Any Hang Gliding Pelicans Out There
 

As it turns out, a buddy has a hang glider he's not using any longer (I have no idea what make/model) and it's mine if I want it. Now, upstate NY (really upstate, not Westchester County) has plenty of terrain for hang gliding, so I'm thinking of taking this contraption off his hands.

The Question -- how much instruction do you need/ should you have in order to throw yourself off of a perfectly functioning planet attached to a big kite?

For the purposes of this question, assume I have no health insurance...

JP

Get training.

Jockey's Ridge in NC is a nice, easy place to start.

There's a designated launch spot overlooking Lyme Rock...

No worries about health insurance . . . Those things can EASILY kill you.



. . .easy; and no reset button

We get amazing hang gliding injuries in the E.R. Broken femurs, wrists and hands. Our favorites are when flyers use a brace that lets them fly horizontal, like Superman. Whatever they hit, it will be headfirst. Darwin would have approved.

Oops!

http://www.avweb.com/newswire/10_24a/briefs/187429-1.html

Why not get it done right away. Find a highway overpass and jump off of it. Saves all the hassle of packing/unpacking and instruction and you can break half of your bones without wasting all the time!

Would not touch one for anything and I parachute for a hobby...

Joe A

While I will take powered vehicles over non powered most of the time, if someone "gave" me a hang glider and I lived in a hilly area, something tells me that I would have to give it a try (after thorough research and possible training of course). One can kill themselves doing just about any adventure or motor sport, nothing new about that. (what was that movie line?.... Live life, taste death!)

That said, even though I have whitewater kayaked, raced motocross, built and flew ultralights, skied dbl blacks etc etc, I can't get into the idea of parachuting for fun. I would always worry about the slight chance of the chute not opening. I guess i like adventure sports that rely more on my decision making rather than whether a chute fails. I will make myself do it someday when I finish my aerobatic plane just so I know I can do it someday if i need to.

Well, I think hang gliding looks cool.

Seen ultralights in NW Indiana, and hang gliders on the dunes near Lake Michigan.

Grew up in San Diego and went to college at UCSD and saw hang gliders up at Torrey Pines just about everyday.

Doesn't seem unnecessarily dangerous. Probably like riding a motorcycle. Must be some teaching organization like Motorcycle Safety Foundation that could reduce the risk.

BTW - My kids love the movie "Fly Away Home" - and if a kid can fly an ultralight from Canada to the US, I'm thinking a good dose of common sense with the weather, and a good teacher should make things safe enough.

JP,
Be sure to update us on whatever you do find out. One of my college prof's broke his entire face, left arm, shoulder, many ribs, and possibly a leg too after he hit a tree. He looked really good after 10 or 12 operations to repair everything. I asked him if he would ever consider doing it again and he said he would but his wife would kill him. I would love to try it sometime and there is a place about 30 min away where almost every weekend someone is hang gliding. He said it was as close to being a bird that you can imagine. I just always think of him hitting that tree and what it must have felt like to see it coming and know there wasn't anything you could do when I consider trying it.

If someone were to give me one, I would find a local club, get the training and jump right into it. Have fun and be careful.

I'm telling ya, man. Go to Jockey's ridge. The sand ain't gonna hurt ya, and their flight school is fun.

Still think that jumping off of a bridge would be faster. Get it all done at one time, could even call the ambulance beforehand and jump as you see them drive up...

What's the matter Joe.... are you scared?:D

Sorry, but a skydiver guy telling a hanglider guy that hangliding is too risky, cracks me up!:D

I still think you are nuts for jumping out of perfectly good airplanes!:eek:

Come to think of it, after looking at a few planes that are used for jumping, I just might have to modify my statement.:D

Have to agree with Joe on this one. I have also been a skydiver for many years, and fly a tiny elliptical high performance canpoy that can kill you pretty easily. That said, I would never take up hang-gliding. :)

Count me as one of the skydivers that think you're crazy, JP. I'll do almost anything... and have... but there's no way I'd strap myself into one of those things. A few years ago I was watching them jump off of a cliff out near Lake Elsinore. Just watching them made me break into a cold sweat and I felt sick to my stomach. Truly nuts.

I do not see what is nuts about it.

You jump off a cliff rather than jump out of an airplane.

Either way you are still falling toward earth.

The difference is that, believe it or not, skydiving is a mostly predictable process. The same events happen over and over, consistently. Hangliding has all sorts of other (dangerous) variables thrown in, like getting blown back into the mountain, equipment failure with no reserve, etc. I'm sure there are others that I have no knowledge about. No thanks!

One of the more common injuries happens with a routine landing. Push the bar forward, the nose goes up and the glider "stalls", gently easing you to the ground.

Problem is, it's easy to misjudge. Stall too late and you get a high speed crash. Stall too early and you find yourself motionless and still 10 feet in the air. You pull the bar in to bring the nose down and get a high speed face plant.

(Yes, I had a few very brief and inglorious flights with a glider in my youth.)

Early flare is really funny when the "victim" is a short pudgy woman...running legs a blur in midair...still cracks me up today.