[Eteamjack]

Along time ago there was a Wrigley Gum TV commercial with hanggliding as the theme. This perked my interest. One weekend on our way home from San Diego the wife and I viewed two aircraft out over the ocean near Laguna Beach. We parked and walked out to the cliff and watched two pilots soaring in the sunset. This was something I had to do. I got the yellow pages out and found Lake Elsinore Hanggliding. This was 1979. I had tried Sky Diving and it had proven
to be a hit and miss activity. Each weekend I went home with horror stories of near misses and close calls either by me or those around me. I have loads of stories and only made 10 jumps. Mike and Katie Miller were the proprietors of LEH. I began my training in Sept, not a good time at this venue. We were having typical 100 +degree weather on the training hill. Back then no radios and no tandem flights. Just lots of takeoff and landings. Carrying the wing up the 100ft training hill was extremely demanding. There was a girl training with me who's father was a 60 yr old pilot. He would jog the wing up the hill. I was in very good shape and could barely make it up the third go around. Mike my instructor was well
known in the HG community. I liked him the only problem I had was he was
totally into making money and not providing the instruction he had been paid for. If he had to make a choice between going to Wills to make a pickup or providing your scheduled lesson, you were the loser. No headsup, just excuses as why he couldn't take you to the hill. This was very disheartening as it was a long drive out there. I made one mistake during training that sent him off and he pushed me back a couple of months. Eventually in April of the following year it was time to solo off the Edwards launch. There were two of us this day. A young kid (Star Pupil) and myself. He went first and made what looked to be a smooth and uneventful flight to the LZ. I went second and soon after launch began to hyper ventilate. Told myself this was not good and I needed to settle down. Couple of minutes later I was high over the LZ and heading towards the Lake. My thoughts, this is not good. I can't continue to fly straight, I need to make a 360. Having never made a turn of any kind and reading and listening to how 360's could kill ya, I decided to make my first turn. After completing it with no scary occurences I did another and another. Now I was getting low enough
to setup the landing. Never even checked the flag. I knew it generally blew up until noon and all I had to do was land towards the Lake. Fortunately for me
that was right. Made a nice smooth floaty landing. I was totally exhilarated.
Started looking for the other student and found he had landed in the Olive trees. Mike spent the rest of the morning recovering his glider from the
tree. From this point I was pretty much on my own and the only time Mike
had time for me was when I had my wallet out. Most of the Do's and Don'ts I learned from fellow Eteamers. What a Great Experience this has been.
I thank Mike for showing me the way and I'm really glad I never gave up.

[Tom M]

Jack, your story brought back memories of my early lessons and how unprofessional they were. Around 1978 I took a lesson from a famous pilot down in San Diego. Old timers will know who he is, he was famous for flying with a dog named Cookie. On the phone he assured me how the lessons would be totally focused on safety and professionalism. We were told to meet at the shop at 9:00am sharp. My buddies and I drove from Riverside and arrived promptly on time. The instructor was 2 hours late. Then he announced he had forgotten some equipment and we should follow him to his house. The way he was driving should have been the tip off. Constantly weaving all over the road and making illegal turns. When we arrived at his house it looked like the home of the 24 hour party. I think about 2 rock bands lived there. We then proceeded to the little black training hill. Gliders were hastily set up and a 15 minute ground school was done. I was the first to attempt flight. I had read the dangers of having the nose too high and was determined not to stall on launch. I made it a point to really keep that nose low and run fast. You can probably guess what happened. I never pushed out (He never mentioned it). Soon I was running at full speed with a 50 pound glider on my back that had no intention of flying. I fell and swung through the control frame and my head broke the keel in half. I was lucky not to be injured. Here's the shocking part. He pushed and pulled the broken keel back into position and announced the glider airworthy. The other students flew it for the rest of the day. After that experience I bought a used glider and taught myself and I was much safer. Shortly after I moved into sailplanes and have flown them for the last 30 years. I am thinking about giving hang gliding another try. I have heard that Rob McKenzie at Crestline is slightly less crazy!
Tom M

[Spark]

Jack, thanks for sharing that story.

kinda like you, the first time I saw a hang glider ('74) I knew what I had to do next. A couple years later I was permanently hooked.

I hope your back is getting better.

[lostgriz]

Thanks for sharing that.

[HangDog]

Link




Link

[Spark]

HangDog ... wow

thanks.

I liked the second (non-crash) one better.

[HangDog]

Yeah I know, I don't know why they did a crash scene on that one but I just ignore the crash part

[Avnav8r]

Hey,

The second one is actually the original Wrigley's commercial. I had never seen the first one until now.

John Stokes