TV News Piece Ken de Russy Teaches Paragliding 1992

I operated my hang gliding and later hang gliding and paragliding business in Santa Barbara California for just a hair over 24 years. Early on I recognized that the cost of advertising and promotion was beyond my budget so I developed a keen sense of how to get free publicity. As Santa Barbara was just far enough from LA to be just beyond the range of LA based broadcast channels, a local station, KEYT, was the primary broadcast media for local news. KCOY in Santa Maria and KSBY in San Luis Obispo both maintained bureaus in Santa Barbara and also served the Santa Barbara TV audience. Because they served comparatively small markets they were very receptive to stories that would have been more easily overlooked in a major market like LA. I eventually came to discover manipulating the local channels to send out camera crews was fairly easy. I courted all the media and had quite good success obtaining publicity that I could never have afforded to buy.

In this piece the reporter was one that had previously done a three segment series on hang gliding centered on me and my school. He already knew the backstory and and knew how productive it was to work with me. He had flown in the hang gliding series and his coverage had been in contention for a national award so it was easy to get him out to cover paragliding.

Although this news story was shot early on in my paragliding teaching experience, it reflects the results that I found I could reliably produce with someone on their first day of paragliding instruction. For nearly all the years I taught paragliding, the first day worked like this. I met the students at 10:00AM and briefed them on the waiver and its meaning, the flight plan and the spoken instructions they would hear on the radio and what each command required them to do. By 11:00 I placed the canopy on the ground at the launch position and in perfect shape to be pulled up. I then placed the harness on them and placed the front risers and brake handles in their hands. With some additional spoken instruction they would make their very first attempt to handle the canopy in any way. With only rare exceptions, they pulled the canopy overhead and continued into a launch run and into a properly executed and successful launch with no physical intervention from me. The flight from the top of the Mesa produced a one minute flight at the minimum as the landing field was a full 200 feet below launch. The edge of the landing plateau (beyond which were power lines and high speed traffic) was barely within gliding distance so a standard approach was required to avoid flying off the property. Normally a first day student could easily make five to seven such flights on the first day. The conditions often provided extended flights that, in one case, made a ten minute soaring "First" flight possible. Keep in mind that this occurred on the FIRST flight which came about following the VERY FIRST TIME THE STUDENT ATTEMPTED TO INFLATE THE WING!

This reporter, like all reporters, had a finite time to devote to the taping of the story, and as he had only one camera operated by one cameraman, he made one flight "filmed" from the bottom and a second one shot from the top. These were the only flights he had time for and he had no prior experience or opportunity to handle the wing as described above. The two flights were edited together to produce the effect of two cameras taping the same flight.

I describe this in some detail to emphasize why I was so addicted to teaching paragliding. There was never any point during the many years I taught people to hang glide that I could produce even the smallest fraction of results that I achieved nearly every day while giving paragliding lessons. Overwhelming joy and a sense of exceptional accomplishment on the part of the students was routinely expressed to me by nearly every student. Only rarely did that occur on the first day with any of my hang gliding students. There was several years during which I tried to teach both but by far and away most prospective students that had the opportunity to see students of both classes in the process of learning, would choose paragliding over hang gliding. Initially in that period I tried to push some toward hang gliding but it was apparent that many resented not being directed to paragliding. It had become progressively more difficult to sign up and keep hang gliding students even before paragliding arrived on the scene. Once there was regular paragliding activity on the hill it was painful to see to the far better results of the paragliding students while the hang gliding students struggled for the smallest achievements. I felt that I had betrayed the trust my customers placed in me. They expected me to facilitate their dream of flight and counted on me as a professional to give them the best recommendation.

Category:

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• paragliding
• hang
• gliding
• hanggliding
• santa
• barbara
• pioneer
• instruction
• Ken
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• Russy
• derussy
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• mesa
• TV
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• news

[ccoasterdesigner]

I would like to know, which do you prefer hang gliding or paragliding? Which is more enjoyable? Which is easier to fly? And which is easier to get up in the air? PLEASE RESPOND

[weflyuniv]

They both have their advantages. Both have provided me with sublime trips to Nirvana and both have nearly taken my life. Better get your head really right if you want to succeed! Try both and decide for yourself! Whichever is the most convenient to where you live is probably the best choice.

Ken

[jeffparkerinsb]

Thanks for adding this Ken. Even though we have never met. I have learned from others that you taught. Glenn Chantler and Chad Bastian have taught me: To Air is Human !

[weflyuniv]

Hi Jeff!

I am so glad to know you are flying with help from Chad and Glenn! They are both stellar individuals. I can feel Glenn's smile as I write this. His countenance was always a bright spot in my day! He also was a rock for me when I rolled a tractor at the hill. While I was frazzled at the prospect of a $15,000 loss Glenn stayed focused and directed the righting of the tractor which I could not figure out. Tell them both that I miss them!

Ken

[hyrdew]

Nice of you to post this vid Ken, the commentary you provided really set the scene well. Also great re-meeting you today!

[weflyuniv]

Thank you. I will be adding more videos in the next few months and you may see more you approve of!

Ken

[BenQueensland]

I like your method.

[weflyuniv]

Hey Tom! I'm glad you found these movies! I hope you are well!

Ken

[weflyuniv]

I don't know what this means.

[weflyuniv]

Response Part 2 Nothing short of full mastery in all hand holds and body orientations culminating in students doing reverse pull ups followed by backward running into flight would satisfy me that I had imparted what was necessary to be safe.