The Maryland Hang Gliding Association
Hello to the flying community,
I just wanted to announce my appointment as President of the Maryland Hang Gliding Association and introduce myself to those of you who do not know me. But more importantly, I want to let everyone know that the Maryland Hang Gliding Association is alive and well and hope to be so for years to come.
First off, thanks to everyone who voted for me. Kinda felt like the guy in the line-up being asked to volunteer…with everyone else stepping backwards with this appointment but hey…I guess it’s my turn in the barrel. I’ll try and do a good job.
I am not a stranger to the MHGA. In a previous lifetime I served four terms as Flight Director and have missed all of about four meetings in twenty plus years. So…I am kinda a fixture. I hold a Master rating, am one of the region nine examiners and own and operate a hang gliding school. I’ve been teaching hang gliding for thirty years. God help me.
That said, a huge thank you goes out to Brian Vant-Hull who faithfully and dutifully held the reigns of the MHGA all these years. Brian was a great liaison between the Capital and Maryland Clubs was an active pilot and well…all around good guy. Big shoes to fill on my end. I’m not out as actively flying as I used to or anywhere near as much as Brian did. Teaching and well…family and many other pursuits severely limit my time for that (regrettably). Brian was a real club asset. Best wishes to Brian and his new ventures up north.
A second huge thank you goes out to our treasurer, Bob “Bunkhouse” Buchanan. Bob has agreed not to flee in panic with me as president, and has already made some big contributions so far this year. Has everyone had a chance to check out our new website? I hope so. Great job and long overdue. No…we can’t compete with the slick and fancy CHGPA website, but hey…were on the map again and with your contributions it can grow and flourish. But at the very least, it puts us back in the local community presence as a real time, viable club. It’s good stuff.
It seems funny I even have to put it that way. Historically the MHGA was the most attended and vibrant clubs around. I hope everyone reads Fred Permenter’s article about the history of the MHGA. I have personally been involved with the club shortly after its re-birth inception waaay back in the 80’s, and was witness to the many events, fly-ins and meetings for decades. I’ve seen the glory years and the not-so good years. Ironically, times have changed and the MHGA’s role has a much more modest mission now. With the advent of the internet/web based forums and the coming of the commercial flight parks, the mission of both the MHGA and the CHGPA have changed. We’ve all seen the reduction in attendance and urgency to attend a monthly meeting. Both clubs have phase shifted into different modes just to survive. It’s a shame, but it is our reality.
The goals for the MHGA under my watch will basically be…business as usual but with an effort to self promote to let people know that we are alive and well. And as a club, we still have certain flying community obligations and duties such as maintaining site insurance at Oregon Ridge and High Rock and as joint owners of The Pulpit. There is also the annual High Rock party fund raiser. So…we still have some “business” to take care of…as best we can with the funds available. And if we want to keep our mountain sites alive and well, we need to support the local clubs. No one else is going to. It’s up to us as a flying community to keep the thrill of mountain flying alive and well in the Mid-Atlantic region.
With this in mind, I certainly hope that anyone who is not a member becomes an MHGA member. Dues are on a voluntary basis, but I do hope that everyone becomes either a full fledged MHGA member and/or a joint member of the MHGA/CHGPA. Your dues contribution will help maintain our sites, keep the insurance up and give the club some working funds should we need to draw on them. So please…join up and cough it up. Please. But even if you choose not to donate your hard earned cash, still feel free to attend the meetings, events, etc. Or maybe you can contribute in another way? Hey…It’s your club. Make it work!
Bottom line: were here to have fun. If you haven’t been to one of our meetings, you really should come on up. Food, adult beverages, fire pit on the deck, and last month even movies were on the agenda. It’s a good time to get together, shoot the breeze about flying and maybe, just maybe, keep the club vibrant. So far, so good. It’s a great opportunity to find out about gliders, flying sites, hear old fart flying stories and well…just have some fun. So come on out in June, September and December of this year. Support the club, meet some folks and have fun in the process.
Richard Hays
President/MHGA
P.S. We’re currently holding the MHGA meetings at my residence located at 2700 Papermill Rd., Phoenix, MD 21131 on a quarterly basis and on the first Friday of that month. The next meeting will be on June 1st, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. Come earlier if you like. Feel free to spend the night, pitch a tent, or whatever. There is plenty of space available. Officially it’s BYOB but we usually have something available, as well as food. Lasagna and salad was the entrée at the last meeting. The move away from Oregon Ridge to my place was purely about costs. Oregon was really killing the clubs bank account for little return by having the meetings there. Sure…it was nice to have a presence there, but overall way to costly. So…my place it is, and so far it’s worked very well. I think Brian’s going away party was a testimony to that fact.