I've been flying something for 34 years. That has included powered,
gliders, ultralights, paragliders and hang gliders. I would say that
assigning the blame for problems with landowners solely to the pilot of
whatever type of aircraft is involved is inappropriate without knowing the
circumstances involved in each case.

I have over 50 outlandings in gliders and several hundred in hang gliders.
I have been nothing but humble and gracious with landowners but have had a
few cases of irrate people no matter what I did or say to calm them down. I
have flown at Wallaby (one of the hang glider operations near Seminole) and
have visited, but not flown at Seminole. There are jerks in every facet of
aviation and in my experience no one group can say that they are better
ambassadors than another.

By virtue of the lesser performance of hang gliders they land out much more
often than sailplanes and that may be one reason that some landowners simply
get tired of seeing them especially those on the downwind side of the towing
operations.

The initial poster did the best he could and I would have probably have done
the same. There are just going to be some days that the bear gets you.

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix