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