Tough new rules to govern hang-gliding

Press, 7 September 1976, Page 6

Tough new rules to govern hang-gliding

Tougher safety regula-i it ions for hang-glider [pilots will be introduced iin Canterbury this week.

They include the com-; pulsory wearing of crash! helmets, and a grading . scheme to match pilots with hang-gliders suited to their' ability. These and other safety precautions are planned by! the Canterbury Hang-; gliding Club following a; serious accident on the Port Hills last Saturday. A young Christchurch! man, Mr Kenneth Hale.i suffered severe head injuries! when his craft crashed into! a rocky bluff above Gov- 1 emors Bay. Mr Hale, aged 22, was still in a critical con-; dition in Dunedin Hospital last evening. The new safety measures; would be introduced at a meeting of the Canterbury! Hang-gliding Club this week, the club’s secretary-treasurer; (Mr G. R. Wood) said last! evening. I

i He said the club was hav-, ring trouble in enforcing 1 I existing regulations because ;it had no copies of a new operator’s manual approved > by the Director of Civil Aviation (Mr I. F. B. ! Walters). Some inexperienced pilots (had also ignored warnings; !and taken to the air in high-; ! performance hang-gliders. From now on, Mr Wood! (said. machines as. well as; ; pilots would be graded. “We will also look at a; standard of construction for; home-built gliders,” he said. “The sort of thing that; passed for workmanship in the early days of the sport will not be accepted.” Existing regulations covering hang-gliding were designed to give maximum; flexibility while maintaining safety standards, the regional director of Civil Aviation in! Christchurch (Mr E. G. Brooke) said yesterday. The responsibility for enforcing them lay entirely 1 with hang-gliding clubs and associations.

“We don’t want to control the sport too strictly,” Mr Brooke said. “Some procedures might need amending, but this would.be done in full co-operation with hang-gliding organisations.” He said he did not believe that hang-gliding was any more dangerous than other sports — “even flying light planes.” Four fatal hang-glider accidents and at least 10 involving serious injury have occurred in New Zealand during the past two years. The Hang-gliding Association’s national safety officer, Mr Mervyn McKenzie, was killed in August. 1975. when his craft plunged 90ft on to a beach near Dunedin. Last month a top Wellington hang-glider pilot and association safety officer, Richard Fogel, died after his kite crashed into a cliff face near Paekakariki. The Civil Aviation division is still investigating Mr Fogel’s accident.