After this we headed for the Wright Brothers National Monument. We walked around the museum, took our pictures at the flight sites and went to a presentation on the original 1904 glideplane.
The next thing we did was hang-gliding. You might be thinking ‘Hang-WHAT? Is this the right Marlow Durbin?’. I assure you, the same thoughts were mine when I first heard that Mom had signed us up for lessons. I practically screamed at her 'Do you honestly think that your cautious little son will have even the faintest urge to learn how to jump out of the sky with a little piece of canvas attached to my back?’
Fortunately, she explained to me that the lessons were from the top of a dune, and they the trainer would run alongside you the whole way. This reassured me, well, a little bit…
When we arrived, we were shown an introductory video, explaining the concepts of the control and safety procedures. Soon after we finished, trainers put us into our suits and guided us to the dune. At the dune, the we re-learned the concepts, and then they asked for a first-flight volunteer. I guess I was (foolishly) feeling confident, so I volunteered.
Unsurprisingly, I hooked in with a 360 Degree Grin, nodded through the preflight check and jumped off the edge of the dune. To put it mildly, I made nearly ½ second of airtime, and then plummeted to the ground on the glider’s skid wheels and rolled down the dune. Oh well, there’s always next time.
The second time my luck was better; I made it off the dune without hitting the ground immediately and made it almost to the end of the slope before landing. At least progress is all that matters… right?
After I was done, two extremely nervous Moms and Gretas went down the hill, flew twice as well as I did and came up smiling from ear to ear. Progress-wise, I was essentially the same for the rest of the lesson. When we were done, we got a couple assignments for the Hang-1 certification signed off, and left.
Pictures of me in-flight coming soon!
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