Trip Report: Hang Gliding

Yesterday, I woke up at 5am to go hang gliding for the first time.  It was early enough that I spent about a minute staring at my beeping alarm clock, not comprehending what it was or how to deal with it (in my half-awake state, I tried to take its Fourier transform to gain more information about the situation...it didn't work).  I eventually figured out how to turn it off and stumbled out of bed.  A guy named Oliver picked me up, I slept in the back seat of his car for about 2 hours, and when I woke up, I was somewhere along the New Hampshire/Vermont border at Morningside Flight Park.

Beth (of Acadia trip fame) organized the hang gliding trip, and the others who tagged along were myself and some people named Oliver, Mikka, and Yelena.  We had a hang gliding lesson on the ground in the morning, and in the afternoon, we got to go on a tandem flight up high. 

For now, I'll give some first impressions.  I will post some pictures later on, once I have them.

The Lesson

• Learning to hang glide from the ground requires wind speed, a bit of a slope to the ground, and running.  You pick up the glider, hold it in the proper way facing into the wind, and start moving.  As you pick up speed, the glider begins to lift.  At this point, you keep running as fast as you can, tugging this thing behind you in hopes that you go fast enough to lift off.  I have never felt more like a sled dog in my life!
• I got some air on one of the runs!  I saw the instructor (running beside me) lag behind as the glider picked up speed, and realized I was in this chaotic journey on my own.  I didn't keep my wings level, though, and ended up crashing the glider and skinning my knee...second time in two months.  It's like I'm 10 again.
• You can get beat up practicing this sport.  In addition to the crash, I managed to clip myself three times with an old carabiner with a nasty hinge, resulting in two matching blood blisters and an unlikely bruise on the pad of one finger.  Good job, Joy.

The Tandem

•  You know how birds catch thermals and fly on them?  I never thought I was going to feel one for myself, but while hang gliding, you can actually feel thermals of warm air lifting you up.  If you want to feel what it's like to soar like a bird, try hang gliding!
• You get towed up to soaring altitude by an ultralight plane (weighs about 520 lbs, and is made of textile stretched over an aluminum frame with a backpack-sized fuel tank mounted behind the pilot seat).  The hang glider pilot has a lot of responsibility to pay attention and keep control of the glider during towing, because a chaotic hang glider could seriously offbalance the ultralight plane.  This is one reason to do a tandem flight -- someone else can pilot through the hard stuff.
• Favorite thing about hang gliding #1: When you're soaring up high, you can look straight down and see nothing below you, nothing at all.  I love the surreal, so I love this.  It is an amazing feeling.
• Favorite thing about hang gliding #2: When you're soaring, you can stall.  This brings the hang glider to nearly a stop.  Of course, this makes the glider start to drop.  Then you can pull back on the handles of the glider to make yourself go fast again and regain control.  It's like a roller coaster, diving and bringing yourself back up.  I find the feeling of falling...interesting, so I like this!

I miiiight prefer sky diving to hang gliding because I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie, but hang gliding is also awesome.  The trip was a definite success.  A great day of learning how to soar like a bird, followed by a delicious huge pesto pizza nearby.  The weather was pure New England Fall, and being able to fly above the colorful trees is a new way to experience it.  Plus, now I know what it feels like to catch a thermal.  Never thought I'd know!