The Bob Show

General discussion about the sport of hang gliding
User avatar
Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9150
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: The Bob Show

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=877
Discuss Tad here
Bob Kuczewski - 2020/05/25 01:23:26 UTC

Yesterday (2020/05/23), Tad posted this regarding the November 9th, 2014 Torrey incident:
Tad Eareckson - 2020/05/23 21:19:19 UTC

You were shooting video of a routine beginning level paragliding class in which zero violations of anything - FAA regs; u$hPa SOPs; federal, state, county, city laws or ordinances; park rules - were being committed. Cite something as evidence to the contrary.
That's easy ...

Insurance_Application_2014_12_07.png
Image

I downloaded that document less than 30 days after the incident, and I believe it was in effect at the time of the incident.

I placed a few phone calls to Tad to ask that he correct his post before I posted this answer to his challenge. He did not answer any of those calls.

I placed those calls because I feel it's far better to have people making truthful and accurate postings in the first place than to have to discredit them later with the facts. Unfortunately, that's not under my control.
Yesterday (2020/05/23), Tad posted this regarding the November 9th, 2014 Torrey incident...
And as of today (2020/05/25) so far, Bob has done NOTHING to invalidate or discredit anything Tad's said regarding the 2014/11/09 Torrey incident.
That's easy ...
Not a tiny fraction as easy as you're portraying things.
Insurance_Application_2014_12_07.png
- Insurance only covers non participants adversely affected by participants so I'm having a real hard time understanding why any of this is relevant already.

- Relevant crap text:
1. Each participant will wear safety equipment as required by the carrier (i.e., Helmets) whether required by State or local law or not.

2. All equipment will be inspected daily, prior to the commencement of activities. Equipment, which a reasonable and prudent person would consider damaged and worn, so as to create a potential hazard to life or health, will never be used in the activity.
I downloaded that document less than 30 days after the incident, and I believe it was in effect at the time of the incident.
On the books and enforced or just on the books? 'Cause u$hPa has never in the course of its entire history ever enforced anything with any actual legitimacy to it that they've had on the books. So believe anything you like 'cause none of it really matters in the least.
I placed a few phone calls to Tad to ask that he correct his post before I posted this answer to his challenge. He did not answer any of those calls.
- I don't think I was ever out of earshot of the phone for the duration of the relevant period and I don't think I saw anything on a Caller ID that had your fingerprint. If I'd recognized you I'd have answered.

- You never left a message.

- Just as well. The records are totally public and this way they stay that way.

- My post didn't and doesn't need any correcting. And when one does Steve and/or Brian just about always make the catches.
I placed those calls because I feel it's far better to have people making truthful and accurate postings in the first place than to have to discredit them later with the facts.
- You're gonna hafta work a lot harder than this to discredit me with the facts on this one. Probably wanna take the path of least resistance and discredit me with...
Zack C - 2011/12/17 14:56:03 UTC

1. You continually misrepresent Tad's statements.
...misrepresentations. That's your forte.

- How many phone calls to the White House do you usually place in the course of a usual evening? (And how have those bleach injections been working out for ya so far?)
Unfortunately, that's not under my control.
Neither of us have much under our control, Bob. But what I have over here is a really good archive of all the dirt the Industry doesn't want anybody to see. And that counts for something. I don't know what you've got but it fer sure ain't an alternate hang gliding association which does a better job of empowering its membership than u$hPa does - after close to a decade of maintaining that pretense.
*** PLEASE READ EACH AND EVERY REQUIREMENT CAREFULLY ***
Yeah, let's do that. It's always so much fun carefully reading material written by sleazy pretentious semiliterate total morons.
1. Each participant will wear safety equipment as required by the carrier (i.e., Helmets) whether required by State or local law or not.

-All equipment will be inspected daily, prior to the commencement of activities. Equipment, which a reasonable and prudent person would consider damaged and worn, so as to create a potential hazard to life or health, will never be used in the activity.
- Who the fuck is "the carrier" and where can we go to find out what he's actually requiring and what the justifications are?

- Note the way we have "will" (twice) and "never" (once) underlined. The obvious intent is to convey a threat and demean the applicant. Get used to it punk who's here hopefully 'cause he finds himself attracted to this flavor of aviation. And let's note that at least 98 percent of the individuals who initial these are tandem thrill riders who are now even less likely to come within five miles of hang glider ever again.

- A literate individual would've used SHALL rather than "WILL".

- "i.e." is the abbreviation for the Latin "id est" which translates to "that is". So what that says is that the "Helmet" is the only wearable safety equipment. Full length pants, shoes, gloves, insulating clothing, sunglasses, harness, parachute, radio... None of that can be considered or defined as safety equipment. So none of it can be addressed in any incident reporting.

- This:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9opdU5W1w6s/TZNOpxUd6AI/AAAAAAAAA1g/oWULqc0Dcss/s1600/helmetfinished.jpg
Image

is a Helmet. Show me the SOP, FAA or state government reg that says otherwise. And we can easily come up with scenarios and actual incident reports in which that would be our choice.

- This:

005-010207
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7723/16582999324_7b6bf71c74_o.png
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is also a Helmet. The poor little kid can't even walk around the setup area without having to hold it with both hands to be able to see where he's going.

We're being forced to fly. We've gotta go either with a comparably fitting helmet or the cardboard and duct tape job above. How many of us are gonna go with "A"?

- What would a reasonable and prudent person would consider:

http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4174/34261733815_bfb41c49d8_o.jpg
Image
Image
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8394/8696380718_787dbc0005_o.png

Just how well does u$hPa tolerate reasonable and prudent people?
All equipment will be inspected daily, prior to the commencement of activities.
Yeah, you're gonna be doing tandem thrill rides at Crestline all freakin' day. So check those carabiners before the ten o'clock, make sure they're still crack free and properly locked, then you're good to go until a bit before sunset.

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3107
I have a tandem rating!!!
Lauren Tjaden - 2008/03/23 22:20:15 UTC

When Jim got me locked out to the right, I couldn't keep the pitch of the glider with one hand for more than a second (the pressure was a zillion pounds, more or less), but the F'ing release slid around when I tried to hit it. The barrel release wouldn't work because we had too much pressure on it.

Anyhow, the tandem can indeed perform big wingovers, as I demonstrated when I finally got separated from the tug.
We inspected the equipment that morning. Looked fine. And just to be extra safe and professional we inspected it again after landing. Still pristine. Plus we were both wearing Helmets - so what's the worst that could've possibly happened anyway?
I downloaded that document less than 30 days after the incident, and I believe it was in effect at the time of the incident.
OK, let's make it twenty days after the incident - 2014/11/29. Three years plus two months prior to that download u$hPa's official unofficial mouthpiece has flat out told anybody with an internet connection...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25321
Stop the Stupids at the USHPA BOD meeting
Mark G. Forbes - 2011/09/29 02:26:23 UTC

We can establish rules which we think will improve pilot safety, but our attorney is right. USHPA is not in the business of keeping pilots "safe" and it can't be. Stepping into that morass is a recipe for extinction of our association. I wish it were not so, but it is. We don't sell equipment, we don't offer instruction, and we don't assure pilots that they'll be safe. Even so, we get sued periodically by people who say we "shoulda, coulda, woulda" done something that would have averted their accident.

It's not just concern for meet directors and policy makers...it's about our continued existence as an association. It's about minimizing the chance of our getting sued out of existence. We're one lawsuit away from that, all the time, and we think hard about it. I would LOVE to not have to think that way, but every time a legal threat arises, it reminds me that we have a very dysfunctional legal system in this country (note: not a "justice" system...there's little justice involved) and we have to recognize that reality and deal with it.
...that NOTHING they do is based on any legitimate safety concern and that they will immediately shred any procedures that come their way the nanosecond they detect any hint of legitimacy. And four months minus two days after that download one of very conservative instructor Joe Greblo's...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=811
FTHI
Bob Kuczewski - 2011/10/25 06:28:43 UTC

Tad, Joe Greblo is a very conservative instructor, and he teaches a physical hook-in check just prior to launch. He does not mandate a lift and tug. If you go to Joe's web site (http://windsports.com) you can find contact information for him. Joe knows far more about hang gliding than I probably ever will. If you can convince him that he should be teaching "lift and tug" instead of "turn and check", then you'll get my vote of support.

But the truth is, you already have my vote of support for "lift and tug". I think anyone who feels that it's the safest choice in any circumstance should be free to use it. And if they don't feel it's the safest thing to do (in their opinion and in their circumstance), then I feel that's their choice as well. I think this is the place where we differ the most. You want the right to mandate what people should do according to what YOU think they should do. That's where we part company. You seem to want a "nanny state" where someone tells us what we can and can't do. I'm fundamentally opposed to that kind of tyranny ... regardless of how well-intentioned it might be.
...Hang Five Tandem Instructor golden boys splatters himself and an eleven year old kid - both properly Helmeted - all over the floor of a wide open dry lakebed in nothing conditions. And the incident report that u$hPa has to publish but doesn't want anyone to read tells us that it was a counter clockwise circuit tow operation around the lake bed typical for pilots in the area using a typical hydraulic pressure controlled payout winch system, a two loop / four strand weak link typical for tandem surface tow operations, and a typical two string surface tow release system.

And when you've gotten out of the safety business and into the risk management business it becomes vitally important for everybody to do and use what's most typical. So do we have any data to indicate that demonstrating paraglider kiting minus a helmet is the least bit atypical?

By the way... Where are the Bob Show Hang Gliding Association SOPs regarding helmet use? Me? I'd personally like them required for hang glider FLIGHT 'cause I think they do more good than harm and we're highly likely to swing head first into the keel on a not particularly serious crash but I wouldn't mandate them 'cause:
- everybody uses them anyway
- it's totally impossible to define what qualifies as a helmet and specify minimum standards
- the system ain't broke and doesn't need any fixing attempts anyway

(I would however make "tandem instruction" a felony punishable by a ten year minimum sentence for a first offense.)
1. Each participant will wear safety equipment as required by the carrier (i.e., Helmets) whether required by State or local law or not.
Show me a frame from that video in which anybody's participating in paragliding minus a helmet.

I can identify three students plus one instructor. All of the students are wearing helmets while not clipped in to gliders. Gabe is clipped in, not wearing a helmet, demonstrating kiting, at no time coming close to getting airborne. And I'd submit he has no possibility of becoming airborne on flat ground in those conditions. (If you take the limit off of conditions a family of five can become airborne off of flat ground in a Chevy Malibu.) He's INSTRUCTING paraglider launch and control but neither u$hPa nor the FAA are gonna define that as participating in paragliding.

I didn't get to count all the strong wind ground handling and launch prep on the Jockey's Ridge dunes towards my Hang Three airtime requirement. (Fuckin' douchebag Mark Airey didn't think I should be allowed to count my dune soaring airtime towards my Three.) You can easily get fully airborne on a windsurfer if you know what you're doing. In kiteboarding WITHOUT knowing what you're doing you can easily go fully airborne and get carried inland and fatally dropped. But this isn't considered participating in aviation by anyone.

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1629
Jailed for taking pictures at Torrey
Bob Kuczewski - 2020/05/25 00:42:44 UTC

A bit more to come.
User avatar
Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9150
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: The Bob Show

Post by Tad Eareckson »

This is not the bit more to come I had in mind when concluding the previous post - and, at the moment, I can't even remember what it was supposed to have been.

About half past yesterday (Monday) the phone rang and the ID read, "WIRELESS CALLER" and gave the number. I never answer these, of course, and just periodically check messages for legitimate traffic. But I wondered if this might be Bob and took a chance. (I used to be able to recognize his number but it's been a real long time...)

The conversation lasted for HOURS and left me physically, mentally, emotionally fried. And I'm just now (Tuesday), around 24 hours after picking up, recovered well enough to start getting back in gear and start putting this one together. (And it's gonna be a while before I finish.)

The primary issues were:
1. Each participant will wear safety equipment as required by the carrier (i.e., Helmets) whether required by State or local law or not.
Show me a frame from that video in which anybody's participating in paragliding minus a helmet.
OK, let's look at the current Waiver:
UNITED STATES HANG GLIDING AND PARAGLIDING ASSOCIATION MEMBER - RELEASE, WAIVER AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK AGREEMENT

DEFINITIONS - The following definitions apply to terms used in this Agreement:
1. "PARTICIPATION IN THE SPORT" means launching/kiting (and/or assisting another in launching/kiting), flying (whether as pilot in command or otherwise) and/or landing (including, but not limited to, crashing) a hang glider or paraglider. A speed wing or mini wing is a form of paraglider.
and assume for the purpose of the exercise that that's what was in effect 2014/11/09. So Gabe WAS - as a u$hPa member covered by u$hPa insurance - participating in the sport and *I STAND CORRECTED*. But...

- Let's recall that:

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/jun/17/cover-keep-out/
Bob Kuczewski - arrested at Torrey Pines glider port again | San Diego Reader
Thom Senzee - 2015/06/17

Kuczewski confesses he was incorrect when, in the video, he insists that his adversary is breaking national guidelines set by the United States Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association by not wearing a helmet while teaching the kiting technique.
- And Bob says at the time to Gabe:
Um ... you should put a helmet on.
If you're hooked into a glider you're setting a bad example for your students.
rather than:
u$hPa SOPs require use of a helmet (sorry "Helmet") even when just kiting a paraglider and even if conditions are such that there's no possibility of becoming airborne.
The actual response is Bob giving his opinion in front of Gabe's students on how he should be doing his job, the other one would've just been a statement of fact and a helluva lot less likely to escalate the situation. One could've even conveyed that to Gabe while also stating that in his personal opinion the requirement was a load of ass covering crap with zero foundation in actual data way more likely to precipitate problems than to solve any - which happens to be my own personal take. How much escalation would that likely have precipitated?

And I'll grant that lotsa situations call for escalation but I don't think that this one was a great example and it appears to have cost Bob a lot more than it did ACA and u$hPa.

Now let's take a closer look at:
1. Each participant will wear safety equipment as required by the carrier (i.e., Helmets) whether required by State or local law or not.
So there's supposed to be some unidentifiable "carrier" out there who's dictated all these safety equipment requirements (i.e., Helmets) for safely running our flight ops. Who is he, what are his qualifications, what data did he use in establishing all these requirements, where can we go to see anything beyond i.e. Helmets? Helmets which can only AT BEST protect Participants who aren't the ones be covered by The Carrier. Suck my dick - u$hPa.

We had some discussion about the justification for requiring Helmets for kiting.

It's obvious to me that in these conditions and circumstances the chances of Gabe sustaining any kind of participation induced injuries are total zilch.

Bob tells me that it's very easy to get gusted airborne on launch before one can react to collapse the wing. Of course this is the same Bob who's fought tooth and nail against mandatory lift-and-tug / float-to-the-stops hook-in checks due to the near constant threat of the turbulent jet stream six inches above the wing when it's at clamped-down-on-the-shoulders elevation but let's grant this one.

So does it happen at Torrey? Has there been one single such incident in the recorded history of paragliding - kiting, launching, landing at Torrey? And we know anecdotally that in serious hang and paraglider crashes that there's just about zilch chance of a helmet making a significant positive difference. You've gotta hit something straight-on with the top of your head within a tiny speed range. A bit low and the helmet or helmet quality won't matter significantly. A tiny bit high and your brain might stay in pretty good shape but it won't matter 'cause your neck's been snapped.

If helmets mattered statistically we'd see a lot more photos like:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18777
Broken Jaw - Full Face HG Helmet
BRP - 2010/08/28 21:46:51 UTC

During the King meet last month I also watched as a morning sled ride resulted in a fence landing that had the fence try to take off the front of the guys face. Almost a week in the hospital and some future plastic surgery, but he survived I think due to the Charlie insider ff helmet keeping the wire fence/ground from getting a free shot at his face. Here's a shot of his helmet...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8062/8224012689_3cce9f647c_o.jpg
Image
That's the only one that comes to my mind and it's only functioned as a face guard - which has never been mandatory for anything. There was zero threat to the skull/brain. We don't see shots of helmets with damage to the head protection 'cause those guys are all quaded, vegged, or dead.

Do we see these incidents at inland mountain sites in thermal and dust devil conditions? Who cares?

Where are the shots of the helmets of Eric Mies and Rafi Lavin? Totaled, substantially damaged, pristine? Who cares?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54907
Lost Site?
Mark G. Forbes - 2018/02/01 05:26:59 UTC

I fly my PG in morning and evening air, relatively light winds or at coastal sites with consistent, smooth air. If it's getting thermic, or particularly, thermic with wind, then I don't want to be up there. Mid-day, I pretty much don't fly in summer; I do this for fun, and I prefer the milder morning and evening conditions. Others have a higher tolerance for turbulence and risk, and skills beyond mine. I set my personal limits based on my own perception of my skills and currency. I'll fly my HG in stronger conditions, and I particularly enjoy aerotowing in Florida with all those big, smooth thermals. There, I'll fly mid-day...but not out here in the mountains, if it's really cooking. There are exceptions; I had a great flight mid-day when there was some high cirrus that damped the intensity down, and light winds. And there's the opposite case, where I decided to land "before it got too scary" only to get seriously whacked about 100' over the LZ. I landed safely, but it told me that I was under-estimating the conditions near the surface and needed to dial back my risk threshold.
If you launch in thermal conditions you're rolling dice with your life. You may be better off getting lifted, blown back, dropped without a helmet and sustaining Chris McKeon level brain trauma than launching with a new perfectly fitting Charlie Insider and getting out and up textbook. You're rolling dice with your life.

And let's look at some more of that very same post from which I harvested that helmet photo:
Lastly I lost a friend maybe 7 years ago to a paragliding landing. He was an excellent hang-glider pilot learning the pg thing going for a spot landing He was wearing a heavy motorcycle helmet. I heard his landing looked like he probably broke both legs, but ended up snapping his neck due to the weight of his helmet during the crash and died instantly.
I think I'll stick with my lightweight Charlie insider full face.
Got that? Remove the safety device from the equation and he's fine from the knees up. It's close to a decade now and nobody's challenged that account. So if we go back in our time machine to three seconds prior to impact we pull the helmet and leave his hair blowing in the breeze. Could this incident have happened at Torrey? Do we know it DIDN'T happen at Torrey?

(Good idea to read that whole Jack Show helmet thread - 'specially if you're losing sleep trying to decide what helmet will most likely be optimal for you and what you're doing.)

Is this what actually happened? Who gives a flying fuck? It's a totally plausible scenario, helmet designers KNOW it is and design to minimize weight 'cause weight's NEVER a desirable factor. But when you dial weight down you're INEVITABLY also dialing down shock absorption capacity - all other issues being equal. And we can easily come up with a scenario in which Blaine's gonna wanna swap in this very same and undamaged motorcycle helmet for his Charlie Insider.

This is why it's total bullshit wasting time talking about helmets and addressing the issues in which helmets might become significant factors. In this case...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=21088
What you wish you'd known then?
Doug Doerfler - 2011/03/02 05:24:44 UTC

Nothing creates carnage like declaring a spot landing contest.
Total no-brainer. Going for spot landings is NOTHING but stupid dangerous stunt flying and it ends careers and kills people but it's MANDATED by u$hPa to achieve the ratings needed to access soaring flight resources. And obviously The Carrier is totally on-board with it.

You referenced Chris McKeon to support your case for the importance of helmets.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/hang-glider-crashes-at-elementary-school/1885356/
Hang Glider Crashes at Elementary School - NBC Bay Area
Jessica Greene - 2010/03/29

A hang glider is in critical condition after suffering major head injuries when he crashed at an elementary school in Concord Sunday afternoon.

The crash happened at about 3:20 p.m. at Mountain View Elementary School, Concord police Lt. Steve Dyer said.

Two witnesses who were at the school said they saw 49-year-old Christopher McKeon piloting a hang glider circling a campus field. He was apparently looking for somewhere to land when he suddenly dropped about 30 feet to the ground and landed on an asphalt walkway that surrounds the field, Dyer said.

McKeon was wearing a helmet but suffered major facial and head injuries. He was unconscious when paramedics arrived to take him to John Muir Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.

McKeon launched from Mount Diablo with several others as part of a hang gliding club but got seperated from the group, the Contra Costa Times reports. He had a parachute, but it was not deployed before the crash, Dyer said.
Yeah. Helmets are critically important elements of hang gliding safety configurations. Just imagine how serious the consequences of this crash could've been if Chris had been using a Helmet of a quality significantly under whatever the fuck the one he was using was.

Bullshit. If we think there's one chance in a hundred thousand of us suffering those consequences we're total fucking morons to continue participating in this sport.

This is probably the best information we're ever gonna get on this one and there's no indication of anything nasty going on with the air. Give me a time machine, transporter, whatever's required; swap me in for Chris at fifty feet; leave the fuckin' helmet on Chris - I won't be needing it; I want my eight inch Finsterwalders on the basetube; I'll put that glider down in one airworthy piece; walk away; give Chris his life back. If I don't believe that I shouldn't be flying. (Yeah, I'm not. But I am still putting out info for people who wanna do things right.)

He was upright on the control tubes with zilch airspeed and his priority was stopping on his feet with the execution of a perfectly timed landing flare. He hit a gradient and/or wind shadow and STALLED. And where's the mention of glider damage? There isn't any. He didn't hit all that hard but he absorbed all the impact energy with his helmet and head.

This:

03-2501-c
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1507/25655155884_5dda30b023_o.png
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04-2522-c
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1575/25655155414_75766727d5_o.png
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05-2704-c
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1525/26167489042_9f5e5af537_o.png
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is how you come into a tight turbulent space. And if you're not coming into a tight turbulent space you run the approach like you are anyway 'cause:
- you:
-- might be wrong - and this way it won't matter if you are
-- can always use the practice
- it's a blast

And this is what 100.00 percent of the u$hPa Pilot Proficiency Program teaches its students/victims to do under no circumstances whatsoever. Fuckin' Greblo has his victims going upright on the control tubes onto final at fifteen hundred feet when shooting for the Sylmar primary.

Chris McKeon case closed. And thanks for bringing it back to my attention. This one's always bothered me a bit.

We discussed this:

22-20605
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incident. 1989/07/30 - Gilbert Aldrich. The helmet was a near lethal distraction.

I've uploaded the two videos to DropBox and will allow you (and anybody else who'd like it) access. Stills collection at the
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7860.html#p7860

This action:

066-165709
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098-191627
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Pulling the center area of the leading edge down either through direct contact or by using the relevant suspension lines. Bob contends that Brad is putting Max's wing within a hair's breadth of a dangerous tuck. I'm not buying it.

- Intuitively... looks, feels OK to me.

- I'm betting both of these tandem drivers / PG instructors have a zillion times more PG time than Bob does and know what the hell they're doing.

- I don't think we're hearing this charge from any disinterested source.

- Nobody cites a precedent.

-- 'Cause nobody's ever been stupid enough to do anything so obviously insanely dangerous before? In these examples the wing offers stiff resistance and instantly pops back into shape just fine.

-- There've been at least a dozen other incidents but none below a thousand feet so plenty of time to safely recover. But we can't be bothered to reference them.

My bet is that Bob's watching thermal falls induced collapses which initiate with the leading edge tucking and generalizing that action to these situations - which is absolute rubbish. And there's a really easy way for the truth to be determined one way or the other.

Go to Dockweiler in a straight-in breeze of parking speed/strength and kite a wing.
- For the bite scenario have a loop temporarily hand stitched up at bite position. Run a line to it and have an assistant pull down.
- For the other scenario just have the assistant pull on the two relevant shroud lines.

Do them. You got Gabe on tape kiting/teaching minus a helmet and got assaulted, battered, arrested, tried. Get these on tape to show just how close Brad was to taking down Max and Alec. The relative cost will be total zilch.

(Everybody remember how effectively...

04-003019
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7336/14084948922_0d0d8664d0_o.png
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...the top Griffon Vulture...

09-013010
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2921/13901489028_de29fb1aa0_o.png
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...?)

I designed and built:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrelease/8317889807/
Image

and:
- showed that bent pin barrel releases would lock up at light tow loads
- found that the Standard Aerotow Weak Link blows at half the load the Flight Park Mafia claimed it would
- took the cylinder/gauge assembly up and measured 914 Dragonfly tow output at 125 pounds regular and 155 pounds turbo

(Gawd it's sickening to remember how much effort that was and how optimistic I was about it getting this shithole of a sport on some sane positive track.)

If you're legitimate on this issue you'll be champing at the bit to put this up on YouTube. If you're full o' shit you won't have the time. Also won't have time to mobilize US Hawks resources to have it done on your alternative hang gliding association's behalf. And my money's on the latter 'cause if you thought this was really legitimate you'd have done it already. The way Ryan showed us all conclusively:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding
Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

As with all hang gliding, it's important to encourage a light touch.

069-25104
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1572/26142964830_289bc3f2cb_o.png
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If you teach them how to pull the glider with the harness they'll learn to steer the glider through weight shift simply by running toward their target.
Gawd what a conversation that was. I'm finishing up this post now over four days after I started it and this barely scratches the surface. So much more work to do and I have some of it already on the burners.

It almost sounded like you were legitimately trying to get some of this and there was hope for constructive dialogue but history tells us... But if history holds then what the hell... I've come up with a lot of new insights on how to present information, demolish bullshit, prove and illustrate points. If you don't benefit maybe others will. If others don't benefit then at least I will have a little bit.

The sport itself... Long beyond the tipping point.

Stay tuned.
User avatar
Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9150
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: The Bob Show

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=877
Discuss Tad here
Bob Kuczewski - 2020/05/31 01:28:47 UTC

I have encouraged Tad to simply retract his false and misleading statements.

Unfortunately, he's not capable of doing that, and that does further harm his credibility.
Wow. Ya really know how to pack the crap in succinctly, Bob. It's really astounding that you're not able to pull in more traffic off the Jack and Davis Shows.

False AND Misleading... Deliberate deception. As in...
Zack C - 2011/12/17 14:56:03 UTC

You continually misrepresent Tad's statements...
Little Billy puts down 1865/04/08 on the test for Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He wasn't just off by a day. He LIED - and thought he'd be able to get away with it.

I'm not CAPABLE of doing that. For a million dollars and/or with a gun to my head. Never have been. Never in the history of my written record. So then why did you waste our time ENCOURAGING me? Or maybe I just never had the requisite level of courage in the first place.

Tad RETRACTED his false and misleading statements...
Tad Eareckson - 2020/05/30 22:34:58 UTC

So Gabe WAS - as a u$hPa member covered by u$hPa insurance - participating in the sport and *I STAND CORRECTED*.
But he didn't do it SIMPLY enough. He went on to say a whole bunch of stuff I didn't want him to. Put things in context, pointed out that the document itself is a load of semiliterate deceptive crap.

How 'bout you, Bob?

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/jun/17/cover-keep-out/
Bob Kuczewski - arrested at Torrey Pines glider port again | San Diego Reader
Thom Senzee - 2015/06/17

Kuczewski confesses he was incorrect when, in the video, he insists that his adversary is breaking national guidelines set by the United States Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association by not wearing a helmet while teaching the kiting technique.
Did you retract your false and misleading statement to the San Diego Reader? Or did you let the public go on believing that Gabe was NOT breaking national guidelines set by the United States Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association by not wearing a helmet while teaching the kiting technique? Don't you have trouble sleeping at night thinking about the untold scores of paraglider kiters who've needlessly died because they didn't know that your adversary DOES break national guidelines set by the United States Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association by not wearing a helmet while teaching the kiting technique? How do you manage to live with yourself after a lapse like that?

It does FURTHER harm my credibility? I was down to zero well over a dozen years ago. You got to a point at which it just doesn't matter a whole helluva lot anymore.

I guess Terry...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8143/7462005802_bbc0ac66ac_o.jpg
Image

wasn't using a Helmet. It's the only safety issue in which the carrier has any interest so it's hard to imagine anything else of any relevance was going on.

We should start polls on our sites to see how many of our members give flying fucks about this waiver requirements issue. I got fifty bucks that says that we'll fall far short of ten thousand - COMBINED. And hell - I'll give ya two to one odds.

Now if you'll excuse me for a bit I have some more false and misleading posts to prepare. They're likely to be pretty long winded so you should probably advise your membership to not read them. Probably just as well to ease up on Discussing Tad Here. Best use the bandwidth for some of your more productive discussions.

P.S. So I guess nobody should be holding his breath waiting for the video results of any paraglider leading edge vulnerability testing. You're no way in hell ever gonna risk being seen trying to get that trick to work. And...
- Ditto for u$hPa 'cause when they fail they lose what little credibility they had with respect to the life sentence with which they hit Brad.
- As much hatred for paragliders there is within hang gliding culture it's really amazing that people aren't waiting in line to run demos. But...
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: The Bob Show

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Steve Davy - 2020/05/31 02:03:25 UTC
1. Each participant will wear safety equipment as required by the carrier (i.e., Helmets) whether required by State or local law or not.
One could make a case that that means or not wear a helmet. :mrgreen:
Yeah. I missed that.

Dealt with the overall illiteracy and rot about "the carrier". Was also thinking about why one would include "whether required by State or local law or not". That's like saying:

"Demonstrates three consecutive landings that average less than 25' from a target after a flight which requires turns on approach whether required by State or local law or not."

There's obviously no State or local law which mandates that to score a u$hPa Four one must demonstrate three consecutive landings that average less than 25 feet from a target after a flight which requires turns on approach so what's the point? Some anonymous pretentious u$hPa asshole trying to sound like he's US Supreme Court material and the candidate shouldn't even dream about stepping out of line and/or questioning anything?

If this clause had any legitimacy whatsoever it would read:

"At all times when actively participating in the sport (as defined above) the insured individual is required to wear a helmet."

But as we've discussed this is totally meaningless anyway minus a definition of a helmet and citations of minimum government and/or industry standards. A state cop is gonna have no problem whatsoever quickly determining whether or not a motorcyclist is in legal compliance with a helmet law. No way in hell u$hPa is gonna crack open that can of worms.

- Mark G. Forbes has openly publicly stated that u$hPa is not and cannot be in the safety business.

- u$hPa has decades of experience writing crap SOPs that are totally ambiguous, meaningless, incomprehensible, unenforceable, unenforced.

I think this one's totally intended to mean that each participant will or won't wear a helmet. That way if they're vulnerable and a participant was:

- not wearing a helmet when he broke a leg they can claim they're off the hook

- wearing a helmet when he power whacked trying to execute a perfectly timed landing flare and came off with a Paul Vernon caliber brain mush they did everything that could have been reasonably expected of them to ensure the participant's safety

An undefined helmet that one will or will not wear is exactly the same as the easily reachable release mandated for aerotowing.

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3391
More on Zapata and weak link
Paul Tjaden - 2008/07/22 04:32:22 UTC

I have never had a lockout situation happen so quickly and dramatically and had no chance to release as I have always thought I could do.
Doesn't matter in the least that the lockout situation happened so quickly and dramatically that you had no chance to release as you had always thought you could do. All that matters is that...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1143
Death at Tocumwal
Davis Straub - 2006/01/24 12:27:32 UTC

I'm willing to put the barrel release within a few inches of my hand.
...the release was easily reachable. There's no sane argument that it wasn't. It's hard to imagine a release mounted in a more easily reachable location than this.

If you have an actuator on the control bar such that all you need to do is...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrelease/8306300488/
Image
Image
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2938/13700558193_0e0946218e_o.png
03-1304

...twist your grip or slide your hand inboard an inch or two that's not within an easy reach and is thus noncompliant dangerous experimental gear.

Ditto for...

45-05221
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/266/18608438105_3eed3675a2_o.png
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...Kelly Harrison's radio. Shoulder strap. Has anyone ever seen a hang gliding two meter radio mounted anywhere else? Just how more typical do you want him to get?

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=463
Davis Straub's "Oz Report" Conflict of Interest
Bob Kuczewski - 2009/05/11 19:40 UTC

Third, I'm not an expert in towing, but I consulted someone who knows the topic pretty well. His comment was that while it might be good for USHPA to make recommendations in this area, there is still plenty of room for innovation. For that reason, he doesn't think USHPA should mandate any kind of obligatory system that would stifle that innovation - whether Mr. Eareckson's or any other. I have very little background in towing, so I'm just passing this perspective on for your general consideration.
Nah, ya sure don't want anybody making a case for adhering to clearly defined and sane SOPs. Can you even begin to imagine where the sport would be today with all that innovation we've been seeing over the past dozen years having been stifled?

Bob...

I'm not happy about all this Torrey / ACA / San Diego crap and what's being done to you personally and the sport of hang gliding in general. And I'd really like to be able say that this was a total black and white no-brainer but one can't even tell what these assholes are talking about - by design.

Does that thing little Zack has flopping around on his head qualify as a helmet no problem? You can come up with a real life scenario in which ANY helmet leaves somebody worse off than he'd be minus it but that's getting ridiculous.

I did a quick Google search for state motorcycle helmet laws. First thing that came up was:

http://www.edgarsnyder.com/motorcycle-accidents/state-helmet-laws/#maryland
Motorcycle Helmet Laws | State-by-State Map
In Maryland, all motorcycle drivers and passengers must wear a helmet. Additionally, all motorcycle operators must wear eye protection, unless the bike is equipped with a windscreen.
Helmets and eye protection must meet the standards established by Maryland's Administrator of Transportation, who approves safety gear and adopts/enforces standards and specifications for approval of safety gear. The Administrator publishes a list of all protective gear that is approved by name and type.
That's enforceable. We know what they're talking about and hopefully something flopping around on the head of a little kid like Zack's Helmet was would get the bike pulled over in short order.

u$hPa's an organized crime syndicate and its primary mission is to insulate itself from charges of criminal negligence. The insurance industry recognized this and permanently dumped them. Citing and/or relying on their SOPs to hold someone accountable for negligent actions is a virtual non starter.

Lenami Godinez-Avila didn't die 'cause Jon Orders was a reckless incompetent asshole. She died primarily 'cause Canadian u$hPa qualified him with a procedure known to be a recipe for disaster since the beginning of time.

Aussie expat Birdman Bernie here:

049-35807
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4856/46206628272_99634e9aee_o.png
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will NOT make that devastating mistake 'cause he trained himself in the strategy that u$hPa put on its books less than a year shy of four decades ago but never bothered to actually implement.
Tad Eareckson - 2020/05/30 22:34:58 UTC

So Gabe WAS - as a u$hPa member covered by u$hPa insurance - participating in the sport and *I STAND CORRECTED*.
So yeah. Gabe definitely should or should not have been wearing a helmet. And we know that the consequences of wearing or not wearing a helmet can be every bit as devastating as hooking or not hooking in. (And I'm serious about that. Craig Pirazzi would've definitely been OK if ha hadn't been hooked in. And Rafi Lavin might've. Nothing to lose anyway.)

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/jun/17/cover-keep-out/
Bob Kuczewski - arrested at Torrey Pines glider port again | San Diego Reader
Thom Senzee - 2015/06/17

Kuczewski confesses he was incorrect when, in the video, he insists that his adversary is breaking national guidelines set by the United States Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association by not wearing a helmet while teaching the kiting technique.
OK. You said that you DID try to get your correction corrected with the Reader but the reporter wasn't game. But more BIG problems with inaccuracies, ambiguity.

You DO NOT - at any point in the video - make any hint of a reference to u$hPa or u$hPa guidelines.

The video is EMBEDDED right in the middle of the fucking article. Thom...
Thom Senzee - 2015/06/17

Both sides agree the incident in question was at least in part captured on video by Kuczewski. Ironically, Kuczewski's penchant for shooting video at Torrey Pines is the problem, says Marien. The eight-minute video shows a tense confrontation in which Kuczewski's camera appears to get bumped, he says, by flight instructor Gabriel Jebb, who can be seen pushing his way so close to Kuczewski's lens that it creates a fishbowl effect.

"Get out of here," Jebb can be heard saying to Kuczewski on the video...
...has watched it. So did you tell him about the u$hPa stuff without having actually checked to see what it actually said in the well over three month period subsequent to the incident? It shouldn't have mattered though 'cause he should've checked before (or even after) publishing.

There are no u$hPa guidelines about "wearing a helmet while teaching the kiting technique". You can be buck naked down on the beach "teaching the kiting technique" to a student geared up with the only paraglider, harness, helmet within a ten mile radius. You can teach kiting in a classroom a hundred miles from the nearest PG rig. The issue is about wearing (or, as one pleases, not wearing) a helmet at all times one is clipped into a wing - even if the wing is set up / lain out in a high school gym.

"Guidelines" don't have shit to do with anything. This is the WAIVER and is supposed to be a legally binding document outlining MANDATORY standards and procedures. A GUIDELINE is u$hPa code word telling a Participant in no uncertain terms...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?
Jim Rooney - 2011/08/26 10:11:31 UTC

Oh, btw... before you go there, cuz it is where you're headed... please note the word "Guidelines".

As I said.
Been through this shit a million freaking times.
Please quit trying to educate me about my job.
08-19
http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5277/30076449505_1f6ed2f804_o.png
Image

...that he's totally free to continue doing whatever the fuck he feels like - such as putting an illegally light and configured tug end weak link in front of a solo hang glider dead centered in the middle of the legal range.

There is no "United States Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association". "Hang Gliding" is two words distinctly not hyphenated. I've never before seen it written that way.

I DO NOT wanna see you get burned any on this current legal action and what's been going on there since the beginning of time is a total atrocity. But the language situation all around is a total mess and u$hPa/ACA has way more collective experience and firepower in the messed up language department than you'll ever be able to hope for.

A major part of my story started with:
Gregg Ludwig - 2009/02/12 00:05:51 UTC

Tad-

Would you be interested in a position on the ushpa Tow Committee? You can participate via e-mail if you can't make it to a BOD meeting. ..or just help me with a single project...

I need to rewrite the aerotow SOP...to include ATP and Sport pilot stuff....weaklinks...or just send me a proposal on weaklink sop ideas...

Gregg
Tow Committee Chair
Dream come true I thought. Stars finally starting to line up the way they were supposed to. I worked for months on the rewrite; made what I was doing publicly available on The Peter Show - which was the place to be for that at the time, called for comment, asked for input, got zilch. Nobody on the BOD at the Colorado Springs meeting bothered to glance at it or even inform me that they hadn't - and wouldn't ever - bother to glance at it. They'd already spent decades butchering the language and gutting the standards to the point they wanted at the time.

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
Bob Kuczewski - 2011/10/23 16:29:29 UTC

As for Nobody's request for me to read a document, I haven't found the time yet. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to read everything that everyone asks me to read. I would eventually like to form committees with expertise in each area, and I've asked you (Tad) to be a part of that, but I think you get more enjoyment as a keyboard warrior than in actually sitting down to accomplish positive goals.
Yeah nobody had any time to read my document - still, eight and a half years now after that post. And tons more people died violating, ignoring, following u$hPa guidelines and using stuff with extremely long track records.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: The Bob Show

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2624
President Trump
Bob Kuczewski - 2016/11/09 07:54:02 UTC

Make America Great Again
How's that going now, Bob? You put a David Jebb clone in the White House and this country is now pretty much in a state of civil war.
miguel
Posts: 289
Joined: 2011/05/27 16:21:08 UTC

Re: The Bob Show

Post by miguel »

Tad Eareckson wrote: http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2624
President Trump
Bob Kuczewski - 2016/11/09 07:54:02 UTC

Make America Great Again
How's that going now, Bob? You put a David Jebb clone in the White House and this country is now pretty much in a state of civil war.
:mrgreen: :lol:
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: The Bob Show

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3684
Go Far in Texas
Sam Kellner - 2020/06/08 03:08:53 UTC

New U.S. Record ~60mi short of world record

Sebastien Kayrouz - >353mi foot launch flight, PG, from Camp Wood, Tx.

On first attempt !
Bob Kuczewski - 2020/06/12 06:37:41 UTC

That's pretty cool Sam!!!

Now I want to foot launch from Camp Wood!!
Show me a video of a paraglider being launched in some other mode.

http://chgpa.org
Capital Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association - 2020/06/13
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49193935417_bcff457440_o.png
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(Idiots.)
---
2020/06/13 09:15:00 UTC

P.S. Hi Miguel, good to see you're still around.
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<BS>
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Re: The Bob Show

Post by <BS> »

I assumed the distinction to be towed or not, but there's this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKL8Y4ZHNak
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: The Bob Show

Post by Tad Eareckson »

I stand corrected. The paraglider equivalent of Chris Starbuck. Or...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX0D7uryDNE


...Doug Prather.

And note that in both of these examples of slope (versus flatland) non foot launches the planes are getting airborne with external power assist. But they're not tainted in the towing category 'cause the power is push tension - rather than towline pressure.

I do wonder how they manage in the long run without being able to configure a weak link to increase the safety of the pushing operation.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: The Bob Show

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/faq.php
Frequently Asked Questions
What will keep the US Hawks from becoming another USHPA or HGAA?
You will ... hopefully. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Everyone has to do their part once in a while. If you see something that's not being done correctly, then it's your duty to speak out. One big difference between the US Hawks and other organizations is that the US Hawks really does honor the free speech of its members.
I spoke up when you were on the u$hPa BOD. There isn't one shred of evidence that a single one of you motherfuckers read a single punctuation mark of what I had to say - a great deal of which was incident reports from u$hPa's own magazine - and the immediate result was that my career got ended.

And I don't give a rat's ass how much experience you didn't have towing. (And, by the way, you had a sailplane rating, 100.00 percent of your sailplane flights were tow launched, and there is ZILCH of any significance in procedures, equipment, theory between the two flavors of birds. That was a big goddam deal, you had Region 3 (Southern California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico), there was every kind of towing you wanna name going on with your constituents on your turf, flagrant violations of u$hPa SOPs and FAA regs were "typical" of how things were being done, people were crashing and dying as consequences.

I spoke up on The Bob Show and...

http://www.kitestrings.org/post1019.html#p1019

...you ignored, undermined, sabotaged me and cut my wire for ZERO violations of any rules or guidelines - existing then or manufactured retroactively.

You helped put a nakedly racist Nazi piece o' shit in the Whitehouse to Make America Great Again pretty much exactly the way David Jebb has maneuvered to Make Torrey Pines Gliderport Great Again.

And now you have a corner of national news and appear to be in pretty deep shit. And while there maybe be nothing in print out there in the way of indisputable line crossing there's a fair bit pressing on the edge.

https://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=3584
Jordan Peterson
Bob Kuczewski - 2020/06/08 06:25:38 UTC

I am astounded that the Black Lives Matter movement has been able to redefine our dialog to the point that saying "Black Lives Matter" is acceptable, and saying "All Lives Matter" is somehow a racist statement.
Yeah, in the context it kinda is. And...
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
We've all been watching all that being totally butchered all over the country by the "All Lives Matter" contingent and its heavily armed uniformed thugs minus much expression of outrage from you and your MAGA camp.

P.S. And likewise I don't notice you getting much in the way of covering fire from your wonderful alternative national hang gliding association.
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