First Time Hang Gliding - Info with Pictures

- A Day of Gliding -

February 2000, I went hang gliding with a close friend in Florida. It was my first time and a great experience. This page is a photo album of that day, with a little information about the way it was done. All the images below are thumbnails, clicking on them will show you the larger images.

Image copyright: by The Aviation Links Page © 2001

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Unfortunately, I was not allowed to bring my camera on the flight, but I got some great shots in while waiting. I forgot to put the UV filter back on, the last time I cleaned my lens, so the light is a little harsh in the pictures. In a couple of cases this added to the picture. You might also notice white specs. They might fool you at first, as they did me, as being dust or dirt. They are really gliders flying at higher altitudes that were too small for my camera/scanner to make an identifiable image.

The place; Wallaby Ranch - just west of Orlando, FL, grass strip, a few buildings and camp grounds. All in all a very laid back rustic environment.

Starting out - The flight was a tandem meaning that an instructor and a passenger went together. On the ground they strapped us into the gliders. When we took off we were in a horizontal position, and stayed that way all the way back down. The glider was mounted with three wheels, two on either side of the control bar just in front of us and one further aft, used for landing and taking off.

We spent a bit of our afternoon there and watched the ultralite continuously launching hang gliders. Because we had not tried this before, we had to wait until the winds calmed down in the late afternoon. Our other option would have been early morning. While we waited, there were plenty of experienced hang glider pilots taking advantage of the afternoon. This provided me with a chance to get a few shots in.

To get to altitude an ultralight was used to tow the hang glider. This was a great way to get around the no mountains problem in Florida. A tow strap was used to bring us up to 1800 ft. It was amazing how short the takeoff roll for the glider was, and the climb was quick too. We were up in what seemed like a few minutes.

Once we were up, the instructor released the tow strap, and we were on our own.

The view was incredible with nothing between me and the ground to obstruct my view, except for the thin metal control bar. On the ground we got to choose either an intro flight or a sight seeing ride; being a pilot, I opted for the intro. So once we were on our way, the instructor did a quick demo. He used a rudimentary but very accurate comparison for flying the glider.

He said, it was "just like pushing a shopping cart". Turning was easy enough for me, but I had a little trouble getting used to the pitch control. Unlike an airplane where moving the yoke back puts you in a climb attitude, the hang glider is put in a steeper descent by moving the control bar back. Likewise while forward yoke would put you in a descent attitude in an airplane, the descent rate of the glider decreased as I moved the control bar forward.

This makes sense if you think of it in terms of a CG (Center of Gravity) shift. The bar being fixed to the glider really doesn't move. I move about the bar, so pulling on the bar moves me and the CG forward into a nose heavier configuration. Please don't quote me on this, I really have no idea how these things are designed. This was only a simple way for me to quickly convince myself that it was OK to pull back to go down.
The flight was really smooth. Even though the instructor said, the winds were still a little higher then ideal for a first flight, it felt extremely calm to me. It was a very relaxing way to spend an afternoon. I found it much more relaxing and peaceful then the fast and mad adrenaline rush that some might envision hang gliding to be.

The landing was just as smooth as the rest of the flight.

From the start, the instructor was keeping us close to the field. When it was time to go down, it was very gentle. A few turns were used to keep us in the right place while dropping the altitude.

Landing was short, quick, and painless, although its rather odd being that close to the ground when you finally touchdown. The instructor greased the landing.

If given the opportunity to do this again I would jump on it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, the cost was a bit high 20 minutes in the glider could have gotten me 2 hours in a wet 152. I have no regrets however, and now I can check off another item on the things I want to do before I die list.

Tow Plane - The ultralite was very small, but it seemed pretty reliable. A viewer of this page recgnized it as a Dragon Fly, a kit by Australian company Moyes. I have heard they are one the most popular ultralights for hang glider towing. They were using it countinuosely throughout the day and it seemed to run flawlessly.
Special Thanks to Daryl F. for providing the link and information on the Moyes Dragon Fly.

Notes about these pictures and this page:

All the images as well as the content of this page are open to critique, especially the spelling, if you see an image that you think is of portfolio quality let me know. I am an amateur photographer but am thinking of putting one together, for kicks.

All pictures were taken with a Nikon 6006, shot in manual mode with the autofocus disengaged. Film used was Fuji 200. The lens was the Quanteray 70-300 AF zoom. All shutter speeds were between 125 and 1000, and aperature settings were all between 8 and 22.

All images and Photographs on this page are copyrighted and the sole property of Matt Derbyshire. Individuals can use these images for there personal/non-commercial web sites, however anyone who publishes them on a site should send me an e-mail with the site name and place a link back to this or any of my Aviation pages in return. None of the images on this page can be distributed or used on a commercial site without written permission from me; Matt Derbyshire.