Just hangin’ around

Harness your spirit of adventure in Pacific City

Story & photos by Gretchen Ammerman

Oregon Coast TODAY

Some people just seem to have it all figured out. Take John Matylonek for example. When students leave clothes in his car that are his size, he simply washes them and adds them to his wardrobe. The cars he drives only have to be able to start and be large enough to carry his rather bulky equipment. Basically, he is a man who keeps it simple so that he can donate as much time and money as possible to the thing he loves best; hang gliding.

“I was the kid that made flying objects out of kitchen utensils,” he said. “When I was old enough to start pursuing a sport [in the ’70s], hang gliding was just starting to rise in popularity, since it was pretty much the only game in town. There was nothing like the X-games yet. Hang gliding really was the first extreme sport.”

Over the following 20 years, the technology improved rapidly with the growth and popularity of the sport, and with it, of course, came rules and regulations.

“We’ve come a long way,” John said. “In the beginning, the fatality and accident rate was high because people were taking it pretty casually, so the FAA created new regulations. That’s not a bad thing — the consequences in the air are much higher.”

But as things started to gel for hang gliding, lots of cheaper and easier extreme sports had come on to the scene, and interest in it waned.

“Hang gliding has seen a decrease in overall interest, but it’s not going anywhere because it’s still the closest thing to really flying,” John said. “There are no motors, so it’s quiet. You are riding thermals and you can feel the way your body changes the movements of the glider. You also become one with the environment. That’s why people love it and get addicted to it; because it’s the closest you will ever come to the experience of being a bird.”

John opened Oregon Hang Gliding School in the ’90s, enabling him to not only support himself with time to do the sport he loves, but also give that experience to others, which he also loves.

With bases in two locations, he is able to take advantage of changing conditions, something that might make scheduling lessons a bit difficult.

“We switch back and forth between Corvallis and Pacific City depending on what the wind is doing,” he said. “I move around to other spots like Tillamook if I have to, but these are two pretty great spots. As a matter of fact, one of the places that the sport originated was in Cape Kiwanda.”

When it comes to finding places to land, the increasingly crowded beach in Pacific City has its challenges, but Corvallis presents potential problems you might never have imagined.

“You need to make sure you don’t do something like scare a pregnant cow,” John said. “We need the co-operation of private landowners so we have places to land, so I try really hard to stay on their good sides.”

I learned this piece of wisdom during a ground school session in Corvallis, which I was attending with my husband, Jesse Smith. A kite surfer, Jesse had long been curious about hang gliding and paid strict attention to every aspect of the class including the brief history of flight.

“Otto and Gustav Lilienthal really started it all in the late 1800s with some wing technology that actually worked,” John said. “Then the Wright brothers got involved, the military stepped in and it stopped being any fun.”

The fun returned a bit later, when Frances Rogallo invented a steerable, flexible wing, and primitive hang gliding was born. Rogallo lived to 97, which is a ringing endorsement.

“Modern hang gliding is a marriage between a control frame and the Rogallo wing.” John said. “The materials have changed but the principals remain the same.”

Using geometric principals of strength have added safety benefits.

“When something is built with triangles, it’s the strongest shape,” John said. “So, the glider frame is actually stronger than an airplane. And when you are in the air like this, you want to make sure you are in the strongest possible frame.”

In the middle of the lesson, a group of turkey vultures in the sky outside the classroom caught John’s eye, and he brought them to our attention. As if they were paid interns, they perfectly executed the glide pattern; never flapping their wings but catching a thermal to rise high above their audience. The admiration with which he watched these birds, which he likely has done countless times over the years, says all you need to know about why, after 23 years of teaching, John still seems like someone who is just getting into a new sport.

A man with a wry sense of humor, he followed up the moment of awe with some practical wisdom:

“When you are in the air, even though you are trying to soar like a bird, you should never let your guard down,” he said. “The goal is to be a glider pilot, not a lawn dart.”

He also conjured an oddly apt role model for the perfect stance when lifting the glider frame, which requires some skill.

“Mary Poppins is badass,” he said. “She knows what she’s doing. Shoulders back, head high; there’s a reason we call it the Mary Poppins stance.”

Two days after ground school, Jesse and I headed to Pacific City for flight class. There we met a few of John’s current students and we all trekked over the dunes to a safe lift-off site for beginners.

Silas Eastman has been a student of John’s since getting hooked in an introductory class a few months ago.

“I love how it forces you to be completely focused on one thing,” he said. “Some of it is hard work, but then there those moments where it’s just you and the glider in the air and it’s complete bliss.”

We shared the spot with a number of paragliders and, after watching the action of both sports, I had to admit there was an elegance to the gliders that simply did not exist with the paragliders.

After the lesson, during which Jesse left the ground several times, I asked him what he thought of the difference between kite surfing, a similar sport to paragliding, and hang gliding.

“When a kite lifts you, you feel it in the harness and it can actually be pretty uncomfortable,” he said. “The first time I got lifted by the glider, I felt completely weightless and it was just like I imagined it would feel.”

Seeing the childlike joy on his face, I knew there was a chance this would be another thing my husband would add to his list of grown up people’s toys, so I asked John for a rough estimate of the minimum financial commitment.

“It’s about $7,500 to get into the sport,” he said. “But I still have sets that I’ve had for 20 years. You name me a sport where the equipment lasts that long.”

Want to give it a try? A full-day introductory lesson for $130 includes a 90-minute ground school lesson covering the principles on how a hang glider flies, practice in a simulator, and the basics of assembly, launch and ground skimming on the flat ground. You are then assisted and supervised in seven to 12 actual flights using tow technology or a natural training hill. Your feet will leave the ground three to five feet or higher depending on the conditions. For groups or four or more, lessons are $100 per person. Contact John to learn about other options, including three-day camps with unlimited flights.

“I get over a hundred people every year that try it out as a fun activity for the weekend,” John said. “And every year about five students get the bug and go through the whole process including buying equipment and becoming certified. You either have it in your heart or you don’t.”

John, most certainly, does.

For more information, go to www.oregonhanggliding.com.