New Launch Special Skills
by Paul Voight

The original purpose of this article was simply to inform the membership of some minor changes you are going to see on the layout of your membership cards, mostly regarding launching sign-offs (foot launch and various forms of towing). However, I realized it will be necessary to take the time to review the "big picture" to have it all make sense. The basic concept is this. Until now, there could be a "designation" on a pilot's card shown as "TL". This (vaguely) stood for Tow Launch. This was from the old days, when Jerry Forburger was a young dude, building ATOL winches. At the spring Board of Directors meeting, the USHPA. Tow Committee decided to do away with "TL" and fairly soon cards will be going out without that "designation". Don't panic; nothing is being taken away from you. Instead of the old "TL", there are three tow launch special skills. Therefore, there are now FOUR launch special skills that you can pursue in your hang gliding career. "FL" is as it always was: Foot Launch. It means you can run off the earth proficiently. "PL" is as it always was (but now it will make it onto your card!), which is Platform Towing. Truck towing and boat towing are examples of this. "AT" is the moniker for Aero Towing, which oddly enough would indicate a proficiency at aero-towing (which includes aero-towing launches). "ST" is the new one, and accommodates the Surface Towing disciplines. Stationary winch towing, scooter towing, and static line towing fall into this group. Basically, this special skill indicates a proficiency at launching via some contraption stationed on the ground. That's the layout in a nutshell. Your card can now have FL, PL, AT, and ST on it if you are checked out in them all, or it can have any combination of the four. The purpose of this specificity is to allow a tow operator to discern, from an individual's card, what launch proficiencies they are checked out in. If you show up at an aero-tow park and don't have "AT", you'll need to be trained. If you show up where a static winch is the source of a launch, and you don't have "ST", you will need to be trained. Similarly, a boat tow or truck tow operation will be looking for "PL". And obviously, if you show up at a mountain site where they don't know you, they'll need to see the "FL" sign-off minimum (you might also need CL or AWCL indicating cliff launch special skills). The big question you probably have now is how to get the special skills you now posess onto your card. This mainly applies to pilots who had the general and now defunct "TL" removed from their newest card. New cards that need to be printed to add launch special skills will not cost $15.00! In a perfect world, you should only have to contact your tow operator, who should be able to fill out a rating form for you, adding that special skill. If that tow operator is not a Tow Administrator, however, then he needs to go to the list of Tow Supervisors on the Web, and find one who can comfortably grant him an administratorship (this may require actual review of the tow operation, possibly via video). If you operate a tow system, you need to become an administrator so that you can give the special skills ratings. Pilots will be coming to you for them. Any USHPA instructor who has a tow special skill, can easily expect to obtain a tow administratorship. However, you do not have to be an instructor to be a tow administrator. You only need to be a safe and proficient tow operator in your discipline. If you don't find a Supervisor on the list that is geographically close to you, but know a towing expert who would be appropriate (or if you are a towing expert) contact your regional director to have that person (or yourself) made a Supervisor. I can make the analogy that these appointments are the towing version of examiners and observers in the rating system. They are not hard to get. They need to exist so that unqualified pilots can seek out the qualified individuals to get their launch special skills. And now, this concludes the basic explanation. I would expect a flurry of activity to result from this article. For many years now, the aero-towing discipline has been operating in an organized manner. The other forms of towing however, have been less structured to the point of total vagueness. It's time to play catch-up. It will take about one year (one membership cycle) for all of this to become "normal every day life". Until then, seek out and obtain the launch special skills you deserve. If those are the launches you regularly utilize, obtaining the sign-offs will be easy. If you need to become an Administrator or Supervisor, chase those down as well. If you run a tow rig, pilots are going to be asking you to sign off their special skills. Go to the Appointments page on the USHPA Web site to find links to contact information for AT, PL and ST Supervisors and Administrators.