By hang gliding they soar off the hills

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33609, 10 August 1974, Page 12

By hang gliding they soar off the hills

Looking down from 50ft up the hillside, it seemed far too high. The billowing contraption resting on my shoulders weighed a ton. It was my third attempt and I felt slightly sick in my stomach.

I ran downhill, fast, pushed out on the aluminium trapeze bar, and woosh ... for five glorious seconds I felt that exhilarating lift of being airborne that is making hang gilding the fastest growing sport in Canterbury. My enthusiastic instructor, no less a person than the safety officer of the Canterbury Hang Gliding Club. Mr Perry Fleming, by occupation an air traffic controller, shouted: “Pull!”

This was an instruction to counteract the nearstalling attitude of the glider, but I frantically yanked the bar towards me instead of pulling gently. Up came the ground to meet me and it was all over.

I had ploughed into the hillside, fortunately soft and wet. but I had bent and broken the triangular aluminium frame which supports the pilot. But as I lay beneath the yellow wings, still strapped to the seat, I had two thoughts: One was that I was lucky not to have broken any bones; the other — something of that feeling which grips the real hang glider enthusiast — I wanted to fly again. Low and slow It is recommended, incidentally, that the learner should keep it low and slow, getting the feel of the glider or “kite” and its sensitive controls. It did not make me feel so bad when I watched members of the club later running along the ground into the breeze for practice before their first major flight. . But the sport is so new that for many it is still largely a matter of trial ana error. “We just haven’t got sufficient instructors to go round,” said a club member, Mr George Wood. One reason for the popularity of leaping from the top of hills, rocks, cliffs, and mountainsides, trusting to light man-made wings made of aluminium framing and nvlon cloth, is the relatively low cost. The amount to be spent largely depends on how much of the work of construction the prospective flyer is prepared to do himself. There are many designs, already proven in the United States, and the fascination is that personal flight becomes available to the average man. or boy, or girl, without high material or maintenance costs, instruction, fuel costs, licensing or air pollution. More gliders The Canterbury - club, formed in October last year, already has a membership of 130. There are an estimated 40 gliders flying, and a new one being made every’ week. "I saw a photograph of one in a magazine and wrote away for the plans from the United States,” said Perry Fleming. “A television programme in the middle of building the kite spurred me on.” He said that by making parts and the sail the cost might be as low as about SI 10. A professionallyrnade sail puts the cost up to $2lO, and a commercially manufactured hang glider could cost up to $450. The four most common designs range from a 16ft to a 19ft model — the measurement is from nose to tail. The men who fly these kites maintain they are the closest thing yet to imitating the birds. “It is really exhilarating, a great sport, much to be preferred to powered flying,” said Perry Fleming, who has a pilot's licence. A glider can be folded

up and placed on the roofrack of a car. A short drive from the city to a selected site on the Port Hills — depending on which way the wind is blowing — and the hang glider men are in business. Natural feel “Anyone can learn to fly in a week-end.” Perry said. “It depends on the person just how long he will take. I have seen some take one or two runs on the flat, then go up the hill and have excellent flights.

They seem to have a natural feel for it; and, of course, knowing something about the physics of flying helps too.” Why "hang gliders?” The answer is simply that the pilot is suspended below the wing. The Americans use the term “sky-surfing.” A basic handbook on the sport says: "Hang gliding has been defined as ‘aircraft in which the undercarriage and thp takeoff power are provided solely by the legs of the pilot." Perry said: “Landings with the legs retracted are permitted, but watch out for Tunway rash' in these cases.” A favourite place for the hang glider men of Christchurch — and they range from 14-year-old schoolboys to a doctor, lawyers, a policeman, and a fireman — is Hoon Hay Valley. If the wind is from the south they take off from the top of a steep slope facing south; an easterly means they use the opposite hill. It does not take long to assemble a kite. With the wind speed right (it increases the higher up the

hill one goes) take-off appears to be only a matter of leaping off into space. The flyers explain that all control is achieved through weight shifting. “Just push the body in the direction you want to go,” they say. From the 500 ft Hoon Hay take-off point a flight lasts only a few minutes, but during it the pilots turn and manoeuvre their kites—landing in a paddock at the bottom. Some utter fierce cries of exultation — “Yeeeee — ” — as they swoop out from the rocks at the top. The hang glider men say that beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to finding sites to jump from.

Not all fanners are cooperative when it comes to allowing their hills to be used for this sport. As to the dangers involved, Perry Fleming does not mince words here. “What worries me most is the thought of some structural failure. “It is different from flying an aeroplane. You are committed and all you can do is come down. And if you are stuck over a builtup area with some failure, then you have got to come down in some-one's backyard.” But he pointed out that everyone flew at his own risk, although the club tried to ensure that members carried out the equivalent cf an aircraft safety check before they took off. Perhaps it is the element of risk that adds that spice to hang gliding. The flyers nonchalantly talk of the narrow escapes they

and others have had, like landing between glasshouses, or between the telegraph and power lines on the road in Hoon Hay Valley. “It just means that the club Will have to insist on members flying from a list of approved sites,” said Mr Mike Quaife. First to fly He was the first man in Canterbury to fly a hang glider, and he also has a pilot’s licence for conventional flying. As a journalist for the N.Z.8.C., Mike’s imagination was fired when a TV programme was made of an American, Jeff Jobe,

who flew from Mount Hutt about three years ago. Mike is now well committed. “I figured there would be tremendous interest in New Zealand in these things so I got a bit cheeky and advertised kites,” he said. He has now formed a company, Quaife Aviation, Ltd, and with his father makes kitset and fully made-up hang gliders'at the rate of two a week. He has sold 50 since last Christmas. Some are being exported to Australia. “It is the most sensational form of sport I have ever experienced.” Mike Quaife said. “It leaves skiing for dead. When you are out flying, it gives you the most incredible feeling of freedom.” Freedom or not in the air, the men who go to Hoon Hay Valley — or to most sites for that matter — are faced with trudging all the way to the top of

the hill, carrying their kites, after flying. Most gliders weigh about 401 b. Some models, such as Mr Wood’s “Quicksilver” monoplane type, is considerably heavier, but he claims it has performance superior to other types. Hang gliders fly about 20 miles an hour. If the speed drops too much it will stall and pilot and kite 1 will plummet to the ground. Another hazard is wind. This can flip a kite over. If the pilot is still strapped to it he may be dragged painfully along the ground. Like any other sport, hang gliding has its competitive side. Even on an

ordinary week-end experienced flyers are keeping a close eye on each other’s kites and performances. For the experienced, there is the challenge of looking for air currents that will enable them to soar higher. Some pilots have climbed on currents of air to more than 1000 feet in the United States and have stayed up for more than three hours. One man stayed up for an hour and a quarter over the Port Hills — he was an experienced American.

Summer favoured Summer is the most favoured period of the year for hang gliding. Enthusiasts say that the cliffs along the North Canterbury coast offer plenty of scope for the right kind of lift. “ It goes without saying that with no beach at the bottom in some places, a hang glider pilot has to be experienced before tackling this kind of terrain. A favourite spot for Wellington hang glider men is the steep hill above Paekakariki. When air currents are favourable, the gliders at 3000 ft or more show up on airport radar screens at Rongotai. Regulations With hang gliding here to stay, it is certain that regulations will be issued to control the sport. Already a meeting has. been held with Civil Aviation Division officials concerning limits on altitude,, flight in controlled air spaces, flight over cities and populated areas, cloud flying, and night flying. The hang gliding men consider these to be reasonable areas for control.