The post said the "You and your heirs are promising to not sue in the event
of many
types of accidents". I doubt this would hold up in court. How do you get
your underage kids give up their rights ? They can't ign the form and I
doubt the courts would let the legal guardian take their rights away Does
your spouse sign the waiver and agree not to sue?
S Gibson


"ken ward" wrote in message
...
One of the driving forces behind USHGA liability insurance is exactly
*because* USHGA rates their instructors. I know of a fatality in which
the heirs went (successfully) after USHGA because they had failed to
pull a dangerous instructor's rating. Another large payout was due to a
commercial ride that went badly wrong. SSA escapes those types of
claims as the FAA stands behind all the instructors and commercial
pilots.

The second thing to note is the USHGA waiver that all new members must
sign. You and your heirs are promising to not sue in the event of many
types of accident, whether your fault or not, equipment failure or not,
etc. If you sue anyway, you agree to pick up the defendants legal fees.
Which drives down the incentive to sue. I haven't heard of any test
cases yet. I can supply a copy of the waiver to anyone interested.

The third thing is that the liability insurance only covers listed
locations and sanctioned events in the U.S.

If you refuse to sign the waiver, you are denied USHGA membership, and
your pilot rating vanishes, as USHGA is the rating body. At least if
you leave SSA the FAA still considers you a pilot.

None the less, I think we're way overdue to look at combining USHGA and
SSA into a single National soaring organization, covering everything
from paragliders to hang gliders to Stemme's. Just think about the
upward migration path. If you're looking for a pool of new glider
pilots, you could look in less attractive places than the ~10,000 U.S.
HG/PG pilots who already love soaring.

Are there any other National organizations that have combined HG/PG with
Gliding?

Ken