I've previously spoken with pilots who fly at Fingerlakes, staff at Fingerlakes and a number of times with Marty. I've visited Fingerlakes in the past for extended periods and had great time there flying. I've also spoken with Doug, the farmer who owns the land upon which Fingerlakes operates.

I know that they had serious problem with their neighbors (lawsuits) that they won regarding the flight park (there has been a landing strip there for ever).

In order to afford to have a flight park, it is good to have the start up capital or access to it. Marty runs a successful business that has nothing to do with hang gliding. Therefore he has this access. But it also means that he has to spend most of his time taking care of business away from the flight park.

The Fingerlakes region lends itself to only a seasonal operation unlike the Florida flight parks. This means that staff can not be full time. Also Marty's flight park was not open on a continuous basis during the season. It was more a fun hobby than an actually going concern (as I see it).

Also there are plenty of free to use foot launch sites nearby so pilots had other options for getting air time. They may have wanted to support Marty's flight park, but sometimes maybe they wanted to fly someplace else.

I really liked Marty's flight park, but I haven't gone there in the past two years because Cloud 9 seemed much more accessible, reliable, and relaxed (in its atmosphere). Also, it seemed to be a better spot for serious cross country distances (not withstanding Linda Salamone's big flight from Marty's place). It is not too far from Marty's especially for a footloose guy like me.

I have also visited and flown at Adventure Airsports in Ottawa, Kansas. You can read about our adventures at these two flight parks in past issues of the Oz Report. I haven't visited in the last two years because their tug has been inoperable, so there was no way to get into the air.

Flying there is great with huge cross country potential (as you can see from my flights there). The problem is that it is not a flight park, that Doug DuBois has another job, so getting a pilot to tow you up involves him driving down from Lawrence, Kansas. This is really a club of hang glider pilots who want to get into the air and got a tug as the best way to do it. But then someone had to fly the tug.

Again, the season is summer for this operation, so nothing full time could develop. Their demise is the demise of their club as an effective basis for an aerotow operation. We know that this is an inherently unstable situation.

Now, as to Steve's point re FAA regulations. This is a big issue, despite the fact that the FAA said that they wanted to work with the hang gliding industry to help us stay in business, not run us out of town on a rail.

Tug pilots have to be obtain their private pilot's license, despite the fact that the skill set required for this license has almost nothing to do with the skill set required to be a proficient tug pilot. Tiki and Bart at Cowboy Up just spent $10,000 for Tiki to get her private pilot's license. $10,000 is a rather significant barrier to entry to the low paid world of Dragonfly pilot. This is $10,000 that could be spent in a lot better ways to make for a successful aerotow operation.

Then there is the certification of the existing Dragonflies (another big expense and time hassle - although in Bill Moyes' case, well worth it) and their N numbering. And will we know if Bill and Bobby can produce certified Dragonflies in 2008.

Again, while it would appear that inspection and certification is a good idea for safety reasons, will this drive out the main manufacturer of our tugs?

The major issue is the creation of new hang glider pilots, the burden that lies heavily on the shoulders of a very few professional hang gliding instructors. They are not enough to revive the sport and create a growth spurt. So this may all be mute anyway.

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