Welcome all you young timers dreaming of adventure high in the skies chasing thermals , circling with Ravens , Hawks and Eagles and planning out your unforgettable XC adventure !
Murray Harris and I at Cawston BC
This is the place to checkout what and whom has come before you and where its all headed into the future .
Huge thanks to one of the original pioneers ( Stewart Midwinter ) for putting this site together.
I remember my first glimpse of hang gliding ( hand gliding ) as it was also know back then.
I was reading through a magazine ( name unknown ) and there it was.
Some guy launching off a mountainside and sailing into the vast open sky of California.
I knew from that moment onwards that my life was somehow going to follow this glimpse into the future and that hanging from a kite high above the ground was in my cards.
My brand new Eagle Cloud built by Barry Howie from Invermere BC
1977 Anarchist Mtn Osoyoos BC
My good buddy Albert and I had each made our way out to the Rocky Mountains to find adventure.
Me on my bicycle from Kitchener Ontario and Albert with his 1962-3 dodge valiant station wagon.
We met in Banff and there our adventures began.
I spent the first few months hiking around from mountain peak to mountain peak in utter amazement of the Rocky mountains.
Once while fishing on a creek flowing into Canmore about a 1/2 km off the highway, I had the rare opportunity of standing almost next to a huge grizzly that was standing there eating berries. I was at first unaware of him as I tried to catch a very uninterested trout.
Then I heard a rustle and looked across the 30' creek to see him standing there eating berries.
He was unconcerned of my presence, so I thought, "may as well just keep fishing ". So I did for about another 5minutes , him looking at me every once in a while and me looking away and then I looking at him and him looking away.
I guess we were just making sure that the other wasn't up to anything.
Then I decided I should slowly move away which was uneventful,
Gotta admit to a little sweat after the fact.
Anyways, a winter of working the Spray Lakes Reservoir .
That next summer saw Albert and I hiking and running to the top of Mt Norquay where they were holding a Hang gliding event. I believe Willi Muller was hosting it at that time.
We desperately asked around hoping we could convince someone to lend us a wing so we could fly off the mountain too.
Anarchist Mtn 1975
No one would and they practically chased us off the mountain as it seemed we were a little insane thinking we could just grab a wing and fly. Yup , seems a bit funny now.
At any rate, back to the bottom we ran to watch these amazing fellows fly their wings.
What we witnessed was just about every kind of whack imaginable, but there were the experts there as well who came and in and landed ever so gracefully.
We were undaunted and even more stoked. Albert eventually met Willi who then hooked him up to an 18' standard and gave him some quick lessons. After two successful runs , flights and good landings, Albert bought the wing right there complete with swing seat and helmet.
I was too poor at the time to buy one.
Backyard training hill
That summer we went to Lake Louise ski hill and carried the glider up to the top of a 100 meter hill covered in stumps.
There, we set/up the glider and Albert hooked me up and gave me my first lesson.
" See that ribbon" he says to me
" When its blowing up at you you, balance the glider on your shoulders and run until it picks you up and then fly".
Yes, that was my only instruction and it really looked easy so, off I ran.
Perfect run, perfect launch, sit back and watch as I flew over stumps and trees utterly amazed at what I was doing, even the steering was easy.
Now, I am seeing the ground slowly come up towards me and shit ! Now its moving really fast
Yes, you guessed it. Whack!
No one told me how to stop that bloody thing and I lawn darted into a stump
Injured ? Yea , but just a broken nose.
Daunted? Hell no !
How soon could we fix this thing and I bought it right there and then from Albert
He had spent sometime in Hinton working for a fellow named Russ Oberg building hang gliders
So, we got a sleeve and fixed the bent keel and bent wing spar
Easy !
I went back to the Okanagan where Albert came later that fall to properly teach me he said.
So we found a perfect hill where he said I could launch from.
Again, it was maybe 100 meters high with a beautiful field below.
What could be easier than that?
There was only one thing I really didn't like. It was a huge high tension power line right smack in the middle of the field with not enough room to go over .
Albert says , Pete, when you get close to the power line, just push the bar out and hold it .
Mushing it he called it. Then he says you can simply parachute straight down and when you are low enough, just fly underneath it.
Well, I started to remember my first lesson, and said Albert, I don't think I can do this . I decided I would pass on that chance to fly.
Albert then hooked himself up and did exactly what he said I could do. Perfectly .
I decided after that , I would be able to teach myself just as well.
So I find this perfect little hill close to home that was about 15 meters high with a 3:1 glide .
I spent the next few months running up and down that hill having the time of my life.
Probably a hundred launches and landings.
No injuries
No glider damage ( besides these things were tough )
Barry Howie 1977 flying his Mirage
I believe this is Stewart Midwinter 1977
One really close call tho .
I had launched from a 200 meter hill just behind this one and was seemingly going to overshoot and maybe end up in the lake, sooo I slowed the glider down at about a 100' over the ground.
Oops ! big stall and now what I believe they called a luff dive and the wing just flapping and I couldn't push out far enough to get it to catch air again.
I was in a seated harness 2x4 with seat belt so I put my feet on the base tube and pushed as hard as I could and through my body flat back out and it was enough that the wing caught the air violently just as I was about to impact the ground.
Light as a feather, I was laying there on the ground , no injury and no damage.
Ok, I know what yer all thinking.. trust me, I thought it too.
I must be crazy to be doing this sport.
Well, I did understand what I had done wrong and made sure not to do it again.
That stalling too high is just too tricky to handle.
Should I quit while I am still alive and in one piece?
No way, I am just getting this.
Anyways that was back in 1974-75
We were a little naïve back then.
1994 Mt Kobau flying my Dream Tandem
Anyways, fast forwarding to 2009I am still flying Hang gliders and am quite sure I will never fly a paraglider
They just aren't safe (:
No tubes, just cloth yeeesh, What are they thinking?
Going to the "other side "
Busted up my shoulder badly falling off a ladder setting up a log home
Long story short , they couldn't fix a snapped subscap tendon so hang gliding didn't seem too practical as I don't have good push out ability, to flare.
My good friend Jim Ongena had been after me for a while saying how much I would love paragliding, so, there you have it.
I made the transition and am still happily flying and chasing my XC flying adventures and circling with the eagles every chance I get 45 years later
Yippee!!!
Inversion cloud over Osoyoos Lake 2014
Winter flying in - 15C
Needed to get out the serious cold weather clothing
Thanks to all who made it to the end of this story.
So much more happened but hey , its getting late !
Peter Rasmussen
