And Now for Something Completely the Same

[Christian Williams]

Well, not completely the same. But in this sailing-similar niche sport many elements of wind and gear are shared--stuffing battens, choosing weather, learning the subtleties of the air and the benefits of concentration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaYIUhWk3sE

The gear shown here costs $5-10K, and this is top of the line equipment.

He carries it on his roof racks or his shoulder with ease. It has almost no moving parts--no rudder, ailerons, engine or wheels. There are no controls. Course, turn, climb and dive are created by nothing more than weight shift in the control frame.

With this 75-pound rig he can soar as high as the thermals carry him--to 20,000 feet and even beyond (although legal ends at 18,000).

If he can find the thermals, those invisible columns of rising air upon which hawks soar, he can glide from one to another to a distance limited only to the length of the day and the thermal-creating heat of the sun on the rocks and ground below. Several of my acquaintences have flown 300 miles. The record is well over 400.

To land he makes an approach like an airplane, skims the ground at three feet and 25 miles an hour until his speed bleeds off, and then with a practiced flick of the wrists turns his his glider nose up, stalls, and lands on his feet with a few steps of run.

It is dangerous, but the risk can be managed. Two members of my club of 150 members were killed the same summer in separate crashes at our home landing zone.

I retired at age 60. When I view videos like this, I miss it.

There is an 80-year-old in the Sylmar Hang Gliding Association still flying.

In its heyday, hang gliding had 50,000 participants in the United States. Today there are 5,000. Paragliding won out.

Noth other endeavor, to my mind, brings the same oneness with the world. It is very like being a bird, and a great pity experienced by so few.

I've never met this pilot, but his view resonates for us all.

 

[Mark F]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for posting that video. I agree with your assessment of hang gliding and sailing being similar. I came to sailing through a good friend that I hang glided with. He was invited to crew on a sailboat for some races and asked if I would be interested, they needed more crew.I was struggling with headsail trim when one of the more experienced crew members (an ex hang glider pilot) sat down next to me and said, "Mark, make the sail look like a hang glider wing." Something clicked and not only did I get what he was talking about but I was also hooked! Within 3 months I had my own boat an Ericson 23 Mk1 and a slip in the Harbor.

I have flown at Williams in Colorado, beautiful place. These days most of my flying is at local coastal sites, here is a video from last winter http://youtu.be/oXkekdQyRwY sorry for the somewhat off topic content here but Christian started it

 

[tenders]

Cool video. Not my thing, but I can appreciate why people love it. Very elegant bit of machinery.

 

[Christian Williams]

Nice vid, Mark. Never flew there, must be great to have so many places to land.

Now tell us, how did you make yourself disappear in the last frames? Pretty cool. Good editing job all around.

 

[Wysailer]

Wow!

I can’t imagine doing this but the videos, like anything done well, looks like a lot of fun.
Back in college, late 70’s and early 80’s, I did some ski racing and while I wasn’t great at it, it took every bit of concentration and attention to details flying must take. Racing downhill going anywhere from low 20’s to over 70 mph for short parts of a 1 minute plus run sure was exhilarating as I think flying must be. Later, I went Heli skiing in the Alaska Chugach and had a great time skiing off of 5 to 6K foot runs where you start out barely being able to see the run over the edge - that will certainly keep your attention!


Hats off to all hose that hang glide and cross oceans.


Scott B
25 cb
Inland Sailor:0

 

[Christian Williams]

The sensation of speed isn't nearly as pronounced as when skiing fast, especially when far from the ground. The wind noise does get loud when you dive, but diving is hard work as you have to pull in on the control frame to move your body weight forward.

The most common sensation, for me anyway, was being knocked around by the strong thermals that can lift you at 1500 feet per minute. The thermals aren't big, sometimes only a few hundred yards across, so you are banked in a steep turn and circling tightly so as to not fall out of the rising column. It is very like sailing a dinghy to windward through through big chop in Force 5.

If you launch in late afternoon in summer, the sun thermals have calmed down but the hot rocks still provide lift--now absolutely smooth air through which you cruise and soar effortlessly, silently, unbelievably, because the experience is so simple and easy and defies the notion, which we known to be true, than men can't fly. But we can. Without an engine. With simple gear. For hours at a time.

Landings in mid-day can be hairy as you fight your way down through violent summer turbulence, the forces of which are much greater than the hang glider pilot can resist. You dive aggresively those last 500 feet, determined to minimize the duration of exposure to sudden side gusts that can push you off your course directly into the wind.

But in those magic-air evening landings you come down through warm, flat, still air, flying a standard aircraft pattern you judge only by eye, humming a tune and utterly in control of your fate, to flare like a bird on a branch and touch feet as if standing up from a chair.

Parachutes, bungee jumps, stuff like that--they're "extreme thrill sports". HG isn't that at all, but rather a way, with a few months skilled instruction and some very simple gear, to join the hawks as they soar.

And if there's a hawk circling nearby , every thermal-searching hang glider in the sky heads for right for him--the expert!