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“If you're one of those people always behind the eight ball, taking too many risks – well, hang gliding isn't about that,” said Greg Berger, the only, as far as I know, certified hang glider instructor in Prescott. “It isn't an adrenalin sport.”
If strapping on a wing and throwing yourself off a cliff isn't about adrenaline, then what is hang gliding about? Partially, it's about dreaming. You know when you sleep at night and you sometimes have those dreams where you run with your arms outspread and suddenly you're flying?
“That's something universal with all hang gliding pilots, that flying dream,” Greg said.
Hang gliding is actually quieter than flying a sailplane, according to Greg. You usually hear the wind slipping past your helmet or in the rigging or your harness, and flying fast in a low-performance hang glider can cause the wing material to flap. But hang gliding can also be eerily silent, and you can hear birds, airplanes and even people talking on the ground.
Speed? No adrenaline here, either. Recreational hang gliders do bicycle speeds, around 20 to 30 miles per hour, though you could eventually graduate to an adrenal 70mph high performance glider, and many people do. But speed really only becomes a factor when it's time to land, and less is better.
“You want to be flying at slow speed, slow enough to run or walk, when you hit the ground,” Greg said.
I found that out when I attended one of Greg's classes on the grassland outside Prescott Valley.
After some briefing I strapped on a hang glider, a large-ish Condor model, and Greg hooked me up to a powered cable. I stayed tethered the entire introductory 10-second flight, and I was going way too fast to stay on my feet when I landed. I found myself dangling from the harness with my nose just inches above the ground as the cable pulled the wheeled contraption across the prairie. I didn't think about the ignominy as much as I thought about being dragged helplessly face-first through all that cholla out there, but I came out mostly unscathed and it gave the other students a good laugh.
The nickels and dimes that hang gliding demands is not prohibitive to anyone with a decent job, but it's probably enough to keep only the serious fliers involved. A “recreational” hang glider starts at around ,500, lasts 6-8 years, and holds its resale value well. “Intermediate” and “high performance” gliders add another ,000 to ,500 to that price tag for double the performance. “Competition” models shoot up into the ,000-,000 range, and the resale value after about three months is terrible, declining about 70 percent.
Hang gliding instructor Greg Berger says the hang glider is the last thing you should buy; a good helmet (0) and harness (0-,000) are priorities. Hang gliding lessons, which can take up to a year and a half, costs about ,900. Optional instruments include a radio, GPS unit, altimeter, variometer and oxygen system. A parachute is nice to have, too.Almost unbreakable
Like flying an airplane or scuba diving or even driving your car, hang gliding isn't inherently dangerous, but even a small mistake or bit of complacency could cost you.
“Hang gliding isn't dangerous unless you're a dangerous person,” Greg said. “But it is unforgiving.” Mishaps in hang gliding are typically confined to those who do aerobatics, and it's always a pilot error, not an equipment failure. “Other than that, we really don't have accidents,” Greg said. The last hang glider fatality he can recall was about 15 years ago, when a bolt in a 25-year-old glider broke. Today, pilots carry chest pack parachutes designed to gently float both pilot and unlikely-to-break broken hang glider safely to earth.
The apparent simplicity of hang gliders belies their high-tech nature, which makes them almost, but not quite, virtually unbreakable. According to Greg, many hang gliders designs are tested to +6.5g's and -4.5g's.
“It takes a tremendous amount of force to break a hang glider. You can break 'em in competition or aerobatics, but that's pulling 6g's, and you shouldn't have been doing it,” Greg said. Six g's exceeds the limits of most general aviation aircraft.
“More has changed in hang gliding design in the last 25 years than in all of aviation. In the early years you couldn't even turn them – it was just a straight shot down the hill,” Greg said. “I remember, in 1971 I think it was, being amazed at seeing a guy turning his hang glider. He did it by hooking a leg around a wing cable and pulling.” That “warped” the wing, making it lose lift on one side and causing it to dip and turn. The Wright brothers invented and patented wing warping in nineteen-oh-whatever and their zealous patent enforcement forced Glen Curtiss to invent the aileron. Today the aileron is universal to all airplanes, leaving the Wrights' wing warping an anachronism of history, for good reason.
“That guy in the hang glider didn't come out of the turn too well,” Greg said with a laugh. “He just kept turning all the way into the ground.”
In those early years the glide ratio – the distance you moved forward for every foot of altitude you lost – was around 3:1. Today's recreational hang gliders do much better with a 7:1 ratio, and some specialty types have a glide ratio closer to 20:1.
You control a hang glider with your body. Push the bar out with your arms and you climb, pull in and you dive. Throw your weight (or pull the wing, depending on how you want to look at it) left or right to turn. Staying aloft requires that you find thermals, columns of rising, heated air. Using thermals you can “porpoise” your way cross-country until you've had enough.
A good way to find thermals and updrafts is to launch from Mingus Mountain, which also gives you a head start on altitude. You can do that by joining the hang gliding club, either state or local, and using their launching ramps. These guys sometimes fly all the way to Sedona or Williams. I've gone up there to watch and photograph the hang gliders launch (“Don't call it, 'Jumping off the mountain,'” Greg warned me, rolling his eyes); regardless of Greg's comment about it not being an adrenaline sport, I've heard a lot of these guys scream as they make that no-going-back leap from the vertical cliff.
No tie required
Like any outdoor sport, hang gliding also has its gearhead aspect. We enjoy our sport, whatever it may be, but we also love our cool stuff. And, like other sports, you can go as minimal or as extravagant as you wish – or can afford.
“A lot of us fly without instruments,” Greg said. “Our airspeed indicators are our faces and ears.” Others spend anywhere from $100 to $1,800 for instruments that tell you how high you are (altimeter), how fast you're climbing or descending (variometer) and where you are (GPS). You'll also want a radio that permits you to communicate with airport control towers.
“Other than a helmet and harness, there's no special clothing you need,” Greg said. “Just outdoor clothing and boots, in case you land in cactus - like prepping for a hike, though you're usually more concerned with staying warm than staying cool.”
Get ruined
So, you launched your hang glider from Mingus Mountain and found some great thermals. You've been flying for three hours and you're ready for lunch; you find a good spot and make a beautiful, walking landing. Now what?
You planned ahead, and now you radio your partner to come pick you up. After any talk about solitude and independence and flying free as a bird, the reality is that your partner is as necessary as the hang glider itself, or else you're dragging it home by yourself. While you're waiting you do some disconnecting here & there and collapse your hang glider into a 10” x 15' package. Your partner shows up and helps you tie the package to the rooftop rack, and you both drive off in search of a burger & beer.
Is hang gliding for you? Maybe, but Greg says there actually is a danger involved.
“It'll ruin every other sport you do,” he warns. “It'll really suck you in. Most people have a passion; mine is hang gliding. Price-wise, it's about the same as any other sport you seriously get into, but it's time-expensive. You really need to commit to three flying days per month to stay proficient at it.”
After you fly for a few years, you may find yourself with what Greg calls a “permagrin.” He's definitely got one.
“There's nothing like it; I can't explain it,” he said. “I've flown airplanes, but hang gliding is amazingly free flying, the truest form there is. I can't think of anything more connected, more personal. And it's challenging.”
(Greg Berger owns Venture Flight in Prescott, where he teaches hang gliding and, last I heard, offers a tandem flight for the curious for about $125. For more information call Greg at 308-2409)
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