By Kaz De Lisse
48 years ago, a nervous Californian stood up on a slope about to take his first flight. While flying equipment has since developed enormously, it’s uncanny to think that hundreds of thousands of us have experienced exactly the same emotions as Kaz and the pioneers experienced as their plastic kites and flared trousers flapped in the breeze.
It was frightening, lifting up the kite and feeling the wind fill the sail. Trying the keep the kite into the wind on an even keel. People staring anxiously at me waiting for me to take off. Nervously glancing over the edge of the slope which is only about thirty feet high. It looks more like a thousand feet high. The people down on the beach look like ants. My brain is saying “should I do this crazy thing?” Glancing side to side to see if my wings were horizontal. Trying to think of some excuse to delay the flight. Saying to myself, “What in the hell am I doing? I must be nuts. Why? Why?” My heart is pounding, I can feel my blood racing through my veins. Trying to keep steady, I suck in my stomach, take a deep breath, it’s now or never…. Ready, set, go! Run, run!
I feel the wind lift the kite and my feet are off the ground. Wow! Fantastic! I’m flying through the air! My heart beating even faster. I can’t believe it, incredible! Everything is happening so fast, the wind rushing into my face, my body tense, my mind straining. The sickly, scary feeling in the pit of my stomach. The ground is rushing up to me. “Push, push, not too much. Steady now” I tell myself. The nose of the kite shoots up in the air and I feel my feet touch the ground.
Wow! I had made my first hang gliding flight. It was one of the greatest thrills of my life (one of the other thrills of my life being when I landed on the island of Iwo Jima with the Fourth Marine Division in World War II).
I can remember as a little boy how I would climb up on the garage roof and jump off with an umbrella. There were many nights that I actually dreamt I was flying in the air. Now, here was the real thing! I was actually suspended in the air by nothing but a piece of cloth and a few pieces of aluminium and cable. I will always remember that first flight. Everything was happening so fast that I didn’t have time to remember what I was instructed to do. The only way that I can describe it is that it was like an accident happening. I guess everyone will always remember their first flight.
I have been involved in this sport for only about a year now and I just can’t believe how rapidly it has grown. Would you believe that in a little less than two years we have over 3,600 members in the Southern California Hang Glider Association? One of the rewards of the hang glider movement to me was all of the new friends that I have made and all the good times I have had. I guess we all owe it to Dr Rogallo. Thanks, Doc!
