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2002 Hang Gliding
Magazine Spectacular Article |
Article By:
Doug Haber
2002
Hang Gliding Magazine Cover (41k)
2002 Hang Gliding
Magazine Instructor Reunion (30k)
2002 Hang Gliding
Magazine Hotel Soaring Ray Pugh
and Doug Haber(19k)
2002 Hang
Gliding Magazine Advanced Division Winners (23k)
1st Bo Hagewood,
2nd Doug Haber,
3rd Ken Brown
If you've never been to the Hang Gliding Spectacular, I highly
recommend you make plans for next year! The Hang Gliding
Spectacular is not only the oldest hang gliding competition in
the world; it is a true example of what hang gliding all
about, Fun! Originally named the 1st Annual Tactile Meet, the
Spectacular has endured 30 continuous years of fun flying,
good times and the creation of life long friends. Scheduled
during the third week of May, each year over 30 competitors
from all over will travel to the Outer Banks of coastal North
Carolina to fly, party and meet old and new friends alike.
There are two days of dune competition where the pilots will
often compete several inches off of the ground and two days of
aero towing competitions. Also included is the Just Fly Film
Festival hosted by G.W. Meadows and the Woody Jones Memorial
Street Dance. Kitty Hawk Kites also hosts the Annual
Instructor Reunion where instructors from years past spend
several hours talking about the old days while enjoying a
buffet in a private party setting. Let's not forget the
traditional Pre-Spectacular party which is not official but
occurs regularly to prepare everyone for the following week of
sun, fun and Hang Gliding.
This year the competition kicked off Thursday evening at Bruce
Weaver's house. Bruce is Kitty Hawk Kites Hang Gliding manager
and Spectacular Extraordinaire! Bruce was gracious enough to
host this year's Pre-Spectacular party which I believe was
originally created to help level the playing field for the
next day's dune competition. There was plenty of beer but
unfortunately this year's party lacked two regulars that most
pilots know, Bo Hagewood (National Hang gliding champion) and
Ken Brown of Moyes America. Ken's absence was excused due to
his plane arriving late, but it was rumored that during the
party, Bo was catching up on his sleep. Some have speculated
that this was all part of Bo's secret strategy to take home
the gold!
Registration started at 8:00am Friday morning and everyone
made their way out to Jockey's Ridge to set up. Located in
Nags Head NC Jockey's Ridge is the East coast's tallest sand
dune and a perfect place for the Spectacular. This year the
winds were out of the southwest at twenty to twenty five mph,
with higher gusts at times. These strong winds are pretty
common for this time of the year and can make the competition
very challenging. As everyone waited for Bruce to start the
event, several hardcore competitors launched and attempted to
soar the southwest hill determined to show that the dunes were
indeed flyable.
As Noon approached, Meet director, Bruce Weaver held a pilot
meeting and explained the rules. Basically the idea is to
launch your glider, and fly around several cones that create
two very wide S-turns. More points are collected for making a
wider path around the "Sucker Cones". Finally, straighten out
and aim for the spot landing at the bottom of the course where
even more points can be gained for an accurate landing. As a
side contest, there are light-weight plastic tubes sticking up
near the spot landing known as bowling pins. The goal is to
knock down as many pins as you can for points with your body
or the glider. This year's big challenge was penetrating the
strong southwesterly winds and flying a course that forced you
to fly slightly up hill for more points finished by landing in
a rotor filled landing zone at the bottom! Bruce also
announced the first ever team competition. The Idea is to have
the teams hosted with advanced pilots and evenly matched with
the newer pilots. The scores of each team member would simply
be added up to produce the team score. The team competition
added a new element to this year's competition and is sure to
evolve as time goes on.
As always there were some amazing flights in these windy,
thermally conditions. I believe Ray Pugh, who is notorious for
getting high, might have had his best thermal flight of all.
As Ray made the first turn he hit an unusual amount of lift.
Everyone yelled," Push out" as he got really high. The added
altitude looked as if it helped with his flight although I'm
sure he wasn't expecting it. Ray most likely received the
altitude record for the day. Bo Hagewood also had a
spectacular flight allowing him to demonstrate to everyone the
superior strength and flexibility of 7075 tubing. As Bo
rounded a cone on his wingtip he flexed the leading edge about
as far as it could go. Everyone was waiting to hear that
famous 7075 leading edge explosion but this time, as he
usually does, Bo managed to avoid paying out "cash on crash"
for the borrowed glider! As always, Kenny Brown of Moyes
America was able to fly like a pro but to everyone's dismay
did not feel like performing any glider demolition this year.
Ken did do some serious wing dragging despite the warning that
this wasn't a speed gliding competition! As usual there was
the normal amount of high flares and plenty of whacks to keep
even the unknowing spectators very amused!
As the day came to an end everyone was happy to shower and
wash off the sand and sun block wondering how the scores added
up. Bo was in the leading advanced division followed by myself
and Kenny. This year the novice division definitely had a hard
time because of the strong wind but showed their determination
by flying the tasks the best they could. After their first and
only round, Everett Bacon and Mason Smawley were tied for
first place. Although the conditions were strong, I guarantee
that the novices had a great time and will be even more
prepared for next year!
At 7:00 Friday evening, G.W. Meadows hosted the Just Fly Film
Festival at a local surf shop and restaurant named "The Pit"
in Kill Devil Hills. Pioneered by G.W. Meadows, the event is
known for previewing awesome and sometimes rare Hang Gliding
Footage. This year was no let down as G.W. was able to secure
a copy of the Epic cult classic: "Sweeney's Glider".
Apparently one of the first and funniest video's about Hang
Gliding ever to be seen, this eleven minute film clearly
captures the Seventies element including long hair, hippie
style pants and the traditional glazed look. In this film,
Terry Sweeney attempts to fly a $40.00 home built glider from
a shallow hill in New Hampshire. Terry narrates the film with
a very relaxed voice as his friends run and help him
eventually launch into the air. The background music was
performed by Terry's band, "Sweeney's Glider" and had a very
traditional Seventies folk music sound. The film was
hysterical and everyone got their share of laughter for the
night! As another treat, Terry and his wife Lisa showed up at
the Pit just after the video ended. This was perfect as
everyone had questions and complements for the modest pioneer
of Hang Gliding. We were also treated to some other great Hang
Gliding videos including the Flytec Championship video
produced by G.W. himself. This music video was an awesome
video scrap book of this year's Flytec Championships at Quest
Air Flight Park in Groveland Florida. I must say I was
impressed by the production of the video as it captured the
essence of the competition. After watching the video I'm sure
there were people that will try extra hard not to miss next
years Flytec Championship myself included. The video show came
to an end with G.W. playing some more great Hang Gliding
videos for the crowd.
Unfortunately, Saturday's weather was not great for flying as
a cold front was threatening to pass through and not leave
enough time to fly. The pilot's meeting was held at "Tortugas
Lie". Tortugas is clearly the long time favorite hang gliding
hangout with plenty of cold Guinness on tap and the world's
best French-fries. As Bruce awaited the weather report,
everyone sat outside watching the emanate cold front
approaching and knowing the dune competition was likely over.
Bruce reviewed our options and then declared the dune
competition finished. Despite the lack of flying that day,
everyone knew that we would all still have some kind of fun.
So keeping with tradition, I promptly suggested Go-cart races
before the rain. In the past this side event has occurred only
after the trip to Tortugas. This year we would all race
without slinging down the Guinness due to the approaching
storm. I was hoping it would be just as fun with everyone
under a point one zero blood alcohol content and I was right!
We ran two races and broke all of the rules! People were
bashing into each other, and everyone was having a blast!
There were hang gliding pilots sliding all over the track. It
was quite a site. Luckily this year nobody was injured. Then
we had a second race and continued the fun. We were all very
amazed that the attendants let us go for it a second time
although I think the third time would have definitely been out
of the question.
Later on that evening past Kitty Hawk Kites instructors met at
the Instructor Reunion hosted at Bad Barracuda's Restaurant in
Nags Head. It was great to see new and old instructors of
Kitty Hawk Kites receive thanks From Bruce and share stories
of "the old days". Everyone was treated to some classic
soaring footage from Jockey's Ridge in 1995 and the
traditional viewing of an Instructor Reunion video which
highlights hundreds of photos from Kitty Hawk Kites archives
accompanied by an unforgettable sound track. The event ended
with everyone receiving a complementary copy of the reunion
video as Kitty Hawk Kites way of saying thanks!
The night ended with the Woody Jones Memorial Street Dance
held in the Kitty Hawk Kites parking lot. Even though the
weather was cold and wet the crowd enjoyed the live music of
BC Powder. As an added bonus, Neal Harris was able to show up
with Woody Jones' famous blue van and "Loop it" license plate.
Amazingly, someone also thought to make Woody's famous "Woody
dip" and chips. For those of you who don't know who Woody
Jones was, he was a Hang gliding pioneer, aviation enthusiast,
a U.S. Veteran and a great guy. Woody was traditionally one of
the first pilots to show up each year for the Hang Gliding
Spectacular and was known for parking in the Kitty Hawk Kites
parking lot with plenty of ice cold beer and his famous "Woody
dip" and chips for everyone. Woody loved to party and would
have wanted everyone to keep the party going and that's what
we now do each year in his honor! With the van parked and the
doors open, everyone had a chance to relive the memories of
Woody Jones and the fun he brought to every Spectacular.
Everyone thanked Neil for bringing a great memory back to this
year's Spectacular. As Woody would say, "COOL!"
It was now time to move the party to Bruce's rental house
known as the "Hacienda". At the house there was a large group
pilots and locals gathered in the kitchen to watch Andy
Torrington, Terry Sweeney and wife Lisa spontaneously jam for
more than an hour .With Andy playing mandolin, Terry singing
and playing guitar and Terry's wife Lisa also singing,
together they gave everyone a great show. It was truly one of
the highlights of the night!
Sunday turned out to be one of the best flying days yet.
Although the aero towing competition was blown out, most
people were able to soar the beach and the local hotels. There
were many cool flights and many firsts. Guss Dupuis had his
first beach soaring flights along with Kate Diamond from
England. Rich Cizauskis of Salt Lake City also had his first
hotel soaring fights on an eleven meter Pulse. Davis Straub,
of the famed davisstraub.com OZ Report, was seen flying a flex
wing in the strong winds and Russell Brown and Jim Prahl of
Florida both got high on a northeast facing dune we call the
"North Nub" which is only about two or three gliders wide and
fifteen feet tall. Steve Bernier soon to be a major competitor
in the Spectacular was also seen soaring the hotels for his
second time ever and did quite well. Despite the blown-out
aero towing competition everyone managed to take advantage of
the Northeast winds and had some great soaring flights on the
beach.
As the winds died out we all drove out to the Currituck Flight
Park which is the site for the Kitty Hawk Air Games.
Unfortunately the conditions were blown out all day so we just
had time for dinner, the awards ceremony and the induction of
Terry Sweeney into the Rogallo Hall Of Fame. John Harris of
Kitty Hawk Kites started the ceremony with reading a little
about Terry and his contributions to the sport of Hang
Gliding. Among his many accomplishments was the making of the
classic "Sweeney's Glider" film which helped popularize Hang
Gliding and was distributed world wide. Also he was
instrumental in many glider designs and innovations. Terry
spent several years designing gliders alone and eventually
teamed up with Tom Peginy to design such gliders as the
Kestrel, and the Peregrine. Later Terry went on to design the
Sirocco1 and 2 which were among the first gliders to enclose
the crossbar inside the double surface sail. These gliders
also had an early version of a luff line dive recovery system
which has become very important in Flex wings. Terry also went
on to design the "BFG" glider which was a very big glider with
a 45ft wingspan, 338 sq ft sail and a stall speed of just 14
mph. In 1975 Terry Sweeney became the champion of the first
Grandfather Mountain Hang gliding contest and went on to
compete in Hang gliding competitions world wide. Presently
living in Nashua NH, Terry and wife Lisa made the trip all the
way to the Outer Banks for this amazing award. Mr. Rogallo was
there to present Terry with a beautiful signed and framed
poster of Mr. and Mrs. Rogallo and awarded him a spot in
history as the most recent inductee of the "Rogallo Hall of
fame"! The modest and grateful Terry was clearly humbled by
the award and the efforts of the Rogallo Foundation to
remember him for all of his accomplishments. Terry happily
accepted the awards and thanked everyone including John Harris
and Mr. Rogallo who recently turned 90 years old. He also
expressed great joy in the acceptance he had received while at
this years Spectacular and showed hopes of returning again
next year hopefully with his wife Lisa and his guitar!
As usual there was quite an impressive list of awards and
prizes for the winners of this year's dune competition. Bruce
Weaver presented all the trophies and awards as follows. In
the final standings of the advanced division, winning his
first ever Spectacular, Bo Hagewood took home the first place
stained glass Rogallo wing trophy along with an impressive
collection of prizes and gift certificates. Doug Haber worked
second with an engraved mug, a gold medal and an equally
impressive prize package. Winning third place, Kenny Brown
tied it all up with, an engraved mug, a gold medal and a nice
shopping spree at Kitty Hawk Kites! The winners of the first
ever team competition were Tim Barr, Jesse Boyd, Kevin
Coltrane, Jesse Boyd, Curt Warren, Doug Haber and Chuck Sinon.
The Winners of the Novice division were tied for first between
Everett Bacon, and Mason Smawley. These guys received
beautiful stained-glass trophies and various other prizes
which they surely earned for flying in those strong
conditions.
Finally, in the bowling pin competition, there was a three way
tie between Ken Brown, Steve Bernier and myself. Bruce Weaver
decided to break the tie by letting all three of us duke it
out at the local bowling alley after the awards ceremony. The
rules were just like a normal bowling match except everyone
had to bowl with their opposite hand on the seventh round!
Kenny and Steve were doing well in the beginning but I was
fortunate to get a spare and a couple strikes at the right
time with a come from behind win. After the match, Bruce
presented me with a beautifully engraved bowling pin trophy
sponsored by Just Fly which I will cherish forever!
Despite the weather, this year's Hang Gliding Spectacular was
quite a success. The Spectacular has always proven to be lots
of fun and this year was no exception. It is no wonder that we
see people traveling from far away and coming back each and
every year. Hopefully those of you that have never been to the
Outer Banks to see where the Wright Brothers first flew should
make plans early and join the Spectacular Family in 2003 for
another session of good times, Hang Gliding, and the
celebration of 100 years of flight. Kitty Hawk Kites would
like to thank everyone for making this event such a success!
As the Hang Gliding Spectacular gains popularity, Kitty Hawk
Kites is pleased to announce the creation of
hangglidingspectacular.com. This website will be a permanent
online source for information and a public forum for those
interested in this fun competition. The website will
eventually allow access to a wealth of information, stories,
photo galleries and will also provide a forum for pilots to
help stay in touch throughout the years. This will be very
helpful especially in the weeks before the event! For
information about next years event and to learn more about the
Kitty Hawk Kite's Hang Gliding Spectacular, check us out
on-line at http://www.hangglidingspectacular.com/ and check
back regularly as this site is in it's infancy but sure to
grow! Kitty Hawk Kites is one of the world's oldest Hang
Gliding schools, safely teaching over 200,000 introductory
Hang Gliding lessons since 1974. For more information call:
1-877-FLY-THIS (359-8447) or go to
http://www.kittyhawk.com
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