Is it possible, Can I really fly?

(author - Adrian Fox)

After having been given a Tandem Hang glide flight down at Byron Bay by my girlfriend one Christmas this was a question that has haunted me and I have asked myself many times after watching pilots of hang gliders launch from Mt Tamborine and Rosins at Beechmont in SE Queensland since then. It would be fair to say that many other people have asked themselves this question over the years but have not done anything about it. I decided to look into it further and go for it.

So began the search for information about hang gliding, where to learn it, how to learn, what are the options? How much will it cost? After searching around on google I found the HGFA website which had links to schools and instructors for the sport, and all the other information that I could need to get me going.

You know how it is when you get a good vibe about something and you just know that it’s right, well that was the feeling I got when I phoned SE Qld Hang gliding / Altitude Windsports run by Ken Hill and Lee Patterson and spoke initially to Ken Hill the chief flight instructor. He patiently answered my questions (even the ones that looking back now were a bit dumb) and suggested that I travel up to Beechmont to take a tandem flight and also meet with and talk to other pilots. Unfortunately I didn’t get to do the tandem flight that day due to unsuitable weather conditions, but I did get to talk to some of the other pilots on the launch that were very friendly and helpful. I decided there and then that I should sign up for the course run by Ken and Lee.

The worst part of this process was waiting for the first day of the course to arrive, a lot like a kid waiting for Christmas to come.

The First Day of the course finally arrived and I drove out to Canungra to meet with Ken and Lee and to make a start on the course. I was a little nervous as I had not done anything like this before and it had been quite some time since I had done anything that even resembled schooling of any sort.

Right away both Ken and Lee introduced themselves and the other students for the course and proceeded to put everyone’s minds at ease.

We then got into the theory part of the day first as the conditions at the training hill are usually quite thermic and a little too rough for beginner pilots until later in the day when the sun has lowered towards the horizon. After lunch we loaded up all the gliders, harnesses, helmets and other gear and headed out to the training hill about 40 mins away. Upon arrival we were all shown the correct way to setup the gliders and how to preflight them in preparation for our first attempts at flying.

I took one look at the training hill and started to stress out a little as I was being hooked into the glider for the very first time. It’s funny how your mind play’s tricks on you when you are about to do something new and really, looking back on it now the training hill is more like a bump than a proper hill. Lee had finished giving me my first set of instructions and Ken was waiting below to call through instructions over the radio fixed to the training harness. Ok now wing’s level, angle of attack set, walk walk, run run run, the glider started to lift as I gained speed, I changed my grip on the down tubes and kept running until I thought I had enough speed… it was at this point that things went very pear shaped indeed due to my vice like grip on the down tubes and an angle of attack that I had not controlled too well. The end result was embarrassing to say the least with me ending up flat on my face at the bottom of the hill with some badly skinned knees, so ended my very first attempt of many for that day at learning to fly a hang glider. (Mental note to self – should have worn long pants or kneepads!)

It seemed that I was not the only one having problems on the first day as most of the other students were making similar mistakes in their quest to fly. Patience and careful instruction from both the instructors helped us all to make it to the end of the first day with the bonus of some of the other students making short flights down the hill.

I didn’t achieve an actual flight of any length on my first day which I have to admit hurt the ego a bit, however I knew that even though I didn’t it would only be a matter of time and “listening” to the instructions from Ken and Lee.

The second day of the course ran along the same lines as the first with theory in the morning (including some good natured stirring and dry comments something along the lines of not using ones knees as landing gear !) and out to the training hill in the afternoon for more practical .

At this point our group was starting to gel and work together helping each other out by dragging the gliders back up the training hill and encouraging each other as they made each new launch attempt. This helped all of us progress at a faster rate and the experience was even better when everyone cheered or clapped when one of us made a good launch or landed successfully. By the end of this day I was starting to get the idea and was making short flights from about the middle of the training hill , although the landings were still pretty dodgy and directional control was vague at best. The main problems were learning to relax enough to feel the glider and getting my head around the short flight time as well as trying to remember everything that needed to be done for the landing.

It took a bit of doing but near the end of the third day Lee convinced me that I should be launching from the top of the training hill which would help by allowing more time in the air to practice weight shift control and to set up for the landing. I still wasn’t so sure about this but followed his advice as he was quite certain that I could handle it.

Well I have to say that he was right, I did a good strong launch and found myself flying ,really flying and it seemed like ages till I had to get ready for the landing phase but in reality it would have been lucky if it was 20 or 30 seconds flight time. I got ready to land and couldn’t believe it when I did a perfect landing I was stunned for a moment then let out a huge yell “oh Yeah, Nailed It”. Ken was there in an instant and congratulated me on a great flight and proceeded to do a quick debrief on things that could have been done a bit better but I didn’t hear much of it as the other students still up on the hill were cheering and yelling loudly and I was still trying to take in what I had just done, all the way back up to the top of the training hill I was grinning like an idiot.

The skinned knees were forgotten and I was hooked, it was also about the time that the reality set in that yes I can really do this and if I keep working at it and perfecting the skills through the rest of the course a high glide from Mt Tamborine was a definite possibility.

The next day the weather had begun to worsen with the windspeed increasing sharply from the north as the day wore on which is about the only direction that can’t be flown on the training hill and so the practical side of the lessons was canned for the day. Looking back everyone was pretty happy with this decision as we were all very tired from our many journeys up the training hill with glider in tow and none of us wanted to risk it in dodgy conditions. As is often the case there was a silver lining to it and we were able to get a lot of theory done which would allow for more time out on the hill when the weather improved.

I was a little worried on the 5th day of the course when we went out to the hill as

I had not flown the day before due to the bad weather however both Ken and Lee reassured me as we all setup the gliders. Things just got better and better from here I was doing really strong launches and was starting to do small turns to the left and back to the right and was also getting better at picking a landing spot and actually landing near it. I could feel the glider better now but still had to remember to relax and wriggle my fingers every now and then. Another awesome day and with my confidence soaring to new levels I couldn’t wait for the next time on the hill.

The next day on the hill arrived soon enough and as we set up the gliders Ken had a little surprise in store for me… Foxy… I want you to try out the prone harness he said. By this time I had worked out that small changes to anything in hanggliding can make a very big difference and I felt really comfortable with the training harness that I had been using. The prone harness tends to make you lean a bit more forward which of course makes everything feel different. After pre flighting the glider I got into the prone harness did a hang check and set myself up for a launch, I waited for a lull in the wind and did a good strong launch ,almost as soon as I left the ground the wind picked up again and the glider gained altitude fairly rapidly, I like this harness I thought it doesn’t bother me at all, but I was soon to discover that it wasn’t all going to be rainbows and lollipops. I set up for a really good landing and found that I wasn’t quite comfortable with the different angle that I was hanging at and stuffed up the landing completely. I didn’t break or bend anything but the poor old knees copped it again, just when they were starting to heal up as well! What the hell was that? Lee remarked, I was so disappointed and angry at myself for stuffing it up that I didn’t hear the advice he was giving me for my next try in this harness and had to ask him to go over it again. I listened carefully this time and then carried the glider back up to the top of the training hill and waited for my turn to launch again. This next flight went a lot better and the landing was much better as well. All of the other flights and landings for the rest of the day in this new harness type just got better and better.

On landing from my final flight of the day Ken came running up and congratulated me on another great flight and while he was shaking my hand and commenting on the flight he slipped in a few words that at first I didn’t believe, “Foxy, we both think your’e ready to do your first high glide from Tambo tomorrow”. What the !, You mean it ? Yep you , Marty and Andrew the three of you he replied .

That night on the way home I couldn’t stop grinning and laughing out loud as I thought about what those words meant and when I did get home I couldn’t really concentrate on anything else the excitement was so intense.

Early next morning after meeting at Canungra we traveled up to the launch at Mt Tamborine and set up our gliders. Marty was first to go off and we all watched as he did a good launch and flew really well towards the landing zone below. He did a great landing and let out a jubilant yell, it was so loud that we could all hear it up on launch !. I was next to go and waited for Ken to advise me when the best time was to launch it was then he asked me “what’s the difference between flying here and at the training hill “ ? Oh bugger I thought a trick question, I hate them and returned a blank look at my instructor. He didn’t keep me in suspense for long and replied Nothing! Just launch the same way you have been , relax,and fly the glider, and do the same landings that you have been doing and you’ll do just fine. With that I was clear to go.

Wings level , angle of attack set, looking to the horizon , walk walk , run run run run and with that the glider lifted me effortlessly from the ground and away from the launch site, ok out to trim speed Ken called over the radio, great, now try getting into prone in the harness and then put your hands down onto the basebar one at a time. Good well done I heard, ok now I want you to relax and wiggle those fingers a bit you seem to be tensing up , see how the glider is wandering around, you need to relax and keep looking at your heading on the horizon and bring your bar in for a little more airspeed. Only now did I realize the enormity of what had been accomplished over the previous week, I was really flying just like all the other pilots I had seen At Tambo and Rosins and like the flock of birds that I was now looking at over a hundred feet below me , it was possible and I was really doing it. Just then Lee took over the radio and started to give me the instructions to guide me in for my first landing from a high glide into the landing zone. I flew over the houses and setup an aircraft style approach towards the landing paddock that had looked so small from the air. I dropped into hang from prone and put my hands back on the uprights made a quick check of the wind direction by looking at the windsock below and began to pull the bar in for more airspeed for the downwind leg. After turning onto final I caught a little bit of turbulence and had to make a few corrections to keep on track and keep the wings level for landing, closer and closer I came to the ground keep the speed on now Lee called over the radio… ok… ok now “FLARE” and with that it was over, I had landed, not particularly well but I had landed. The other pilots in the landing zone cheered , yelled and whistled and Lee congratulated me on a great first high glide.

So ended my first high glide from Mt Tamborine, the first of many more to come and as I packed up the glider I thought back over the previous week again and just what had been accomplished.

When it all comes down to it, learning to fly hang gliders from scratch and realizing a dream was made easier due to the patience , skill and knowledge of both Ken and Lee from SE Qld Hang gliding / Altitude Windsports. These guys really helped to make my dream of flight a reality and continue to do so by offering support and answers to my questions as I now continue on in the sport.