[Gordon]

I darn sure don't have a story like Jim's to tell, but I'm just kind of tickled to find this forum. Old-fogey style I'm scratching my head a lot but figuring out how to use it.
My hang gliding history is maybe "antique" maybe "embarassing", but I first worked really hard trying to fly a Cirrus III (more or less; I sure broke it up a lot). When I finally figured out what a real hang glider was, was about the time the Comet came out. And I had a couple of really great years with that until I broke an arm landing and my wife said Enough!
These days I'm mostly retired and generally somewhere in Arizona, whichever part's not too damn hot or too damn cold. But next time I travel I ought to come see Torrey, at least, for the first time in decades. If I can do it, I'll look you up Bob.
Gordon Jennings

[Bob Kuczewski]

Welcome Gordon!!!!!



I don't think I'd know a Cirrus III from a Comet, but it's great to have you on board here at the US Hawks!!

We're trying to build a national hang gliding association that brings pilots and clubs together in one place. We're also trying to recapture the grass roots movement of hang gliding before it became "institutionalized". So we're all about pilots knowing what's going on in the organization and having direct access to everyone in charge. In other words, we want it to be more an organization of peers than a top down dictatorship. That's why we're basing the new organization on a forum where free speech is valued and encouraged.

Thanks for signing up, and thanks for the great introduction. Please contact me any time if I can be of help!!!

Sincerely,
Bob Kuczewski

[wingspan33]

Hey Gordon,

Around 2004, or so, a friend gave me a very nice, hardly used 1981 or 82 UP Comet. I have it to this day. I even flew it a couple times before buying my (used) 141 WW Fusion SP (2001-2002 vintage) in the fall of 2006. I even remember the Cirrus III by Electra Flyer (see http:< http://www.delta-club-82.com/bible/226- ... cirrus.htm >). I never flew one, . . . but please realize that hang gliders are MUCH better (and SAFER) these days. Yet yourself get reintroduced to the sport (a little training hill time), then buy a new generation glider. You will hardly believe the difference!

I darn sure don't have a story like Jim's to tell, but I'm just kind of tickled to find this forum. Old-fogey style I'm scratching my head a lot but figuring out how to use it.
My hang gliding history is maybe "antique" maybe "embarrassing", but I first worked really hard trying to fly a Cirrus III (more or less; I sure broke it up a lot). When I finally figured out what a real hang glider was, was about the time the Comet came out. And I had a couple of really great years with that until I broke an arm landing and my wife said Enough!
These days I'm mostly retired and generally somewhere in Arizona, whichever part's not too damn hot or too damn cold. But next time I travel I ought to come see Torrey, at least, for the first time in decades. If I can do it, I'll look you up Bob.
Gordon Jennings

[AirNut]

Gordon, would you consider making a comeback?

I'm 65 and made a comeback 2 years ago after a 22-year break from flying. It was like getting back on a bike - a bit nerve-wracking, but everything came back as if I'd never left (except for landings...those skills had definitely gone off the boil ). But I've just adjusted to what I can now cope with. I fly a Falcon 4 (no DS rocketships for these old bones) and pretty much fly only on the coast, where I can just step into the air and land next to the car.

And as wingspan33 says, the big thing I noticed was the improvement in equipment and training. Oh yes, and all the nylon pylons now infesting the sky. Can't have everything I suppose!

Hang gliding is just as wonderful as it ever was. Don't let life pass you by...you only get one of them.

As somebody once said about curing mid-life crisis (or in my case, late-life crisis): "think back to when you were young and what you did that was fun...and then do that again".

[Bob Kuczewski]

Great Avatar AirNut!!

AirNut_1375.jpg (19.67 KiB) Viewed 5797 times

Can you share the story behind it?

[AirNut]

Great Avatar AirNut!!

AirNut_1375.jpg

Can you share the story behind it?

Sure Bob. There actually is a bit of a story (not too much, but a bit!).

I started flying in '76 but gave it away in 1990 (the usual story: family, business, and the other usual suspects). 22 years went by, and not a week passed that I didn't think or dream about hang gliding. As I mentioned on one of the other threads, there's an old saying about how to cure mid-life crisis (or late-life crisis in my case): "Think back to what you did that was fun in your days of youth...and do that again". Or, to put it another way: you're not getting out of here alive, so you might as well be flying!

So in 2012 I took that advice and tooled up with all the gear and started from scratch via a training course with Curt Warren here in Oz. My avatar image was from my come-back first high flight at Stanwell (hence the big fat wheels and apron harness). After about the first two minutes, it felt like I'd never left (apart from VERY rusty landing skills). Perhaps being a tad dramatic, but it really was like being born again.

So to all those lapsed pilots out there, if there's still even a small twitch in the old flying nerve, scratch it while you still can! I'm 65 now, with old bones, bad back, bad neck (i.e. the usual old fart stuff), but still getting a huge buzz out of hang gliding. You just need to adapt your flying to your stage in life and get on with it!

[Bill Cummings]

AirNut,
Quote:
“I'm 65 now, with old bones, bad back, bad neck (i.e. the usual old fart stuff), but still getting a huge buzz out of hang gliding. You just need to adapt your flying to your stage in life and get on with it”

I could have written that. I’ll be 66 in February.
I don’t use crutches except at this lap top podium to give my back a break.
(sitting raises Hades with my lower back.)

I just cut two 2X4X15-½” shims yesterday to raise it so that I could lean both arms on the podium so that I don’t have to crank my neck while on the laptop.

My RGSA club does all my heavy lifting and if not for them I would have to give up hang gliding.

I made a, “bungee head,” to support the weight of my head while flying prone.
I use a, “ back, belly band.” while prone so that I can fly longer than one hour.

I went from 145 and 147 sq’ of sail to 155 sq’ of sail so I could land easier at most of our LZ’s @ 4,450’ MSL. Density altitude here in the summer is 7,000’ MSL.
You’re right. I did have to adapt my flying to my stage in life to get on with it.

I invented a back support strap to keep most of my weight off of my L-3 (lower back) while sitting in a vehicle.

I also got out the sewing machine and made a neck traction device that I hang from in the garage to get my neck back in line. (snap crackle pop.)
I call this the UNusual old fart stuff.

I think when the time comes I will easily be able to figure out how to hang an
I.V. bag from the hang strap. Maybe even tape the paddles to my chest in anticipation of my second heart attack. I had my first attack over the Las Cruces International Airport on April 2000 during a HG flight. They put a stint (stent?) in.

I welcome any cartoonist to draw up a Bill C. medically equipped hang gliding rig. It may require 220 sq. feet of sail to get it all off the ramp.

[AirNut]

Bill,
Similar to you, I can only stand about an hour in prone. I've been thinking about the supine (old farts) option. I know of at least one guy here in Oz who's done that very successfully. I'm seriously considering it!

And on the old age / hang gliding thing generally, I'm considerably encouraged by the case of "Old Bill" in our Stanwell club over here...he was still flying into his late eighties!

[SamKellner]

You just need to adapt your flying to your stage in life and get on with it!

So, now that we have lived most of our lives, we should learn to loop.

[AirNut]

You just need to adapt your flying to your stage in life and get on with it!

So, now that we have lived most of our lives, we should learn to loop.

Increasingly (as we get older) we have less to lose!

But old age does have an advantage. I was looking into fatality stats once (as you do), for hang gliding as well as other sports. A bit of a macabre topic, but here's the good news for the old fart brigade. At 65 (like me), your chance of dying from any cause in one year is about 1 in 80. Your chance of being killed hang gliding in one year is about 1 in 1,000 (from all of the best evidence). So you're 12 times more likely to drop dead from some other cause than a hang glider crash, so why worry about hang gliding?

In other words, start looping!