I built my first hang glider in 1973, moved to California in 1975, and have flown between 50 and 300 hours per year including 5000 different gliders over the last 45 years. I’ve been a managing partner at Wills Wing since 1977. My principal responsibility is engineering and product development but I share decision-making in every area of administration and management. I was an early advocate for integrating paragliding with the USHGA. Wills Wing introduced paragliding with training programs and seminars, conducted one of the first SIV courses in the US, and sold thousands of paragliders between 1991 and 2006. Despite our differences, I think hang gliding and paragliding communities are stronger together, and our diversity, experience and technologies complement each other. I would like the USHPA to become an organization that every member wants to belong to because of the value of the products and services they provide rather than because membership is required for site access.