www.sahga.com

Hi, all

Don't forget there will be a SAHGA meeting on Tuesday, March 9th at 7 PM at the

Pizza Hut
2943 N Campbell Ave
Tucson

One special agenda item - we need to decide on a date for the 2010 Miller Canyon Fly-in. There is disagreement about whether it's better to hold it the first weekend in May, or have a late monsoon fly-in in September.

May is considered likely to have stronger conditions, higher XC probability, but higher possibility of launch incidents and higher likelyhood that paraglider and inexperienced hang glider pilots don't get to fly due to conditions.

Since turnout last month was low, we decided to defer the decision until more members had the chance to think about it and attend to vote on the issue.

As always, visitors are welcome. Please come out and join us.

John

I cannot attend the meeting, as I will be in Santa Barbara.
I'd prefer a late monsoon fly-in so that more people can participate. I believe we can get a good turn-out from both flavors of Phoenix pilots if we avoid having the event too close in time to the Mingus fly-in.

Miller Canyon looks like it might be Speedwing friendly,but are you guys ok with us going there?

Yeah, we're cool with that. As far as we can tell, they're just small, fast paragliders with lousy L/D.

There's a key required for the upper gate, so you'll probably want to come with us anyway. Make sure you check out the location of the power lines and obstacles in the LZ- although it's pretty big. The E and NE facing launches are fine for PG.

It's snow'ed in right now however.

With 2800ft of vertical to play with, you guys should get nice long flights. (relatively speaking, of course)

Geez, if I go out there ill end up taking hang gliding lessons and buying one! Always wanted to do it.

You Hangliders and Paragliders of Southern AZ are absolutely awesome.I thank you for sharing your sites with us,and we will definetly go out with you guys when you go.

Membership in the national organization USHPA and the necessary rating is a requirement to fly our insured sites.

SAHGA Flight Director

Eric

USHPA doesnt cover speedwings. They want nothing to do with them. As far as a rating system goes, its in the works now, but not enforced by any organization yet(because there isnt one) The rating scale is as follows. S-1 Novice. S-2 Inter. S-3 Advanced S-4 Pro. The main problem we face is because its a crossover sport. Paragliders dont want to learn skydiving to fly a fast canopy, and skydivers dont want to learn paragliding to learn footlaunching. So everyone just kinda figures it out on there own. Both USPA (united states parachute Assoc.) and USHPA have steppped away from this sport. Needless to say, its been interesting to sit back and watch whats unfolding!

As long as your a member of the national organization and sponsored by a
SAHGA member our requirements would be met.
Monthly memberships are available or annual.

Eric

Ive been meaning to join sahga for some time. Dont have an ushpa membership yet, just uspa. I am a member of ahga. Id have to look at miller next time you guys fly, it might not even be speedflyable. All depends on where the landing area is!
Sorry to hijack this thread.

Yeah, you'd wanna check it out first and see if it's speedflyable. USHPA membership is like $75 for Pilot Membership, wouldn't be worth it if it's not speedflyable. I don't know if SAHGA would care if you have a 'pilot membership' or not. Contributing Member membership is only $58.

Base 821 ,
Give me a call an I`ll explain the process.

Eric

520-405-3814