Why Fly?

Judith M. Newman

"Why fly?" That's a question I'm asked whenever I happen to mention that I aspire to be a paragliding/hang gliding pilot. My desire to fly goes a long way back to those childhood dreams when I took to the air. You've had those dreams yourself, the ones where you're zooming along high above the ground, star wars fashion. Marion Zimmer Bradley offers the best description of the feeling in her novel "Hawkmistress." There she portrays the telepathic relationship between a young woman and her hawks -- the sensation of flying with them overpowering; just like that feeling in my dreams.

But it wasn't the dreams that actually got me interested first in hang gliding, now in paragliding; it was kite flying. I inadvertently became a kite flier more than twenty years ago when my nephew Rob (then two and a half) joined me for a week-long stay at a cottage on the LaHavre River. He brought his kite with him. I'd never flown a kite, not even as a kid. However, the conditions along the LaHavre were perfect and we flew his kite a couple of times each day. When Rob left I went looking for a kite of my own. Couldn't find one, so I built one; that is, I bought some fabric and sewed myself a kite. It didn't fly at first but with some fiddling I finally got it aloft. That was the opening.

In 1994, I was crossing the large foyer in the University of Manitoba University Centre when I spied a wonderfully large delta kite. I knew instantly what it was although I'd never really seen one before. I walked up to the young man at the table to inquire whether middle-aged women could learn to fly. Barry's "I don't see why not" piqued my interest. I arranged for a first tandem -- May 27 -- I remember the evening vividly. Getting lost trying to find the launch site at Sanford. The weak-link breaking at 200 feet on tow. The rush as Barry allowed me to take control and fly the glider. I was hooked.

I worked at becoming a hang gliding pilot for three years. A slow learner. Several factors, not the least of which was winter coming along aborting that high solo flight I was just about to take. Several flying-inflicted injuries also interfered. What kept me going was the rush of being aloft. I've flown tandem three times from Makapuu Point on Oahu--high above the ridge with that gorgeous expanse of coast beneath me. Last time I was pilot (Jesse just along for the ride, he said) for more than an hour. So I know the thrill of flying. It's just that I don't have a secure launch and while my wheel landing is OK, I can't land on my feet!

When I moved back to Nova Scotia two years ago, I brought my hang glider with me -- Tom Bushell assured me I'd be able to fly here. Ya, right! I've seen the launch sites. No hang gliding here for me. But after watching the paraglider pilots during the May fly-in at Parrsboro I figured if I couldn't hang glide perhaps I could paraglide. So I began taking instruction. Now a year and a half later, I've got two hours air time, my longest flight a twelve minute soar from Hidden Falls. I've also had short soaring flights at West Bay and Fox River, both beach cliff sites. I'm still a slow learner, taking this sport at whatever pace my body will let me. It's wonderful being high above the world with a panaramic view of the Bay of Chignecto.

Now that I have my own paragliding equipment, anybody interested in a barely-flown hang glider, carefully stowed in a warm, dry location?