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#8860
Jonathan Dietch
General Member

Why not carry a whistle when you fly? They’re mandatory at Torrey and they are at least somewhat effective.
I rarely hear anyone hollering when the LZ is blocked. Sometimes a good shout will get the attention of people in the way.
It’s not just PGs kiting. I have had stray kids and others enter my landing path  and create an obstruction.
What about RLF skills? If half the LZ is covered by 8 PGs that’s a good indication that there’s plenty of wind and this means that much less room is required to land an HG.
I invested thousands of dollars of my own funds in re-developing and existing drogue chute design into modern materials and construction. It’s very reliable and stable yet few pilots bought one when they were available and even fewer pilots who own one use it. A friend of mine now has permanent brain damage in large part because he was discouraged from using his other perfectly good drogue and crashed face-first. In fact a similar thing happened to the former USHPA HG safely analyst.
Honestly, the PGs need a spotter on the ground  to alert them of incoming traffic but we know this will never happen.
And here’s another thing that points to the whining hypocrisy of HG pilots. I have lost count of the fly-ins where more than half the LZ was covered by assembled HGs and nobody took responsibility for getting pilots to break their gear down yet there were still a dozen people in the air who needed to land on far less than half the LZ. This double-standard is typical and ridiculous.
Anyhow, take responsibility for your own landing safely and the safety of others. This is not the Wild West. Get out there and politely ask the kiters to  provide a spotter. Learn to yell real loud. Carry a whistle. Use a drogue chute. Get your RLF sign-off. And above all–don’t whine. 

Side Note: USHPA is failing to take responsibility for its role in any number of serious and fatal accidents. It’s fortunate that we even have an organization and liability pool still in existence.

The truth is that we are in the Wild West whether we like it or not. That means we all need to get along with our neighbors in the air and on the ground regardless of personal differences. Communicate, communicate, communicate!
Capice?