Flying high

Hang-gliding event planned Saturday, Sunday at Mount Nebo

By Lisa H. Armstrong CONTRIBUTING WRITER

LITTLE ROCK — The end of summer marks transitions and traditions, including one not often considered part of the season.

Pilots from all over the United States will soar into the heavens off Mount Nebo during the End of Summer Hang-Gliding Fly-In set for Saturday and Sunday at Mount Nebo State Park, west of Dardanelle.

“Pilots use hot air to stay aloft,” park interpreter Anthony Whittington said.“It’s like when you see a hawk or a buzzard rising - they circle in the column of lift until the air begins to cool.”

Unpredictable wind and weather factors set early morning and late afternoon as the best times for park visitors to observe the sport, Whittington said.

“Call the park ahead of time, as the wind conditions are a major factor in the number of flyers who will be here,” he said.

There are several sites to watch hang-glider pilots set off, including Sunrise Point behind the visitor center, he said.

The 15th annual fly-in is being co-hosted by the Central Arkansas Mountain Pilots (C.A.M.P). More information about the park is available at www.arkansas stateparks.com/.

“This is the best time of the year for hang-gliding - the drier and the hotter it is, the higher the clouds are,” said Mark Stump, 53, of Dardanelle. “If it’s been dry, the cloud bank is high and the lift is strong. We typically fly from Mount Nebo to Mount Magazine and back,” he said.

Stump has been involved in hang-gliding since the mid-1970s, when he read an article about the sport in a college newspaper.

Things have changed a lot since the early days of the sport, said John Jenkins, 52, also of Dardanelle. “The mortality rate for hang-gliding was very high back then,” Jenkins said. “Pilots were using bamboo and Visqueen to build a glide. The gliders have progressed in design and safety like race cars, and the training programs have also improved. The accident rate has also gone down,” he said.

Stump finished fourth in the rigid-wing class at the Big Springs International Hang-Gliding Championship that was held Aug. 2-9 in Big Springs, Texas.

“More than 50 people from all over the world started flying competitively Aug. 2. Our GPS downloads result in a track log. At the end of the day, you turn in the GPS, which downloads the logs, and that’s where we get the results,” he said.

Stump’s fixed-wing, or fixed-airfoil glider, allows him to turn the craft in a smaller area. Flexiblewing gliders typically have a 32-35-foot wing. “The flex wing allows it to bend for distortion,” he said. “The rigid-wing craft is the same size, area-wise, but 160 square feet creates a lot more lift,” he said. There is also a big difference in the cost. Flexible-wing hang gliders range in cost from $2,000-$5,000, but a fixed-wing craft averages $18,000 or more, he said.

“Mark’s a world-class pilot,” Jenkins said. A native of South Africa, Jenkins was an avid surfer as a youth, but eventually switched to hang-gliding. “It’s a passion of mine. Once you run off the mountain, you’re totally committed. It’s a lot like surfing, except you look for thermal winds instead of waves of water,” he said.

Jenkins’ family left South Africa in the mid-1970s, and settled in Florida, eventually moving to Arkansas in about 2000. Although he followed his family to Northeast Arkansas, he was not fond of that region of the state, and he soon left for Hawaii, returning to Arkansas when his father became ill in 2003.

He had distinct and positive impressions of hang-gliding pilots from other experiences, so he started investigating the sport in Arkansas, and learned that the River Valley region was one of the best places to fly. He soon set about taking flying lessons, buying property and building a house in the Dardanelle area.

“I’ve had some great experiences, especially when you get a ‘low save.’ It doesn’t happen often, but it’s when you’re down to 200-400 feet off the ground, and you get into a holding pattern. You hope to catch something, so you keepworking it. You climb 400-500 feet and pretty soon, you’re up in the clouds,” he said.

Learning to hang-glide takes practice and patience. Although some people consider it a dangerous activity, Stump said it is a matter of managing the risk factors.

“Once you get your basic skills down, you have to continue to practice those skills,” he said. “The thing that makes hang-gliding dangerous is getting in over your head in peak conditions.”

Others have also had close calls.

Jenkins said, ”“It’s a great sport, but you have to have the right conditions. There’s no room for error. Every time you get really high, you’re dealing with wind shear. You can be as high as 25,000 feet, the wind can suddenly cool, and you start falling,” Jenkins said. “Hang gliders can even break up up in mid-air - those rough winds are whiteknuckle stuff,” he said.

Phil Morgan, president of C.A.M.P., said part of the goal of the group is to bring pilots into the sport and train them slowly. “We want to make sure the newer pilots understand the vision of the more experienced pilots. Hang gliding is really hard work to get your flying time in - as no one wants to go to the ‘crummy’ sites to practice,” Morgan said.

Roxy Slagle of Russellville is a novice flyer and one of only two women pilots in Arkansas.

“I had been flying at Petit Jean and Short Mountain in Paris, Arkansas, and another sitethat’s in the Jasper area that’s for Hang 2 pilots,” she said. Hang 2 is a novice rating. “You have to have 10 hours of air time to progress to the level of a Hang 3,” Slagle added.

Slagle grew up in the River Valley area taking dance lessons, but she was also a self-appointed tomboy. “Girls didn’t want to hang out with me and climb trees, go camping, and ride four-wheelers. I’ve always taught group fitness. My first job at the age of 16 was leading exercise classes,” she said.

Slagle started studying yoga 15 years ago, and spent time living in an ashram at the Kripalu Yoga Center in Lennox, Mass. The path from yoga to hang-gliding doesn’t seem like an obvious one.

“I can’t say that one course leadme to the other, but when I’m up in the air, getting bumped around, my yoga practice helps me ride the wave, get centered and focused, and to breathe,” she said.

She and Jenkins share a love for the sport, and a fondness for each other, too, she said.

“Two years ago, I was at the barn feeding the horses, and John drove up. He said he was a hang-gliding pilot and wanted to know about buying some property.” She didn’t see Jenkins again until a year later, when she started driving for him. Six months later she told Jenkins that she wanted to try it for herself. “I’m really looking forward to the flyin. When you’re up there, it’s all about you. And when you land, you feel invincible,” Slagle said.

Jenkins said there will also be plenty of opportunities to share experiences and socialize.

“People come in from other states like Tennessee, and sometimes we get people from farther away. One year we had a guy from France,” Jenkins said. “Even if the weather is bad, the group will get together and cook out. We don’t always know how far we’re going to go, but we can put it down almost anywhere,” he said.

Stump said, “You have to decide where the fun lies.”

River Valley Ozark, Pages 63, 68 on 08/21/2008