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I've been meaning to try free flight (HG or PG) for a good while now, and got a chance to do a tandem HG ride at Wallaby Ranch (http://www.wallaby.com) near Orlando, FL.
We were towed to 2000AGL behind a Dragonfly (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moyes_Dragonfly) , an ultralight designed expressly for towing hang gliders. The tow seemed to go quickly, with me alternating between looking at the sights and receiving limited "dual" from the instructor on how to properly position and fly behind the tow.
After we released it was just us, the glider, and the wind. It was very liberating and free feeling. With no bodywork around you and no windshield, I could look in any direction, including straight down. The only noise was the wind in my ears, about the same as being at the beach on a windy day.
My instructor, Eric, had me do some gentle turns, then some steeper ones. He showed my several ways of accomplishing the weight shift needed to initiate a turn and also some of the things to avoid. We also did some stalls, yup, hang gliders stall and recover just like airplanes. But on a HG control inputs are opposite. Pushing on the bar increases AOA and causes the glider to slow and climb. Pulling redues AOA and causes the glider to speed up and descend. That tripped me up some.
This was just a sled ride, so between some of the quick instruction and spending some time just looking aroud, the ride seemed to end too soon! He took over as we neared the ground and set us up for final landing approach. For the tandem ride, we were both in horizontal harnesses and stayed prone for the landing. The glider had large wheels on the base tube and on the extended keel towards the rear, so we landed just like a taildragger full stall into a three point landing.
After my ride was over, our 12yr old daughter wanted to go but my wife was a little apprehensive about letting her go. After talking to Malcom, the owner, she decided to let her go up for a ride. Malcon is the only one who does rides for kids, and has over 30,000 accident free tandem rides under his belt. My daughter loved it! She had a silly grin on her face all day long, and immediately asked how old she had to be to take lessons. At the end of the week, (we did all the usual Orlando stuff like Disney, Kennedy Space center, etc.) I asked her what her favorite activity was, and she said hang gliding by a long shot.
After the rides the owner invited us to stay, as luck would have it they were having their annual Christmas party. The grounds were awesome, the food was great, and they had two very good bands. Hang glider folks, like pilot folks, are good people and we had a nice time talking to everyone. Although we showed up at 8am for the ride, we stayed at the party until 2pm. Good times!
I talked with the lady who was my tow plane pilot, and she was quite an interesting gal. She's flown everything from HG and ultralights to the 747 and flew for Virgin Atlantic for a number of years, but loves hang gliding and towing new students into the air.
Overall it was a wonderful experience and I am going to take some lessons once the weather warms some in the spring. Although I should probably try PG, logistics are had to overlook. I live 20min from one of the two best hang gliding schools in the country, and I live within a 45min drive of three excellent HG launching sites. Nearest PG school is about 3 hrs away.
Will this replace powered flight? Time will tell.
We were towed to 2000AGL behind a Dragonfly (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moyes_Dragonfly) , an ultralight designed expressly for towing hang gliders. The tow seemed to go quickly, with me alternating between looking at the sights and receiving limited "dual" from the instructor on how to properly position and fly behind the tow.
After we released it was just us, the glider, and the wind. It was very liberating and free feeling. With no bodywork around you and no windshield, I could look in any direction, including straight down. The only noise was the wind in my ears, about the same as being at the beach on a windy day.
My instructor, Eric, had me do some gentle turns, then some steeper ones. He showed my several ways of accomplishing the weight shift needed to initiate a turn and also some of the things to avoid. We also did some stalls, yup, hang gliders stall and recover just like airplanes. But on a HG control inputs are opposite. Pushing on the bar increases AOA and causes the glider to slow and climb. Pulling redues AOA and causes the glider to speed up and descend. That tripped me up some.
This was just a sled ride, so between some of the quick instruction and spending some time just looking aroud, the ride seemed to end too soon! He took over as we neared the ground and set us up for final landing approach. For the tandem ride, we were both in horizontal harnesses and stayed prone for the landing. The glider had large wheels on the base tube and on the extended keel towards the rear, so we landed just like a taildragger full stall into a three point landing.
After my ride was over, our 12yr old daughter wanted to go but my wife was a little apprehensive about letting her go. After talking to Malcom, the owner, she decided to let her go up for a ride. Malcon is the only one who does rides for kids, and has over 30,000 accident free tandem rides under his belt. My daughter loved it! She had a silly grin on her face all day long, and immediately asked how old she had to be to take lessons. At the end of the week, (we did all the usual Orlando stuff like Disney, Kennedy Space center, etc.) I asked her what her favorite activity was, and she said hang gliding by a long shot.
After the rides the owner invited us to stay, as luck would have it they were having their annual Christmas party. The grounds were awesome, the food was great, and they had two very good bands. Hang glider folks, like pilot folks, are good people and we had a nice time talking to everyone. Although we showed up at 8am for the ride, we stayed at the party until 2pm. Good times!
I talked with the lady who was my tow plane pilot, and she was quite an interesting gal. She's flown everything from HG and ultralights to the 747 and flew for Virgin Atlantic for a number of years, but loves hang gliding and towing new students into the air.
Overall it was a wonderful experience and I am going to take some lessons once the weather warms some in the spring. Although I should probably try PG, logistics are had to overlook. I live 20min from one of the two best hang gliding schools in the country, and I live within a 45min drive of three excellent HG launching sites. Nearest PG school is about 3 hrs away.
Will this replace powered flight? Time will tell.
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