Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

This is heart wrenching.

What happened?

I get bits and pieces here and there...

RIP, Marcus...

I can't imagine the sky above Sylmar and the LZ without him,
if I ever return.

I am sure, you guys know more, than I, please say it.

No, no, no - tell me it's not true.

Sincere condolences to family and other friends.

Foster

Flight is freedom in its purest form,
To dance with the clouds which follow a storm;
To roll and glide, to wheel and spin,
To feel the joy that swells within;
To leave the earth with its troubles and fly,
And know the warmth of a clear spring sky;
Then back to earth at the end of a day,
Released from the tensions which melted away.
Should my end come while I am in flight,
Whether brightest day or darkest night;
Spare me your pity and shrug off the pain,
Secure in the knowledge that I'd do it again;
For each of us is created to die,
And within me I know,
I was born to fly.

http://www.wehoville.com/2015/05/10/man ... -resident/

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local ... 04431.html

My thoughts, for us, thinking about yet another loss of one of our family...Whether it's through flying or not, it will, eventually, be each and every one of us.

Epistle to be Left in the Earth,
Archibald MacLeish

...It is colder now,
there are many stars,
we are drifting
North by the Great Bear,
the leaves are falling,
THe water is stone in the scooped rocks,
to southward
Red sun grey air:
the crows are
Slow on their crooked wings,
the jays have left us:
Long since we passed the flares of Orion.
Each man believes in his heart he will die.
Many have written last thoughts and last letters.
None know if our deaths are now or forever:
None know if this wandering earth will be found.

We lie down and the snow covers our garments.
I pray you,
you (if any open this writing)
Make in your mouths the words that were our names.
I will tell you all we have learned,
I will tell you everything:
The earth is round,
there are springs under the orchards,
The loam cuts with a blunt knife,
beware of
Elms in thunder,
the lights in the sky are stars——
We think they do not see,
we think also
The trees do not know nor the leaves of the grasses hear us:
The birds too are ignorant.
Do not listen.
Do not stand at dark in the open windows.
We before you have heard this:
they are voices:
They are not words at all but the wind rising.
Also none among us has seen God.
(...We have thought often
The flaws of sun in the late and driving weather
Pointed to one tree but it was not so.)
As for the nights I warn you the nights are dangerous:
The wind changes at night and the dreams come.

It is very cold,
there are strange stars near Arcturus,

Voices are crying an unknown name in the sky

Our beloved Markus in a candid moment of fermenting contemplation from our 2014 holiday party brewery tour.

RIP " Pretzel " (((((

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux13w3Kn6qo

Markus had 2 GoPros on his glider. The Sheriffs Dept. has them now and Margaret has told us that she will let us study them when they are returned. At this point nobody really knows. There were no witnesses and the glider was found hours later.

Good bye Markus, I will miss your smile and your kindness, and the all that was you. You are loved and missed by many. Peace and tranquility wherever you have gone my friend. <3

Markus was the kind of guy everyone could get along with. His smile was infectious. So was his zest for life and sense of adventure. Whenever he came out to fly, he was enthusiastic and his happiness beamed. You KNEW this was something he loved to do.

I will miss my friend Markus, as will all of you. But my faith tells me that I will one day see him again...and we'll go flying!

I met Markus on the Pavilion project. He was a sweet spirited humble gentleman eager to help and learn. I feel like Markus was an advanced soul that graduated before us. I hope his beautiful spirit will join us in the skies this summer. Sad Sad to lose this member of our tribe.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Let's please rename it to the Markus Spring Air Festival in his honor. What can I do to facilitate this happening?

Margaret told me that she did not recover his bags. Does anyone know what truck he went up in and if there were bags left in there?

He went up with Kat & Richard Shaw.