Ann soars light conditions at Benicia, photo by James Smyth

As we look ahead to the new year, I want to welcome our new officers including Alex Koorkoff as Secretary, Atta Pilram as Treasurer and Gregg Hackett and James Smyth as Activities Co-Directors.

We also have a new newsletter editor – Richard Hammer has volunteered to be the editor of the Ridge Dancer going forward.  The Ridge Dancer will be a monthly online newsletter with articles, columns, photos and links to information such as the BAPA calendar, classified and so forth.  (For anyone who prefers to read hardcopy, it’s easy to print out the online Ridge Dancer.)

I would like to encourage BAPA members to submit articles to the Ridge Dancer by the 15^th of each month for publication.  You can email your articles and photos (we love photos!) to Rich at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  If you have recently gone on an interesting paragliding trip, attended a useful clinic or class, or had some other experience that you would like to share with our club members, please feel free to write an article.  In addition to BAPA members reading the newsletter, we also have many visiting pilots who say that they have read our newsletter online and enjoyed the articles.

In 2006 I will be in charge of arranging entertainment for the meetings as Gregg and James are both geographically distant from the Bay Area and won’t be attending most meetings.  If you would like to do a presentation or slide show, show a video or have any other ideas about entertainment, please let me know.  My email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  So far I have lined up several month of entertainment including Josh and Eric’s Top Ten Thermalling Tips, Flying in Peru, the Caribbean XC Challenge and Flying in Alicante, Spain.  In addition, Jug Aggarwal will do a presentation on using your GPS in the XC League.

The Activities Co-Directors have a good slate of upcoming activities including fly-ins at Potato, Elk, Dunlap, Hat Creek.  We’re hoping to hold not only the annual Thermal/Mountain Flying clinic but also possibly an XC Clinic (heck, Josh offered to lead it, so let’s do it).  In addition, Wally Anderson has offered to hold a reserve clinic for members.  It’s likely that we will have the Jody Lucas Picnic at Ed Levin in the spring and resurrect the Beach barbecue at Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica in the early Fall.  It’s important not to be too ambitious when planning events – we can all get burned out if there are too many things going on.  But I think our club always has a great variety of well-organized events that we can be proud of.

I hope that all BAPA members will consider participating in an event or writing an article for the newsletter or doing a presentation at a meeting in 2006.  Our club’s strength lies in the talents and efforts of its members.

Thanks for being a part of BAPA and I look forward to a great year of flying and hanging out with all of you.

Hello fellow Pilots!

I would like to take the time to introduce myself as the "Ridge Dancer's" new editor. My name is Rich Hammer and I've been a pilot for just short of 2 years. I trained with the Advanced Paragliding crew and look forward to getting my P3 rating this spring.

We hope you all like the new format for our newsletter! (Thanks Julie!!!!) We very much look forward to continue the tradition of interesting articles about our great sport. In this vein I would encourage all of you to please submit articles about or related to paragliding for publication.

I was reading a thread on paraglidingforum.com where someone asked the question of why there are not more pilots in good ole' USA. One suggestion was, (I am paraphrasing), that it is in part due to the fact that flyable sites are mostly located on the western side of the country which makes it difficult to learn how to paraglide.

Rich Hammer practices the Cobra at Don Pedro Lake, photo by Julie Spiegler

Whether this is true or not was not the issue for me. What it did make me realize is that our club is quite lucky to have a number of key sites within a short drive. For me living in San Ramon I can get to Ed Levin in 20 minutes or so; the Dump within 45 minutes, etc.. Not to mention the consistency of the weather, (yes, I know that right now it consistently sucks). However if I was living back in my home state of NY and in the middle of Long Island... well, you get the picture. 

Think about this the next time you get that short flight at Sled Heaven!

My point here is that we have a a lot to brag about and in bragging there are some great articles waiting to be published. So please send them in to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . I would also like to encourage our Pilots to send in article ideas. We'll take and run with them then.

Well enough rambling. Safe and exciting flying to all of us in this fine new year of 2006!

Rich Hammer

Annual BAPA dues are due by the end of the year to renew your membership for 2006. 

BAPA is one of the largest and most active paragliding clubs in the country.  Our flying community is made up of a diverse population and it’s great to get to know and fly with so many pilots. 

We hold lots of flying and social events as well as safety and first aid clinics.   Members often attend clinics such as the Thermal Clinic and the Reserve Clinic for free or for a cost that is subsidized by the club.

Nova get high above Westlake, photo by James Smyth

BAPA also pays for site insurance for the three Bay Area sites – the Stables, Mt. Tam and Mt. Diablo.  We are working on opening new sites such as Coyote Lake and Mori Point.

Our club needs your support.  If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2006.  The annual dues are still $25 per year.  If you are not yet a member, please consider joining the club so you can support our sites and activities.

You can join BAPA or renew your membership online at www.sfbapa.org.  Select “Join Now” and fill out the online application form.  If you are renewing, please update any contact information that has changed or any ratings or HAM call sign that you have completed since the last time you renewed.  You can choose to pay via Paypal or by sending in a check to BAPA, P.O. Box 1809, Pacifica, CA  94044.

If you have any questions about joining the club or renewing, please contact the BAPA Treasurer – Atta Pilram ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Blue skies and smooth lift!  Don't forget to renew for 2006. 

We all live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are lucky to have some great coastal sites to fly: Mussel Rock and The Stables.  On a good day you can fly until you get tired or hungry or just have to go.  You can see the Farralon Islands, the Golden Gate and San Mateo Bridges, Pt. Reyes, and Mt. Tamalpais.  Scampering on the ground you are likely to see a couple varieties of foxes, cats, skunks, fishermen, locals walking their dogs, and your buddies who came late and haven’t gotten up yet.  Look out to the ocean and you are apt to see dolphins, whales, sea lions, and the occasional fisherman swimming to or from the rocks.

Coastal Cleanup 2005, photo by Rich Leggett

While I don’t get out there as often as I might like, I really appreciate everything about those sites: good company, the wildlife, the scenery, the smell and sound of the ocean.

Last month BAPA had the chance to get out and pay back our coastal sites by cleaning them.  For those of you who were not able to make it, we picked up about 40 large bags worth of trash and recycling.  Our bags were filled tons of butts, loads of alcohol bottles, and lot of other things of various shapes and sizes.

It was good for the sites (Mussel Rock has never been the subject of a beach cleanup), it was good for the local community, and it was good for the club.  We have had a couple of incidents with blowbacks and other things in recent months so we really needed to get out there and show that the club cares for and appreciates what we have.  Thanks to the County Coordinator, Lynn Adams, BAPA got some positive press in the local paper.

We were all busy cleaning and did not have much time for taking pictures but one of the California Coastal Cleanup volunteers, Sharon MacDonald, did and I have posted them here: http://imageevent.com/rleggett/coastal.

Going forward, it would be great to have the club clean up our beaches on Earth Day as well as California Coastal Cleanup Day.  Cleaning up other people’s trash is not glamorous by any stretch of the imagination.  But it is gratifying and fun to be out making a positive impact on our world with your flying friends – and maybe even get some flying in.

Coastal Cleanup 2005, photo by Rich Leggett

Embrace the Fall!

Why PLF?

Theory

How to Practice

Over the summer, I happened to be on Oahu the weekend they held their annual Makapu’u Air Games fly-in.  This year it was being held at Kahana Bay.  While I was in the launch queue a tandem pilot was getting ready while another pilot was going through his gear off to the very narrow side.  The tandem pilot brought his wing up and away he went with what looked to be a snag in his lines.

Makapu'u Aire Games, photo by Rich Leggett

That was the second radio incident of the day; the first came after hiking up to launch (most of the sites in Hawaii require a hike up).  After getting most of my gear out of my harness I discovered that my radio antenna had somehow fallen out of my bag in transit.  (Note to self: don’t remove antenna from radio when traveling.)

It was a new site to me and I did not want to fly with out being in radio contact with local pilots so I chose to hike back down in hopes of being able to borrow an antenna.  As it turned out, another pilot’s bad luck was my good luck.  Several pilots had gone XC earlier.  One misjudged his landing and wound up fully – with two radios, a GPS, and a cell phone - dunked in some brackish water.  I went off to retrieve them and was able to borrow an antenna from one of the submerged radios.

A couple of weeks ago I was on top of Ed Levin helping a pilot get one of his observed flights.  I had also gone up with my friend Stephen and a couple of other pilots who needed to be sponsored or observed.  Everyone got away nicely except the last observed pilot and me.  There were a couple of blown launches – the last of which took the observed pilot a little ways down the hill (without injury).  From below it probably looked like trouble.

Normally this situation is not a problem because I would get on the radio and let folks in the LZ know that everything was cool and we were going back up to launch.  The problem was that I had my radio but no antenna since I had not replaced the one lost on my trip to Hawaii.  And my observee did not have a radio.  What ensued was an unnecessarily hurried trip up to make sure we were OK – something that would have been easily avoidable if only we have a way to communicate with the folks in the LZ.

There are many more stories that could be told but this last situation brings home the point I want to make: always carry a working radio.  Probably more pilots than not fly without radios on the coast.  More and more are flying without radios at Ed Levin.

Most of the time you can get away with it.  Although we do not always think of them as such, radios are safety devices that we should always carry – just like our reserve – whether we think we need it or not.  You never know when you are going to need to communicate with a downed pilot, let someone else know you are all right after an incident, or call for a retrieve.

I was taught to always fly with my radio by my instructor (Wally) and many other pilots more experienced than me who have been kind enough to mentor me over the years.  Checking it has become part of my pre-flight routine.  I have never actually needed my radio until I got caught without it.  Whether I have it on or choose to leave it off I will never again fly without my radio.

“I can’t live without my radio.”  - LL Cool J

“I won't fly without my radio.” - Rich Leggett 

I’m writing this tardy Safety report at the beginning of October.  As usual, August was a busy month with pilots dispersing far and wide in the U.S. and beyond.  I hope everyone accumulated great flying adventures inn the late summer.  These experiences can be hauled out and relived in the approaching slow period of November and December before the winter storms come and we get into pre- and post-frontal flying.

There are a few incidents and accidents that I am aware of in August and September.  In August shortly after the blowback at Westlake that resulted in a garage door being damaged, another pilot got blown back at Mussel Rock.  The day was good, slightly on the strong side but not unmanageable.  The pilot had been flying off and on for a few hours.  Toward the end of the day the pilot relaunched and got up around the top of the Westlake cliff.  There was a ground launcher setting up at the corner of Westlake.  The paraglider pilot went over the top and apparently landed between two houses.  The police arrived on the scene but the pilot was not, apparently, injured.  We originally heard about the incident when the ground launcher called a BAPA member to alert him.

This incident seemed avoidable – when the wind gradient is strong pilots should stay low and out in front.  If conditions are strong, it’s safest to control altitude by staying out at the front of the lift band and making turns or using Big Ears.  The pilot involved in this incident is a self-taught, unrated pilot.

A second incident involved a ground launcher who broke his femur upon landing.  The ground launcher is an experienced skydiver, base jumper and ground launcher.  He said he was trying a new landing method that involved at least two new techniques.  The ground launcher came in too fast and could not complete his intended turn.  He severely broke his leg and later had complications in his recovery.

The ground launcher and a fisherman tried to call 911 from the beach but the cell phone reception was bad.  When the ground launcher finally got through, he was put on hold for 15 minutes.  This was because 911 calls from cell phones go to the CHP first and then get routed to the appropriate emergency services.  15 minutes is a long time when you are injured!  Please carry a cell phone and program in the Daly City Fire department direct number – 650-992-2313 for emergency calls.

In a third incident, a P2 pilot misjudged his glide back to the bottom road at Mussel Rock.  The pilot was sinking out and thought he could glide back to the road to land.  However, at the last minute he decided he did not have enough altitude so he turned out, planning to turn back to land on the beach.  However, the pilot was too low and before completing his turn, he landed in the ocean.  A witness said the pilot was in about knee-deep water.  The pilot was able to unhook from his gear.  In a short while the witness landed and helped the pilot pull his wing out of the water.  The witness said they had their hook knives in hand in case they became tangled in the lines.  While they were successful in retrieving the wing in this instance, it can be very dangerous trying to pull a wing out of the ocean because of the waves and the likelihood of getting tangled in the lines.  Anyone attempting to retrieve a wing should be ready to abandon the effort if necessary.

Those are the accidents and incidents that I know of in August and September at Bay Area sites.  I hope that everyone has a great Fall and that we continue to build a strong flying community.

We'll make sure the minutes are more formalized in future issues. During the December meeting (at the special Pilot Summit) the main topic was that the election results were presented. Below is a snippet from the announcement Jeff Wishnie sent out to SFBAPA members shortly thereafter.

The election results are in. Here, drum-roll, are your new officers for 2006:

President -- Ann Sasaki
Vice President -- Rolf Bienert
Treasurer -- Atta Pilram
Secretary -- Alex Koorkoff
Co-Activity Directors -- James Smyth and Gregg Hackett
Site Director -- Tom Moock
Safety Director -- Wally Anderson

Congratulations folks--and thank you for volunteering for the club in 2006.

I'd also like to thank all the _outgoing_ officers from 2005. Thank you for all your time and effort:

Outgoing Treasurer -- Raquel Lopes
Outgoing Secretary -- Pete Norlander
Outgoing Safety Co-Director -- Ann Sasaki
Outgoing Activities Co-Director -- Rich Leggett
Outgoing Activities Co-Director -- Chip Sheppard

regards,

Jeff Wishnie
Outgoing President

And since the template isn't really set up to handle more than one set of Meeting Minutes at a time, here are all the Minutes as links:

• BAPA Meeting Minutes - July 2005
• BAPA Meeting Minutes - August 2005
• BAPA Meeting Minutes - September 2005
• BAPA Meeting Minutes - October 2005
• BAPA Meeting Minutes - November 2005
• BAPA Meeting Minutes - December 2005