FINALLY GOING HANG GLIDING
This past Christmas, Sandy bought me a gift certificate to go hang gliding. Summer has been quite busy with planning for my upcoming Pay It Forward Tour and the daily stuff of life so I hadn’t had a chance to use it. We finally made the time this past weekend. Coincidentally today is National Aviation Day. I would like to say I planned it that way but I didn’t.
GETTING THERE
We travelled to Morningside Flight Park in Claremont New Hampshire, about a 3 hour ride from our house. We got up quite early, for us anyway, I was feeling and looking quite tired the entire trip. I did not look all that enthusiastic in my sleepy state. It didn’t help that we were under a heavy cloud cover until we were basically in the parking lot of the flight park.
THE CLOUDS PARTED
Miraculously though the clouds parted and the sun shined bright as we arrived. After finding parking I made my way to a barn where my pilot happened to be sitting on a picnic table outside. He said we knew you were coming we made a cake. To my utter disappointment there was no cake haha. Luckily there was aviation all around. If you know me well you know I love to fly. Flying is one of the things that makes me smile from ear to ear. Something I will never tire of is the freedom of leaving the earth behind. We got the requisite paperwork out of the way and headed off to the grass runway across the street.
THE FLIGHT
Since I can’t move my legs we weren’t able to just run off a hill to take flight, which is the usual method for taking off. A runway and a tow plane is required for me to go hang gliding. First though we had to figure out how to get me into the harness. It actually wasn’t that hard and honestly required very little adaptation. They simply lifted the rear of the hang glider to allow me to get my wheelchair behind the harness and I put my arms and head through the correct holes. Then the pilots, one for the plane one for the hang glider, simply lifted my legs into the boot of the harness and strapped me in.
GETTING READY FOR TAKEOFF
While getting ready for takeoff the pilot of my hang glider instructed me to hold on to the handles at his sides and don’t let go. He was a bit worried that with my lack of leg control I wouldn’t necessarily hold myself in that well He also said don’t look down when we takeoff because the grass whizzing by will look like we are doing 200 miles per hour. In reality we were doing about 35 miles per hour. 
OFF INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER
We hooked into the tow rope gave a tug to signal the plane pilot we were ready and we were off. I was very surprised at the smoothness of the grass runway. We were off the ground in a matter of seconds. The cool air flowing over us made it feel like we were going so much faster. We gained our altitude of 2000 ft in just a few minutes. My pilot informed me that when we cut the plane loose it would feel like we put the brakes on. Wow was he right. It felt like all of a sudden we came to a stop and then the next thing i knew we were flying again. The view was simply breathtaking. Up to this point I had flown mostly with something around me other than skydiving of course. I imagined this had to be what it feels like to be a bird. They don’t look up but can see in every other direction just like I could. I could see all the way to Mt. Ascutney, about 5 miles away in a straight line. Farm fields and forest, the earth was green as far as I could see.
TRYING SOME MANEUVERS
We did a few wing overs and I commented how it felt like doing stalls in an airplane. The pilot then showed me an actual stall which didn’t really amount to anything. The wing just kept flying. I was truly amazed at how well it flew. A few times I became a bit too relaxed and he noticed I wasn’t hanging onto my handles as tightly as he would have liked haha. Who knew you could relax 2000 ft off the ground. I don’t think I would have come out of the harness but better safe than sorry. Once it was time to land he set us up at the end of the runway. We did a few descending circles and he kissed it onto the grass as smooth as any landing I have ever done.
YOU SHOULD TRY THIS!
The flight didn’t last all that long because it was an introductory flight and we only went up 2000 ft. Nonetheless, it definitely gave me an amazing sense of what it was like to fly a hang glider. I highly recommend checking out Morningside Flight Park and experiencing the freedom of flight for yourself through hang gliding.
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