Newsletter – June 2024

The Launch | June 2024

Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada (HPAC)

From the Admin’s Desk

Welcome to all of our new members! Judging by the number of new pilot rating applications coming in to the office, there will be a lot of new faces on launches across the country.

Thanks to all who participated in the AGM, our financial statements were approved by a large majority (see graph). This was the first full year for our Treasurer (James Rogers) and myself, so the process was new to us all! Special shout-out to Pedro Pedersen our tech guru who put together the voting process.

Renewing memberships: We are in the process of updating the membership area of the website. This is mostly just the part of the website that the office uses, but once the new version is up and running we should stop having issues with the renewal process. Thanks for your patience with this! In the meantime there are a few steps you can try if the payment page doesn’t pop up for you when you go online to renew:

  • After signing the waiver, please make sure you have sent back the email confirmation. You may need to check your spam folder
  • Return to the HPAC/ACVL page and refresh your browser. If that doesn’t prompt the payment page, please navigate to the “profile” tab on the HPAC/ACVL site and look at the top for this message and click on the word “renew”.
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Martina Lang, Editor
admin@hpac.ca

Membership Discount Now Active

HPAC is pleased to offer all pilots a discount on membership fees! This will be for a 3 year time period which starts on your renewal date, so if you’ve already paid for the year don’t worry, your next 3 renewals will reflect the discount.

Currently our annual fee has been $160 (plus provincial fee) and will temporarily be $113 (plus provincial fee).

MB, SK, NU, NT, ON: $113 (previous fee $160)

Maritimes, AB, BC, YK $113+ $15 = $128 (previous fee $175)

QC $113 + $25 = $138 (previous fee $185)

Our HPAC Treasurer James Rogers noted enough of a surplus in our budget that we could pass this discount on our base fees to our members. More details can be found in the Treasurer’s Report at the following link: https://www.hpac.ca/about/budget-financials/

Aeroclub of Canada

If you have ever signed up for a competition and been asked to provide a sporting licence, that may have been the first time you had heard of the Aeroclub of Canada (ACC).

Air Sports competitions across the world are governed by the FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale, or World Air Sports Federation in English). The arm of the FAI that deals with Hang Gliding and Paragliding is called CIVL (Commission Internationale de Vol Libre, or Hang Gliding and Paragliding Commission).

HPAC is a member country of the FAI through the Aeroclub of Canada, who represent us along with other air sports like skydiving and RC flying. When you want to set a world record or are competing at an FAI event, you need to apply to the Aeroclub for a Sporting License. This has to be done every year and gets you listed in the World Rankings. This helps you in selection for our National Team if you would like to compete at the PWC level, and the more people with points who are listed helps Canada as a whole with our world ranking. Contact the HPAC office for more info!

HAGAR / Transport Canada News

Effective immediately, clients needing to book an aviation exam to be invigilated at a Transport Canada Center can conveniently utilize the Civil Aviation Online Exam Booking Tool.

Volunteers needed!

HPAC is run by the members – your Board of Directors are all volunteers as are the members and Chairs of the safety, competition and other committees. Contact Martina Lang at the HPAC office to learn more about any of the following.

  • Archivist: we have 2 big totes of old magazines and memorabilia. If you have storage space and could catalogue these items, we’d appreciate the help. This could be a fun project for anyone wanting to write a history of our sport as well, we would love to feature that on our website. Totes are currently in BC.
  • Safety Committee: we are always looking for help on the safety committee, whether investigating accidents, helping to analyze statistics, or collecting information on gear recall from hang gliding, paragliding and speed flying equipment manufacturers.
  • Advisory Committee: this used to be the “Instructor’s Advisory Committee” but we value each pilots input on many different issues. This committee tackles a variety of projects, from collecting information to update SOPs to debating suggestions from our membership on rating qualifications.