SCPA & SBSA Discussion Board

As most of you are aware, there have been some issues regarding our ability to fly at More Mesa. The current agreement that we have with the FAA encompasses both the Alternator (LZs) and More Mesa. This agreement was secured many years ago by the leaders of the Santa Barbara Soaring Community at that time and provides the specific regulations and guidelines that allow pilots to fly in this restricted air space. The leadership of the Santa Barbara Soaring Community including; Rob and Ty Sporrer, Chad Bastian, Kevin McKinley, Parma Chris, Tammy Burcar, Greg Brown, Marge Variano, Dave Baldwin, John Greynald, Bob Anderson, Cheri LaRoche, John Lyon, Magic Mike, Dilly White and others has been working over the past year to secure a new agreement which would allow pilots to continue to fly at More Mesa. Currently, we are allowed to fly to the East of launch at More Mesa as long as the tower has been called first and the airspace has been opened by the tower. Unfortunately, there have been several violations logged by the tower recently. These include flying west of launch and flying without opening the airspace first. These bad decisions by the offending pilots really put a halt to the efforts of some hard working individuals and caused our community to loose the credibility we were trying to gain. You know who you are, and you are now forewarned that if your behavior continues, your privileges at More Mesa, along with everyone else’s, may be revoked. In addition, there is a real possibility that we could ultimately lose the privilege to fly other Santa Barbara areas such as west of Skyport/Eliminator, the “T”, Cocopah or even East Beach if pilots continue to disregard regulations. If we lose the agreement with the tower for More Mesa, anyone seen in the air will be violating FAA regulations. When a pilot violates FAA regulations, the FAA has the authority to forcibly remove the pilot from the air, revoke or suspend the pilot’s certification, issue orders assessing civil penalties (up to $25,000 for a first offense). In addition, other agencies may pursue criminal actions if those are warranted.
At this time, the Santa Barbara Soaring Community Leadership has made the recommendation to voluntarily give up the “right” to fly More Mesa in order to ensure that we do not risk our ability to launch, land, and fly other Santa Barbara sites if any further violations are reported by the tower. While we are very reluctant to voluntarily give up a site, we feel that it is necessary to avoid potentially losing our ability to fly elsewhere in the area. The offending pilots have not left us any choice, and any future violations will result in our liaison contacting the tower to inform them that the club wishes to give up our efforts to self regulate this flying site.

It is important to understand that the written agreement we have with the tower specifies the Alternator landing zones and More Mesa in the same document. The two sites are not handled independently in our agreement. We would automatically lose the Alternator landing zones if we continue to show our lack of respect and inability to self regulate at More Mesa. Our liaison with the tower has lost credibility, and his many hours of hard work have been wasted by a handful of individuals who don’t seem to respect the gravity of this situation. Many pilots rarely fly at More Mesa, and it is unfair to have the actions of a few experienced local paragliding pilots affect the mountain flying privileges of every other pilot who flies here.

This is the final wake up call for everyone. It is time to use self restraint, and follow the guidelines which have been spelled out for over a year for how we are to operate at More Mesa. You must self regulate even if the pilot who is in violation is more experienced than you and should know better. Realize that flying from Wilcox west toward More Mesa violates the agreement if the tower has not been contacted about opening the window.

We do not want to make such a decision hastily, or without due diligence. As a result, the decision will be “discussed” at the next general meeting (Thurs, July 2). The decision, as it stands, comes with one and only one caveat. We will not move forward for a period of one month, pending our evaluation of our own ability as a community to “self police”. If we learn of even one single violation during this time, the long-standing agreement with the tower will be terminated and we will lose the site entirely and permanently. After such time, rogue pilots at More Mesa will be arrested for flying there.

Just to be crystal clear, there are just two simple rules to be followed when flying at More Mesa:

1) The tower MUST BE CALLED AND THE “BEACH WINDOW” MUST BE OPENED BY THE TOWER BEFORE ANYONE FLIES AT MORE MESA. There are many individuals who can and will happily call the tower for any pilots wanting to fly on any given day – i.e., any local paragliding instructors (Chad Bastian, Kevin McGinley, Rob Sporrer, Bo Criss, etc.), Greg Brown, Parma Chris, and a host of others. If you have the number to the tower and do not mind calling for others, please post your name and phone number on the forum as a “More Mesa” contact.

2) You may NOT fly west of the main launch at More Mesa.


In order to keep this site open, we must now have a PERFECT track record. This means that not only must every pilot follow the rules above, but if anyone sees a pilot breaking either of these rules, he or she MUST compel that offending pilot to stop immediately (read: do whatever needs to be done to ensure that the violating behavior is instantly halted). We must all self-police vigilantly at this site or we will risk the privilege to fly many areas in Santa Barbara including the mountains and the beach areas.

For anyone who might be reading this and chuckling, you won’t be when our agreement with the tower is a thing of the past, and the entire flying community knows that it is you that lost our sites.

Sadly,

Greg Brown

Anyone wishing to fly More Mesa may contact me, if necessary, to open the "Beach Window".

My phone number (cell): 805-637-8781

Greg Brown

As one of the pilots who does fly More Mesa, it would break my heart to lose the privilege to fly this beautiful site. I hope everyone understands the gravity of this situation. Please don't be the one who ruins it for everyone.

I don't fly More Mesa, but I'd be happy to meet with the offender(s) and discuss the advantages of flying when you want - within the rules, as opposed to flying when some beaurocratic weenie has gotten over himself and is willing to allow you to fly.

Perhaps we will have people from BOTH SBSA & SCPA come to Thurs meeting at Rusty's to discuss?

i won't be able to make the meeting- but the idea of having a sign at the more mesa launch has been brought up several times. i know there are pros and cons to it- but there are out of town pilots who do come to fly more mesa. not everyone reads our forum. i remember pilots not wanting the public to see the sign- but if it keeps pilots informed- it may be the way to go. i really appreciate the hard work our local pilots are putting into flying this special site. thanks a bunch.

Thanks for the notice.
And thanks to those pilots, especially Dave Baldwin, for contributing so much time into the effort to try to keep More Mesa open.
There was spectulation that the the offending pilots(s) were not informed/aware of the the rules and the implications of their actions, or that they are just redarded.
This notice will do a good job of removing the awareness part from the theory.

It would be great to see more pilots make the meeting tonight!
John G

Thanks to Chad and any others who negotiated our original agreement with the FAA to be able to fly inside the class C airspace.
Thanks to Dave and all those who have worked to keep this agreement in effect while Chad has been sick the last 18 mos.
To the offending pilots, who continue to violate the agreement and then, “see what happens”. How lame.
That’s what Claude did in Malibu and now all their sites are closed. Do the “offenders” think they are any different? Now their actions have threatened our mountain sites.

I can also open the “window” for pilots who don’t have the #.

Best,
Magic Mike

310-985-3972

Flew MM the last couple of days ... called tower to open beach/mesa window ... flew east along HR bluffs. Tower was pleasant. I assume that's OK.

Posting rules on home page would be good for many. A little sign seems OK too, but FYI, technically a sign there requires a County/CCC permit, so be discrete.

We are so lucky to be living in this area and have the ability to fly here so often. The Santa Barbara flying community is made up of a really great group of people. I really makes me sad that issues like these seem to draw people apart rather than having people work together towards a common goal. Everyone in the flying community wants the same thing. We all just want to fly!! That is why many of us (including myself) moved here in the first place. I have heard that the letter Greg posted was not well received by some and that it came across in a contentious manner. I know that this was not the intent but we all want to ensure that everyone in our community respects and follows the regulations so we can continue to fly in all the areas we love. I know I am a relatively new pilot and new to the area but I feel strongly that if we ALL work together we can not only keep all our current sites opened, we could work towards opening other sites, grow our flying community and look for ways to give back to the local community of Santa Barbara and create a positive image for the paragliding and hang glider pilots flying in Santa Barbara. My hope is that pilots who did not follow the regulations were not aware or did not fully understand the ramifications. The letter was meant to inform everyone of the ramification and give our entire flying community an opportunity to share the opinions and ideas. Please join us tonight and come with a positive outlook and in the spirit of solving problems and coming together.