Why I Never Tried Hang Gliding

[The Red Baron]

Most insane ride in a hang glider I've ever seen....link

[Dave Homewood]

Yikes. That's nasty. If the guy survived he'd have been a bit motion sick after that one.

A distant cousin of mine died hang gliding. Another more close cousin was a NZ representative in the sport.

[The Red Baron]

A guy I know had a mid air collision in one,used the parachute to save himself and got a Caterpillar Club badge and a broken leg out of it.

[lumpy]

There is a reasonably well known video taken at Woodbourne in the early eighties ( by a friends father ) , of a guy trying to tow launch a hang glider with a car ( it does actually work ) . It seems that they need two lines attached to the glider - one at the very front ,and one to the "A" frame - much like a childs kite , BUT , they have to realease at exactly the same time and his didnt . The glider turned upside down and folded in half , then began to spin like in this video . It was only the spinning that slowed his decent down enough for him to survive ( but you could see his body " bounce " on the ground when he hit ) .
The same friend ( whos father took the video ) was also into hang gliding . I watched him crash into a ridge going quite fast one day( down wind ) . He got lucky , just some rope burn as he went through the rigging wires .

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I did a grand total of four hang-glider flights, back during the cowboy days when the sport was still relatively unregulated. I did two short hops from near the bottom of the hill at Burma Road south of Hastings, then a single flight from the top of the hill. The following day I did a flight from the top of Te Mata Peak out the back of Havelock North. It wasn't a soaring flight, but more a matter of launching, then gliding down to a paddock adjacent to Waimarama Road. That fourth flight scared the crap out of me when I botched up the landing and I never did it again. I did however manage to walk away from all four landings.

On a few occasions, I flew a glider solo ridge-soaring along the top of Te Mata Peak when an easterly was blowing, mixing it with numerous hang-gliders. One really needed to have eyes in the back of one's head, as there were three other gliders soaring that ridge on a couple of those occasions along with 10-12 hang-gliders. The HB Gliding Club used to use Euchre Flat Airstrip alongside Kahuranaki Road about 3½-kilometres south of Te Mata Peak when a good easterly was blowing and they were ridge-soaring Te Mata Peak. However, on a couple of occasions, I got a tow from Bridge Pa Aerodrome to the vicinity of Te Mata Peak to go ridge-soaring. On one of those occasions, the wind suddenly dropped and I was unable to get over the ridge to glide back to Bridge Pa, so put out a hurried radio call for the tow plane to come and get me before I lost altitude below the ridge and headed for Euchre Flat Airstrip. On that occasion I discovered a cricket match in progress on the runway at Euchre Flat (it was a picnic ground as well as an airstrip), so as I joined the circuit, I flew over the runway and yelled out for them to clear the runway as I was about to land. They looked up but didn't move, however I was committed by then, so completed the circuit and on the final approach to the runway, the cricketers finally realised I was about to land and hurriedly pulled out the stumps and vacated the runway, with me landing amongst them. Within about fifteen minutes, the tow plane turned up and towed me out of there.

[suthg]

That's living life on the edge a bit... soaring is, but a loss of lift or wind - changes the edge, have to be able to have alternatives and have the ability to change the plan and make a new decision! Great outcome! Nice story.