A few days ago, Sam Kellner, local hang glider pilot in Leakey, Texas, and organizer of the Texas Open Fly-in, wrote to bring me up to date on recent events at the Leakey airfield, the airfield that we use for aerotowing during the Texas Open (which has twice been the US National Fly-In). Sam wrote:

On March 7 we had a PowerChute/Paraplane fly-in here at 49R. EAA Chapter 123 from Houston was here for the third year. They obtain event coverage much like we do from the USHPA for hang gliding sites/events. A trike fly-in is in the works, organized by the Kerrville, Tx. EAA Chapter.

As Dan Bereczki mentioned in his email there have been some changes here. The USHPA Austin Chapter President, Shane Nestle, notified me several weeks ago that Leakey would no longer be insured with flying site coverage through Austin Free Flight (http://www.austinfreeflight.org/) . No reason was given for discontinuing.

The '02-'05 Texas Open events were sponsored thru the North Texas USHPA Chapter (http://www.nthpa.org/) and I paid for site/event insurance out of my pocket. Austin finally accepted '07-'08 and sponsored through their chapter and even paid the $180 site policy for one year, maybe both years. Now they have made the decision to no longer help. But they are planning first ever events at a foot launch site near Austin. Sorry, only locals are allowed.

Sam feels that there is a pilot who is a member of the Austin Free Flight club and is a USHPA regional representative (and Competition Work group member) who has bad mouthed the Leakey site before, telling him that it is an aerotow only site (there is a 400' hill side launch next to the airport which was included in the site insurance and from which there has been at least one very long paraglider flight). (I wonder what is wrong with being an aerotow site only.)

I contacted Shane Nestle, president of the Austin Free Flight Association, about why they had decided not to insure the Leakey site. Shane <<email>> writes:

In the regular membership meeting of October last year, Austin Free Flight Association (AFFA) voted to not sponsor the Leakey flying site any further. The decision was prompted due to many different factors, but the primary factor was the continual difficulty of administering the site in accordance with our bylaws.

One of my first actions after being elected president was to contact Sam directly to discuss the decision and to encourage him to get started with forming another USHPA chapter in order to provide his own site insurance. I pointed out that it is rather simple to create a USHPA chapter and I offered my assistance in doing so should he need it. AFFA gladly provided the site insurance for the first two years in order to help the site get off the ground, but when it was time to transition to an independent site, the choice was made not to do so by the persons responsible for creating the site as well as those who benefit most from the site’s operation.

Leakey is primarily suited to only the paraglider population most of the time due to launch access, so you lose the interest of half the possible pilot population on that fact alone. It is also a remote site for most Texas pilots, with very few pilots living close enough to the area to support it’s maintenance and administration. However, we still wish to promote hang gliding at the location by encouraging members and USHPA pilots to fly there when possible and to promote any flying events that may occur.

It should be noted that Sam is a valued AFFA member as well, and that we appreciate the hard work he has put into making the site available to the hang gliding community.

AFFA manages another foot launch site that has historically hosted fly-in events, Packsaddle Mountain, outside of Llano, Texas. Due to the tenuous nature of the site’s lease as well as past problems in membership, the site has not offered but one flying event in many, many years. We are now planning an official flying event for our members in order to start building that interest again. If all goes well, we plan on increasing the number of flying events and expanding them to the general USHPA community.

Due to the limited size of the “mountain” (400 feet tall and about a 1/4 mile wide) large flying events can quickly become hazardous to participants and spectators. There are also contractual restrictions on promoting the site due to problems with trespassers. However, out of state guests are welcome to join Austin Free Flight Association and pay a daily fee to fly Packsaddle or to fly using our club winch. All guests must be accompanied by a member and have the proper USHPA or equivalent ratings. We are in the process of rebuilding our web site, but interested persons can see the temporary site and download membership forms with applicable rates from http://www.austinfreeflight.org/.

The USHPA has a strategic plan that calls for more fly-ins and fun competitions, the very definition of the Texas Open. The Competition work group is supposedly working to increase the number of these types of get togethers. You would think that someone in Texas who represents that area at the USHPA and is on the Competition work group would be sure that Sam Kellner got the support he needed to make this fly-in a success.