Utah's Flying Club

I rarely go to the UHGPGA club meetings (the Utah hang gliding, para-gliding club), primarily because I haven't been flying the Point too much lately and the Point of the Mountain seems to be the club's main area of interest. However, I was somewhat motivated to go Thursday because of a prompt I received via email from John R. There has been a lot of discussion regarding the basic use of the big green sodded area at the newly remodeled North Side, and I was under the impression a critical discussion - vote was on the agenda for the night regarding landing protocols etc.. I even arrived early so I could pay my delinquent club dues. I think I would fly at the Point more if the landing zones were safer and free from student pilots kiting their bags. I was impressed by the first discussion of the night regarding the South Side of the Point. Steve Mayer brought a plan forward that is supposed to help alleviate some of the congestion and confusion due to the high numbers of pilots and broad range of pilot skills that are represented at the Point. It seemed to be a well thought out concept. I was further impressed by Steve's effort to endear the hangs that were present. I thought Steve went out of his way.

But I was looking forward to a discussion that would at least begin to put some sort of logic in place for the North Side's landing procedures for both the bags and hangs. I was under the impression that all this money spent to create a fabulous flight park would yield more than just a two acre sodded play pen for the bags to kite in. Oh well, should we have expected more? Yes, we should expect more. We should expect the leaders of "the club" to respect and have a like interest for both bags and hangs. No matter the difference in numbers between the bags and hangs, it should be a safe flying site for both rather than a $700,000+ practice area for the multitude of para-glider instructors. We should expect a well thought out plan to be a part of this new public flying site. Instead we were told by our regional USHPA Representative - "let's just get out there and see how things work out". Isn't that what we have been doing? Isn't that the problem?

So for the rest of the meeting we were rushed from one subject to the next. It seemed as though our illustrious leader was on a mission to minimize and roll over any idea put forward. Is it just me? I don't know, but I must say it sure seems like there was a concerted effort to minimize the issues and "see ya later".

I remember a flight I had a few years back at the North Side. It was a scratchy evening and I was bobbing in and out of traffic low on the primary ridge. I realized I would be landing at the bottom soon, as each pass I fell below the ridge lower and lower. There was a big Suburban parked right smack in the middle of the lower LZ loading up bags. Several times as I passed overhead I yelled at the SUV, "landing", "hey, MOVE YOUR VEHICLE!". The only response was the driver looking up yelling back obscenities and with both hands giving me the finger. He continued to take his time, and just as I was setting up for a sketchy landing between the edge of the berm and his SUV, he peeled out in cloud of dust. Hangs and bags - kinda sad.