A Wing and a Prayer

from Family Magazine Summer Edition 2021

by North Central Florida Advertiser

Flying Into Summer with Disc Golf

By Hayli Zuccola

He’s gone scuba diving to a depth of 124 feet o the coast of West Palm Beach, own a single-engine xed-wing aircraft over the mountains of Gatlinburg, went hanggliding in Chattanooga, has traveled the world and had a career as a nurse for over 20 years, but Dan Hartley insists he’s not an adrenaline junkie. Despite this self-admission, Dan’s latest hobby involves harnessing himself to a motor-powered trike that can lift him into the air, with the help of a parachute-style wing, and give him an unobstructed view of the world below his feet.

A trip to Gainesville in 2019 introduced Dan to the concept of paramotor ying. Watching strangers oat above the clouds instantly captured his attention, and after a lengthy period of research, he found a company called Flight Junkies, which o ers both equipment and training through their bases in Ohio and Florida. With the company’s seasonal stint in Florida coming to an end, Dan drove to Ohio to experience the act of ying without the comfort of an enclosed plane to keep him at ease. “I was absolutely beyond belief terri ed, I was ready to sell it as soon as I got back on the ground,” Dan recalls of his rst ride. “I only went up maybe a couple hundred feet—if that—and it just absolutely terri ed—it was exhilarating, but it was equally terrifying—and I was just, I was really having doubts.” Undeterred by his initial fears, Dan ew a few more times before he packed up his new, rather unusual ying machine and headed back to Florida. Since he returned, Dan has clocked in around 30 to 35 ights and, although he’s become more con dent in the sport, he still ensures an overall sense of safety before and after takeo by repeatedly checking the weather, doing a detailed precheck ight, monitoring the wind speed and wearing a radio-capable helmet to keep tabs on local aerial tra c. “My instructor said, ‘There’s something you always need to remember: It’s better to be on the ground and wish you were up in the air, than be up in the air and wish you were on the ground’ and so I try to live by that,” he says. “I get close to Jesus when I’m ying. I pray before I leave and I pray up in the air so—I just want to be prepared if something were to happen.”

After setting up his equipment and performing a nal safety check, Dan buckles himself into the trike, starts the engine, pulls on the throttle, grabs the risers to control the direction of the wing and gives it gas. In less than 10 seconds, he’s up 100 feet watching the world slowly shrink below him. For the most part, Dan sticks to an elevation of around 300 feet from the ground—in comparison, cell towers stand anywhere from 50 to 200 feet tall—but he’s managed to far exceed that on a few occasions. “The highest I’ve ever gotten up is 1,200 feet, and that’s really high— I can just tell you when you’re sitting on that little seat and there’s nothing around you but wind and you’re up 1,200 feet, Lake City looks awfully small,” he says. Though the height makes for a lengthier landing—giving him the appearance of a buzzard repeatedly circling the area preparing for a smooth descent—he’s gotten to witness some of the most breathtakingly beautiful sights while soaring above the horizon line.

“You see some of the most amazing, absolutely amazing sunsets and sunrises because you have nothing to obstruct your view. It’s incredible,” he says. “When I was up 1,200 feet, I was ying over a rather large pond,” Dan recalls. “About 600 feet below me were these white birds—I’m guessing they were cranes—and they were ying over the water, and the contrast of the dark water against their white feathers—they were ying a perfect v—it looked like something on National Geographic.” While ying during the early mornings provides cooler temperatures and calmer winds, extended summer nights allow for evening ights that end in star-speckled skies and one-of-akind scenery. “I’ve been ying at night when there was a full moon, and it was, it was amazing. It was like if I had 30 more feet of an arm, I could touch it. It was amazing. I mean, the clarity up there is incredible too,” he says. It’s been almost a year since Dan embarked on his rst heartsinking ight somewhere over northern Ohio, but it’s quickly become a thrilling, incomparable hobby he’s eager to expand on, whether it’s planning to y over Florida’s beaches or eventually taking it on the road to see the country from a birds-eye angle. All-in-all, ying a paramotor is a feat that allows anyone—regardless of age or prior ight experience—the chance to enjoy a walk in the clouds. ■