
DATE: Sunday, May 4, 1997                   TAG: 9705020261

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: NAGS HEAD                         LENGTH:  224 lines

UP, UP AND AWAY! THE SKY'S NO LIMIT FOR OUTER BANKS HANG GLIDERS

WHEN HE was 7, Andy Torrington jumped off the roof of his parents' garage flapping an umbrella overhead.

He thought he could fly.

Fifteen years later, he did.

``I flew with an American bald eagle in Woodstock, Va., a couple of years ago. He flew right up to me off my right wingtip while I was soaring. Kind of frowned that eagle-looking frown, with his brows furrowed in the middle. He was just checking me out, floating around with me up there in the thermals. I don't know if he wanted to eat me - or mate with me,'' Torrington says, five years after his feet first left the ground.

``But that time with the eagle was the best reward I've gotten gliding.''

Torrington straps on his wings most mornings. He teaches flying for a living. As one of six full-time flight instructors at Kitty Hawk Kites, he helps hundreds of people soar the skies.

The world's largest - and oldest - hang gliding school, Kitty Hawk Kites is hosting the 25th Hang Gliding Spectacular May 9 through 12. Events include competitions, seminars and demonstrations on the Outer Banks. A public flight expo and the United States Hang Gliding Association's National Fly-In will take off at the Currituck airport.

But the main reason Torrington and other fliers flock to the Outer Banks is to wing it.

The same soft sands, strong winds and variable air currents that attracted Wilbur and Orville Wright to the area nearly 100 years ago continue to entice would-be fliers to the Outer Banks. The Wrights first flew homemade gliders off Kill Devil Hill just after the turn of the century. In 1903, they successfully completed the world's first powered flight from in front of the same site.

Hang glider pilots, however, believe the bicycle mechanic brothers had it right the first time: Flight should be quiet and elegant - free from engines, they say.

``The great thing about this is that you're open, you're right out there in the air. It's quiet and natural - not like the noise of an airplane,'' Hans Heikel said. A 46-year-old vacationer from Burlington, Vt., Heikel took his first flying lessons last week under Torrington's tuteledge, on Jockey's Ridge in Nags Head. He soared over the sand about 7 miles south of where the Wright brothers first took off. He said he can't wait to get high again.

``I'd like a little more altitude next time. My appetite's just gotten wet,'' Heikel said, unstrapping his red plastic helmet as he climbed from between the glider's wide wings. Heikel flew five times during the three-hour class. He covered about 30 yards each flight and was airborne for only two minutes. He seldom soared above Torrington's shoulder. But he's anxious to surf the skies again.

``That certainly was a rush,'' Heikel sighed, looking skyward. ``I can see how people get addicted.''

Solo flight is not just for the birds.

HUMANS HAVE HANKERED to fly since they watched the first winged creatures soar overhead.

Ancient Greeks wrote of Icharus who fashioned wings from feathers and flew so high he scorched them on the sun. Leonard Da Vinci drew airplanes more than three centuries ago. In the 1800s, Octave Chanute and Otto Lilienthal first flew primitive gliders. Other early pioneering pilots died trying to help hang gliding get off the ground. And the Wrights, of course, got their start beneath unpowered wings around 1900.

It wasn't until NASA scientist Francis Rogallo invented the flexible wing in 1948, however, that pure human flight became physics-ly possible.

Hang gliding didn't fly as a sport until the early 1970s.

Today, Rogallo and his wife live on the Outer Banks. Even at age 85, he still flies his glider above the sand sometimes.

And a quarter-million people have gotten their wings on the Outer Banks since Kitty Hawk Kites started offering lessons off the dunes in 1974. Students from age 8 to 83 have strapped themselves into harnesses and set themselves airborne. Others have hooked onto an instructor and taken tandem flights.

Whatever form they choose, pilots seem to agree: Hang gliding is not a daredevil sport. It's a sport for people who love to fly without any assistance other than wings and wind.

``I was kind of nervous about flying at first. I didn't really want to feel that out of control. But as soon as my feet lifted off the ground, this calm came over me,'' Chris Widener said last week - 10 days after his first flight. Widener, 20, is learning to fly in Kitty Hawk Kites' hang glider instructor program. ``You learn to work with the wind. It's soothing. It really relaxes you,'' Widener said. ``You sort of get in the zone. Everything melts away but you and the glider.''

Marshall Pugh agreed. A 37-year-old Kill Devil Hills carpenter, Pugh first flew five years ago. Two buddies disappeared from a job site on the beach one day, he said. A half-hour later, they reappeared overhead in hang gliders. ``I knew then that I wanted to fly, too,'' said Pugh.

The simplest and least expensive form of flight - yet many say the most exciting and graceful - hang gliding gives pilots a bird's eye view of the earth. Unlike hot air balloons and parachutes, gliders allow people to remain horizontal, facing the ground like birds in flight, traveling more than 20 miles an hour. And the sky's no limit for hang gliders.

First-time fliers sometimes get as high as 20 feet above Jockey's Ridge. Tandem flight pilots can carry passengers to 1,000 feet. Torrington has flown 7,000 feet above California - more than a mile off the ground. And the world record is 20,000 feet. When they're flying more than 10,000 feet above the earth, hang gliders - like airplane pilots - have to carry oxygen.

Lengths of flights vary, too. Early attempts seldom last more than a few minutes. But some hang gliders can soar along the seashore for four hours. The world record holder traveled 300 miles in a single flight.

Most hang gliders fly for fun. But some professional pilots help perform rescues in areas inaccessible except by glider. Colington Island resident G.W. Meadows gets paid to fly in films and goes around the globe with his gliders.

Like many recreational pilots, however, Pugh only flies sporadically. It costs about $4,000 to buy the glider, helmet and harness. Add another $500 for enough instruction to soar solo. Initial lessons cost $69 on the Outer Banks. But trips to high hang gliding destinations that advanced pilots prefer can cost thousands of dollars.

Pugh and his pals prefer surfing safaris - lower budget camping excursions to Mexico and Central America that allow them to hang glide and Hang 10. ``If I don't get in the air every couple of months, I miss it. I gotta get back up there,'' Pugh said. ``It's an escape. It's a complete rush.

``Surfing the skies, like surfing the waves, is an adrenaline-type sport. You're working with nature. It gets you totally absorbed.

``I don't think everyone would want to fly off mountains,'' Pugh said. ``But everyone should get the thrill of taking a tandem hang gliding flight at least once. It's the only chance you'll get to really fly.''

PERSUADED BY PUGH AND OTHER PILOTS, I signed up for a hang gliding lesson last week. Two men and I took Torrington's afternoon class. But first we had to get past the fear of filling out the consent form.

``I acknowledge that hang gliding is an action sport ... subject to mishap and even injury to participants,'' the four-page form asked me to initial. ``I understand I may suffer a broken limb, paralysis or fatal injury while participating in the sport of hang gliding.''

Answering my terrified query, ``Do I have to sign my life away?,'' Torrington assured me that I did if I wanted to fly. Hang gliding - like most adventures - is relatively safe if students follow instructions, he said. It gets a bad rap as an extreme sport.

On the Outer Banks, he sees an average of four accidents annually.

``The most serious I know of is a broken limb,'' he said. ``The most common injuries are pulled hamstrings from people who aren't used to running. They get going too fast trying to launch.''

After watching a 30-minute movie about how to fly, we got helmets and harnesses and headed across the highway to Jockey's Ridge State Park. We set orange flags and cones in a square, marking off a flight path. Then we learned hang gliding's two most important lessons:

Hold on lightly, although you'll want to grip the bar before you.

Keep your eyes on a flight target, although you'll want to look down.

``You'll be flying a Falcon trainer. A single-surface glider,'' Torrington told us, gently setting the hot pink and sky blue wings on the sand. ``Your weight is suspended beneath these black loops. Your body is a pendulum, perfectly balanced between the wings. If you want to speed up, pull the bar in slightly. If you want to slow down or land, push it out slowly. Now one of you come on in here and let's strap you in.''

Wearing a nylon harness that resembles a backward life jacket, I found the black straps behind me and the silver caribeaner clamp that holds them together. Much like mountain climbing equipment, it locks the harness into the glider, suspending the pilot's weight beneath the wings. I lay on my stomach in the sand and stretched my neck over my shoulder to make sure the lines were untangled - and tight.

The glider weighs about 45 pounds. The wings are 30 feet wide. Torrington calls them sails - and says they contain 170 square feet of fabric.

``Walk, jog or run off the hill. The more speed you get, the easier it is to take off,'' he said. ``Just keep running until your feet leave the ground.''

I didn't have to go far.

Torrington had barely stopped talking before I realized I was no longer upright. Wind filled my wings. My shoulders opened outwards. The aluminum bar that had been in front of my chest now was below it. My feet flapped loosely behind as I floated, weightless, horizontal.

I was flying.

Torrington never let go of the wires as I soared for a few seconds beside his head. He called out encouragement - and turning instructions. And I landed on my feet four out of five flights, with not even a skinned knee to show for my lofty achievement.

Neither of my classmates graduated with scars or scabs, either. But Dave Blittersdorf, Torrington's other afternoon student, said his hang gliding certificate was the only trophy he had hoped for. He is afraid of heights. So as therapy for his phobia, he took a lesson on his 40th birthday. To his surprise, he loved it.

``My brother is an airplane pilot. My dad flies ultralites. I'm trying to conquer my fear of flying. But I wanted something closer to the ground,'' Blittersdorf said as his wife and kids proudly video taped the event. ``It was great just hanging up there. I was never scared at all. It was so smooth, just floating. There's no fear of falling.''

Primarily a sport of finesse, hang gliding requires minute, intuitive adjustments rather than muscle or game plans. The most strenuous part is running a few feet to launch. Torrington even carries the glider back up to the top of Jockey's Ridge for his students.

``It doesn't take a lot of strength. And you don't have to have a doctorate in physics to figure it out. But there is a lot of chalkboard work that can help you learn to work the winds.

``Hang gliding has come so far in the last 25 years, it's just amazing,'' Torrington said, smiling broadly beneath his long, curly blond bangs as he hoisted the glider on his back, up the sand dune.

``I don't know what the next phase of this sport will be. But I hope it will be flapping so we can take off without climbing hills.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by DREW C. WILSON

Above: Gary Root, 46, of East Calais, Vt., takes off with his newly

bought glider on Friday. ``Every time I go I get the sense I'm

floating. That's the thing I love about it,'' he said. Below:

Instructors from Kitty Hawk Kites help a student take flight.

Hang gliders soar for a Hang Gliding Spectacular in the early 90s.

The world's largest and oldest hang gliding school, Kitty Hawk Kites

is hosting the 25th Hang Gliding Spectacular May 9 through 12.

Events include competitions, seminars and demonstrations on the

Outer Banks. A public flight expo and the United States Hang

Gliding Association's National Fly-In will take off at the Currituck

airport.

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