the
glider. Once they got their feet right they hung horizontal.My First Sight of Hang Gliding
My first sight of a hang gliding was on television news broadcast in 1974 or 1975. It showed hang gliders flying down the front of a hill, possibly Devil’s Dyke, in Brighton. I think my thoughts at the time were I wonder what that’s like, as I’d been thinking about doing conventional gliding.
The next time was Whitsuntide bank holiday in 1976, on a sightseeing trip up
onto the moors near Fylingdales radar station. There was a hang-gliding
competition being held there, The Embassy Open. It was held on the face
of the hill to the left of the road before the car park, which was just a lay-by
at that time. I walked round the Hang-gliders that were rigged and watched
them taking off into the Hole of Horcum. Most got onto a seat after running off
the hill, but some ran off the hill and hung over the bar trying to get their
feet onto a piece of bar at the end of the seat. This looked dangerous because
it seemed to me if they didn’t get their feet onto the bar they could have
fallen off
the
glider. Once they got their feet right they hung horizontal.
The public address system announced that a hang-glider pilot would take off with a woman reporter on the hang-glider. After quite a long delay this glider with two people attached started running down the slope of the hill and crashed into some trees! Luckily they were unhurt. The actual competition task was to fly down to the bottom of the hill around some markers in the trees and land between an Embassy cigarette banner. There were quite a few interesting landings. I thought about going into the British Hang Gliding Association tent to find out how to get started in the sport but put it off, thinking I’d do it later.
The next time I saw a hang -glider was in Hackness village at a country fair. The George Cayley Sailwing Club had a stand there and I got talking to one of the pilots called Derek Jarvis. He told me more about the sport and that the club had their monthly meetings at the Mayfield Hotel in Seamer and that if I was interested in joining the club I should go to one. Again I decided against it, but afterwards decided it would be no use wishing that I’d done it when I was fifty as I would be too old.
So the third Tuesday in may 1976 found me at my first Cayley club meeting; it was a sunny evening so the meeting was held on the patio area at the back of the Hotel. Once I had met the members I noticed a large “get well” card stood on the floor. It was for the chairman of the club, Tony Squires who was in hospital with a broken back after a crash on the west face of Horcum! This should have put me off but at my next meeting I ordered a Skyhook Mk 4 from the Skyhook agent Mike Foster at a cost of £325 plus £25 for a seated harness. Derek Jarvis had offered to let me fly his Skyhook 3A as he had progressed onto a Skyhook Cloud 9 but I thought I’d go for the safer option of a new glider. Between this meeting and the next I watched and helped hang glider pilots who were flying at Cayton Bay, Filey and the Hole of Horcum.
The nearest hang-gliding training school to me was in Bristol but because I
had bought my glider through Mike, who was a Skyhook agent, he had to train me.
So, once the glider had arrived Mike and myself set to the Hole of Horcum. Here
he rigged the glider at the southerly take off point and flew the glider to the
bottom where I did some ground handling and then gradually worked my way up the
side of the ridge taking off about every 20ft and sometimes landing correctly or
sometime in a heap at the bottom. Eventually, about 4 ho
urs
after Mike had flown the glider to the bottom I arrived back at the top ready,
under Mike’s tuition to take off from the top.
From what I can remember I think on my first two attempted take offs I stalled and ended up in a heap in the heather just below the take-off. On my third I must have ran faster and got into the air. The early flights are blurred in my memory but I survived this flight to the bottom to continue and eventually got my take off technique sorted out.