October meeting minutes

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l.dan...@comcast.net

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Oct 17, 2017, 1:33:39 PM10/17/17
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Meeting minutes October 2017

 

1)      Event announcement for “Strong the Wind Blows” which was presented at the Velocult Bike Shop last Friday! 

 

2)      Flight reports:  Many people had nice flights at Area B flying all the way to the Iredale shipwreck and back.  Mark S had a nice flight at Sollie.  Alan went to the Can Am fly in which has been in operation for 39 years.  There is a spot landing contest between the US and Canada of which our very own David Le was last year’s champion.  He was not able to compete for the trophy this year.  The trophy is apparently very huge according to those that brought it up to the fly-in this year.  David Le talked about flying at Coup Icare in France.  There was lots of flying on the weekdays but not as much on the weekend as the weekend was consumed with costumed flying.  David had several nice 2 hour flights.  He said the best way to get local knowledge is to just go to the LZ and be friendly (a common theme for most sites).  The best costumes where a rocket which was about 20ish feet long, a Dinosaur and a witch.  Mark Sanzone took a trip to Kutch and found it to be overgrown in front of launch.  He also scouted nearby mountains for potential launches.  Jim Baldo talked about flying in Spain.  His longest flights were about 20-30km.  He said it was typical mountain flying.  Unfortunately there were two injuries.  Julian flew at the Baldy Butte fly-in which also had one serious injury which resulted in a life flight.

 

3)      USHPA board meeting is on the19- 21st in San Jose California:   https://www.ushpa.org/page/ushpa-board-meeting.  Let Mark Forbes know if there is anything you would like discussed.

 

 

4)      Dave Blizzard talked about Gale’s creek briefly.  We do not have explicit permission to fly there.  There are new clear cuts in that area.  We debated asking for permission to fly versus offering to pay for usage.  It was brought up that paying for usage can lead to liability issues for the property owner.  We also came to the conclusion that gaining access would be best served by approaching as a group rather than as individuals.  The discussion was more in depth, but for all intents and purposes we cannot fly there and it is an advanced site even if we were able to fly there (not to mention a really long hike).

 

5)      We talked a lot about the benefits of life flight (a service which can fly you to a hospital during a life threatening situation.  David B got a $43,000 flight basically for free after purchasing a $60/year policy: www.lifeflight.org.  is the website and it is very easy to sign up.  We talked about various services as well as reciprocity (your plan holder would foot the bill for another service if they are closer to you).  Life flight does offer reciprocity as opposed to Airlink.  There are also many other types of emergency coverage for other areas of the country, international ambulatory services, international medical services, repatriation services and much more.  It was suggested that you can search the paragliding forum for discussions on the topic as the forum discussions are very extensive (www.paraglidingforum.com).  It was also suggested that we have some links on our CPC website for information on these various services.  This is what we have right now:  http://www.cascadeparaglidingclub.org/pages/medical.php.  Perhaps someone who is knowledgeable on the subject can create a short document that briefly explains the different types of services as well as when each would be necessary (Jeff?).  We also discussed evacuation versus the risk of using a local hospital.  Some hospitals in second and third world countries can be very good but some can be bad and the one you go to may be dependent upon the ambulance that takes you.   www.Squaremouth.com  was mentioned as a good website to get comparisons on various insurance plans.  [If there are no objections I would suggest adding that link to our website].

 

6)      David Le gave an absolutely fabulous presentation about safety.  I will do my best to encapsulate the discussion.  He talked about a model that Ken Hudonjorgensen has used: 

a)Currency

b) Decision to fly

c) Launch skills

d) Flight

e) Landing skills

f) Debriefing

 

Currency

Dave asked “what makes you improve your skills and become safer”?

 

Responses included Flying new sites and staying current, flying competitions (pilot feedback and support), don’t  fly above your skill level, don’t focus on ratings,  use updated equipment, travel, find a mentor, listen to your instincts, analyze what pilots are doing and what is going on with other factors that are affecting flight (i.e. Weather), guided paragliding tours  and SIV clinics.  We talked more in depth about our mentorship program and how we could update the mentor section on our website (which I think it has since I last looked anyway) and ask people if they want to be listed as a mentor.

 

Decision to fly

 

You should be looking for reasons not to fly.  Assess your skills and equipment for flying the conditions of this particular day.  Check your internal and external weather:  internal weather being your mental state and readiness (are you having a bad day/week or otherwise distracted or not focused) while external weather involves the current conditions and how adequate your skills are for the conditions.

 

Launching

 

90% of accidents happen during launching and landing.  Most of those accidents happen to P2s or P4s although it we talked about how that may not be significant as more pilots are P2s and P4s (P1s are usually promoted to P2s fairly quickly and P3 is just a holding pattern on the way to P4 for many pilots).  Practice, practice, practice your launches.  Practice in high wind, low wind, no wind, forward, reverse, asymmetrical snake etc….  Some people practice pulling their glider up in big ears (not launching in ears though). 

 

Flight

 

Be proficient in your maneuvers.  Fly your wing within your skill levels.  You are relatively safe at altitude but  the planet can do damage if we aren’t ready when we get close.  Always have a goal during flight even if the flight is a sledder.  Focus on a landing spot and try to hit it.  Practice flying in ears and/or using speed bar etc….  Just make each flight an opportunity to improve your skills.

 

Landing

 

Wherever you may be (walking through a park for example), take a few moments to decide what your landing approach would be if you had to make an emergency landing right now.   Do it fast to hone in your mental skills.  Visualize surprises like rotor from a wind gust.  Mentally practice your landing when your panic button is about to be pressed:  How would you act?

 

Debriefing

 

Take time to understand each flight.  Ask questions.  Open your mind to answers.  What can we learn that can be applied in the future?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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