Posts from — December 2009

On Dec 17, 1903, Orville Wright launched what would be the first airplane flight from Kitty Hawk in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He flew 120 feet in 12 seconds while his brother, Wilber, ran along below, shouting encouragement.

Over 100 years later, I launched my first ever hang glider flight from a sand dune not far from Oroville’s launch site. Kitty Hawk Kite employees Dave Rosner and Zack Woodall ran below me, shouting encouragement. I traveled only about 100 feet in about 20 seconds before landing in the soft sand below, and my flight had no historical significance whatsoever. But it was a exhilarating, nonetheless. 

The steady winds and soft sands that attracted the Wright brothers to the Outer Banks for their aeronautical experiments still draw those who are tantalized by sensation of flight. In addition to low altitude hang gliding lessons at Jockey Ridge State Park, the Outer Banks (OBX to the natives) boasts high altitude tandem hang gliding flights, parasailing, kite boarding,

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and sightseeing tours in small planes (an excellent way to truly comprehend the fragility if this narrow spit of land between the coast of North Carolina and the Atlantic). 

The Wright Brothers Monument stands high above the Visitor’s Center on Kill Devil Hill, a 90-foot sand dune that has been stabilized (to keep it from shifting under the monument) with grass, but the Wright brothers actually launched from the flat ground below the dune. “If they launched from up there, it wouldn’t have been the first powered flight. It would have been more of a controlled glide,” says Darrel Collins, the US Park Service Historical at the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

If you’ll settle for a controlled glide, head over to Jockey’s Ridge State Park. It’s the largest sand dune on the East Coast, and the launch site for Kitty Hawk Kites, the largest hang gliding school in the world. Nearly 10,000 students manage to get airborne here every year. 

There’s good reason for its popularity. If you weigh between 85 lbs. and 225 lbs. and can run about ten yards, you can hang glide.  ”Dune gliding” is much less frightening than “mountain gliding”—once you get past the multiple references to death and dismemberment in the obligatory training video and release forms. You are rarely more than 10 or 15 feet off the soft dunes, and your instructors follow, shouting instructions. Worst case scenario: you land on your face and get sand in your teeth. In fact, I never did land on my feet, but the sand was forgiving, and the views were breathtaking.

The rules are simple: relax, breathe, look straight ahead (looking down at the ground will only take you there faster than you might prefer), run until the wind lifts you up without jumping, and have fun.

I repeated that mantra-”relax, don’t look down, have fun”—with touch of apprehension as we walked to the top of the dune, Zack carrying my glider. I strapped on my helmet and did a hang check to make sure that I was attached properly to the glider. Dave double checked to make sure I was really attached properly. And when the wind was just right, they gave me the signal and I stood, pulled the bar in toward my stomach as directed, and ran. My bare feet left the sand, for a moment it seemed as though I was dangling in the air, and then I was flying.

In my euphoria, I barely heard the directions Dave was shouting below—I was busy living out my flight fantasies. The dunes seemed to stretch forever, the Atlantic shimmered on the horizon, and the wind felt soft and caressing. Luckily Dave was accustomed to trying to break through the “this is what it feels like to be a bird” daze, and eventually I heard him shout “flare”-the directions for  pushing the bar straight out ahead of you to land. And all too soon, it was over.  I was too excited to wait for Zack to carry my glider-I was on my way back up the dune to try it again.