Pilots wear a parachute that could carry both himself and the glider safely to the ground in case of emergency.
#John heiney hang glider license#
Henry said students learn at their own pace it usually takes about three or four lessons to earn a beginner’s license and about 12 to earn a novice license.īecause of the licensing and new features on the gliders, the sport has become much safer than when it first began. Licenses are earned through flight and instruction and are numbered: 1 for beginner, 2 for novice, 3 for intermediate and 4 for the advanced pilot. To fly in San Diego at any national park without an instructor present, an advanced license is required.
“You use the same type of physical strength you’d use in those sports. “You use certain muscles in the body like riding a bicycle, running long distances or swimming,” Henry said. Then they are taken to a training hill where they progress from flat to 30 feet to 100 feet up the hill.
#John heiney hang glider simulator#
When learning to fly, solo students first have a ground lesson and are put on a simulator to get the feel of the glider. The only weight requirement is an upper limit of 300 pounds. Henry said he has had students from ages 6 to 85. Others, however, return for a lesson to fly solo. You get the feel of it first.”īeardslee, who has been an instructor for 16 years and has taken more than 2,500 people hang gliding, said that many tandem students are tourists who just want to try hang gliding once. “It’s like riding in a car before actually learning to drive it. “It’s the best tool for learning,” said Dave Beardslee, tandem instructor at the Torrey Flight Park. After a ground lesson, the student goes up with the instructor for one ride. The first design cost about $325, Bennett said, but now some hang gliders cost just under $4,000.įirst-timers to hang gliding often take tandem lessons. “Hang gliding is on the move with the aid of computers, and California is becoming the aerospace capital of the world,” Bennett said. Moyes has remained his business partner and has a business of the same name in Sydney. Bennett has been manufacturing gliders since 1970 for Delta Wing Kites and Gliders, Inc., of which he is part owner. One of his first test sites was at Torrey Pines Gliderport in La Jolla, now the location of one of his businesses, the Torrey Flight Park. The crowd, assuming it was part of the act, gave rousing applause.įrom then, Bennett began to perfect launching and landing without the aid of a tow. When the rope suddenly broke, Bennett was forced to maneuver and land the glider for the first time without being attached.
They continued to tow the glider behind a boat.Īt the inaugural race at the Ontario Motor Speedway, Bennett, giving a pre-race exhibition, was being towed behind a car. The men found that by using the Rogallo wing they had stability and maneuverability they didn’t have with the kite. The wing, attached to a parachute, was designed for NASA for space re-entry and made of flexible material covered over three tubes spread in a fan shape. The inventors had been towing flat kites on water skis until they read an article in Popular Science magazine about a wing designed by Francis Rogallo. You have a wing and no noise, just you and the birds.” “It’s as close to being a bird as a human can get,” said Joe Bill Henry, manager of the Torrey Flight Park. That was when three men from Sydney, Australia, devised a way for humans to soar like birds, to attain what Greek mythology described in “The Flight of Icarus.” The men, Bill Bennett, John Dickenson and Bill Moyes, invented the hang glider. For centuries, people have fancied flight.īut not until 1960-after the Wright Brothers took off, airplane travel mounted and orbiting the planet became a reality-did man achieve a flight this fancy.
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