Martin Palmaz, Executive Director of the USHPA, writes:

In the last week members have contributed just under $70,000. This
is a great start, and we have a long way ($760,000) left to go. In order to
achieve our goal we need to consistently raise this amount (roughly $70,000)
every single week between now and March 1st, or about $9400/day. With just over
9400 members, this initiative will require each one of us contributing what we
can.

http://ushpa.aero/freeflightforever.asp#faq

At present our coverage for landowners does include instruction.
Due to claims history and concerns by the insurers, future coverage for
landowners under the USHPA policy will be limited to non-commercial instruction
only. Any instruction for pay of any kind will require that the instructor be
affiliated with a certified school. The school will have the ability to add
a landowner to their policy for coverage of commercial instruction. More on this
will be coming in an email to instructors later in December.

We thought about dropping all coverage for commercial instruction, but that
would mean that all of our major training schools would shut down, and they
account for nearly half of the new pilots each year. That would also stop all
training at every insured site, and would probably result in some site closures
of popular locations. After discussing the likely scenarios, we decided that
would be nearly as bad as losing all of our insurance coverage.

What is the cost, claim, and accident history for current insurance?

We are unable to provide details due to privacy concerns, confidentiality
agreements involving claimants and the pending status of some claims. In general
terms, costs have been rising rapidly, claims paid out have been driving those
costs, and accidents which cause claims have come from a variety of sources. The
single largest pay out to a claimant involved an injury to a spectator. See the
claims summary by category here for an overview of our recent history.

If pilots were not crashing into power lines, vehicles, buildings and
spectators, claims would be lower. If Chapters did a better job of managing risk
at their flying sites, claims would be lower. If students did not file lawsuits
over training injuries, after promising that they would not, claims would be
lower. If our insurers took a harder line on defending claims that we believe
are without merit, instead of paying off, costs would be lower.

Claims are not the fault of a particular wing type. Claims in hang gliding
and paragliding are proportional to our membership – Membership: 43% Hang
Gliding, 57% Paragliding. Claims: 41% Hang Gliding, 59% Paragliding.

Are things changing a lot for instructors? Give me all the details!

Yes, things have to change. We need to improve some facets of our instructional
programs, and there’s a lot of work to be done yet. Not all of the details are
worked out yet, so it’s difficult to cover it all. We’ll have emails going out
to instructors explaining the changes later in December, as we get things nailed
down. Instructors are absolutely essential to our future, and we want to do
everything possible to promote safe, effective teaching of new pilots.

What will the impact be to schools?

Schools must purchase commercial liability insurance from the RRG. They can do
this either independently as part-owners of the RRG, or through PASA, the
Professional Air Sports Association. Rates will vary depending on the volume of
annual training and the type of training being done.

What will the impact be to independent commercial instructors?

Instructors teaching for compensation of any kind must be affiliated with a PASA-certified
school to have insurance coverage. Compensation would include fees for training,
“free” training included with equipment, “guiding” services, “donations” for
training, “free tandem flights” offered as a fundraiser, and any other form of
training where any exchange of value takes place. Instructors may join together
to form a certified school in places where there is currently none.

What will the impact be to non-commercial instructors?

Instructors who are teaching strictly without any form of compensation are
covered by USHPA’s Professional Liability policy, with the same $500K/occurrence
limit. If there is any form of compensation whatsoever, the insurance is void.