Hang Gliding, 1960's Style

looks fun

Gosh that looks like all work and no play.
Duct tape??? There ought to be a law against the trashy white boy magic trick.

Thanks for posting! I built one and my Mom drove me to Marina Beach, Ca. to fly. Later, a Wills Wing Raven 229. Me first to fly NORTH of parking lot to Salinas River and back.(1981?) Passed my shadow over a couple doin' it on the beach on that trip. "Crazy Norm" first to fly cross country from sheer at Marina, home, what, 6 miles away? Donny,Larry (Dr. Pepper), "Marina Steve" and Norm. Good times, huh? Miss you guys, "Floato"

i still fly mine in the owens valley i got 100 miles on bambo ya baby

I want one =)

Thanks to them, we are here now! Ripping the sky.
Great video - Thank You!

wow...did i hear 1960??
hard core. your own thing....right on man!

Nice, it was a kite like this that I saw in a film clip, when I was 11, that inspired me to mow lawns until I could buy an 18' ragollo wing at 14. By 16 I was flying off the 5000' Sandias in New Mexico. Thanks for the memories! ~Russ

wowo nice video dude im going to try build one :) hmmm is that a good idea ?? lolz ok well im trying some day anyway :)

excellent footage! i learnt at uni back in '85,

Just kidding about the 50 years. It reminds me of my bamboo butterfily in '71. After a few flights off a hill by the HS track we took it water-skiing and all the duct-tape came off!

When did you film that? Had to be 50 years ago!

Ha! Advancements in orthoedics indeed! Nice films. I wanted to build a bamboo bomber (I think that I still have the plans that I bought from Popular Science), but never did, and maybe that's why I'm still alive today. I met a guy in Chattanooga who flew a Batso off of Mt Washington in New Hampshire. Talk about cojones!

I never had a real crash while gliding but it should be noted that when I hooked a swinging seat to the craft so that glides could be extended it became no longer reasonable to stick the clear polyethylene with masking/drafting tape, and I was going to have to upgrade construction materials. The craft with the seat was never videoed, and was soon dismantled as it had curved leading edges and was a problme when folded an cartopped for transit.

Barry Palmer

Back in '74, there was a young guy in Ottawa that built a bamboo bomber with ski-poles for downtubes and yellow polypro rope for flying wires. We told him to never fly higher than he wanted to fall, and for a while he did. then one day he flew from the TOP of the ski hill, got about 20m off the ground, hit a gust, the thing folded up, he plummeted to the ground, broke his arm, and that was the end of his HG career.