Get Up & Go

St. Petersburg Times August 16, 1996

The Wallaby Ranch Flight Park:
Leave your gravity boots on the ground and take a peaceful flight over Florida ins a hang glider. Its a good way to test your...
Get Up & Go.

by Times Staff Writer Ed Merrick

A 200-foot tow line faded into the distance, where an ultralight aircraft was towing the glider into a dazzling, late-November sky.
Minutes earlier, pilot Malcolm Jones and I had been trundling along the ground on the wheels of that Pacific Airwave Double Vision glider at Wallaby Ranch in Davenport, near Orlando, and had lifted off.
Suddenly, that puny-looking Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly ultralight felt like a brute as its 65-horsepower engine propelled us at about 28 miles an hour into the sky, and I prayed that the skeletal like frame that was providing our lift would hold up under the force of the pull.
Up we rose at 600 feet a minute until our altimeter indicated 2,000 feet, then Jones triggered the tow release, and the Spectra tow line fell away from us. The ultralight pulled left and dove, and we turned right and what would have been up if there hadn't been two of us aboard.
We were free, and the anxiety gave way to exhilaration as we soared smoothly and silently above the hilly spine known as the Florida ridge and gazed out at Orlando on the horizon to the east. When we turned to head back to the field, I could see interstate 4 threading its way to Tampa, in the hazy distance, and below us groves of miniature trees.
This was as close to real flying as I could come without having my own feathers (the ones in my stomach didn't count). The very lightness of being had new meaning for me.
The mostly Dacron harness in which we were comfortably prone naturally seeks its own center of gravity, and so we were perfectly balanced. That is the clue to steering the glider: Upset its natural stability to turn right, lean to the right, to turn left, lean to the left, to go up, push the bar forward, to go down, pull the bar back. That is an oversimplification but is the basic drill.
Even though the craft is light--its 34 foot wing is made of sturdy aircraft aluminum, stainless steel cables and 4 ounce Dacron--our weight and the absence in the late afternoon of conditions that provide lift were slowly dragging us down at a forward speed of about 25 miles an hour to the 50-acre field. We swooped in for a bumpy landing after a 20-minute ride.

I have always wanted to fly in a hang glider so imagine my excitement when last year I received from my daughters and son-in-law a birthday gift certificate for a flight at Wallaby ranch.
I had never heard of the place--I didn't even know that hang gliding was even practiced in Florida, since it has no mountains, which are convenient for launching and great for setting up the thermals (hot-rising-air) that the gliders use for lift and that can provide a ride of several hours duration.
I also hadn't heard about the Florida Ridge, where the current of wind from the Bermuda High provides additional lift. I was about to find out about both.

Wallaby Ranch consists of 200 acres of gently rolling land carved out of citrus groves and pine stands and situated about 20 miles southwest of Orlando. Its owner-operator is the affable Malcolm Jones, 39, who started gliding in Tampa in 1973 behind a boat driven by his mother. He has five full-time employees. 

Jones describes the place as laid-back, with a hunting camp sort of theme. The ranch has a bathhouse, laundry facilities, clubhouse, pool, cottages, camping area and its famous Wallaby ranch kite condos, heavy duty plastic tubes used to store the gliders. Because of Florida's weather, which allows year-round gliding, the ranch is well-known and attracts gliding enthusiasts from everywhere. As a result, the ranch is busiest in the winter even though spring and summer provide more consistent gliding weather.
Jones has run the ranch and its gliding club, known as Florida Hang Gliding Inc., for five years. Before that, he flew in competitions, taught hang gliding and sold gliders in Australia, where the hang glider was invented.
Australia also inspired the name of the ranch. Jones said he chose the name Wallaby because the wallaby is a cute and cuddly marsupial, even though it is related to the kangaroo, considered a pest in Australia.
The ranch is intended to be and is a fun place. You get a hint of that from the 'Aerotowing Primer--the ranch way", which lists under the heading 'the fine print' such quips as:' If the weather is great you'll have a super time; if the weather sucks you'll still have a good time.' $100 donation for landing in the orange grove.' ' Try to remember to pay--sometimes we forget."

If you decide to try hang gliding, you will need in addition to a sense of adventure and a manageable fear of heights--good physical condition and a supple body because you have to thread that body into the harness under the glider. The harness is comfortable, and it is strong; it is made of the same material that is used to lift boats out of the water into dry-dock.
You must also be willing to sign a form absolving the ranch of liability even in the event of recklessness on its part. On reading that sentence, I hesitated then thought: Hey, he's going to be next to me on this flight, so let's go.
Actually, all of the ranch's hang gliders have parachutes attached to the harness. Jones said a parachute has never had to be used there and that there has never been a serious injury at the ranch. 
As to the general safety of the sport, the U.S. Hang Gliding Association in Colorado Spring, Colo., for many years published yearly accident statistics in its monthly publication, Hang Gliding Magazine, to identify accident causes and to stress to pilots which safety issues need emphasis. For 1992, the last year for which it compiled the data, hang gliding had 22 fatalities per 100,000 participants, while sailplane flying had 45, SCUBA diving 49 general aviation 115 and automobiles 28, so I was in greater peril driving there than I was flying the wing.

On my flight with Jones, the ultralight had towed us so far from the field that we had to head back in a straight line or risk ending up in a tree short of the runway. As a result, Jones asked me if I wanted to go up again to try some turns. Did I! David Glover was the pilot this time, and the flight was even more satisfying because I was over my initial apprehension, and I had the opportunity to practice turns under Glover's tutelage.
With me at the control bar, we turned and swooped, and I was enthralled by how smooth and elegant it was--and silent. I was in seventh Heaven.

Malcolm Jones has been quoted as saying, 'there's nothing that flies like a hang glider, it's magic'.
Discover the magic for yourself.

If you go, take exit 23 off Interstate 4 and drive north on U.S. 27 for a mile and a half, then turn left on Dean Still road (across from C.R. 54) and go 1.7 miles (the last .9 mile is dirt road) to 1805 Dean Still road. (the day I was there a sign on the gate said 'Wills Wing'). Another short curving dirt road leads to a parking area. The gift certificate for my flight cost $75. A club fee schedule and equipment rental fees are available by writing to Florida Hang Gliding Inc. 1805 Dean Still Road, Davenport, FL 33837; phone/fax (863) 424-0070.
For an extra $25, you can have photographs taken in-flight by a remote controlled camera mounted on the wing.