How to Learn to Hang-Glide Safely at Any Age

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By chava812
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Hang-gliding from a dune on the Outer Banks of North Carolina

Do you have unfulfilled dreams? Back when I was 21, I wrote down my own “bucket list” of things I wanted to do before I died. Now 48, I seem older than I did then, and past the time when I could safely try hang-gliding and so mentally wrote it off my list. But I discovered not everything is as I imagine it to be. Back then, I was a 20-something looking to soar off Lookout Mountain where Tennessee and Georgia come together. Today, I’m looking to be a role model for my kids on how to take calculated risks. When I had a chance recently to reconnect with my 15-year-old son and take him to the beach where the Wright Brothers first took flight – Kill Devil Hills NC, near Kitty Hawk NC – research into the area’s offerings revealed a hang-gliding school at Jockey Ridge State Park. Hang-gliding over soft dune sand seemed safer to me than trees; and since the school hadn’t said “no,” to my age, health, or weight, why should I? If you have dreams of hang-gliding that you haven’t fulfilled yet, this article will show you how you, too, can release your fears and learn how to hang-glide.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

$99 for your first lesson (which includes several flights)
location (see related websites below for ideas)
good night's sleep
ability to run (relatively speaking)
willingness to listen and learn
equipment/rights/licenses obtained and provided by hang-gliding school: take-off and landing sites, trainer kite, harness, helmet

Step 1

Hang-gliding instructor runs alongside student and trainer kite.

Pre-flight. Pick a good reputable hang-gliding school.

This means they’ve been in business awhile, the instructors have been hang-gliding awhile, and you feel comfortable and safe around them.

Listen to your hang-gliding instructor, carefully read any paperwork the hang-gliding school gives you, and ask any questions you may have. Your first hang-gliding lesson will include several hang-gliding flights. These multiple flights – and your hang-gliding instructor who runs beside you during this training – will help you remember the following basic steps.
Step 2

Pre-flight. Choose a flight take-off and landing (TOL) site.

Your hang-gliding school will have access to several TOL sites and will choose the best one for your training. Check this one done. It’s part of their fee. These are chosen based on current wind conditions and your hang-gliding abilities.
Step 3

Pre-flight. Put on harness and helmet, and double-check their fit with your instructors, who will help you adjust if necessary.
Step 4

Pre-flight Check - Note the carabiner holding the harness to the kite

Perform pre-flight check.

With trainer kite on the ground, hook the round metal piece (called a “carabiner” and pronounced like “carob bean-er”) on your harness through 2 straps, called the primary and secondary straps. Your hang-gliding instructor will point these out to you. Check to ensure the carabiner is securely snapped closed.

Next, drop down onto the ground on your knees, release your body down (letting it hang from the straps and the kite), and check the distance from the bar to your chest with your fist. There should be about 1 to 1-and-a-half fists between your fist and your chest. If not, adjustments are made where the carabiner hooks into the primary strap. Your hang-gliding instructor will help you with this.
Step 5

Flight time. Step 1. Choose a visual target.

This is a crucial factor in learning to control the direction of the hang-gliding kite which tends to go where the hang-glider’s pilot is looking.

Stand with your kite, check wind direction (on a dune, kicking sand works great), pick a target into the wind, aim the kite in that direction, back up from the edge an appropriate amount (your instructors will direct you here), then focus your eyes on that target. Do not look elsewhere from then on.
Step 6

Walk...Jog...Run!

Flight time. Step 2. Walk…Jog…Run.

With your hands spaced as directed by your instructors - roughly shoulder-width apart – and your hands loosely touching the bar, begin your launch by shouting “Clear” then move from a walk to a jog then a run, continuing the motions of running until your feet no longer touch the earth.
Step 7

Keep the bar under your chin.

Flight time. Step 3. Keep the bar under your chin.

As the wind begins to lift the kite from the earth – and you with it – the bar will move in relation to your body. Keeping the bar under your chin with a light touch, make small adjustments “in” and “out” for speed and lift. As you gain in experience, you will better gage how much to nudge the bar out and in for speed control. Larger movements, to either the left or right, leading with your hips and feet, control direction.
Step 8

Flight time. Step 4. “Flare” to land.

To “flare” is to push the bar out quickly, all at once. While this may seem that it will increase your speed drastically, it will lift the kite nose up and allow you to land on your feet if done quickly enough. If not, a soft landing on your belly in sand is also an acceptable landing.
Step 9

Students await their turns to repeat flights as one student goes thru pre-flight check.

Flight time. Step 5. Repeat Flight Steps 1-4 above.

If your first landing was a “crash and burn” and you broke the kite like me, then by all means, go again. That’s the next step to learning to hang-glide. Go back up and do it again.

Even if you soared and landed on both feet – a hard feat your first try – go back and do it again. Your instructors will give you pointers on both your take-offs and landings that will help you do better, then help you graduate to controlling the flights more for a longer and more enjoyable ride each time. Eventually some of the instructions will be second nature and you won’t have to be reminded that “Flare!” means “All the way out!!!”

And the fear from rushing madly into space will be “gone with the wind.”

Comments

callyook said

Flag This Comment

on 6/22/2009 Here's the thing I think it's really good. Your comments are good too everyone. Number one, I'm gonna go hangglidig. Number two, step three! Just kiddin. Have fun!

mommyhen42 said

on 5/30/2009 I always wanted to learn to hang glide as well but settled for a ride in an ultra-light aircraft instead... Still wish I could have given it a try... sigh 5* on a totally awesome article!