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I essentially know the answer, but to plat devil's advocate....Since hang gliding is allowed in NP's could you launch from a hang glider, or would that be considered Aerial Descrimination...err delivery?

Would that be from a Class 1 , Class 2 or Class 3 hanglider ?

Yep.

Basically, if your feet are ever in the air and you then land in a National Park with a parachute over your head, that's aerial delivery.

In fact, two jumpers were hit with aerial delivery when they jumped FROM NPS land and landed into BLM land (where jumping is legal). Turns out that aerial delivery be be either into or from NPS land.

The NPS protest jump that I personally would want to do is kite a detached canopy over my head, run across the meadow and then jump up in the air and land still holding the parachute (by the risers).

If you had news media around for that sort of thing and the NPS actually decided to hit the person with aerial delivery, it would be a pretty darn good demonstration of how ridiculous this all is and how draconian the NPS is about enforcement.

Most cops are that way about enforcement. About being ridiculous, you should read the following....

http://www.backcountryparachutists.org/...2_Kiting_Arrests.pdf

It's kind of funny, but you've hit upon the very thing that crystallized the battle between parachutist and the NPS in the first place, a battle we are still fighting today.

In Elsinore, California in the early 1970s hang gliding was becoming a full fledged sport (as well as in other parts of the world). Many participants were skydivers as well as hang glider pilots including Carl Boenish and Rich Piccirilli. The pilots at Elsinore called themselves the "E" team and their history is here: http://www.theeteam.org/eteam7.htm

One day in 1975 Rich Piccirilli came to Carl Boenish with a request. He wanted to launch a larger than normal hang glider over Yosemite Valley piloted by himself and carrying two other jumpers who would release from the glider and land in the valley below. Rich wanted to know if Carl would film the stunt. Carl, who loved filming anything out of the ordinary that concerned parachutes, quickly agreed.

For Carl, who lived in California all his life, this would be his first visit to Yosemite and it would become something that not only changed the course of his own life, but the lives of every BASE jumper that would come along later. The stunt went off without a hitch as the two jumpers left the airborne glider, hooked up for a quick two way, separated, opened, and landing in the valley below.

Carl and Rich didn't go out of their way to hid there actions as it probably never dawned on them that they were doing anything wrong. But the Park Rangers went ballistic and it was a classic over reaction that would foretell how they would handle parachuting in the park to this very day.

Nine years earlier, in 1966, Mike Pelkey and Brian Schubert parachuted from El Capitan (look for them at this year's Bridge day) and although the park service overreacted in that case too, I say the "battle" actually started with Carl as he then began a campaign to legalize jumping that lasted the rest of his life.

A very heated argument between Rangers and Carl and Rich ensued in the valley. As there was no law that specifically made manned parachuting illegal in the park, the Rangers eventually charged them with the already on the books aerial delivery law. This law was in place to keep back country hunters from being re-supplied via parachute and extending their time on the hunt. Carl was charged with filming without a permit and I believe his film and cameras were confiscated.

But something even more important happened that day in the park. As Carl waited with his cameras staged to film the hang glider stunt he had time to just sit and take in the grandeur of the valley. Carl had heard, like all jumpers of the day, about the earlier jumps from El Cap made by Mike and Brian but as he stared at the shear granite walls the possibilities of using more modern gear and freefall techniques that were available struck him like a bolt of lightning. For BASE jumping in general it was the "eureka" moment, for Carl in particular it was the moment that sealed his fate. Carl was now on a road that would end, along with his life, in Norway nine years later.

Carl, Rich, and the two jumpers are dragged through the court system of Yosemite and it caused much grief for all involved. However, Carl is already in the early stages of planning the first modern Yosemite cliff jumps that would take place three years later in 1978.

When Carl got to the part of the plan that was to pick the actual team of jumpers he went first to Rich Piccirilli who made some of the early recon mission with Carl back into the Park. However, at the last minute Rich turned down the offer to participate. He was just starting a family and a rigging business back in Lake Elsinore and he understandably decided he never wanted to see, or have anything to do with, Park Rangers ever again.

Carl eventually recruited a Lake Elsinore 4-way team and in August of 1978 (27 years ago this month) with Carl filming, the first four modern jumps are made from El Cap. More than just a stunt Carl showed these jumps were repeatable and the sport that three years later he would name "BASE jumping" was born.

All the jumpers on this load along with Carl and his cameras and film successfully left the park undetected. Carl swore the jumpers to secrecy and went to work on the film that would turn the world onto cliff jumping. A few months later I was jumping with Tom Start, the first one off on Carl's El Cap load, at Lake Elsinore. He told me to hang around after sunset as Carl Boenish was going to show a new movie.

That movie was the El Cap jumps and to say the entire drop zone is blown away is putting it mildly. The response was 180 degrees from the initial effect the 1966 El Cap had when jumpers called it a "knucklehead stunt", but in 1966 the parachuting community wasn't ready for cliff jumping. And it showed just how ahead of the times Mike and Brian were in terms of what's possible.

I shook Tom Start's hand later that night and he told me how glad he was that Carl finally screened the film. He had been busting to tell someone the news and it was killing him.

I went to sleep that night now knowing why I was skydiver, and all of a sudden it had little to do with airplanes . . .

So your plan to re-create the hang gliding stunt would probably land you in the Yosemite dungeon, but more than that it would piss off many in the hang gliding community by bringing the heat down on them. And now, more than ever, we need all the friends we can get in Yosemite . . .

NickD
BASE 194

USA = LAND OF THE FREE???? LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NickDG,
I like reading history stuff like that! Thanks for posting it

Nick,

I remember seeing the hang glider jump on an old tape of Carl's early El Cap footage so I don't think his film was confiscated...or, if it was, he got it back. The tape that I saw had views from the ground and also from a camera mounted on the hang glider.

The two jumpers had rigged up a release system to disengage from the hang glider and one of them jammed so they had quite a bit of separation but they went for their hookup anyway. From the camera angle on the ground it looked like they were really low by the time they hooked up and pulled.

The tape belonged to a friend of mine who has, unfortunately, since passed on so I can't access it.

Yes, I've seen it too. In fact I have it on a VHS tape somewhere. So I guess he did get it back, or more likely he ditched it in the bushes before the Rangers became confrontational.

I'd post it to Skydivingmovies.com but Jean Boenish would show up on my doorstep pitchfork in hand!

NickD
BASE 194

Agreed!!! Thanks, Nick!

Amanda

Nick
I would like to buy you a drink and sit down with you at Bridge day this year and just listen. You have a fascinating wealth of knowledge on our past. Thank you for all of your posts, I have been enlightened by them all.

What if you land your wingsuit on NPS ground?

The way it was explained to me by the ranger, you could be cited for AD for landing an umbrella, a bedsheet or a flying unicorn in "their" parks.

"USA = LAND OF THE FREE?"

National Parks, especially YNP, are not part of the United States. Just ask anyone who's been in their court.

 
So how does one aquire set footage?

Sounds really good.