From the myth of Icarus and the wings his father made for him to the Renaissance flying machine designs of Leonardo da Vinci, human beings have always dreamed of inventing ways to glide through the air. With the hang glider, these ancient dreams have come to fruition. Once considered dangerous, today’s expert instruction has minimized safety concerns of the past. In Los Angeles, where the sport of hang gliding began, there are numerous flight schools on the plentiful hills, mountains and sand dunes just waiting to teach you how to soar.
Do the Dune
- The sand dunes of Dockweiler Beach, adjacent to LAX, provide the perfect spot for first-timers to get their initial instructions in hang gliding. Operated by the 40-year veteran Windsports Hang Gliding, the Dockweiler Beach Hang Gliding Park is a 20-acre facility consisting of 30-foot high sand dune bluffs for launching and a wide, sandy beach to land on. Windsports offers three- to four-hour lessons at the park from Wednesday through Sunday that include pre-flight briefings, demonstrations and seven solo flights. During the first lessons, altitudes are kept at a minimum -- no more than 10 feet off the ground -- but potential pilots learn how to launch, control altitude and speed and how to land.
If Everyone Leapt Off a 3,500-Foot Cliff, Would You?
- For advanced mountain hang gliding, Windsports offers tandem lessons from the top of Kagel Mountain to a landing zone at its Sylmar Flight Park in the neighboring San Fernando Valley. The two- to three-hour lessons include a 45-minute drive to the peak of Kagel Mountain, 20 minutes of setup time where students help assemble their hang glider, 20-minutes of pre-flight briefing followed by 10 to 30 minutes of flying with a qualified instructor. During the descent from the 3,500 feet launch point to the grassy landing strip two miles away, instructors demonstrate basic flight controls while giving students the opportunity to test them out.
10,000 Flights Later...
- Training on low-level hills and tandem flying lessons from higher elevations are offered by the High Adventure Team at the Andy Jackson Airpark in San Bernardino. Started as a husband and wife endeavor in the 1980s, the High Adventure team has since conducted over 10,000 successful tandem training flights. They now offer personalized instruction and tandem flight lessons from the high perches of Crestline’s Marshall Peak to the specially constructed landing zone at Andy Jackson Airpark below.
Soaring Above Santa Barbara
- Students will fly from 50 to 100 feet in the air on their first day of instruction with Fly Away, a Santa Barbara company operating in the coastal foothills 90 miles north of L.A. At Fly Away, students learn basic controls in a simulator and how to run holding onto a hang glider before taking to the air. Many flights follow during the three- to four-hour instruction period. Fly Away provides all the necessary equipment needed for hang gliding. One- to two-hour tandem mountain flight lessons, weather permitting, are also available.
