Ecola closed to flying

[Dave Gridley]

Morning Y'all. Heads up to the group that Ecola is closed to flying currently per officials at the park. There are some new faces at the State Park that have had some recent experiences with pilots not respecting closed signs, refusing to show current USPHA credentials, and a few other areas where safety was of concern. 

Please make sure we are communicating with Park folks with the utmost of respect and please let me know if we run into any issues so we can reach out and help paint the picture of our community involvement, safety precautions, USHPA Coverage, etc. As with any "land owners" or managing officials this can easily become more widespread so please be conscious and make sure to check-in/chat with any visiting pilots you may come across. We are starting conversations to see what we can do to regain access. 

Thanks,

- Gridley

[mac...@mac.com]

Maybe we could suggest to the Ranger pics be forwarded to us so corrective actions can be taken.

Matt Yodis

[Dirk Larson]

Has someone updated the site guide to reflect its closure? 

On May 11, 2022, at 8:08 AM, 'mac...@mac.com' via Cascade Paragliding Club <cp...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[skf...@effectnet.com]

So more information would be nice, this is not much. As someone who has flown Ecola way more than most and was planning on it this week this is horrible news. So there was a good flight there yesterday ? Not sure how the legality of asking for USHPA rating would play out  ( I have managed once to check in and fly and give # ) . No one is typically available. Other times I've been answered with a " have a fun flight" Think very briefly we had a sign in sheet at the maintenance shed, fuzzy memory. 

 So sounds like there was no accident or injury ? So I suspect someone landing or launching away from launch or walking directly to launch instead of around back. Or lord forbid stepping over the anti-Darwin cables that appeared magically years ago. We had carte blanche launching and landing where we wanted for years without issues. Not sure of any will issues back then other than a pilot flying in way too much wind and ending up blown back into a giant tree on a slow news day. The big change at the beach seemed to be when the director of the coast parks (not sure of the title) who was very pro hang and para retired and park managers seemed to want to define use.

Please call me if possible 

Thanks,

Steve Forslund

602 471 9180

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"Dave Gridley" <dgri...@gmail.com>

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Wed, 11 May 2022 06:48:46 -0700

Subject:

CPC: Ecola closed to flying

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[skf...@effectnet.com]

Site guide just says closed Feb as the whole park was closed due to the road issue. We need to update the site guide.

 So was this an issue people walking in to use the park during the closure? I can see why they closed the whole park as the road is the only way in

Steve

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"Dave Gridley" <dgri...@gmail.com>

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Cc:

Sent:

Wed, 11 May 2022 06:48:46 -0700

Subject:

CPC: Ecola closed to flying

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[Dave Gridley]

The site guide has been updated with closure information. Please make sure you pass the word to folks who may be looking to fly there but not active on the group communications. We have the site liaisons looped in and working on chatting with the Park. Will update the group at the next meeting....or as any major changes happen. Thanks all!

[skf...@effectnet.com]

 So for clarification the primary reason given for closure were accidents and fatalities ( not at Ecola) 

 Pilot interaction was also mentioned when Brad Hill was informed by the park ranger that Ecola was to be closed to paragliding.

 I stopped at Ecola on Wednesday and saw Russell  and was told the park manager's decision to close Ecola to paragliding was based on fatalities and accidents 

Steve Forslund

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"Dave Gridley" @gmail.com>

To:

cp...@googlegroups.com

Cc:

Sent:

Wed, 11 May 2022 06:48:46 -0700

Subject:

CPC: Ecola closed to flying

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[Bradan...@discoverparagliding.com]

To clarify further, accidents were definitely part of the problem, but when the ranger described his interactions with pilots at Ecola, he described their reactions to being asked to show their USHPA membership cards as being "hostile".

Maren and I were there flying on Tuesday, on one of the more amazing days that we have flown there. Upon seeing us with our gear, he called us over and gave us the news. We followed it 'up the chain' with a phone call, and this closure came from the district manager, not the parks manager.

It has been clarified that I will take point on this as site liaison, and will soon be contacting the district manager and setting up an appointment with him. (We discussed this with him in our first conversation while we were at the park too. He is expecting our follow up call/contact.)

I will be sure to keep the club updated on pertinent details, but there is only so much time in my day, and I won't be able to respond to every point of debate that might come up. I can either work with the parks towards getting results, or work on settling debate here. I choose results. Apologies for being blunt, and for any future brevity until such point as I actually have any more useful information to convey.

I have video footage from our flight on Tuesday that should prove, without any doubt, that I am deeply vested (as an individual pilot) in keeping this site open as long as is 'geologically' possible. (I am fairly sure we will eventually lose it to erosion and landslides, unfortunately.) I'll post the video as soon as I get some time to do some editing.

I will do my best working with the parks.

Brad

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See you up there,

Brad and Maren
Your 'Couple' of Instructors
www.DiscoverParagliding.com
503-440-0733 (c)

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[Alan]

One more point of clarification - Kate Eagle is the CPC site liaison for Ecola, and has been since 2020. (Liaisons are listed here:http://cascadeparaglidingclub.org/site-guide/) But, Brad has a long history of working with the State Parks with respect to coastal sites, and I appreciate his past, current, and future efforts. He's probably the right person to work out the current Ecola issues.

Anyone who wants to take on a role as site liaison for any site is welcome to do so - all you have to do is show up and volunteer! And be interested, be a CPC member, respond in a reasonable timeframe when contacted, and be 'reasonably' active. If you, yes YOU (that means anyone reading this, not Brad or anyone else in particular) want to help out the CPC but might not want the monthly role of being an officer, and you want to take on stewardship of a site, then reach out to a current site liaison to talk and see what you can do. Some liaisons are doing an awesome job (this time I am specifically talking about Josh Norris, who should win the site liaison of the year award if that award existed), and some are doing just fine whenever asked (honestly we don't get contacted much, which is a shame) and some would be more than happy to hand over the role to someone new and keen (I am in both of these last two categories.) There are also a few sites that don't have liaisons that might benefit from having someone specifically engaged.

Any questions, feel free to reach out to me. I certainly don't have all the answers, but am happy to discuss.

Alan

[luke d]

Brad volunteered to take over site liaison for Ecola and Area B Last week. I am just slow to make the change on the website.  I will do that tonight 🙂

Luke D

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