Hang Gliding It's Not Just For Hanging on to Dear Life Anymore By Angelo Mantas

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Imagine you're on top of a mountain, at the edge of a 1,500 foot cliff. The sky is blue, with puffy white cumulus clouds scattered about like cotton candy. On your shoulders is a modern hang glider, 67 pounds of Dacron and aluminum. Feeling the wind on your face, you lean forward, sprint down the takeoff ramp and the glider leaps into the air. Pulling away from the mountain, you raise your legs into the harness that supports you, and "prone out," flying in the same position as the birds you're trying to emulate. Slowly descending toward the valley floor, you steer the wing over to a rocky outcropping. Passing overhead, you feel a bump, and a beeping from your instruments signals an updraft. Turning tightly to stay in the lift, the glider spirals its way skyward. Soon you're back even with the launch site, then 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 feet over. As you approach the cloud base, the lift slackens, and you level off, cruising back out toward the valley. Since the wing is above you, the view is wide open, no glass or metal to obstruct your vision. To your left and right, the valley stretches for miles, green-, yellow- and reddish-brown fields, stands of trees, and below you the forested mountain side. To the side, something catches your eye, and you turn to see a red-tailed hawk, only a few feet off your wingtip.

Now this is flying.

Although almost everyone has heard about hang gliding, very few realize how advanced it has become. Many still think you simply drag the glider to the top of the nearest hill and glide to the bottom. The flight described above is not only possible, it's commonplace. Modern hang gliders have progressed to the point where, with fairly common weather conditions, you can stay up for hours, gain thousands of feet and travel dozens of miles. The world record for distance is over 300 miles, and 100 mile flights have occurred all over the country. Towing, both by ground vehicles and ultralight aircraft, has brought hang gliding to the plains. Every state in the country has hang gliding.

Of course, it didn't start this way. The very first hang gliders predated the Wright brothers. In 1890s Germany, Otto Lilienthal built small, birdlike contraptions made of wood and fabric. He launched these off a hill he had built especially for gliding. Around the same time, Octave Chanute was building and flying gliders at Warren Dunes, Michigan. In both cases, Chanute and Lilienthal hung from the gliders by their armpits, and controlled them by moving their weight around. Soon the Wright Brothers started experimenting with gliders. In 1903, they added an engine, made the world's first powered flight, and set hang gliding back 70 years.

It wasn't until the late '60s that hang gliding made its comeback. Water skiers, looking for a new thrill, had started towing up behind powerboats with large kites. These kites were almost impossible to control, and if the tow line broke, they fell out of the sky. In the search for a better flying experience, some skiers stumbled upon the work of Dr. Francis Rogallo. A NASA scientist since the '40s, Rogallo developed a collapsible wing system to retrieve space vehicles. When NASA decided to use parachutes instead, Rogallo made his invention free to the public. Applying his ideas to their kites, early ski-pilots such as Bill Moyes and Bill Bennett found Rogallo inspired kites to be infinitely easier to control. Not only that, but when the tow line broke, the kite would continue to fly, gliding safely to a beach or water landing.

When they realized the Rogallo kite didn't have to be pulled to stay airborne, Moyes, Bennett and others started launching their gliders from hills and mountains. Hanging by your arms was soon replaced by a harness that supported all your weight, leaving arms free for better control. The '70s hang gliding explosion was on. Here was a cheap, quick way to fly. By the end of the decade, designs improved to the point where sustained flights were possible.

How do they stay up? A modern hang glider uses lift created by weather conditions. The two most common forms of lift are ridge lift and thermals. Ridge lift is created when the wind hits a mountain or ridge. Since the wind can't go through the ridge, it's deflected up and over it. If the wind is strong enough, the updraft created can lift a hang glider. Just how high the glider can rise depends on the size and angle of the hill/mountain face. Long ridges, such as those found at Warren Dunes, Michigan, make it possible to fly several miles and back.

Another form of lift is thermals. These are formed by differential heating on sunny days. A plowed field will often heat up faster and stronger than adjacent planted plots. Hot air is lighter than cold, so the heated air of the plowed field starts to rise. This air will continue to rising until its temperature falls to that of the surrounding air. This often takes several thousand feet. The flight described at the start of the article used thermal lift.

How does a hang glider pilot find lift? With ridge lift, it's pretty easy. You just fly where the ridge is. The higher or steeper the ridge, the better the lift. Thermal lift is harder to find. Down low, the pilot looks for terrain that heats up quickly, such as plowed fields and rock outcroppings. Man made structures, such as roads and buildings, also work. Up high, cumulus clouds mark the lift — puffy white cumulus are actually the top end of thermals. Instruments also help. Most pilots fly with a variometer. This device tells you when you've found lift and how strong it is.

Besides providing longer, more impressive flights, modern hang gliding is also a lot safer than you've been led to believe. During its founding in the '70s, hang gliding got the reputation as a fun but almost suicidally dangerous sport. In many ways, this reputation was deserved. There were a lot of accidents. First, the gliders themselves, while fine for short flights off hills or sand dunes, had poor stability during extended turns and were unstable at high speed. Their structural integrity varied widely, and sometimes broke apart in high-stress maneuvers. Would-be pilots taught themselves, and learning by trial and error meant errors could be very costly. The news media caught on to the increasing accidents and fatalities, and painted hang gliders as thrill-seeking tempters of death.

Much has changed since those days. Hang gliding's safety has improved, for several reasons. Hang gliders themselves have changed considerably. They are now designed by people with extensive aeronautical background, and are built with high quality, aircraft standard aluminum tubing and hardware. The H.G.M.A. (Hang Gliders Manufacturers Association) has a series of stability tests new designs must pass. These changes have led to stronger, safer gliders. In the unlikely event of the glider breaking, pilots carry special emergency parachutes. Most importantly, there are now schools that teach hang gliding. Using curriculum developed by the U.S.H.G.A. (United States Hang Gliding Association), the student is now carefully supervised and guided through the learning process.

So, what's it like to learn hang gliding?

Today, there are several methods of instruction. The traditional method is hill training. Typically, the class meets at the training site, a small hill or sand dune. Lessons start with a ground school covering the basics of flight. This is followed by ground handling, where the student learns how to manage the glider and do a takeoff run while still on flat ground. When the student masters good, consistent runs, the instructor takes them 30–40 feet up the hill for their first flight. Running alongside, the instructor can help the student's control by pulling or pushing on the gliders cables and tubing. After landing, the flight is reviewed, then the next student takes their turn.

Another means of instruction is tandem training. A large glider is used, specially designed to support two people. Rather than a training hill, a mountain or towing is used to get long flights. The tandem instructor takes off with the student, and flies the glider until they are well clear of the ground. Then, control is turned over to the student. The instructor is always there to give immediate feedback and take over if there are any problems. As in the hill method, a ground school precedes the flight. Both of these methods have their advantages, and are often used together.

Unlike the old days, the only thing you need to invest in is lessons. Modern schools provide all the equipment. They also use U.S.H.G.A. certified instructors. For a listing of schools in your area, contact the U.S.H.G.A. at (719) 632-8300, FAX (719) 632-6417.

It's a beautiful, sunny spring day along Lake Michigan. A northwest wind blows into the coast. A hundred years after Chanute, a hang glider launches from Tower Hill at Warren Dunes, now a state park. Unlike his predecessor, the glider soars the hill, riding ridge lift. After gaining a few hundred feet, he pulls on some speed, crossing the gap between Tower Hill and the coastal dunes. Now 500 feet over, he starts drifting down the coast toward New Buffalo, 12 miles away. Seagulls float along on the same wind currents, the lake is steely blue with frothy white caps, the newly leafed out forest a bright green, almost shimmering in the wind...

I tell you, you gotta try it.