fatal injury in Malibu

[pengoquin]

Was this a PPG or PG accident?

[MikeP]

Paraglider
http://web.me.com/stewartvolland/jakela ... alibu.html
Click on the "Jake Flying in Malibu" video.
The MalibuSurfsideNews http://malibusurfsidenews.com/stories/2 ... 14006.html is incorrectly reporting this as a Powered Paraglider.
Keep an eye on this growing thread: http://www.topix.com/forum/city/malibu- ... M5MMNAM4I4.
"True American" and some other insensitive folks (who need to get a life) put up some rubbish and are being duly excoriated by the family and friends of Jake, an individual who really embodied the spirit of a true American.

MM

[wingnut]

Seeing the understandable interest in the matter, I've posted a number of pieces, articles and letters, in reference to the most unfortunate Malibu accident. It's not that I'm especially keen on knowing about this stuff but my google webcrawler picks-up any articles on the internet that contain the term paragliding and its variants.

Some passing thoughts about similar situations when launches and LZs are at risk:

1. Lots of misunderstandings quickly arise;
2. Correct and immediate communication is important;
3. Education is even more important, especially about basic factual issues;
4. Rumors run rampant, the more inflammatory the faster;
5. Non-pilots are very confused about things pilots take for granted;
6. Tempered, organized, and balanced responses help a lot;
7. Pilot egos are best left at launch;
8. Stress safety and risk management in explanations;
9. Not responding creates an information vacuum just waiting to be filled by all sorts of foolishness;
10. The distinction between "recreation" and "commercial" flying is strangely important to others;
11. Wackos, blowhards, morons, and other forms of idiots are best ignored rather than engaged;
12. God, some people are just such .... (oh ... nevermind).

RIP Jake

[John Fritsche]

Excellent observations by Wingnut. I'm somewhat new to the SB area, but it seems that there are a lot of fairly new pilots here, and a lot that have been flying predominantly at well-established, pretty secure, and casually regulated or completely unregulated sites for most of their flying careers.
I'm not sure they've suffered enough site closures to fully understand how quickly and easily it can happen.
I've lived in several places in my 20 years of flying, and I've had to witness sites close in ALL of them. There's a a short list of causes. The last area I lived in was Bakersfield. Three sites closed by the time I left, two due to encroachment (just like what happened to the old Alternator LZ) and one due to the Ron Rosepink fatality. These were all in Tehachapi. Two sites' (one near Porterville and one in Bako) days are currently numbered due to encroachment.
What's really sad is that ten years ago property values in these areas were so low that, if there had been a pilot population as large as SB's, the launches and LZs could have become club-owned. And I never knew Ron Rosepink as an Air Force test pilot or regular human being, but pilots over there lost a GREAT site when he started showing up and flying PGs the way that he did, got himself killed, and freaked-out the homeowner's association. The HoA was also unhappy about the increasing number of visiting pilots who started landing in their yards after making unwise XC decisions.
I've also seen great sites disappear in the midwest and Colorado. With very few exceptions, it's always an encroachment or liability issue. And ALL sites are vulnerable. No sites have been lost in SB recently, but how many more problems do you think Wilcox and More Mesa can survive? How about if someone crashes into a house bordering Parma, or lands on Hwy 101 trying to do XC from Bates?