News

The pilot is responsible for requiring and maintaining a safe launch area. Other pilots should help out to ensure the safety of each other AND SPECTATORS. A basic precaution at any launch is to ensure spectators are BEHIND the launching pilot and the wing so there is no possibility of contact during a bad launch.

Be safe out there.

We continue to negotiate with the State about maintaining our launch on Mt Greylock.

We’ve been maintaining it for 52 years, and in the past few years the State has introduced increased restrictions on how and when – and if – we can maintain a safe launch site.

Please be patient with this process as we work with Boston. Specifically, do not engage with the local rangers and staff about the condition of launch, and DO NOT conduct any unauthorized clearing or cutting of ANYTHING.

The State is obviously not going to allow the vista to grow in, so they will be cutting back vegetation in any case. We just need to work with them, mindful of sensitive or rare plants.

This is the latest version of our proposal to the State for maintenance of the Greylock launch. If not approved, we risk loss of the site, as the default action seems to be to let the vista overgrow naturally.

Download the Proposal from HERE

This summer we said farewell to our good friend and longtime pilot Brooks Ellison.

Brooks was among the first hang glider pilots. (USHGA Member # 6306) He was flying from Mt Greylock, running a flight school and local competitions, and flew for a demonstration team at a ski area in the early 1970s. He was an early pioneer of ultralight aviation, and there wasn’t much he couldn’t do on snow skis (For example, the powerline on the east face of Mt Greylock!)

By 2021, Brooks was still the pilot to keep up with at his home sites of the Mohawk Trail and Mt Greylock, though he would begrudgingly leave his valley for occasional trips to Virginia, Florida, and other sites in the northeast.

Click on the links for videos of Brooks’ remains being released to the winds over the Hoosic ridge near his home in Vermont, and The Thunderbolt Ski Trail on Mt Greylock.

What are the dues? How do I join?

Presently, we do not collect dues. We are a true association of self-funded pilots. Some deal with the State and city governments. Some deal with farmers. Some clear landing areas. Some host websites. Some own land.  Financial help is appreciated, but since we didn’t jump on the insurance/legal bandwagon, our costs are low. We’re just flying like we’ve done for 45+ years; and if the world and modern times overtakes us; That’s life.

Until then, the goal is to get to cloud base, land by your car, and have a beer. Or get up and  run downwind. It’s all good.

So how do I join? 

Do something to keep hang gliding / paragliding happening in Western Massachusetts for the next 40 years. Talk to a member (contacts in the site descriptions). (Sorry, there are no helmet stickers or membership cards or swag.) (Unless you still own a groovy club T-shirt from 1990!)

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Gould’s hay field, aka “Margie’s”, aka “The bailout field” where many pilots previously landed is no longer used. Please do not land there! New owners!

We have a new LZ in the nearby Greylock Glen (which you would have passed on the way to Margie’s): See the Google Earth picture below.

Check out the approaches from the LZ before proceeding up to launch!