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Sky
Surfing Over Hawaii
By W. KNOX RICHARDSON
Though
having never flown himself, fifteenth-century inventor Leonardo da Vinci wrote,
“For once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes
turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you long to return.”
If you merge
the contemporary designs of Leonardo’s gliders and parachutes, you’ll find
the result is the modern paraglider. With its parachute-like, fabric airfoil and
suspended cord harness, by all accounts Leonard foresaw the paraglider, a kind
of ribless kite for carrying people, an enhanced rip-stop nylon canopy wing
combining the sciences of hand gliding, parachuting and ballooning.
You’ve
seen them flying with their colorful canopies, pilots hanging beneath, turning
effortlessly with the winds, climbing, spiraling and landing softly, perfectly
still, on tip toe like a ballet dancer. Flying from Kokohead crater, Makapuu
Point and Waimanalo, and on up the Windward side to Kahana Bay, and over to
Nanakuli near Dillingham Airfield on the North Shore. Today, paragliders are
considered legal aircraft and are regulated in air by the FAA via self-governing
training and member associations and on the ground by the state.
In the early
1980s, the first paraglider pilots were European mountaineers in the French Alps
who wanted a faster and safer way down off the peaks. Within a few years,
paragliders flew on the Windward coast of Oahu. Today with tens of thousands of
pilots worldwide, Oahu boasts of around three-dozen active, certified
paragliders and pilots.
Da Vinci’s
quote from 1484 is like a mantra to paraglider pilots, gracing more than one
tee-shirt at a recent gathering of the Hawaii Paragliding Association (HPA), the
Oahu-based nationally recognized club for paraglider pilots and host to dozens
of adventure travel visitors from around the world.
“It’s
like surfing, though you’re chasing the wind not waves. It’s 21-century
technology meets Greek mythology,” said Pete Michelmore, owner of Gravity
Hawaii, Oahu’s only permanent, full-time paraglider training company. “You
follow the wind, travel the world and fly up and down rugged coastlines. It’s
very much like surfing that way.”
Paragliding
costs less money and offers more payback than most adventure sports like trail
biking, skydiving or scuba – all of which impose some risk to your person. The
returns generally outweigh the known risks – which are minimized with proper
training, equipment and experience, and with a safety-first approach to the
sport.
“The first
flight tells everything," said paraglider master instructor Michelmore, a former
Army paratrooper who took up paragliding 18 years ago. “If they don’t become
addicted to the experience right then, they probably won’t go forward with
training.”
The first
paragliding experience is a ride with an instructor known as a tandem flight.
The instructor – who has hundreds of hours of flying experience and advanced
training — flies a glider that is built for two persons and can handle more
than a 500-pound payload. Here, the passenger is attached to a harness right in
front of the instructor. After a brief introduction and a safety briefing, the
instructor manages the take off and landing, but in the air the student pilot
can take control of the brakes and steer the paraglider getting to experience
soaring in a paraglider first hand.
Unlike
skydiving and bungee jumping, there is no big “G” rush that one gets when
jumping out of an airplane or off a cliff. In paragliding, the pilot takes a few
quick steps toward the wind. As the canopy inflates overhead and catches the
breeze, the pilot is gently lifted off the ground and is already flying before
the ground begins to fall away.
“People
ask if flying is scary. I always admit that it is scary for me - it’s a rare
flight when I’m not at least a little scared about something, said Alex Colby,
an Oahu paraglider pilot and president of the HPA. Colby, a software design
engineer by profession, admits he is more fearful that most, but that after time
and training, such fears are reduced to safety concerns one normally controls as
a trained and experienced pilot.
“As to why
people want to fly - I don’t know for certain. For me, flying paragliders was
the fulfillment of a half-baked childhood dream of taking to the air on some
home-made contraption,” Colby said. “I was surprised to discover that flying
was largely about exploring another realm, learning to navigate safely the
powerful and mostly invisible world of air currents and convection and
micrometeorology, thermals and lift and rotor turbulence.”
According to
both Colby and Michelmore, the minimum physical requirements for a new pilot is
the ability to hike an about 15 minutes up a fairly steep path carrying about 40
pounds on your back. Most of the flying on Oahu involves at least some hiking.
New students
find that the most physically demanding part is just learning to control your
canopy on the ground, Colby said. They spend many hours strapped into their gear
on a windy day in the beach park, learning to steer and move around naturally
while keeping the wing overhead.
“The
flying itself isn’t very strenuous at all - launching, flying and landing can
be done by a person in any physical condition,” he said.
Michelmore’s
program includes almost 50 hours of ground training before solo. Ground handling
under canopy is also known as kiting as your feet don’t leave the ground, but
it exposes the student to all types of winds and situations. Typically after
four to five weeks of ground handling, the student is towed into the sky for a
few low-to-ground flights and easily controlled landings.
Students
with some wind-sports experience, such as sailing or wind surfing, often
complete training faster.
“First we
walk, then we dance and finally we run, then it’s time for your first solo
flight,” Michelmore said. First solo flights usually occur near Lanakai where
you launch at the top of a hill, gently following the contour only few feet off
the ground until you land at large field below. After some additional
instruction, you’re signed off as a novice pilot for regular solo flights.
“Upon
completion of our program the student pilot will be able to handle almost any
flying situation they may encounter in their flying career,” Michelmore added.
The total cost for a training program from tandem to first solo is less than
$2,000. A complete rig with all necessary equipment starts at about $1500 for a
serviceable used outfit. New equipment can run up to $5000 or more for custom
and extra large rigs.
A normal
solo flight can last an hour or more, depending upon conditions including the
pilot’s personal comfort. Without an engine and propeller to drive the
aircraft forward and provide wind over the wings, the paraglider uses natural
lift found on the windward side of mountains, and from thermals, rising currents
of air warmed by the heat of the earth. Cross-country flights of 15 to 30 miles
occur with regular frequency.
Oahu
resident Bob Johnson is a local film production executive and recently certified
pilot who has been flying paragliders for about one year.
“Everything
I thought I might like about paragliding has been borne out. The one thing I
hadn’t counted on is haw many new friends I would make in short order,”
Johnson said. “Paragliding pilots come from a broad spectrum, rich and poor,
blue and white collar. As diverse as we are, we all have a strong passion in
common and there is always something to talk about.”
Among the 70
or more certified paragliders residing in Hawaii, pilots’ backgrounds are as
diverse as the local population. Paragliders include airline pilots, former
politicians, leading businessmen, filmmakers, tradesmen, academics, software
engineers, surfers and even a descendent of King Kalakaua. On Oahu there are
about 50 members in the local association, with about 30 of them being active
pilots.
Thanks to
advanced design tools,paraglider technology is as good as any aircraft. Testing
of equipment is rigorous and materials quality is as good as the best boat sails
or parachutes.
“Overall
paragliding is safer than any other extreme sport and 18 times safer than
mountain biking,” Michelmore offered. Of course, no sport is perfect. Tree
landings are generally considered the worst situation one might find themselves
in. Hiking out of the jungle comes in a close second.
“Water
landings are bad because get your cell phone wet and you have clean your
equipment,” he joked. With proper training, equipment, boots and helmets, the
sport is much safer than any other free flight sport, such as hang gliding or
skydiving.
Many
paragliders on Oahu are afternoon pilots who — like surfers heading to the
beach after work — find themselves flying late into the day..
“Surfing is crowded with
sometimes 40 or 50 other wave riders out there, often bickering and all vying
for the same waves,” Michelmore said. “The sky just doesn’t get that
busy.”
ONLINE
RESOURCES
Hawaii Paragliding
Association
Online Videos
http://www.seatoskyproductions.com/onlinevideos.html
US Hang Gliding (and
Paragliding) Association
Tandem Flights &
Training
(808) 479-0395
http://gravityhawaii.com/lesson_packages.htm
Paragliding Archive
