danmoser wrote:Instead, USHPA decision-makers decided to dramatically raise dues on all member pilots to cover insurance costs, regardless of the insurance needs of each individual pilot.
It is not clear to what extent that the USHPA's BOD even considered other insurance options, or how much they considered various pilots' insurance needs.
I'm sure it was the most convenient for them to just raise the dues on everyone, and be done with it.
Hey MIke & Dan. The USHPA is doing what ± every other National Ass Oh She Own is doing world wide.
So: A wordy word or two from the other side of the equation.
I live in the Okanagan / Kamloops / North Thompson region of BC Canada.
- The Okanagan is an OK place to fly, which is why our website is:
http://www.FlyOk.ca
We have only 55 insured pilots right now, down from 82 a couple of months ago due to fluid
HPAC Membership renewal dates. We really struggle handling so many flying sites with so few people. Thanks from visitors is a big part of what keeps us going.
OSA has $25.00 non mandatory annual Club membership fees. Take a guess at how many pay up!
- Those that
DO become paid members
are the ones that do ALL the work too, and they are really, really starting to feel taken advantage of.
FYI: Our Club Motto is
"More Flying Sites than Pilots" - something we are damned proud of.
We live in
Hang Gliding and Paragliding Paradise, with the safety record to prove it.
It has cost no small fortune to make these sites as good and as safe as they are.
Secondly: Our most precious sites are legally secured by tenure.
They then become added to the BC Gov't list of Recreational Sites and Trails (link above.)
BC Government Nominal Rent Tenures for free flying sites cost us ± $700.00 each.
Commercial Tenures which allow Instruction and Tandem Flights at the site as well as free flight cost
STAGGERING amounts to apply for and have
STAGGERING annual fees every year thereafter.
- If you want to drop your drawers, read these two articles on the WCSC Forum.
Bridal Falls & Woodside BC:
www.westcoastsoaringclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6136
Pemberton BC:
http://www.westcoastsoaringclub.com/for ... php?t=6804
Upwards of $123,200.00 has gone into our Mara launch (mostly the upper road section, thanks to Tolko Logging - and grateful thanks to the $5,000.00 from the BCHPA.)
Fly Hills Upper launch - 3,650' vertical. (4,720' Asl.)
Well over $1,000.00 went into Fly Hills last year. It has lower, mid and upper launches.
- The mid launch is 2,330' vertical.
$4,000.00 + into Lumby's Coopers launch just a month ago.
We are just now, as we speak... putting $700.00 into Tenure for the Sicamous Launches, having put $8,000.00 into the restoration of the Hang Gliding Ramp a few years ago!
See a Sicamous thread here at:
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=30279
On the books are a massive overhaul of Lumby's Saddle Mt Launch, and Tenure for Osoyoos's Anarchist site, El Nido in Clearwater
AND Dundee in Ymir.
(
We did have to drop tenure for Keremeous's Cawston launch due to the puke your guts out annual fees.)
STAGGERING amounts of money has gone into
Golden's Mt 7 Flying Site. $1.85 million into the road alone, last I heard.
Not to mention that John McIssac is into ± $3 million for the
Golden Eco-Adventure Ranch LZ.
See the Golden Mt 7 thread here at:
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=30268
MIke and Dan: Take Note!
Bottom line #1 is: without Insurance we can
NOT get Tenure. In BC not having tenure for our sites means:
. .a)
NOTHING can be done to any launch that anyone will notice. No contractors would work on the site or project. No Logging Company or their Contractors and no Roads Company would ever do anything for us. (Or they would get their ass sued off.)
. .b) No Municipal, Regional, BC Forestry, BC Government or Canadian Government funded projects would
ever be accessible.
All Bush User Groups are having to get Nominal Rent Tenures up here. The BC Gov't requires all user groups that actively use Crown lands to do so and... to do so they must carry insurance. The BC Government is just swamped with applications from Cross Country Skiers, ATV Clubs, Bike Clubs, Snomobile etc etc. Applications that are, by law, to be completed in three months are taking well over a year and that is climbing every day.
Bottom line #2 is: Without the ability to spread the costs, BC would have 10% of its
PHENOMENAL flying sites (and the pilot numbers would have crashed accordingly.)
I'm sure that holds true pretty much everywhere world wide...
How on earth do we manage to do all this you ask?
$15.00 out of every BC pilot's HPAC Membership Fee goes back to the
British Columbia Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, which allocates pretty much 100% of that revenue to our
Site Development and Maintenance Grant Funding Program.
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