David,
I stand by everything I have stated in my previous post and I will include uninsured instructors along with non-member pilots as described previously.
I certainly understand your frustration but your report is missing critical facts that you later state in reply to my first comment. Are there other factual details we need to know?
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Pilot safety is a secondary issue. Everyone needs this drummed into his/her/their head. It makes little difference if you injure or kill yourself while engaged in free-flight activity and this includes getting injured or killed while giving wire assistance if you are a USHPA member.
What matters the most is whether you injure or kill a third party while engaged in free-flight activity whether you are a member or not. A non-member student pilot is probably out of luck if they become a statistic.
There are several active lawsuits for injury to pilots where the liability waiver is nullified and the Doctrine of Assumption of Risk is also nullified. The RRRG is likely to lose over 15% of its assets from current lawsuits. In certain situations pilots are treated like third parties rather than pilots who have assumed all the risk. When this happens the RRRG and USHPA may consider whether to revoke a chapter’s status or a pilot or instructor’s liability insurance.
If and when our chapter status is revoked, we lose our site insurance. Then we also void our land lease with the DWR and Andy Jackson Airpark’s future goes into limbo. We can still fly locally and land anyplace we don’t get prosecuted for trespass. I land out fairly often and won’t be as badly affected as others might. But hundreds of pilots may be turned away from local flying or even the sport altogether. I do not know the future.
So it’s important to present ALL the facts upfront whether you need help from the community at large or not. Attacking the very group whose assistance you need in order to be an effective safety director is not helping anybody’s cause. I am of course assuming you still want enough of us to back you up. Do you?
It would be relatively easy to start either a WhatsApp or Telegram group to share information that you or we may feel is too sensitive or controversial to publish in public. There’s no harm in drafting messages that members of the safety support group can email to the USHPA directors and RRRG to make them acutely aware of individuals who pose a risk to pilot and especially third party safety.
Good luck getting it straight from USHPA or RRRG. Both corporations and their directors seem to behave if they fear being sued personally. Ironically this leads to activity and inactivity that foment the very liability they try to avoid. I have heard that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Let’s not pave the road any farther South than we already have.
Cheers, Jonathan
