A couple more comments.  Darren is a new pilot who is fresh off instruction.  How is it his instructor didn’t ensure with 100% certainty that Darren, HIS responsibility as one of his students, was not fully aware of the site rules before allowing him to go solo?  One would expect that a new student would be the most aware of rules because the learning process is so recent.

Secondly, as David reiterates, the approach patterns are the rules for our sandbox.  If you don’t want to play by the rules you are always welcome to go to another sandbox.  The Sylmar website states that you are not allowed to fly over the neighborhoods.  That is their rule.  You must abide.

The approach patterns are part of our rules.  You don’t want to abide by them, go to Sylmar and work on abiding by their rules.  Think of the rules as our version of the FARs.

It is a shame that something so basic to aviation safety as approach patterns requires so much debate.  Accident investigations try to determine why an accident happened so future ones can be prevented.  The “problem” with PG pilots cutting off HG pilots on final or PG kiting in the LZ isn’t the approaches or the kiting.  They are the result of the problem.  The “problem” is VFR pilots not following the two basic tenets of VFR: following established procedures and see and avoid.  I have been on final probably 20 seconds behind Tim, his glider is so bright it jumps out at you.  For 3 PG pilots to cut Tim off is astonishing. Equally astonishing is the two PG mid airing over Marshall some months back.  PGs are bright and slow moving.  Tim is bright and faster moving.  All should be easy to identify.  See and avoid.

The reason the PGs caused so much of an issue at Redlands airport was they did not follow the established procedure of the local traffic pattern.  No pilot can legally go to an uncontrolled airport and just decide not to follow the established pattern that is published in the AFD.  That is a good way to get a letter of investigation from the FAA.  If a CFI allowed a student to do that he would probably get his CFI suspended. (I understand the FAA has no jurisdiction over us, unlike certificated pilots)

While there are egregious HG pilots out, the current issues seem to be predominantly PG related.  Because of that, let us try to determine why these PG pilots are operating unsafely.  If a PG pilot cuts off a HG pilot on final or gets hit while kiting likely both pilots will be equally dead or injured so it is in all of our interests to make sure everyone is operating safely.

We, the club, need to determine why this portion of the PG community is operating unsafely and try to change the root cause so that everyone is safer.

An analysis of PG instruction vs HG instruction may be a good place to start as safety habits are predominantly gained while learning. I have experience as a student in helicopters, airplanes, and HG, and as an instructor and instrument instructor in helicopters, so I have experience from both sides.  There are definite differences in the instructional environment between HG and PG.

If the club wants to solve this issue and have everyone operate in a safer environment, then we should try to determine the root cause and work together to change it.

David, I am on a top shelf for glider storage for the discount, but when I put in the location on the renewal it says “out of stock” and greys the button.

Edit: I realized the bin numbers are right to left, I assumed left to right. I put bin 4 and it worked. It might help others to put a caption below the picture indicating the conex number.

I have been flying helicopters, hanggliders, airplanes since 1984.  While I am by no means perfect, broken arm caused by bad landing in 2016 as a great example, I am still in one piece and still employed as a professional pilot.

I learned to fly hanggliders in 1985, shortly after I learned to fly helicopters.  I am an H4.  I am still “timid” on the hangglider.  I have made the decision to be so when I consider my experience/proficiency on the glider relative to my concern for my ability to earn a living as pilot as well as to my long term outlook in general.

What I have noticed over the years with hanggliders, and even more so in recent years with the explosion of paragliding, is how pilots make really bad decisions.  I was setting up at Crestline last month and watched when the P1/2? suffered the collapse and ended up spraining his ankle hitting the tree next to the radio tower.  If the tree had been two feet more west the pilot may have been killed by impacting the tree higher up on his body.

I have read the rules on the CSS website that detail the restrictions for beginning pilots and how to improve to get restrictions removed.  This paraglider pilot’s instructor didn’t  drive home the risks of ignoring the restrictions.

The pilot the following week who ended up in the trees behind Marshal the same.  Lift does die down.  Maybe never before in one’s time at Marshal, but that day it did.  Again, no concern for the what if that happened.  That pilot’s instructor didn’t make the pilot understand that great conditions for months on end does not mean that tomorrow will have great conditions.  Mitch’s remark about San Bernardino County and the helicopter rescues as well as Steve’s comments above are on point.

My helicopter instructor beat it into me to never, never, never, allow the rotor RPM to decay, and thankfully in my helicopter career I never got low RPM.  The flying at Crestline is so good so often, the instructors should put significant effort into convincing new pilots that there is no guarantee that any particular day will be good and to exercise the proper caution in case the day isn’t so good.