Testimony of
a Wing Nut
A former renegade pilot’s case for ratings by Johnny Lydic
: Most of you reading this article have spent ample time
ter part of eight years. I live in southern Oregon, and
on the training hill and shelled out plenty of money from
Woodrat Mountain is my backyard. My desire to fly was
your wallet as well. Was it worth it? Of course, it was.
ignited in 1996 at Cave Junction when my dad arranged
All of our flying credentials, whether they are mighty
a demo flight for me in an ultralight with Sharon Klauss-
or meager, are fraught with our desperate desire to fly
er. The nuts and bolts of that love were further tightened
no matter the cost. The intention of this article is to
in 1998 while watching my dear friend, Tim Tworog,
dissuade any rebels who may be entertaining the idea of
launch his hang glider off the top launch at Woodrat
learning to fly outside the box.
Mountain. I remember that day and how it made me
My name is Johnny, and I was that rebel for the bet-
feel—instantly saturated with envy. I was on a mission to delve into this sport from that moment on, and my fervor for free flight has never relinquished. The exact date escapes me, but one day in 1999, I was reading through the Nifty Nickel classified ads, and one, in particular, caught my attention. It read: “Hang glider for sale w/harness. $500.” I responded to the ad and, soon after, became the proud owner of a U.P. Gemini 184 single surface delta wing hang glider. To be quite honest, having an aircraft sitting in my garage made me feel like a “somebody.” Soon I realized that the man who sold it to me hadn’t equipped me with an instruction manual on how to use it. So for one year, the gem in my eye, my Gemini, sat in my garage and became the temporary home to a family of daddy long leg spiders. At the behest of my better judgment, I convinced myself to hook up with a local hang gliding instructor, which led me to Mike Stevenson. However, I was working the graveyard shift, and for one reason or another, we always had conflicting schedules and were never able to hook up. Instead, much of my time was spent reading
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