- Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:05 pm
#115720
This is my first post here so be gentle
I started flying in April of '77, learning on Green Mountain, Golden,CO. From the very first time my feet first left ground on my first lesson, I got hooked worse than any crack- head. I started flying every single day it was flyable and some that weren't (learning experience, won't do that again). I had saved up enough money by Spring '79, being young and having no possessions besides my glider and gear, that I sublet my apartment for 4 months, and flew from CO to Cali and back, just driving from hill to hill, asking the locals where the next nearest site was. Some places I'd stay a week, some just overnight. Lots of locals would invite me back to their pad to crash, sleep in their basement, shower up and then give me a locals private tour.
I repeated the same routine for a couple more years, bust a$$ all winter/ spring to afford a 2-3 month road trip each summer fall, before settling down, getting married, buying a house, having kids, starting my own business, etc.. Flying time got farther and farther apart until my last flight ~ '90. I'd flown from a Seahawk, a Seagull VII, a Cirrus 3, a Seagull 10.5, and finally a Proair Prostar 160 dbl surface. I had about 1200 hrs accumulated at my last flight in '90.
Fast Forward.......I'd been appointed our Family Historian due to my photo archiving capability with my film scanners and had been cataloging all of my Grandfathers and Fathers slides......then I started in on my own. Seeing all the photo's of my hang gliding days is about to throw this former junkie off the wagon. I've gotten in touch with the owner of the store where I took my first lessons, to see about getting back into it..
Hope to see you back in the skies soon.
This was my 3rd lesson, my first Big Air flight, April '77
(Good old fashion seat harness)
I started flying in April of '77, learning on Green Mountain, Golden,CO. From the very first time my feet first left ground on my first lesson, I got hooked worse than any crack- head. I started flying every single day it was flyable and some that weren't (learning experience, won't do that again). I had saved up enough money by Spring '79, being young and having no possessions besides my glider and gear, that I sublet my apartment for 4 months, and flew from CO to Cali and back, just driving from hill to hill, asking the locals where the next nearest site was. Some places I'd stay a week, some just overnight. Lots of locals would invite me back to their pad to crash, sleep in their basement, shower up and then give me a locals private tour.
I repeated the same routine for a couple more years, bust a$$ all winter/ spring to afford a 2-3 month road trip each summer fall, before settling down, getting married, buying a house, having kids, starting my own business, etc.. Flying time got farther and farther apart until my last flight ~ '90. I'd flown from a Seahawk, a Seagull VII, a Cirrus 3, a Seagull 10.5, and finally a Proair Prostar 160 dbl surface. I had about 1200 hrs accumulated at my last flight in '90.
Fast Forward.......I'd been appointed our Family Historian due to my photo archiving capability with my film scanners and had been cataloging all of my Grandfathers and Fathers slides......then I started in on my own. Seeing all the photo's of my hang gliding days is about to throw this former junkie off the wagon. I've gotten in touch with the owner of the store where I took my first lessons, to see about getting back into it..
Hope to see you back in the skies soon.
This was my 3rd lesson, my first Big Air flight, April '77
(Good old fashion seat harness)
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