The Annual Meeting of our Association gets underway Saturday September 5. Members are asked to please log into the site at hpac.ca and there will be a direct link right on the homepage to the Forum and our AGM. As this is a member-driven Association, your votes on the budget and other issues are of critical importance. Please contact the Office if you should have any difficulty accessing the AGM and we will help (admin@hpac.ca).
Now that our season is slowly drawing to a close in parts of Canada, here is a great memory of Yamaska, which is where the 2014 PG Nationals were held, as recorded by a visiting pilot from the USA, Davidson Da Silva and friends from Boston. We are always happy to welcome our visitors to our beautiful flying sites in Canada.
In 2014 the following regions will be electing, or renewing, the Board members representing that region: Saskatchewan, Ontario, Atlantic Canada, BC. The process is underway to determine whether incumbents are intending to let their names stand again and for elections to be held.
Please contact the Office if you have any questions regarding this process.
Randy Parkin: Cliff Kakish Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service to the Sports of Hang Gliding and Paragliding in Canada
Michael Fuller: Jamie Christensen Memorial Award in Recognition of Long-Term Achievement
Doug T. Nitchie: The Solid Ground Award for Excellence and Creativity in the Development and Protection of Flying Sites
Eric Olivier: The Michael Robertson Instructor of the Year Award
Other awards for 2014 will be announced in the next Newsletter.
March 3-9th, 2014 marked the 4th annual Women of Aviation Worldwide Week. This event celebrates the anniversary of the first woman pilot license being issued, with the purpose of introducing more women to flight and aviation-related careers.
As a female running my own paragliding business I wanted to participate, so last year I held a draw for a free instructional tandem flight to introduce a woman to paragliding. It was a big success, so this year I wanted to do even more! In addition to the draw I contacted “Girls Fly 2-The Sky’s No Limit” who were organizing an event at the Langley Airport over the weekend of March 8 & 9.
From information on joining the Coast Guard and SAR to interactive displays from UFV that allowed girls to “build” airplane parts, the event had more to offer than just the free flights. Yes, that’s right…the event offered free flights to women and girls who had never been in a small plane or helicopter before! The smiles that weekend were huge with lots of girls begging to go for another flight. The organizers had provided a space for me so I could show another form of aviation – paragliding!
I brought an old kiting wing & had it bunched up so the participants could check out a paraglider first hand, although the fixed wing pilots shuddered at the “tiny strings” that hold us up in the air! Surprisingly the biggest hit was the harness I had brought along. Everyone wanted to try it on and run around, with lots of kids asking their parents to take a picture of them “paragliding”. It was a super fun weekend, and a great opportunity to talk about our sport as well as book tandem flights and lessons for the Moms & Dads. Thanks to events like this we can provide more positive exposure to our favourite sports…I’m already brainstorming new ideas for the event in 2015!
Martina Lang
Owner and HPAC Instructor
jetsetparagliding.com
The HPAC Office is no longer sending out the old laminated cards that came with every membership renewal. This decision had to be made due to the following: in 2013 the HPAC Office produced over 4,000 cards (each new membership or renewal, or new rating, or renewed First Aid or new HAGAR, etc. triggered a new membership card); the manual labour to produce the cards is excessive, supplies and postage are hugely expensive. It is not a good use of HPAC resources to continue with this process.
In addition, members had requested that their cards be available to them electronically so that all additional ratings or membership renewals would be available to them right away on line.
HPAC now has an all-electronic system: After you renew yourself on the HPAC website, you will automatically be sent your new membership card, showing your new expiry date. You can save that e-mail on your smartphone, if you wish, or print it out and make as many copies as you like. (If you should not receive that automatic e-mail, please contact the HPAC Office.)
As well, you can at any time go to hpac.ca and log in, and right on the homepage, under the Join/Renew Quick Link, you will see “My Membership Card”. Click there and your card pops right up.
HPAC will be producing a permanent card this fall, that shows your lifetime membership number but still will require login to the site to get your current membership and ratings status.
Please call me if you need any additional information.
As part of the Organizational Renewal of our Association, the Council for Senior Instructors (CSI) has been reviewing the current Requirements for Instructor Certifications and Tandem Endorsements and is expected to make a recommendation to the Board later in 2014 for the changes to the current requirements to be formalized. The objective is to ensure that HPAC’s standards are the highest they can be, with a focus on safety.
Recommendations for Tandem Pre-Flight Safety Protocols have been made by Martin Henry, former President of HPAC and long-time hang glider pilot. These will now be circulated by the Safety Committee (Suzanne Francoeur and George Martin) to all current tandem pilots in Canada for feedback and then will go to CSI (Council of Senior Instructors) for feedback and recommendation to the Board of Directors. These protocols will then become a formal Standard Operating Procedure for HPAC.
Jasper Park Superintendent Greg Fenton has recently committed to finalizing the guidelines for hang gliding and paragliding in Jasper National Park on a one-year trial project beginning in late spring 2015.
Flying in National Parks is still off limits until HPAC gets the go ahead and publicizes the guidelines in a few months time, but we are closer.
As a recap of where we have been on this issue: Beginning in 2007, the BCHPA and HPAC initiated a formal request to Parks Canada for their consideration of removing the prohibition against non-motorized hang gliders and paragliders in National Parks. A National Assessment convened by Parks Canada was held in 2008 in Vancouver and by early 2012, the federal legislation was changed to remove the prohibition, a huge achievement for our sport.
However, a Local Assessment would need to be done by each individual park to determine that the sport would be allowed in that park, at the discretion of the local Park Superintendent.
A small committee of HPAC has been working with Banff, Jasper and the Mountain National Parks continuously for the last three years to complete a Local Assessment. Since early in 2013, with the finalization of the user guidelines having been approved by the Parks, it was imminent that we would be allowed to start flying in Jasper Park in the 2013 season, with some conditions and as a one-year pilot project. However, more consultation was conducted with other park stakeholders and the delay caused the 2013 season to be lost. Our full expectation was for early 2014 but that also again was delayed, due to other priorities by Park Administration.
Considering HPAC’s complete and repeated submission of any and all documents required, and a very productive relationship with Staff in the various Mountain parks, it was with some frustration that your committee approached the Superintendent of Jasper Park, Mr. Greg Fenton, to obtain a commitment as to when the trial project could begin so that we could inform out members. We now have a commitment that the guidelines for flying in Jasper Park would be formally approved this winter by the Park and that we can expect to be able to advise members as to these guidelines by no later than spring 2015.
It has been a long haul with this project, but your committee is confident that Jasper Park will be available to our beautiful sport in early 2015. Conditions will be publicized well in advance, as this is a trial. And this will serve as a precedent for several other National Parks in Canada that have been identified as ideal for our sport.
And until then, thank you for observing the no-fly rules in National Parks.
Will Gadd
Bruce Busby
Alan Polster
Margit Nance
Hello fellow pilots and friends of free flight,
A lot is going on at HPAC and this is one of the reasons our AGM and this Newsletter are a little off our regular schedule.
Following major changes to the Canada Not-For-Profit Act, HPAC has to apply to Industry Canada for a Certificate of Continuance which has to be presented by your board of directors and authorized by a special resolution which you have approved during our online AGM. This was not an optional procedure which means simply that HPAC had to apply and conform to these new regulations to continue to exist as a Not-For-Profit Association.
Following many changes that have been already adopted to our instructional system, we are now getting to the last items that are targeted by this major overhaul. We have been reviewing our instructor rating requirements and finally our tandem instructor requirements. The review of these requirements was already programmed because this planned overhaul had begun in late 2011 and it was meant to be all inclusive. The review was underway when the tragic death of Lenami Godinez occurred in British Columbia in April of 2012.
HPAC is now involved in litigation in British Columbia surrounding that tragic accident and as such further comment cannot be made while this is before the courts.
Following the accident, we asked Martin Henry, past HPAC president and long-time pilot, to initiate an official investigation for HPAC. The report that followed was also used in the criminal court case which found the tandem instructor guilty of criminal negligence causing death. The report is self- evident and clearly we support its recommendations. Those recommendations are being currently considered by our Council of Senior Instructors (CSI) who will look at the most practical ways to implement them. There will also be consultation with current tandem pilots for their input and oversight by HPAC’s Safety Committee, Suzanne Francoeur and George Martin.
All of this is to encourage you as members to always put safety first.
Sometimes when you do something long enough it gets to be automatic, normal. We pilots feel entitled to this big circling sky above us. Let’s not forget that when we are there, it is because we learned the language of the wind. We nevertheless remain foreigners in that realm, only temporary guests at best. Let’s keep this in mind as we accept anything that might help us enjoy another day doing what we yearn so hard for.
Have a great and safe remainder of this flying season!
Domagoj Juretic
HPAC President
Regional Director for Québec
A new HPAC Accident/Incident reporting system and a new HPAC Pilot Training Checklist and Logbook are two of several important initiatives being undertaken by HPAC’s Safety Co-Chairs, Suzanne Francoeur and George Martin through the early part of 2014.
The safety of our pilots and our sport in Canada is one of the highest priorities of HPAC. 2014 will see a renewed and upgraded focus on safety for new student pilots, recreational as well as competition pilots, and for instructors and tandem pilots.
An updated easy-to-use online Accident/Incident Reporting form is being developed. It will connect directly with the Safety Chair(s), will track details for gathering HPAC statistics, and will also develop a communication loop to a new Safety Forum on the HPAC website, where a brief description of the accident/incident will be posted for members (but maintaining the anonymity of the pilot). The objective is for members to be able to learn from situations that others found themselves in, which led to accidents or incidents and how those might have been avoided.
A new “HPAC Pilot Training Checklist and Logbook” is also being developed: its purpose is to provide for all new students a progression of the skills and a checklist for mastering the skills required for any given rating. The checklist is based on the new ratings requirements developed in 2012/13 by the Council of Senior Instructors.
Several other initiatives and new reporting procedures will be announced in a Special Safety Bulletin coming to all members in late spring 2014.
The first ever in-person meeting of all HPAC Senior Instructors from across Canada took place in November of 2012 and resulted in the formation of the Senior Instructors Council, replacing the old Instructional Advisory Committee.
CSI’s first mandate was a comprehensive overhaul of all ratings, Beginner to Advanced, hang gliding and paragliding, and all related examinations, which are now being used by instructors across Canada. Changes were also made to all the related forms on the website to reflect the new rating structure and the special skill sign-offs that were added to each rating.
The CSI is continuing its work 2013-2014 by reviewing the requirements for Instructor and Tandem Endorsement and for Senior Instructor, with a recommendation expected to go to the Board of Directors later in spring of 2014.
As well, Senior Instructor Colleen Varcoe is engaged in a process that will lead to a Code of Ethics for Instructors, after consultation with Senior Instructors, Instructors and the Board of Directors.
Updating and monitoring of the ratings structure is an ongoing task and CSI will be seeking input from all instructors on a continuing basis. A special Bulletin on Instruction will go to all current instructors later this spring.
HPAC’s Board of Directors and the Executive Director, Margit Nance, are engaged in a two-year top-to-bottom review of HPAC’s operations (2013-2015). It includes a complete review of PRD’s, Instructional standards, Safety protocols, Competition protocols, enhanced online Member services and communications, website updates and the development of a mobile website. More information about all of these as they become ready for members to utilize. All input from our members in any of these areas is encouraged. Please contact the Office with any and all ideas. It is your Association.