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Glider gathering embraces pioneers, instructs novices
by Jason Dietrich
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Old meets new as vintage butterfly, bi-plane and batso gliders shoulder up to their modern cousins made of mylar and carbor fiber. This weekend glider pilots swarmed Dockweiler state beach to celebrate the re-opening of the park after years of struggle by enthusiasts. The site is a ledgendary training ground for glider pilots who came from all over the state to ride the ocean breeze. Photo by Jason Dietrich. |
Nearly 25 years after the first modern hang glider pilot skimmed above the dunes on Dockweiler State Beach, hundreds of glider enthusiasts returned to the scene, to pay homage to the past and to help the next generation of pilots get their wings.
Tommy Jacobsen, for example, had tried to fly a glider before moving to Redondo Beach. The 35-year-old electronics design engineer came from his native Denmark with a few days of instruction under his belt, but only a couple of hours of real airtime.
On the Internet, he found a group of hang gliders in Sylmar, California, who directed him to the Dockweiler site. Jacobsen was pleasantly surprised to find a glider training ground in his own back yard.
"The conditions for flying are very good. You can fly almost every day. It's almost perfect," Jacobsen said.
The recently re-opened Dockweiller hang gliding park is ideal for practicing gliding. Prevailing onshore winds, a gentle slope, and perhaps most importantly, a soft landing give budding pilots a chance to test their wings in a safe environment.
At the festival, veteran flyers stood by to offer their advice. Jim Marty started flying in 1974 but hasn't taken to the air since the early '80s. He came out to the festival to see some old friends and be re-inspired.
"Don't panic, just stay loose and have fun," was the best advice he could give.
"I thought I would be much more nervous, but the site takes the fear out of it," said Matt Winn who drove down from Fresno for the event. "I think I'll be doing it again."
The drive to return to the sky seems to be all that the pilots could talk about after their first flights. Jacobsen was hooked right away. He now heads out to hang gliding hot spots like Sylmar every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. After assembling his brand new orange-and blue-glider at the top of the hill, he soars for as long as two hours. From up in the air, the rest of the world takes on a different perspective.
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A pilot comes in for a soft landing after testing out a vintage design at the Dockweiler State Beach fly in. Photo by Jason Dietrich. |
But flying Dockweiler hasn't always been as easy as driving up, assembling your glider and taking off. In the beginning, enthusiasts made their own flying machines and tested them wherever they could. The beach is credited with being one of the birthplaces of modern hang gliding.
In January 1966 it was the site of Richard Miller's first successful flight in his diamond-shaped Bamboo Butterfly. While he only stayed in the air for seconds, his project worked, and prompted him to try again with better materials and more advanced designs.
Bob Chase's first flight over the dunes was in the '60s and he remembers the gliders that vied for first in the earliest competitions.
"In the early days they mostly didn't make it 100 feet. They were these tail-heavy hang-loose biplanes that we'd launch into the wind. They'd go right up, stall and crash on their tails," Chase said.
Flying at Dockweiler was forbidden from 1986 to 1999. But hang gliding activists, notably Joe Greblo, owner of Windsports hang gliding school, lobbied city officials to bring it back. The activists' dedication paid off. The site is now open for lessons and for open flight five days a week
"This was part of a much bigger project and was really 13 years in the making," said Gregory Woddell, planning specialist for the Department of Beaches and Harbors. "It provides another recreational amenity and as far as I know is the first of its kind. And it gives novice hang gliders a place to safely learn."ER