Big Blue Sky - The history of modern hang gliding - the first extreme sport!
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- čas přidán 10. 05. 2019
- Written, produced and narrated by Bill Liscomb
This story about the history of modern hang gliding is told by the people who made the history. Their interviews are accompanied by rare, never-before-seen vintage film footage and photographs. It was an extraordinary time, and few people experienced the passion, tragedy and joy that was hang gliding in the 1970's.
Featuring: Bob Trampenau, Barry Palmer, Taras Kiceniuk, Dr. Paul MacCready, Joe Faust, Bill Bennett, Dave Kilbourne, Mark Lambie, David Cronk, Tom Peghiny, Chris Wills, Peter Brock, Donnita Hall, Lloyd Licher, Tom Price, Bill Roecker, David Schoffner, Ken de Russy, John Harris and Rich Piccirilli.
Copyright 2008, 2019 William P. Liscomb
*BONUS FOOTAGE AFTER CREDITS! - Sport
Flew from age 30 in 1980 to age 62 in 2012. Best three decades of my life. Nothing compares to that level of freedom.
The best days of my life 1974 to 1977. Flying with Jerry Katz 1977 (I pioneered Cerro gordo) 103 mile record.I broke 14,500 and flew 30 miles.Pioneered Pine Flats (next to Creastline) and flew over to Hesperia Dump. USHGA hang 4 rating #212. Retired in 1977 after controlled crash at cerro gordo in laminar flow on a Cumulus 10 Eipper. 1995 Solo in 124 and 2-33 sailplanes (colorado). Tow certification in U2 wills wing 2013 (florida) just not the same, now retired. Flew with Bob Wills, Chris Wills, Roy Haggard, Pete Brock, George Worthington, Aranbedee brothers and the whole Eipperformance crew. Lucky to be alive today and lost many friends following our dreams! Glad to see so many old faces. Scott Turner living in Santa Marta Colombia. Great job Bill.
I feel blessed to have been part of this. Even though my feet did not get lifted from the Earth until Labor Day 1975 in an 18' Chandell standard at the Warren Dunes, Bridgman Mi. The next Spring I moved to Chattanooga and began soaring. Survived a full luffing side slip in a Sun 3 off Lookout MT that June. In May 1978 I was one of the first 4 to soar Henson Gap Tn in my Sensor 210 (Thank You Bob), and it became my home for the next 18 years. Many of the people in this movie I met, knew and became friends with. My kids grew up thinking everybody had hang gliders flying over their house and pilots from all over the world hanging out all the time. What a wonderful life.
I am 59 years young, still flying ever since the mid 70's. Excellent documentary! Thank you!
Those were magical days. Now at the tender age of 71, I look back to those early days of Hang Gliding, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it all.
I am so glad to have been involved in those early days of hang gliding. Memories of which, I cherish .
Me too
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I’m new but I can’t get enough of it! Been flying this fall season too and was just flying last weekend in 32F at launch :)
Simply the best hang gliding video. I thank those that made it easy for me to love since 1983 ❤
Breathtaking memories! I was a sophomore at Sylmar high school in 1973, writing feature articles for our school paper. At Annie Green Springs, I photographed both Bob and Chris Wills hitting the circle target dead center, with Bob hovering above it before landing straight on it, barefooted!I I met Clark Green and Jeff McBride, 2 of Delta Wing’s instructors. They let me strap in on a swing seat flex wing at the beginner training hill next to where the meet was held. I was immediately enthralled by the sensation of being just 2 feet above the gentle slope! Knowing my parents would never allow it, I forged their signature on the permission slip and took lessons from Clark and Jeff on the “little Sylmar“ hill using my allowance money. Money was tight, but in 1979, I bought a used Phoenix 6B from a classified ad and went to a training hill in Simi Valley. I augured my first flight into the hill. Joe Greblo and Paul Vanhoff came running to see if I was OK. After seeing I was, Joe handed me his SoCal School Of Hang Gliding (Now Windsports) card and suggested I try them. I put my 6B on consignment with them and bought a sparking new Phoenix 6D! I resumed training and made it to a Hang 3, flying Kagel, Crestline, Carpenteria, Parker Mtn. and more! Had a near death accident at Kagel, which I allowed to shut me down, regrettably. I’m 62 now and flying Private Pilot but still miss the passion of those early days of pure, natural flight! Thank you so, so much for posting this film! I was in that large crowd at the landing site of the Annie Green Springs Meet, and it brought back such wonderful memories!
thank you Bill !! I'm 70 now and still flying , it's been my passion for over 43 years . Great memories .
I started hang gliding in 3/75. This film, to me, wonderfully reflects what the progression of the sport was through those years. I'm still flying hang gliders ( @ 72) and hopefully can continue :-) ...I think my basic survival has been a result of JUST being a bit behind the leading edge of actually test flying brand new ideas, particularly in the early years. Through the sport, I have met and relish SO many people, it has given me comfort for 2/3 of my life. Can't beat that....John Sillero
So glad to have discovered your beautiful film. I started making gliders for Bill Bennett shortly after the 1973 Sylmar event.
It was just four of us fabricating and assembling standard rogallos' in a rented garage in Van Nuys. Bill soon moved his operation
to a larger facility and hired Dick Boone as design engineer. It was at this point the Phoenix series of gliders emerged with improved
glide ratios. The sport took off.........
I flew a prototype and a Phoenix 6. Glorious Days indeed.
So nice to see and hear " Uncle Bill " one more time, he will always have a warm spot in my heart.
Thank you.
Who made a 'Kestrel' I used to own one of those. I never had any information on it.
@@cluelessbeekeeping1322 Tom Peghiny, Flight Designs made the Kestrel mid to late '70's, www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/profiles-in-vision-tom-peghiny/#.Xla72ZNKiF0
Bog Rog ,, oh ive not heard that term in manys a year .
I was there in the early days, 1972 - 1976. Bill Liscomb did a fine job of capturing the essence of the era. It was such fun to see again people I knew or met at the various meets. My memories of hang gliding include flying an assortment of rogallo wings and also the Icarus V. Not all memories are good, though. I had several friends killed flying and I broke my back, something that plagues me to this very day. I stopped flying in 1976 when my friend Steve Anderson was killed and I had to finally admit the sport really wasn't safe and was very unforgiving of mistakes. But the memories of flying places like Sylmar, Escape Country, Torrey Pines, Yosemite, and others are held dear by me.
I am getting too old to consider starting the sport. But these videos transport me there anyway.
Oh, such wonderful memories. Thank you, Bill.
Thanks Bill Liscomb! This was like Time Travel, back to my youth! I grew up waterskiing on Lake Sammamish, in Washington and got sucked in to the addiction of free flight by observing Jeff Jobe, flying behind a boat on the lake, and on snow skis in the mountains at ski areas. Ironically, I had climbed on the very hills of your 1973 Lilienthal fly-in in 1968 over Christmas time because my cousins, the Turners, had recently moved into a new home on Bayside Drive, on the other side of MacArthur Blvd.
In 1976 the USHGA CHAMPIONSHIP was at Dog Mountain in south Washington and I recognize many of the guys in this film from that meet. Bob Wills did have God like status, even in those days.
My friend Jeff Larsen started to build wire harness sets for Jobe’s Hang Glider Company. I had built Estes Model Rockets in Summer School and watched the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
We were told that NASA was planning to go to Mars in 1980! We were the Children of Apollo. We really thought anything was possible.
In eighth grade my science class built a Bamboo Batso, and human-towed the lightest kid in the class to a ten foot altitude, back and forth across, and around the football field, at the back of the junior high school!
Then I built my first hang glider in 1974 out of Surplus Boeing 2024-T3 aluminum tubing and 6 mil plastic, from Dave Kilbourne hang glider plans with a King Post: (a major safety innovation of the day) in Low & Slow magazine issues with Joe Faust as editor.
One of Faust’s stories was a Science Fiction story that I never forgot, about a race of genetically-modified birdmen who could self-soar with their own wings, with feathers growing from their own limbs. They were human hang gliders!
There is nothing man has invented that is closer to bird flight than hang gliders, so far. Scientists predicted that human ornithopters were possible inside air-filled domes on the moon, but that still hasn’t happened yet. But it still might happen before 2024.
As a result of the 1971 OPEC OIL EMBARGO an ecological awareness had been born in America’s new generation. Self-Soaring was the coolest thing you could possibly do, and internal combustion engines, and that dirty black goo, oil, and it’s nasty by-product gasoline, were anathema to the young.
Taras Kiceniuk Jr., Paul MacCready and his team (mostly his kids) shocked the world by winning the first KREMER PRIZE for Human Powered Aircraft, with the Gossamer Condor. MacCready imagined a hang glider with three times greater span, that could be flown with 1/3rd horsepower, well within the capability of some elite athletes for a few minutes.
Many supposed expert scientists of the day claimed it was physically impossible, but they did it anyway, by stretching the modern hang glider concept to the limit, with Mylar skins, carbon-fiber tubing, and Spectra kite string!
They broke the Standard Aerodynamic envelope Paradigm. A few years later Bryan Allen flew for over two hours, across the English Channel in a MacCready designed Human Powered Aircraft called the Gossamer Albatross, (probably one of the most efficient flying machines ever built), and one of the greatest individual acts of athleticism accomplished by a human being, with Bryan Allen as pilot AND engine!
Taras was a unique genius that later tried to learn how to communicate with dolphins, while MacCready went on to build the GM-sponsored Sunraycer Solar Car, and the GM IMPACT, the first modern practical mass-produced battery electric vehicles, the forerunner of Elon Musk’s Tesla’s.
The Hang Glider Movement had helped unleash a tech positive “unlimited spirit of innovation” upon HUMANITY. Now Musk is using it to colonize Mars. We will soon be riding autonomous supersonic TESLA e-VTOLS based on modern hang glider technology, possibly as soon as 2025, if high power density batteries are developed as predicted.
Bill, I hope you make a few more of these fantastic movies and include footage of George Worthington and his Mitchell Wing and the long distance cross-country flight records in California’s White-Inyo Mountain range, before his death.
And add Roy Haggard’s later breakthrough developments at Vertigo Inc. R&D firm, in inflatable spacecraft habitation modules, and inflatable Moon Bases.
And the 400 mile cross country distance record flights across Texas. And include the footage of pilots soaring roll clouds from horizon to horizon down in Australia, and the footage of micro-jet powered hang gliders skimming over rivers so low and FAST, the pilot is dipping his toe in the waters!
What will these crazy hang glider pilots think of next? Someone is going to fly a hang glider from Olympus Mons one day, on Mars!
But maybe someday, my dream will surpass all these dreams: I used to dream about a Human Powered Spacecraft that could fly me all they into Low Earth Orbit. (It was a Crazy idea, I know, now!)
I used to dream about flying a Human Powered Spacecraft out past the Earth’s Magnetospheric bow-shockwave, and self-soaring, like a hang glider, in the “Solar Wind” going up and over the bow-shockwave Hill & out to the Moon. (Now I know that this bow-shockwave is actually out past the moon already.) The man who taught me that is University of Washington Fusion Scientist, Dr. John Slough. He took my silly dream, and added a big dose of reality to it. He calls it “Plasma Magnet Drive”. www.centauri-dreams.org/2017/12/29/the-plasma-magnet-drive-a-simple-cheap-drive-for-the-solar-system-and-beyond/
Using two relatively simple rotating charged Radio Frequency coils 4 meters in diameter, he “entrains” a ball of Solar Plasma up to 1000 kilometers in diameter in an artificial magnetosphere! Then he uses it like a Spinnaker Sail on a Sailboat to accelerate a Spacecraft (like a crewed SpaceX Starship) up to 40 times faster than any purely chemical rocket has ever gone before, from 10 km/s to 400 km/s, maybe even faster.
This is all good, but for a decade, no one could figure out how to slow it down for Mars Gravity well capture, and in less than a week, it would just go whizzing by Mars and off into deep space without stopping!
Then Jeff Greason postulated using dust particle accelerators on the moons of mars to slow this hot rod down! czcams.com/video/0vVOtrAnIxM/video.html
Then Dr. Robert Zubrin dreamed up what he calls “Dipole-Drive” with two oppositely charged, 1000 meter diameter electric grids, (like chicken wire) to deflect electrons (or protons by reversing grid charges) in the solar wind to speed up, (or slow down), and navigate from side to side, across the solar wind direction. www.centauri-dreams.org/2018/06/29/the-dipole-drive-a-new-concept-for-space-propulsion/
With a few megawatts of power via Infrared Power beaming from Geostationary Solar Power Satellites you end up with a way to get colonists to Mars in less than a week, which eliminates the 26 month period between launch windows, and allows Musk to put a million colonists on Mars in less than a decade! www.markoneill.com/IAC-2019.pdf

This “Solar Wind Drive” opens up the entire Solar System to Colonization, and Billions of Quadrillions of dollars of mineral resources to economic exploitation.
Recently, Jeff Greason has simplified the system even more, by adding internal power generation capability, and calls it “Q-Drive”. www.centauri-dreams.org/2020/03/27/introducing-the-q-drive-a-concept-that-offers-the-possibility-of-interstellar-flight/
And to think, it all started with a Rogallo kite!
And I missed it all..... I can't believe it, how could I have missed it all..... but I'm sitting here at 81 yrs of age and knowing that I missed one of the greatest thrills and experiences I could have ever had...... had I just known about it. And I was in California in the late 60's, in the Bay Area and single and exploring California..... how could I have missed it???????? But I can't remember once seeing hang gliders in all my outings up and down the coast!
Maybe in my next life........
At 16 I started hang-gliding in 1976. Watching this brilliant production brought back so many memories and it was amazing to see so many of my heroes from that time, that I would see in magazines.
Today I fly a SEAT firebombing in Australia, which is a far cry from those fantastic days hang-gliding in New Zealand.
Thank you so much for this. Now I can direct my kids to this and they will get an idea of what their old man was up to back then.
I know for sure those early days helped me understand better the sky I work in.
My respect for those pioneers is total and sincere.
THANK YOU.
Thank you very much Bill. Awesome memories, I recalled buying my first Rigallo in 1978. Always dreamed about flying but grew up in Pretoria, South Africa with very limited access to slopes, I had to wait finishing my Engineering Studies before taking it eventually up permanently. Our personal site was Kaapschehoop, Nelspruit area. We had most amazing times and ended up flying all across South Africa. Had a couple of close escapes but managed to survive by the grace of God. Now retired, still missing this best part of life.
A great film! I was happy I bought my copy in 2008.
Excellent hang gliding documentary.....letting me relive those glory days from the safety of my living room.
Hi there Bill, Great movie, well put together. I had lost track of my Flying buddy, PORK, until after seeing your movie. Looked him up on Facebook and found him. I go way back to the Early and mid 70's. Bob Wills was my best friend. He and his wife Susie came out to Oahu and Bob on his First built SST, Super Swallow tail, and me with my 19 foot Swallowtail on November 4, 1975 proceeded to set the First world distance record there on Oahu. Flew 27.6 miles the entire length of the island of Oahu in 2 hours 4 minutes. What a flight. I know 90% of all the people portrayed in your film and still keep in touch with a lot of them... Again thanks for the movie.
I have watched this film so many tmes on DVD, thank you so much for uploading here wow , its a beautiful movie !! stay flying brothers !!
I also bought this video on disc back around 2010.
I enjoyed your movie. I was a team pilot for Bennett Delta Wing Kites and Gliders from 1976 to 1980. So nice to see so many people I knew at that time and remember their contributions. Especially Rich Piccirilli, who developed the first recovery parachute for hang gliders. Unfortunately, I was about the 3 emergency use of the chute and I am alive today thanks to Rich!!
I was there, 1972 - 1976, and knew or met many of the people interviewed. USHGA Hang 4 rating no. 132. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Excellent video few folks you missed on the east coast Denis Pagen held an out and return record for a good while in a Pliable Moose. Then there was Pete Osborn another east coast guy who had it together in the mud 70's. Then there was Jack Whorl killed in Oregon when he landed in the ocean. I like so many who flew back then got out after the odds got on my nerves, I flew my last in 1995, still have my Comet but at 70 I think its safe to say my flying days are behind me. I will say being at the ground floor of the sport is something I will never regret. Still remember the gut wrenching feeling the day Bob Wills was killed. We were all ten feet tall and bullet back then.
When I was a very young kid I used to build and fly hang gliders. Those were some of the most exciting times of my life! Now, I build experimental unmanned ion propelled aircrafts, once considered impossible.
When I was a young teenager, I saw some human powered aircrafts in a Scientific American magazine. I realized that they wouldn't be practical since they weighed roughly 300 pounds or so , so I drew a pedal powered aircraft on a napkin that would have about a 100 foot wingspan and fly very slowly. It was drawn with hang glider style structural elements so that it could be really lightweight. A few months later Dr. Paul Maccready won the Sikorsky prize for a human powered airplane. He basically used his hang glider experience, since the structure was also largely hang glider like. There is something about hang gliding that changes people, especially if you build your own kites or flying machines.
I built my own hang glider in 1972 in England. It was a similar scene all over the world. My best flights were in New Zealand with a safer design, 10 metre wingspan. I gave up because I could not afford the new parachute after a close call. I had a great 10 years. I also flew sailplane but it wasn't as exciting and independent.
what a piece of art this video is
A masterpiece ! It really covers the love and passion for flying
I saw this for the first time I was a hang glider pilot with a 18' standard Rogallo and flew in the late-70's mostly Warren Dunes Michigan. I remember some of these guys. I flew with the Bunner Brothers Zion Illinois.
Not only a sport, a movement! Flew from Mt. Laguna in So Cal over the Anza Borrego, Sierras, and Crestline…what epic memories
I too feel extremely privileged to have been a part of hang gliding, it defined a large portion of my life. An amazing adventure.
Lovely movie!
Although mostly set in the US, the spirit so well captured from those early days seems to have been the same all over.
(It was in Norway, at least!)
Thanks!
I flew a Ridge Rider in the early 70s after watching someone (Bill Bennett?) demonstrate a boat tow beach take off in Kent England.
We were all amazed at this man and became enthusiasts ourselves.
Just ran into this wonderful video on my phone. I think it was 1970 I knew Bill Bennett from barefoot water skiing. Went from Connecticut to Van Nuys California he took me out to the water put some water ski line out told me to get in this thing put water skis on that looked like trick skis with skegs and the next thing you know I'm looking down at the boat. I was hooked. Flew a hell of a lot better than the old flat kites Cypress Gardens used at one time LOL now at Almost 80 years old my hang glider days are over. Been flying paragliders since the late 80s thanks for posting and bringing back memories.
Thanks Bill for uploading this to CZcams. So many memories. Amazing to see Bill Bennett, a well deserved pioneer. He was in jail a few times promoting the sport. I am so thankful for being one of the lucky ones taken under his "wing". Aviation has been a part of me since birth and Hang Gliding since the first Popular Mechanics Hang Gliding issue. Thanks to the USHGA I was able to cristalice this flying vision.
Thank you for these memories! I live in South Africa where we followed the same hang glider evolution from the “Happy Duck” regallo to copies and variations of ASG21, Dragonfly, and too many more to mention. We were there in the infancy making our own gliders out of conduit and black plastic. We flew the mine dumps for testing, keel scraping in the dirt, but your feet in the air! I was there for the rapid advancements that were being made when your “old” glider was made redundant and hung folded in the garage, never to be used again. You hade to have the latest equipment. Watched the evolution of flying supine to prone, and eventually the prone harness with parachute. We too regulated our flying sites, had training schools and of course competitions. We subscribed to Glider Rider and Hang Glider magazines. Our Tim James was featured in Glider Rider for his epic 40 mile soaring adventure along the Magaliesburg range, which at the time was a world record! We too had good guys, friends and buddies killed. Exactly as you describe it in your film. As we “grew up” and out of our twenties, a lot of hg pilots made the transition to sail planes. I made the first trike flight in my home made machine using an old but stable wing. The final trike was manufactured by Aiden de Gesigny who sold literally hundreds of beautiful machines, gliders and trikes. It was hang gliding “with a volume control”. Now 67 years old, I can only marvel at mates still flying at our age, only now with some of the most fantastic equipment ever developed, not to mention the gopro and garmin systems as standard! I have done many exciting things in my life. Sky Diving, hang gliding, microlighting, sailing, and for the past 14 years, motorcycling. But nothing can beat the thrill of committing flight by running off a hill with your trusty wing!
Brings back great memories when I used to glide. I had an AC5 (yes, it was the good old eighties...) respect, you are all special beautiful and courageous people.
Thanks for posting this very emotive movie. I was involved in the early days of hang gliding in Australia in the mid '70's. My first kite was a second hand rogallo style and my second kite was a Steve Moyes SK1 I think. I learnt at Kurnell sand dunes and also at Port kembla at Hill 60 which was a great intermediate site, then Stanwell Park south of Sydney. So we weren't far behind the US. I remember that it was important to read the landscape and see where the dangerous eddies were, and above, remember to clip in!
I started when I was 12 years old in June of 1972. Living in Montana, I had only magazines and books to connect with the California crowd. My first wing was a standard I designed and built and taught myself and friends to fly. I 'moved up' to a foot launched Quicksilver B. I took out a 7,200 volt powerline landing at dusk in unknown bail-out field, and luckily did not die. I still have been hang gliding continuously and have flown all over the west, have been an instructor and tandem pilot. Since I have become a commercial helicopter pilot and a commercial instrument fixed wing pilot, along with flying ultralights, trikes, paragliders and aerotowing.
Hang gliding is so deeply ingrained in me, I CANNOT look at a hill without considering if it would be a good training hill, or if any place would be a good launch. I have flown through Yosemite falls, had an over 8 hour flight, and been over 15,000'; so cool to look down from the top of a thermal to realize that dot below you is an airplane flying WAY down there, and you with no engine, and nothing but open air between your face and them. The beginning of the film really helped me to remember the early days of ground skimming and how cool it was to be airborne after running down a slope, maybe not for long, but certainly farther than I could jump, and the feeling of gliding. I still have a stack of wings, have a 2-seat trike under construction and own and fly a Varieze.
The things I learned and was taught by hang gliding have stayed with me from mechanical engineering, to meteorology, survival, individuality and resourcefulness have guided me in many ways including as a design engineer career. You cannot not feel special with the beauty you see flying.
Thanks Bill for telling the whole story as a way of introduction of a history that should not be lost to people who would like a window in the span of history of this sport.
Now if only I can have a rich relative leave me enough to buy and ATOS :-)
Flying the Lakeside Event in Invermere, BC 1994 czcams.com/video/pFiC7tqAwGU/video.html
czcams.com/video/0lDRWYZX93c/video.html
Thank you so much Bill. Brings back many memories. Started hang gliding in 69 on a 14 footer with no king post in the trubulant Rocky Mountains. Stopped in 1980 after a vertical luff dive in my Seagull. I still think about those wonderful days fifty years later. This video is perfect in every way. The good and the bad, but more than anything, the feeling of being up there.
Wow, great video, my eyes was first amazed at the age of 12 in 1978, my life was forever changed in a great way from then on.
Everyone that loved "Playground in the Sky" should see this lovely documentary. Really well made and insight in the beginnings of the sport. Thanks Bill, well done.
Thanks for telling the wonderful story. My thanks to these pioneers for the gift of Hang gliding.
hi , thanks,, excellent, ,,, I began flying in 83... when gliders were more stable & reliable... I have had some awesome experiences since.. after leaving off for 10 years , I am getting back into the flying scene again.... with years of experience skill knowledge still in my veins.
I think this is the most enjoyable film on any subject I have ever seen on CZcams.
Is this the mike dunn from clear creek rd carson city?
Great job. I started in 1979 with a UP Condor. Although it was slow, it was safe. Nice to see the history and people involved.
Thanks to Pete Brock for shipping the Condor to me after the dealer took my money and did not pay UP.
I was one of those guys, building a rogallo wing hang glider in my parent's garage with a hacksaw, a drill, and a set of plans, in 1973 while in 10th grade. I actually flew it and survived! I went on to fly many different gliders, getting all the ratings, became a tandem instructor and operated a tandem boat tow operation for several years. I last flew a hang glider in 2015, and one of the photos of my last flight my wife took of me ended up on the cover of Hang Gliding Magazine.
I too lost several good friends to the sport, but I carry with me some incredible memories of joy and beauty which defy description. I have since earned my PPL and am building an aircraft.
GREAT FILM !
Memories, started off with the rogallo and swing seat in 1974, always on a diet to keep around 173 to 175 lbs my glide ratio was about 3 to 1. Replaced the tubes a few times lol the new designs were coming out right left and centre. My Last glider was a Mark 2B Dragonfly with the concord looking nose truncated wing tips with battens.
Work and family life took over, but if I see a glider flying, I always pull over to watch, in my late 60's it all and always will be memories.
This brought back childhood memories. I grew up with a hang glider landing zone in my back yard. Very early memories of going out and meeting the guys when they landed and checking out their gear. Too bad I have an aversion to heights or else I would've gotten bitten by the bug big time. They all fly paragliders now but I still love the sight of them gliding slowly over the house almost every day at sunset. Quite a sight even from the ground. (Mt. Tom, Massachusetts)
that was beautiful, i love finding hidden gem videos like this
You really captured the zeitgeist of the time. The footage of Guts Frisbee helped to do that. I will always cherish my memories of hang gliding in the 70's.
Thanks . Brings many happy memories back for me. Hangliding,para gliding , ultralights . Sighhhh i miss it all so much.
A few great historicals on this sport but this nailed it!
Wow. I've watch this a few times and really enjoyed being taken on the journey of discovery. Thank you.
My older bro "Scooter" was involved in early days of hang gliding. He died in '76 on Maui.
He was doing what he enjoyed. It was an "extremely personal spiritual experience and connection to the Divine"
Between surfing and gliding, he was with God
I still miss you bro!
Tibbe A. Stein / Clifton A Conley / Scooter
I recall watching the hangliders jumping off the Pali on Oahu while I was down on Makapuu Beach in 1976. I wonder If your brother flew there, too.
Thank you for this film. It brought back many memories from flying at the Escape Country, look-out, Edwards,E, Torrey, all over California. The thrill is undeniable, control is me and I did it. There is nothing like it! Through my developed skills of learning the 360 from the Wills brothers and all the pilots, friends I had never been so happy!
Wonderful film.I started my journey into flight in the early 1990s flying hangliders in England. It took me all the way to flying B777s as a captain many years later. Unfortunately the ‘work’ of flying took me away from the pure flight of hangliding, soaring the Cornish cliffs. I loved it.........
I believe it was 1974 or 75, my dad read in the newspaper that someone at 'Sport Kite Inc'. of Santa Ana, Calif. was going to hang glide off the Humanities building at Cal. State Fullerton. Dad took all us 6 kids to see. Dad was so impressed he signed us up for lessons.
They took us out to the slopes of Norco.
We had a Blast!
Thank you Bill for Creating 'Big Blue Sky'.
I'm 66 now and I've learned a lot.
I was 19 or 20 when I was flying.
A great tribute to those who made hanggliding safe for us, the next generation.
I remember most of those names from the 70's, but there was one glaring omission--Bill Moyes. He started flying in 1967 and didn't take long to create many hang gliding world records and competition wins.
The Moyes made great gliders in the 70s I think they were from Australia flew in the Owens valley with they
@@JohnJohnson-ju9bj They still make them, and they are still great! Yes, still from Australia.
The footage of Barry Palmer flying
In 1961 was really amazing, had never seen that before
THANK YOU ALL of you who make it possible for all of us to FLY... Hang Gliders....
I flew from the mid 70's till the late 80's. My last glider was a Up Comet. An old hang gliding buddy and I were on Oahu and neither of us had flown a hang glider in 15 years. We lied about our recent experience and rented gliders and soared Makapu for two hours. I'd flown there several times but my buddy hadn't. His knees were really knocking on the launch box, mine only a little. I'm 78 and still take my old UP Condor to the Oregon coast every few years and soar the dune at Cape Kiwanda for an hour, make sure I can still do it. I got into airplanes in the 90's and have over 2,000 hours in Long EZ's.
This is the generation that had it all,The Golden state ,where your dreams came true.
Great documentary, early handgliding is a freedom we will not get back
Great documentary. I fly paragliders, a friend used to fly hanggliders and had a fatal accident in Austria about 4 years ago. Carsten Z., rest in peace!
It was an amazing time... I'm so sad I missed it...
Bill, super! The triangle control frame was firmly evident in the first decade of the 1900s in sport hang gliding; the film has not be edited to correct some misinformation on the key mechanical subassembly.
An excellent video, thank you for sharing it!
I remember wanting to build a hang glider back in the late 70s, the Hang Loose glider. Then John Moody installed a Mac on his Easy Riser and started the ultralight movement. I bought plans to build the Hovey Wing Ding-II. I ended up flying Benson gyrocopters in the mid-80s. Since the kids have grown and moved on, I'm thinking about getting back into flying of some kind again. Maybe a 1-man drone of some kind.
Excellent video. I have been flying paraglider’s for only about a year and a half, and I fly with some of the old timers that started hang gliding in the early 70’s, some flying paraglider’s now and one at least still flying hang gliders, he lives in Tollhouse and is always the best weather forecast you can get about Tollhouse, definitely knows that site like the back of his hand. I am always grateful to be able to hang out and learn from all the old sky gods.
What a magnificent video!! so cool to learn the history of hang gliding. We owe so much to these pioneers. Thanks to their hard work, creativity and courage, we have fabulous hang gliders and delta wing trikes today.
I wouldn't change a thing - but boy if that Richard Miller interview had happened it would have been great. So close :)
Thanks for posting! Learned HG last year and I’m loving it!
Love this documentary
Oh Wow! That was awesome! Thank you so very much for sharing all that with us.
Will be renewing my wings next summer after a 30+ year layoff. Can't wait to get on some modern equipment.
What a great documentary! Thank you, Bill!
Exstreme sport, we didn't consider it extreme when I flew 40 years ago, just life.
The way we were. Great documentary Bill. Really enjoyed it
Thank you SO MUCH, Bill, for producing this excellent documentary. It brings back to me so many excellent memories of those wonderful days. I too still enjoy flying hang gliders and paragliders.
Thank you for posting this documentary, means a lot for me! Evert
Thank You to all those dedicated individuals, alive or dead, that helped keep me safe in HG. Especially to Len Clemens. Good memories, flying over the Pines at Mingus, circling up alongside the Granite Towers and Whistling over and hopping the Peaks along the Ownes Valley! See you at Final Cloud Base! Hooorha!
What an awesome movie! Thank you :)
Superb - Well done - Lost my amazing father to the sport - Capt. David James (Jim) Taggart MBE - He founded the UK Joint Services Hang Gliding Center in Wales. Me and brother both fly class 5 HG's and paragliders - These amazing sports evolve and my latest love is flying hydrofoils with kites about 50-75cm above the water going nearly 3x the speed of the wind. Feel blessed to have learned this and hung with so many amazing people :-) Thanks again - Really enjoyed this.
Fantastic work putting this together
Wow! Just Wow! Incredible early days footage that's amazingly clean and clear. Thank you SO much for making this. Liked and Subscribed.
Thank you very much for this film.
Thank you for your efforts in sharing this. Such an important story to tell.
Whow what a heartfelt documentary! Thanks for sharing!
Amazing story! I am almost speechless, beautiful story!
Merci pour ces images .Je les connais tous surtout Taras . J'y étais et j'ai vécu tout ça....
Absolutely awesome!
Great documentary - loved watching it
Wow, its amazing how much my journey is like what I'm watching here. I've quite my career, have very little and not much holding me from soaring. I am ready for my wings and make this my lifestyle until I can't. Live free....
Thank you to all that made this all possible. I was at least born in the 70s and was told about it by my dad. The safety just wasn't there and now I think its as safe as it can be versus the risk. Thank you to the Wills brothers for making such great wings over the years and others that have done an amazing job over just a few decades to make peoples dreams of aviation at least within grasp. To soar among eagles even on a turkeys budget is truly amazing. Thank you so much.
Thank you Bill. Thank you.
Simply outstanding ! Thanks
yes !... I started in '83 ,... when double surface was about 20% ,,, skytrek bandit 1801,, Probe 175 , magic 177 , Foil 165 , World beater 162 ,world beat 162 , blade race 153 , XS 155 , & now a to[;ess Moyes litespeed !155 ... wow ..
Fantastic video, thank you. I flew a couple of the early regalo wings in the south of England area around the late 70's. A group of us shared the wings, and the purchase price, but it takes a close call or two to remind you of your responsibilities as was the case with me with a young family to support. There is still a small hang gliding following here but para gliding has pretty much stolen the show. It was very enjoyable to watch this video and recall the fun and exileration of those days coupled with the comeraderie we found on those windy hillsides and cliffs.
That was awesome, I remember those days so well