Park land officials say laws prohibit launching and landing from state-owned park land, and permission from land owners is needed to operate flying aircraft from private property.
By Nora Fleming / Special to The Malibu Times
Recent paragliding accidents in Malibu, one deadly, have stirred debate over the use of private and public land for a sport many say is one of the safer “extreme” sports.
On July 16, Joe Castaldo crashed a motorized paraglider into the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy owned portion of Bluff’s Park, and started a small fire that burned a third of an acre. Several weeks later, on Aug. 8, Jonathan “Jake” Langbehn, a 44-year-old photography assistant from Eagle Rock, Calif., and a student of certified paragliding instructor Claude Fiset, died when he crashed into a hill at Corral Canyon, bringing further attention to the issue. Fiset operates an area paragliding school called Uptimal.
Until the time of the July incident, the conservancy had been unaware that paragliding was taking place in the area by both Uptimal students and Malibu Paragliding Club members, said Joseph Edmiston, executive director for SMMC. Club members use sites at Corral Canyon, Malibu Bluffs, Saddlepeak and Calabasas.
After the death of Langbehn, an article published in a local newspaper alerted the conservancy that there was miscommunication about what was allowed on conservancy land and that there had been information circulating that Fiset and the Malibu Paragliding Club claimed to have rights to take off and land on conservancy property.
In a letter to Fiset, Edmiston wrote, “Specifically neither you nor your organization, nor any other person or entity has take-off or landing rights on any property of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy or of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, except pursuant to my explicit permission, in writing, and filed in the offices of the Conservancy and the Authority.”
In a follow-up interview with The Malibu Times, Edmiston said that not only has permission not been issued to the club or school, but also paragliding on conservancy land violates Sect. 21403 (a) of the California Public Utilities Code and Sect. 33211.6 of the California Public Resources Code.
These state laws prohibit aeronautic landing on property without consent of the land’s owner and from destroying property owned or managed by the conservancy, respectively.
“Hiking, picnicking, dog walking and typical recreational things that you would do in a park are permitted [on SMMC land],” Edmiston said. “Any kind of aeronautics is not permitted. As part of the public utilities code, you cannot take off or land without the express permission of a property owner.”
But, Jai Pal Khalsa, president of the Malibu Paragliding Club, said he has made every effort to secure permission from various locations that club paragliders use for take off and landing. He said he believed he was allowed to use those areas because of verbal permission he said he received from a SMMC biologist, and because of a letter written by an MRCA ranger.
The mentioned letter, a copy of which was sent to The Malibu Times, is dated 2005 and was sent to the Calabasas Homeowners Association from the MRCA ranger. It states that while paragliding is not a prohibited activity, it is at the discretion of the homeowner’s association to allow landing on their private property and that permission would have to be issued to allow paragliders to land there. (Khalsa did not say whether he launched or landed on property owned by the homeowners association.)
Ken Nelson, MRCA chief ranger, said no permission from any SMMC or MRCA official has ever been given to land on park property and is confident that the lead biologist for SMMC, did not give permission for paragliding on a park site, nor would he have the authority to do so.
In addition to the SMMC/MRCA code prohibiting endangering activity on conservancy-owned land, it also specifically states in the organization’s bylaws that any motorized activity is not allowed, Edmiston said. This would include motorized paragliders.
The malibuparagliding.com Web site makes note of motorized crafts, but Khalsa and Fiset said they don’t use them. Castaldo, the certified paraglider who crashed at Malibu Bluffs in July, was using a motorized craft. He was not a student of Fiset’s and it is unclear whether he participated in the club run by Khalsa.
An area between Corral and Solstice Canyons, just north of Pacific Coast Highway, used by paragliders both in Fiset’s school and by members of the club, has been another area of debate.
The Los Angeles County Department of Water and Power purchased the 100-acre parcel in 1965. The property is private and to use the property individuals would have to obtain permission from DWP said Oscar Castro, an official with the DWP real estate department. According to the file on the property, no permits, as of yet, have been applied for, Castro said.
Brent Black, a Malibu resident, said he taken issue with Fiset’s use of the land for years and has made complaints to the DWP and the Malibu/Lost Hill’s Sheriff’s Station. He said there are signs that say it is private property.
Because the property is owned by DWP, an official of the agency would have to enforce the no trespassing signs unless a letter of agency was issued by the City of Malibu to allow the Sheriff to enforce regulations, said Sgt. Jeff Price of Malibu/Lost Hills.
Black, the Malibu resident, said he has made it a personal matter because he takes issue with “profiteering at the expense of others,” and at the expense of welfare of students/paragliders.
“There seems to be a gross dropping of the ball on the part of numerous governmental agencies,” Black said. “This is probably why this poor soul [Langbehn] lost his life.”
Langbehn was a first-level class paraglider
According to the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office, 44-year-old Jonathan “Jake” Langbehn’s died of “multiple blow force injuries” upon impact when he crashed into a hillside in Corral Canyon on Aug. 17 while paragliding. No other causes or any abnormalities found in the autopsy.
Claude Fiset, owner of Uptimal, a paragliding company from which Langbehn took lessons, said Langbehn had “15, 500-foot or higher flights, and many training slope flights and a tandem flight over a period of two weeks on and off” and, at the time of his death, was at the first level, or P1, flying class. Fiset had witnessed Langbehn’s flight on the day he died while he was in tandem flight with another student.
Stewart Volland, a Los Angeles based photographer and close friend of Langbehn’s said, “I know for a fact Jake had been taking classes for at least three weeks prior to Aug. 1,” a date Volland and his family videotaped Langbehn flying solo. Volland said Langbehn had taken many solo flights by himself before his death.
United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association regulations require a minimum of 25 supervised flights before moving to the next level, where paragliders can become certified and take unsupervised flights. An unnamed instructor from an area paragliding school said 25 is the bare minimum, and, to fly alone, most schools require 30 to 40 flights.