April 2000

Please read this report carefully and remember what I am going to tell you for many years to come.

Colin Fay and I met with Nate McKeen of Vermont State Parks. Here is the scoop. The special use permit is being reinstated beginning this spring. The fee is being increased to $350.00. The apostle list is being cut to 12 people. The new gate padlock system with key entry only will begin this spring. All grading and planting required under the amended act 250 permit must be completed this spring.

That’s the good news. The bad new is, as we already know, the incident on the south launch is a major black mark with the State. In the words of Dean Wormer we are now on "double secret probation". All kidding aside we all have a responsibility to be vigilant of our flying brothers actions. If you see some one you do not know that is planning on flying ask to see there USHGA card, make sure appropriate waiver have been signed, and make sure they know the rules!

The State of Vermont rules for Hang Gliding and paragliding only allow these activities at Ascutney and Burke Mountains. The State also owns land on Killington, Mansfield (Stowe), Okemo, and Stratton mountains. Any flying at other than Ascutney and Burke is PROHIBITTED. Furthermore illegal activity on State land jeopardizes our flying privileges at Ascutney and Burke.

I do not like to single out the paragliding community but it appears most of the illegal activity have revolved around their activities. Because of paragliders weight and concealabilty, the temptation is there to fly when permission from the landowner has not been granted.

If you did not like loosing the south launch and the special use permit for a year how does loosing all flying at Ascutney permanently sound!

It is every member’s responsibility to be vigilant. If you hear of any activity that’s questionable get the details and let one of the club officers know immediately. Covering up for your flying buddies, as in the past, does not cut it.

Whether you like rules or not these are the rules. Break them and suffer the consequences.

Agenda for April 22, 2000

7:30 PM sharp there will be a first aid discussion. A representative from Golden Cross ambulance will give a brief talk and review the material that is in the new first aid kits that will be placed at Ascutney and west Rutland. This should be informative for every one.

Please take the time to read the proposed new wording for article IX of the bylaws.

The old wording of article IX did not leave the club any way to remove a member. This has left the club with no clout for misconduct.

The goal of the rewording is to have in place language that hopefully will deter actions by individuals that could lead to expulsion from the club and the lose of flying privileges at the sites VHGA controls. My sincere hope is article IX never needs to be used.

We have tried to make the wording such that the process is very specific with responsibility divided between the officers and the members. The officers will do the investigating and the members will determine the punishment.

As worded it will take a petition of 4% of the members for action to be taken against anyone. Our membership has been at least 150 for quite some time. 4% is at least six people. Six people mean the officers would not be able to take action on their own. Six people should be a high enough number that frivolous accusations will not be brought against anyone.

The vote for punishment will require 25% of the general membership to be present at the meeting and it will take a 2/3 vote for any punishment to take place. These numbers are high on purpose. Suspending or expelling some one is serious and should require this large a vote.

If you have any comments or do not approve of any of the wording make sure you attend the April 23^rd meeting.

Letter from the Editor

I am encouraging any member of the VHGA to submit articles to the VHGA Newsletter. Any article submitted will be considered for possible publication. The editor reserves the right to publish and edit any articles submitted. The editor will accept classified ads pertaining to hang gliding and paragliding. Classified ads must be resubmitted if you wish them to be published in the next VHGA newsletter. Articles, classified and upcoming events may be submitted to the VHGA Newsletter at

Spring Training- Hang Gliding Style

By the time this is read many of our club members will have gone south to some flight park bordering on Disney World. This grapefruit league process of sorts will afford many pilots the opportunity to break in new gliders, equipment and old muscle memory.

The New England Hang Gliding season is a strange one. It begins with the high-pressured playoffs and ends with light spirited foliage flying. The strongest air many of us will face this year will be on our first flights. This could be an invitation to great adventure or potential trouble. Not only will those strong air launches challenge flying instincts just removed from winter storage, but long flights to unknown landing fields demand the best practiced approach skills.

I myself hope to get some spring training in early April. If all goes well it will be on a new hybrid glider that will call for newly learned flying techniques. I wish everyone’s southern trip brings them warm weather fun flying. I also hope that it helps us all be safer as we enter the playoffs. Years ago every Spring, I used to go to Henson’s Gap with Steve Arndt and Richie Laporte for the old East Coast Championships. It was great to return home "locked in" to my glider and going XC and I think it made me a better-prepared pilot.

Next year I hope we can all communicate and work together even more to plan our spring trips. For those of us that will not have the chance this year I urge you to get to Morningside early on the cloudy dead air days to work on those take off and landings. But if you see some gritty guy streaking around in some 40+ span glider LOOK OUT! He’s probably an out of control student driver-J

Special Thanks to the Skyline Towing Club

The VHGA Board of Directors would like to thank the charter members of the Skyline Towing Club for their donation. Recently the VHGA received a letter from the Skyline Towing Club stating that their club has not operated for many years. All their physical assets were sold off and all that remains is $687.77 left in their treasury. The ten charter members were polled and agreed to donate the remaining money to the VHGA. They feel that the VHGA has contributed much to the sport of hang gliding in the area that most of the charter members fly in.

To show our appreciation the VHGA Board of Directors has decided to give the ten charter members of the Skyline Towing Club a free year membership in the VHGA. Once again we would like to thank the Skyline Towing Club for their generous donation.

APOSTLE LIST

VHGA Tee Shirts

As a result of numerous requests for these shirts I have invested my own money and donated my time to this effort. While visiting Wallaby Ranch I contracted artist Lori Sanchez to have the Vermont Hang Gliding Association's tee-shirt logo re-created. The logo is similar to the past but with a choice of 'farm animal' flying a modern topless hang glider over the green mountains of sunny seasonal Vermont. The club name in script below but with more choices for glider colors, farm animals, and seasons with cleaner lines. The screen printer's has really gone-out-of-his-way to accommodate lots of glider colors (red, blue, teal, and purple), seasonal Vermont green mountain scenes (summer, fall, winter, spring), farm animal scenarios (Holstein bull, sheep), sizes (XL, L, and a few M). All on 100% white cotton shirts (short sleeve, long sleeve, and long sleeve hooded), while keeping the prices very reasonable. The current prices are $12.50 for the tee shirts, $14.50 for the long sleeve shirts, and $16.50 for the hooded shirts. Many establishments charge nearly double these prices for less quality, fewer colors and mediocre creativity.

I would appreciate at least enough orders to recover my costs before I transfer the graphics © ™ to VHGA. I am trying to deliver a quality product with some variety and individual customization at a reasonable price and not charge any profit to hopefully help boost the VHGA morale and; +)

I have extras for those who did not get their order in, but it will be first-come-first-serve.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these designs please send an e-mail order to GliderDude@AOL.com or phone (603) 433-3031 with your choice of size. Please indication if you prefer the Holstein bull or the sheep

What’s New at Morningside

Angelica and I have a cool baby girl- Gisele Allegra Dierks. Born 3/14 she weighed 5lb. 14 oz. She's porking out already! Thanks for your notice to include a promo for M'side in the Newsletter. My goal is to give better service each year than the year before. We will be adding more to our course of hang gliding instruction to better prepare new pilots for mountain flying. I am running the paragliding school by myself while looking for a professional instructor. There are some exciting new hang and para gliders

out this year. Our phone and website show a lot more requests for info than usual, and all indicators show an exciting new season coming!

I've been cranking out some annual inspections, and as usual uncovering some notable undiscovered damage. Some guys are keeping gliders longer than they ever had in the past, and cable fatigue is probably more of a candidate for catastrophic failure. Pilots should calculate that the more they fly the more complacent they get, and use the beginning of the season to be rigorous about practicing safety. Safety is an active pursuit, not good luck. Setup and preflight and not flying in "Bear Air" can go a long way in keeping you within an improved margin of safety. I haven't heard of any new mistakes

Lately we all seem to continue to suffer the consequences of the same old errors. We are self-regulated. Let's all share in the responsibility of keeping ourselves accident free.

Folded Wings

In February I received an email stating that hang glider pilot Ron Page had passed away from Medical complications. This email was from his brother Charlie. He was looking to notify friends of Ron. Charlie stated that Ron used to fly Vermont and Massachusetts sites until about 8 years ago when he became grounded with a seizure disorder. He stated that Ron loved to fly more than life itself. Ron’ final wishes were to be cremated and have his ashes spread over Mt. Holyoke, where he loved to fly so much. Charlie is planning to do this when the weather gets better. If there are any friends of Ron Page who would like to be at Mt Holyoke to give their final respects to Ron or would like to send their condolences to his family? Please contact Charlie Page, 366 West Mountain Rd., West Simsbury CT 06092, (860) 658-4047, cwprph@home.com.

Great Time at the XC Dinner

The annual XC dinner was a great time for all. I think the best thing of all was seeing my friends that I have not seen all winter. Seeing my friends made me realize how close the flying season is. Also how much I look forward to spending time with other pilots (even when hang waiting).

The dinner was held at Angelos Restaurant in Manchester NH and started with a short VHGA meeting. Then the festivities began with a social hour. This gave me a chance to talk to some old friends and make some new ones. I also had a chance to pick up a new VHGA tee shirt. If you have not seen these new shirts, you should get a hold of Scott Leonard. The shirts look great. Scott had them designed and produced them himself. Best of all the prices are very reasonable.

Before I knew it, dinner was being served. The dinner was an Italian smorgasbord and just as I remember from last year everything was delicious. Another thing that made the meal great was the price. At $13.00 a person including taxes and tips good deal.

After the desert it was time to get down to the awards. The trophies are made of wood in the shape of a hang glider wing. They are hand made by Steve Arndt. The are a very nice trophy that any pilot would be proud to have. This year there were nine trophies given out. Starting with ninth place was Tim Donavan with his 17-mile flight. Eighth place was given to Mark Vaughn for 18.2-mile flight. Brook Ellison took seventh for a 22.1-mile flight from Mt Greylock. Sixth place was given for a tandem flight of 25 miles. John Szarek and Suzanne Paul (a couple of real fly-ers) flight was cut shorter than possible due to Suzanne getting extremely cold and could not take it any more. Their trophy had an additional twist. It was cut in half and attached in the middle. This way they both could get their half of the trophy for the flight. Fifth place went to Jeff Bernard for a 44.5-mile flight. Our own vice-president Dennis Cavagnaro took fourth place with a 45.5-mile flight. Beating out our vice-president for third place was our president John Arrison. John had a 51.7-mile flight. Ted Hasenfus 56-mile flight was good enough for second place. The winner of the 1999 New England XC contest was Rich Laporte with a 58.6-mile flight. Best of all I heard that Rich did this on a 20-year-old glider. This goes to prove that you don’t need the newest and latest gliders to have a great flight. Just when we thought all the awards were given out, there was one more. This was the Most Innovated Landing award. It was given to our own web master Tom (Sparky) Lanning for his flight from Mt Ascutney and most innovated landing in the main LZ.

There are some very exciting changes to the New England XC Contest. The changes are going to give every one a chance to win a trophy. Breaking up pilots into 5 classes is doing this. The classes are based on the pilot’s longest flight in any previous year or by what the pilot is flying. The distance classes are broken into 3 categories 0-25 mile, 25-50 mile, and over 50 mile. The two remaining classes are tandem and paraglider. Trophies will be given in all classes. This should make the contest more interesting. Another good thing is that there is no entry fee and is open to all pilots flying any New England site including Petersburg Pass NY as long as the pilot meets all of the site requirements (including proper ratings, waivers, membership, and any thing else that may apply). The VHGA will still sponsor the competition. This year it will be the responsibility of the pilot to report their flight to the contest organizer. This year’s organizer is me, Gary Trudeau. I can be reached by phone (413) 743-0147 or by email at gtet595@aol.com. All distances must use GPS coordinates or sectional maps to ensure accuracy. The cut off date to report flights will be December 1. I would encourage everyone to report their flight as soon as possible. This way I can keep an update posted on our web site (www.vhga.org) of the top flights in each category. One last thing is that the VHGA is putting a warning out to Randy Adams. We are out to break your long-standing New England XC record of a 121.8 miles by offering a masters jacket to any pilot who can set a new New England XC record. Even if the new record is only held for a short time.

This is everyone’s chance to get into the New England XC contest. Every flight could be a contest winner. So lets have fun with some good flight and safe landings.

Note from the Secretary

The general membership recently had a meeting on 2/26/00. This is a summary of the minutes of the meeting.

No one volunteered to run the competition at the meeting. Looking for someone to organize and format the event.
A proposed date was set for weekend around July 4.

Still sponsored by the Vermont Hang Gliding Association.
No entry fee.
Open to all pilots flying any New England site including Petersburg Pass, N.Y.
Pilot must meet all site requirements (including proper rating, membership, and waivers, etc.)
New class format 0-25 miles, 25-50 miles, open class (over 50 miles), Tandem, Paraglider. The distance classes are based by the pilots longest distance flight prior to the beginning of the calendar year.
Trophies will be given in all classes.
A green master’s jacket will be given to any pilot who can break the current New England record at that time.
It is the pilot’s responsibility to report the flown distance and class to the organizer.
GPS coordinates or a sectional map will be the only thing used to determine distance flown.

Electronic Weather Station-Walter Niemi explained a little about an electronic weather station for Mt. Ascutney. This would let pilots access the current weather conditions on top of Mt. Ascutney, including wind speed, direction, and temp along with other information. Access to this up to minute information would be either by phone or by web sites. Walter also offered to sell a unit of our choice to the VHGA for cost. Dennis Cavagnaro volunteered to investigate this for the Board of Directors and the Board of Directors will make its recommendation to the membership at the April 26 meeting.

Bylaws-John Arrison suggested a possible change to the bylaws and will be voted on at the April 26 meeting. At the present time the bylaws do not allow the VHGA to punish members that break the rules of the club.

Classifieds

Hang Glider: Wills Wing HPAT 158, $1200 or best offer, Cliff Lull, (978) 544-3223

Hang Glider: Wills Wing Supersport 163 in very good condition, $1800
Rodger Furey, (508) 880-7709, furrod@aol.com

Harness: Center of Gravity 1000, blue, large-size pod harness, $250
Tom Lanning, (978) 486-3568, tom.lanning@mail.com

Hang Glider: Moyes SuperXtraLite 153 (SX5) all white, heavy 'PX20' leading and 'Powerrib' trailing edge material with centered bottom blue panel. Only one year old, in immaculate physical and excellent flying condition. Glider has the latest spring-tensioned battens, a spare down tube and control bar. It is perhaps the nicest handling and best performing glider I have had the pleasure of flying. $3000,
Scott Leonard, (603) 433-3031, GliderDude@AOL.com

Harness: Moyes Contour harness, with all the 'bells and whistles', brand new. Originally fabricated for 6', 180# pilot. $700 or consider a package deal with above SX5.
Scott Leonard, (603) 433-3031, GliderDude@AOL.com

Hang Glider: Wills Wing Fusion 150, low hours, new hang straps, extra nose cone,
camera mount and Y2K calendar all included. Asking $4,000
Mark Vaughn, (508) 877-8545, cmvjv@aol.com

Hang Glider: Wills Wing American Sport 16, $600; 3 downtubes, $45 each; Wills Wing HPAT 158 $400; Wills Wing glider bag (new) $95
Mike Garside, (518) 271-9077 (evenings), Hg4pilot@aol.com

Helmet: Perche' full face Helmet, $45, (new, pink, small)
Mike Garside, (518) 271-9077 (evenings), Hg4pilot@aol.com

Accessories: Hall wheels, 6", $20; Snap on wheels, 8", $45
Mike Garside, (518) 271-9077 (evenings), Hg4pilot@aol.com

Accessories: Drogue chute, $25
Mike Garside, (518) 271-9077 (evenings), Hg4pilot@aol.com

Hang Glider: 166 Wills Wing Ultrasport, asymmetrical color scheme blue big panel/red smaller panel with white US between. Includes folding base bar. This glider has never been flown. Glider was bought new late last fall. $3500 or best offer.
Gary Trudeau (413) 743-0147, gtet595@aol.com

Harness, Helmet: High Energy Tracer harness, made for 6'5" 230lbs. pilot, gray in color with white and yellow strips. All available options. Also included PDA parachute large size (never deployed) excellent shape also large size insider helmet. Yellow in color $600 for all.
Gary Trudeau (413) 743-0147, gtet595@aol.com

Hang Glider: Airborne Fun 160, $1,900 or B.O., NEW, sail still crisp! Only test flown last season. Original cost $2,900. Great for a smaller pilot. Free set of 12" wheels come with it.
Ken Rosenberger, (508) 866-9669, kenflyer@adelphia.net

From The President