What we do is pretty special. We leap off a hill and enter a whole other world of possibilities. We share the sky with the birds, and find ourselves making decisions based on knowledge totally foreign to a majority of the human race.
These are incredible rewards for the few of us that develop the skills required to safely accomplish such feats. However many new students, after completing their initial licence course, leave the sport early on due to an inability to achieve what they consider “a worth while day out”. The early days in any hang gliders carer are full of heading out to hills and not flying or sled rides. You get used to sitting in the bombout while your new found friends climb out above you.
It is easy to be discouraged during this period but you must appreciate that we have all been there. Those days will end and one day you will be the one talking the next new guy through these challenging early days.
Local pilot, Andrew Luton, fills us in on his experiences as he stabs though this sometime difficult period:
I have always dreamed of going paragliding or hang gliding and have spent many years on the ridge at Lake George flying R/C gliders underneath the hang gliders and paragliders that fly by. I would always say to the people out flying with me, ‘gee I wish I was up there with them having fun’. My time has finally come.
I travelled up to Newcastle for my lessons with Tony Barton 3 months ago which took a week and was a lot of fun. The first time you run off a hill by yourself, it hits you that now your life really is in the palms of your hands! The two weeks up in Newcastle were great and I can’t wait to get back up there and have a few more flights (I really want to fly off Strzelecki Lookout).
After getting back from Newcastle I have attended as many flights as I can in order to obviously get up in the air and also meet as many people as possible. In the two months or so I have been flying here in Canberra I have managed to get to know a number of people who fly regularly. This is good for me as I can ring around and find out who is going or who wants to come out and fly! I am realising that this is a very important part of the first few months of your flying as you need to have an experienced pilot out with you while you are flying, so the more people you get to know the better your chances are of getting of the ground! I have been lucky as I met Trent purely by coincidence at on oval one day. While talking to him he told me that he was a hang glider pilot and from there on in I have kept in contact with Trent and he has given me a lot of advice and help. I guess the point I am trying to make here is that making contacts is an integral part of making the sport of hang gliding work best for you and to make it more enjoyable. There are the social benefits (mainly visits to the pub I have found) and more importantly the safety side of things. ‘Getting to know the locals’ for me has been a huge advantage as they have been able to give me ongoing feedback about the flying sites and the way I fly. I have received both positive and constructive (not negative) feedback!
Now onto the flying. I have had the majority of my flights out at Lake George with the best a few days ago. I was out there with 3 other hangies and one paraglider. One of the hangies was Ed (who along with Trent and a number of other guys, I have got to know over the past few months). Ed took off before me and I watched him make a few passes to gain lift off launch and proceed north above the highway. I then took off and also headed north up the ridge. As easy as Lake George I am happy to admit this as with each launch and landing I am gaining more experience. The one thing I am still getting used to is turbulence. After doing all my training on the nice smooth coast air, flying inland feels somewhat different. With each flight I do I am becoming better at handling the glider as it gets bumped around. I have mainly flown in the late afternoon after most thermals have shut down for the day thus generally smoother air. On the weekend just past I made my own decision not to fly (even though others were up) as the wind was quite strong and the air was a little rough. I may well have had a nice safe flight but I didn’t feel comfortable so I chose to leave the glider in the bag. This brings up another good point. Once the glider is set up and ready to go it is very tempting to fly even if it is a bit iffy, and knowing my ‘she’ll be right’ attitude, I have to keep this in mind! is to fly at I have bombed out three times!
Anyway back to the flight. I followed Ed up to the north and we both climbed to about 1200ft above the deck. After sussing out the pockets of lift we headed back south towards the launch. When tracking back over launch we had enough height to cross over the top of the highway through the gap and onto the next ridge line. This is the ridge where I have spent many years flying my R/C gliders and on this day one of my mates John, was down there fly his R/C (I recently managed to get him into flying R/C and hope to soon get him to take up hang gliding!). For the next hour Ed and I flew backwards and forwards flying in the air with John’s R/C. It was really cool to finally be up in the air flying within meters of an R/C and not being on the ground flying (in saying this I still thoroughly enjoy flying R/C on the ridge).
Lake George, I think, is one of the best spots inland to learn how to fly. You have a paddock 30 odd kilometres long to land in so overshooting of missing your landing spot would be a hard task to do. Just south of the main launch you have a ridge 200ft high with no trees no obstacles and plenty of room to try or practise top landings (not that I have made any myself yet J ). To the north the ridge line climbs to 500-600ft which provides very nice lift on the good days. When it is good and I have yet to try this out but you can fly from launch north to collector then south past launch to Bungendore, then back north to launch again. This could amount to a 70+km flight off the one ridge line using only ridge lift! Now I am just dreaming and going on what I have been told but it is easily possible given the right wind direction on the day.
So I have waffled on for a bit now and will finish with a few views on ways in which I believe, you can make your early hang gliding days easy, safe and enjoyable –
No1.
Have a car that carries a few gliders easily with a strong quick and easy carrying system. (My car has a ladder. It carries one glider and is a pain in the arse. No one wants to mount a rack on the front of it due to airbag issues and it does not have enough clearance underneath to get up all launch sites. I am currently looking at getting a new car!)
No2.
Get to know the local pilots as soon as you can. Get their mobile numbers so you can bug them to come and fly. I am finding that a call to say you are planning on going out will usually entice someone to follow!
No 3.
Have a flexible job. This one is not so important but still a good thing if you have it (“coughs” Trent).
No 4.
Be like Trent, and in the words of Barnsy ‘Have the easterly flu’ on the good flying days.
No 5.
Listen to any advice you are given and improve on your ability and experiences.
No 6.
Most importantly. Have a flexible missus. (Not in the physical sense, but this can also be a positive, hehe).
I hope this may help encourage some people in some way. I know that I have a mate who is keen on the idea of hang gliding and it is only a matter of time until I talk him into getting lessons and becoming airborne.
Happy flying 
