Outer Banks Hang Gliding

The human fascination with flight culminated in the birth of modern aviation at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where the Wright Brothers took several leaps of faith to give birth to a new form of transportation. It's amazing that you can still share in the excitement of learning to fly at the same soft dunes where they pioneered the airplane, over 100 years ago. I'm not talking about re-inventing the airplane of course, but the esoteric art of hang gliding.

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Hang Gliding is a great way to get a better view of the beach.

A last minute safety check provided me little comfort, but none of the gliders burst into flames in mid-flight.

Our instructor ran alongside the glider during takeoff, as if he was going to catch someone falling, but no one fell. :-(

Why is it that so many people are hung up on skydiving these days, but nearly everyone has forgotten about hang gliding? A sport conceived by early attempts at flight, and then turned in a recreational direction by pre-X-Games adrenaline junkies more than a quarter century ago, hang gliders are a rare breed. You can’t beat it for an adrenaline rush. Really, what can be more exciting than gliding around the sky for an hour or more, with only the wind and various thermals holding you up? Maybe robbing a liquor store at gunpoint? Don’t forget, if something goes wrong up there, you have to skydive to safety, and your glider will probably crash to the earth below. Now what’s crazier than that? Sticking up drug dealers with a Swiss army knife?! That’s right- it can’t be beat by a law-abiding citizen. (Editor’s Note: No more Grand Theft Auto for you!)

A search for hang gliding schools on the East Coast turned up only a few results. We picked one in North Carolina, at the popular beach destination, the Outer Banks. Kitty Hawk Kites operation is 28 years strong as of this writing, and for good reason. Their staff is professional and pleasant, and their stomping grounds have great wind and soft landings.

We took a trip down to Kitty Hawk one spring weekend in a last ditch effort to escape some colder temps up north. Slightly nervous about what to expect, we figured it couldn't be THAT dangerous, could it?

To put an answer to that right away, no. Hang Gliding at the Outer Banks is about as safe as driving down the street in broad daylight.

Off of a small cliff.

With no seatbelt.

Ok, that's not entirely true. Our little group of newbies had about as much combined balance as a tumbleweed in a hurricane, with a few individuals bringing down our average. But everyone was able to learn to fly on this Saturday morning, and nobody fell out of the sky like a bag of bricks.

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