My First Hang Glider

I cannot remember which magazine it was that I saw the photo. It was probably Popular Science or Popular Mechanics. But the image had an immediate effect on me. I can remember the large triangular shaped craft hanging in the air with a guy hanging from the bottom. Well.... this certainly looks interesting. The article spoke about the new sport of Hang Gliding. You could buy these plans, and be flying in just a few days. Well that sounded pretty good, but I figured it may be best to find out as much info as I could before "jumping" in.

I was living in San Bernardino California, and after some research I located a company in Sylmar California called Free Flight Systems. They were not offering plans, but would sell instead, a kit with all the parts needed to build your own for $250.00, or they would sell a complete glider for $500.00. They also offered lessons!

They told me that if I could round up a half dozen people for lessons, that they would come up to San Bernardino and provide the equipment and lessons at $25.00 per person. A week later I and almost a dozen others were seeing our first hang glider. Our instructor, Rico Blair gave a demo flight off of the 500 ft. Little Mountain, located right in the middle of San Bernardino. We were all quite amazed at his 2 minute flight. Then it was off to find a training hill.

We gathered on a small hill on Kendal Drive. There was a 20 foot high slope and another hill at about 30 ft. Rico spent a good amount of time showing us how to assemble the gliders, gave a short explanation as to how these aircraft flew, and then taught us all that we would need to know to make our first efforts at trying to fly. One by one, a student would pick up the glider and with a million things running through their minds, they would run down the slope with hopes of flight. Some never got air born, and would run all the way down the hill like a giant Gooney Bird. Others would become air born for only a moment and then would stall, and thump to the ground skinning knees and elbows. Then it was my turn.

I pull on the harness and helmet, hook into the glider, pick it up and wait for instructions from Rico. I am watching some wind streamers on the hill and at the bottom that indicates from what direction the breeze is coming. Rico wants me to wait until the wind is straight in when I make my effort to launch.

After a few minutes of waiting, the light wind starts blowing in straight. Wings level... Rico tells me to lower the nose a bit... nose pointing into the wind... Rico says I am clear to launch and tells me to run hard.

I start running down the hill, and I feel the wind filling the billowing sailcloth, and then my feet leave the ground. Not wanting to experience the stall as I had observed others perform, I pulled in a little bit on the control bar, and I could immediately feel the speed of the glider pick up. And just a couple seconds later, it is time to land. Rico had told us that as our feet approach the ground we would need to flair the wing by pushing out on the control bar.

I pushed out and pulled off what was the first really successful flight of the day with a two step landing. I had several other flights that day, all with great success. The smile on my face could not be any larger. A few others caught on and I could tell that they too were hooked. The bulk of the students left that day probably electing NOT to become hang glider pilots.

That evening after helping to disassemble the training gliders, I and a couple others talked with Rico about purchasing gliders from Free Flight Systems. I chose to go with the kit, while the others could afford the fully assembled. We got to select our custom sail designs and colors and would be waiting a couple of weeks for our sails to be sewn and then the gliders would be ready for pickup.

The kit consisted of a number of large diameter aluminum tubes. These would have to be cut to length according to the plans. There was also a large collection of aircraft quality bolts and nuts, and a large spool of aircraft cable that would have to be cut to various lengths. There was also some copper tubing that would be used to make bushings. Also supplied were a couple of special tools. One tool was used to compress the nicos for securing the cables through thimbles and onto tangs. The tangs would be attached to the various points of the frame. Where the bolts passed through tubes, an over-sleeve of tubing would be secured in place with the copper bushing for extra strength. The bushing flange was made with the special flairing tool provided. Fortunately the sail was complete and would only need to have the tubes inserted and secured to the frame. It took me two days to build my first hang glider. It looked great!

The very next weekend my brother and I were out at the training hills. Within a week I was flying of the 500 ft. Little Mountain.

This was a very exciting decade in which to fly hang gliders. Manufactures sprung up everywhere, and every year there would be the need to buy the "Next Generation" of glider. These were also some very challenging days as well. Not all the designs were entirely sound, and the casualty rate was very high. Some pilots took unnecessary risks and would pay dearly for their lack of caution with injuries or death. Some just made mistakes and did not understand weather conditions and would find themselves in terrible predicaments. I am glad to have participated in the first decade, but am also simply glad that I survived. I credit Rico Blair for being an excellent instructor, and also a great mentor through the first few years.

Now close to 4 decades later, the hang gliders that we fly are amazing and provide soaring craft that are aerodynamically sound, with excellent performance. There are excellent training programs throughout the world. And now with the recent advent of the Paraglider, we now have another option for foot launching from the mountains.

Related Links

United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

Ouachita Hang Gliding- Where I currently do most of my flying

My YouTube Hang Gliding Playlist

Stranded after Hang Gliding

Yup.... I was stranded.... I had just landed my hang glider after a fairly short flight off of Mount Magazine in Arkansas. Now my situation was not all that desperate. I had opted to be what is referred to as the "wind dummy", by taking a shot at an early launch. Launching before the thermals are really abundant can sometimes end up with a short flight. If you do not find a good thermal, you might be looking at a quick flight to the landing zone. But if you get up, you get a head start on the rest of the pilots.

On this day I did not have a driver, thus my vehicle was left on top. Now usually I would either radio up to the top to one of the other pilots and plead for someone to bring my truck down, but this was an unusual day. In the launch set up area was a couple of experienced pilots with new gliders and they and the other pilots were very involved with making sure their set up and launches went well. I did not want to bother them. It could be a good while before another glider showed up in the landing zone where I was. It was the middle of July and the heat was starting to turn on. I decided that I would hitch hike back to the launch. I packed my glider away. Grabbed my radio so that I could listen to the guys up top, and also grabbed the water pouch out of my flight harness so that I could stay hydrated in case I had to walk a lot in the heat. For flying long flights, the water pouch slips into the harness and a 3 foot tube routes the tube to near my helmet for easy access to the water.

I draped the clear plastic water pouch over my shoulder letting the drinking tube dangle. I clip the radio onto my trousers and I am good to go. It is a quarter mile walk out to the highway. Once there, I find walking on the pavement shoulder to be quite a bit hotter. This is not a busy highway, so I figured I might as well do some walking rather than just standing there in the heat. It is 7 miles to the the turnoff to the State Park at the little town of Havana, Arkansas. There is a convenience store there where I would be able to get a snack if needed. As the heat pounded down on my head, I certainly hoped that I would not have to walk the entire distance.

This is not a heavily traveled highway and only a few cars had passed with many minutes in between. So I keep on walking, with my thumb out hoping for the next vehicle to stop. I am about a mile down the road when I hear a vehicle downshifting.... I may be in luck! A compact sedan rolls past me belching smoke from it's exhaust and pulls over to the side of the road. It looks like a Vega or Pinto from the 1970's. I trotted towards the vehicle and a man with long stringy hair stuck his head out the window as I approached and said, "Hey! You like dogs?" I assumed that this was not a random question, and figured I would be riding with a canine. Well, I had enough of the heat and figured I could put up with a dog, so yes... I like dogs!

I approach the passenger side and see his gal in the front passenger seat. "You will have to ride in the back seat with the dogs man" says the stringy haired fellow. His gal is sliding her seat forward to allow me access to the back seat of the little two door. "Don't worry man... they won't bite" he said. Well the "They" was three full grown German Shepherds! The driver could see the concern on my face but he reassured me that they were friendly.

So I start squeezing into the back seat area. Dog number one made it clear he was not going to give up his window seat. So I slowly lowered myself in between window seat dog and dog riding in the middle. After quite a bit of shifting and grunting by both the dogs and myself we somehow made room in the rear seat. Good to go, and we are heading for Havana.

Now it really gets fun. These dogs had obviously been riding in the back of the un-air conditioned car for a number of miles. They were panting hard and loud and all three were drooling profusely. As the vehicle got up to around 55 mph, the wind coming into the windows started tossing their drool about the rear passenger area. I am getting a canine slobber shower. Stringy haired dude is busy with small talk with the gal up front, while I battle the three heavy breathers in the back.

This short drive seemed an eternity, and as I exited the vehicle at my Havana destination, the Stringy Haired Dude is laughing and says, "Hey man... the only reason I stopped is I wanted to see if anyone was crazy enough to ride in the back with my dogs." I thanked him for the ride, and was indeed grateful, but also felt like I had just been punked. I looked around to see if Ashton Kutcher was running out with a camera.

I wash my face at the convenience store and slam down a Gatorade to get the dog slobber taste out of my mouth. It is another 6 miles up to the top of the mountain. Now the traffic would really be sparse. I had not walked very far when the very first vehicle that came by came to a skidding stop on the side of the road. I approached the pickup truck wondering what adventure would await me now. The gentleman stuck his head out the window of the pickup truck and said he could give me a ride to the top if I did not mind riding in the back. He already had another passenger in the front seat. I looked in the back of the truck and noted there were no dogs and no snakes. "No problem man..... I appreciate it!" And I climbed into the truck with a bit of a concern as to whether this guy was going to scare the heck out of me by driving too fast. He had surprised me with his skidding stop, to pick me up. The drive was uneventful and I enjoyed the fresh air and no dog slobber. He even delivered me right to the Hang Glider launch area.

As I hopped out of the truck bed, his wife got out of the truck and with a very concerned look on her face she asked if I was okay? That seemed on odd question. "Yes mam, I am okay." She paused and then stated, "we usually do not pick up hitch hikers, but when I saw you, I told my husband Harry to stop, that we have to pick him up.... he is on an I.V." She glanced at my water pouch draped over my shoulder. I tried not to laugh to hard while I explained it was simply a water dispensing device from my hang glider harness. She laughed with me and started asking questions about the hang gliding as we walked towards the launch.

This day did not produce a very memorable flight for me, but instead, I was presented with a bit of an adventure during my hitch hike back to my truck. Sometimes you just do not know where the adventure will come from.

Related Links

Ouachita Mountains Hang Gliding Directory

Arkansas State Parks

Mount Magazine Hang Gliding on YouTube

My Related Blogs

Return to Flight!

The Most Dangerous Sport!

Return to Flight!

I started hang gliding in 1973 in Southern California. I was fortunate to hook up with a start-up company called Free Flight Systems, located in Sylmar, California. They along with many others such as Wills Wing, and Bill Bennett's Delta Wing Kites and gliders were building business on the newest craze of Hang Gliding. All the gliders looked pretty much alike at that time as they were based on the basic "Rogollo" wing design that came from NASA. For the first time, a fairly practical flying machine could be had by anyone with nerve enough to give a go at this new sport.

I mentioned I was fortunate to hook up with Free-Flight Systems. What was fortunate was I received excellent instructions from Rico Blair on the training hills on Kendall Drive in San Bernardino California. He was probably in his 50's at the time and I was 21. He not only taught me the rudiments of how to fly, but also served as a mentor through my first couple of years of flying. His constant reminders of how to go about making sure that we were making the fights as safe as possible, are lessons that I retain even to this day. Fortunate indeed, as in those early days, many pilots did not have the luxury of having formal instructions on professionally made equipment. Many self taught, and on craft that they built from plans that were passed about. Some were successful but often many were not and and suffered injuries or worse.

My first hang glider was a kit from Free Flight Systems. I spent $250.00 for a bunch of tubing and cable and sailcloth. I was able to construct it in a just few days, and I was the proud owner of a Hang Glider!

These were pretty interesting times in the history of foot-launched flight. We pilots were truly discovering what our gliders limits were as well as our own limits. Some were willing to seek the furthest boundaries of the gliders performance limits while most tried to stay in a comfort zone. I most definitely was a "comfort zone" pilot.

My first two years of flight I had hundreds of flights with none lasting more than 5 minutes. I flew mostly at what was then called "Little Mountain" in San Bernardino. I was afraid to venture up to the big mountains like Crestline where icons such as Bob and Chris Wills of Wills Wing would launch and wow us with their skills.

1974-75 saw gliders that started to look different. The manufacturers were seeking to design gliders that would glide better, and handle better. Some were successful and some were not. Over the next decade great advances were made in glider design, and by the late 70's they looked nothing like the original Rogollo design.
The gliders performance had increased more than two fold and now were true soaring machines, with flights that would last for hours, and fly for many miles. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention my loyal hang driver through those years, my lovely wife Sue. She dedicated many hours to driving us up mountains so that we could fly.

It was in 1982 that my flying came to an end due to financial concerns, and I will save that for another Blog, and an interesting story it is.

So I was out of flying for over 20 years. I only occasionally would peek into the world of hang gliding. During these non-hang gliding years, I had moved to Arkansas, built a home and started having babies. Our growing family enjoyed the many outdoor activities available in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. Mountain Biking was our main family recreation. This was a great family activity and I do not at all regret my non-flying years.

So about 5 years ago, the boys are all out of high school. I have been driving over to Mt. Nebo and Mt. Magazine in Arkansas to see the gliders fly. On my way home from one of these trips, I see a flash of color on a small hillside. Well look at that! It looks like someone is giving hang glider lessons on a hillside near Belleville, Arkansas. I drive around and figure I will watch some of this action.

I was greeted by Tony Middleton, the instructor. I watched a few of the students making there first efforts at flight. Watching and listening to Tony reminded me of my instructor, Rico Blair, back in 1973. Tony seemed to have a keen eye and was very good at picking up what a pilot was doing wrong. So many things you have to pay attention too when launching. Kind of like a golf swing. Wings level, glider nose not to high, check wind, and so on.

I shared with Tony, my experiences from back in the 1970's and at the end of the session for the students, he says.... well I guess it's your turn. Boy did I jump at this opportunity. I had no idea, that this day would end with flying. He started me out at the very bottom of the hill, just like any other student. I slowly worked my way a bit further up the hill with each flight. Within a half dozen flights I was launching from the top. All the old muscle memory of flying kicked in and I new that I was again.... a pilot!

The very next day I met with Tony again and he brought out a used Ultralight Products TRX that was for sale. I made a few launches from the top of the training hill and boy.... was I surprised at how far it glided. I purchased that glider that day, and have been enjoying my return to flight since then.




Most of my flying takes place in the Ouachita Mountains or Arkansas and Oklahoma. We do not get as many "flyable" days as I can remember from Southern California and our mountains and weather presents something very different than what is found in Southern California. Challenging mountains and weather, but I have enjoyed some really great flying and enjoy the great community of fliers that fly the Ouachita Mountains.

If you are a pilot and have not heard of the Ouachita Mountains, take a look at what we have for flying in Arkansas and Oklahoma at http://www.ouachitahanggliding.com/.

If you are not a pilot, but have and interest in Foot Launch Flight, Visit the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding web site at http://www.ushpa.aero/.

And if you have read this far, it seems you have a lot of time to waste... so you might as well take a look at my YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/user/menamiketrx. Here you will find several videos that show flying in the Ouachita Mountains as well as some of the old vintage film I converted to digital from the 1970s.