By Kimberly Dunbar
 

For years, people like Peter Pan, R. Kelly and Nelly Furtado have been singing songs about flying. The mythical Icarus gave it his best shot with a pair of artificial wings. And didn’t we all go to elementary school with at least one kid who tried to fly off the roof of his house with a makeshift Superhero cape tied around his neck?

Well, for any of us who ever dreamed of taking to the skies, take heart, hanggliding ~ invented in the early 1970s ~ does a pretty good job of letting us do just that, fly free as birds.

So what is it like to fly? Just ask Kathleen McKenna, a member of the New England Paragliding and Hang Gliding Club ~ and an experienced hang glider. 
 
“Does one feel like a bird?  It is truly an amazing experience and yes, often one does feel like a bird,” said McKenna, who has actually been lucky enough to fly with seagulls while gliding along the coast.   McKenna compares hang gliding to learning to walk as a child. “It is a feeling of freedom, of being able to travel in a new and different medium.” 
 
McKenna started hang gliding lessons in the fall of 1993 with her former boss and a handful of co-workers.  “My boss learned about the lessons from a brochure in an area rest stop.  He had seen paragliding many times while vacationing in Austria and had always wanted to try it,” said McKenna.  “A group of about ten of us went to Cape Cod and flew off the dunes down to the beach.  I became hooked immediately and continued lessons.” 
 

According to McKenna, the hang gliding experience can be addicting. “It is spectacular to be able to fly high through the sky looking down on the small roads and houses below,” said McKenna.  “Sometimes it seems surreal. When flying in buoyant and smooth conditions, it is extremely peaceful and exhilarating.”  
 
But like every hobby and sport, hang gliding takes patience and practice. One of the biggest problems McKenna encounters is the drop-out rate of pilots during the training period. “Many potential pilots drop out because they progress too slowly,” she said. “The weather can hamper the ability to take lessons and pilots can get discourages with their skills.”
 
As a beginner, McKenna said that it is easy to feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. To counteract this feeling, McKenna recommends new pilots sticking together in a group. “Make friends with other students you are training with and chat with seasoned pilots that hang around the flying hill,” she advised. McKenna said she never would have stuck with the program if she hadn’t had the support of her two friends. “Stick with it.  Don’t get discouraged.  And know that all pilots, even the best in the world, had to go through this training phase.”
 
This kind of pilot camaraderie is one of McKenna’s favorite parts about the sport. But flying free like a bird in the sky tops the list. “Hang gliding allows you to escape to another world as you thermal upward or glide along a mountain ridge looking down at that other world below.” She also said that hang gliding offers the opportunities for traveling and meeting people from all over the world.
 
McKenna suggests that if you, too, would like to explore the skies, you first need to take lessons from a certified United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA) instructor.  While thinking happy thoughts like Peter and Wendy won’t get you completely off the ground, she says that the instructor can help supply the necessary equipment during training, like a wing, harness, and helmet.  McKenna recommends wearing sturdy boots and gloves to the lesson.  Once you get hooked, you’ll have to buy your equipment and fun gadgets like a GPS navigation system.
 
For more information on hang gliding, log on to the New England Paragliding and Hang Gliding Club’s website at www.nephc.org or the USHPA site www.ushga.org .
 
For Hang Gliding lessons, check out Morningside Flight Park in Claremont, New Hampshire.  Email Jeff Nicolay at flyingmorningside@morningside.com or call 603-542-4416. You can also visit www.flymorningside.com for more info. And if you find yourself vacationing in Vermont, McKenna recommends calling Rick Sharp at 1-800-PARAFLY.
 
“The person who will enjoy this sport will be someone who likes the great outdoors,” said McKenna. “This way, hiking up that hill or hanging out on a hillside will seem enjoyable when conditions are not quite perfect for flying.”  
 
That means you can leave the fairy dust and tights at home!