvel in the energy of extreme aerial maneu- vers beyond the cutting edge of the sport, including controlled change of heading during spins and stalls, asymmetric spirals, and loops. Witness a successful reserve parachute deployment when a competitors maneuver goes awry. Set to high-energy music, this video is a surreal play of color, sound, and mind-bending moves that will take you higher.

Spring  www hpac ca