Year 2

After my my sophmore year of college, I decided to teach again and it was another awesome year. I learned a lot about hang glidin and there were a lot of firsts: soaring the dune and beach, first flight over 45 min (4 hours !!!), Going to Lookout, and topping out over the stack in a Falcon, termalling up to 4975MSL at Lookout and being the only person up that high! It was such a great summer, this movie kinda somes it up. It was made by my roomate and fellow instructor Laser:

Becoming a Hang Glide instuctor = FREE hang gliding!!!

I was hang gliding on vacation one year, when the human resource manager of Kitty Hawk Kites asked me if I would like to work as a hang gliding instructor next summer. And the first word out of my mouth was, ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! So after my freshman year of college, I went down to the Outer Banks to teach hang gliding. It was such a fun summer! One of the greatest benefits of teaching hang gliding was I got FREE tandem and aerotow training. When I wasn't working, I was up at the Currituck County Airport learning to fly. After about 12-15 tandems I was ready to solo! Let me tell you, it was one of the most fun but scariest experiences of my life. Going from a Falcon Tandem to a Falcon 170 was interesting.... I PIOed shit out of that Falcon!!!! For about the first 500ft, I was like riding a wild bronco!!! I was finally able to settle in, and I released at 2000ft. It was so silent, and peaceful. I went right to my staging area as instructed, and played around for a while until it was time for downwind base and final. I didn't land on my feet, and I can't remember much but it was awesome. I went back to the airport every chance I got, and was able to get my hang 2, but left the summer with 9 hours and 15 min of airtime, just 45min and 3 spots short of my hang3.

My first lesson

Ever since I was born, I went to the Outer Banks, NC for vacation When I was about 9 years old my Dad asked if I wanted to try hang gliding, and I said yes!!!!!! Unfortunately, I only weighed 60 pounds and was too light to participate. I was really bummed. At about 14, my dad asked me I wanted to try it again, and again, I said YES!!!!!! So my dad signed me up for a lesson at Jockey's Ridge State Park in Nags Head,NC. First, I had to go through ground school, and I believe it lasted about 30 min. Next, everyone in the lesson got suited up, and we headed out to the dune to do some flying. Dude was my instructor, and he was great It was blowing East at about 10 (or perfect :)) and we flew off the lower part of the main dune..... And it was Awesome!!!!!!!!!! Was able to land 4 out of 5 times on my feet (mostly due to my instructor). Overall it was a great day, and for the next 3 years I would sign up for lessons. Until, I got my Hang 1 at 17.

Welcome

Welcome to the Fly Hanggliders blog! My name is Brian, and I have been hang gliding seriously for about 2.5 years now, but I took my first hang gliding lesson when I was 14. I currently have my H3 and I fly a Wills Wing US 135