Anne-Odile Thomas <>,
president of the Santa Barbara hang gliding and paragliding club, writes:

Our guide service is FREE (you don't get much for free anymore).
Our main concern is that pilots get briefed on the local sites to maximize their
flying experience here: learn about our Lzs, flying guidelines, local weather
conditions, best places to get lift, pitfalls to avoid, etc. As you noticed this
weekend, our wind patterns can be quite interesting, and deceiving at times on
launch. Some good local knowledge is often crucial to make sure that visitors
don't put themselves in an un-necessary scary or dangerous situation. This past
weekend was a good example of it, as you witnessed it first hand. With the right
knowledge though, pilots will have a blast here.


One more thing to mention about the beach and Parma Park: pilots should only
consider flying to the beach if they feel comfortable landing at Parma Park (in
addition to having an advanced rating). Odds are that you won't always be high
enough to fly out to the beach. If they don't feel comfortable landing at Parma,
they should fly from the Alternator launch, which offers a much friendlier LZ.
This is the LZ that James uses for his students on their first mountain flights,
and it is much more forgiving.