Darin is an avid hang glider, and a couple weeks ago he invited me to come out and take a look at how they did things at the launch site. Naturally, I brought the camera along. There is a hang gliding site just a couple miles down on Avenue S, quite close to our house, which makes one more time I’ve been glad we moved so close to the mountains. Parking Darin’s ancient Accord on a field at the foot of the hills, we hitched a ride up to the launch site from Steve, a seasoned veteran hang glider with a Dodge Ram more capable of making the final stages of the steep, rocky, dirt road ascent.
With a brisk 20 mph wind at the top, gusting to 35, the group of about 7 pilots and 4 observers and ground crew got to work setting up for the day.
Darin glances up from his work after assembling his glider.
It was crazy watching these guys just step off of a mountain into the air.
Darin dons his helmet and prepares for a final check.
Darin prepares for takeoff… one or two people are necessary to hold the giant wing down while a third holds the control wires in the center so that the pilot can make a final check before takeoff.
And he’s off! Darin takes to the skies as Mike ducks under the wing after letting it go.
I nearly fell off the mountain backwards taking this shot of Darin flying over me across the sun. If you look close there is a rainbow above him.
Another glider pilot prepares to take the leap of faith.
Yet another glider pilot takes off into the sky…
…and grabs some air over Palmdale.
All in all I had a great time. I’ll be sure to go out next time Darin flies, hopefully to get some landing shots too. Hmm… with some work some of these might make good desktop wallpapers.
Post a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.