![]() ![]() Residents had complained to the late Los Angeles City Councilman Howard Finn that hang gliders swooped low over their yards, invading privacy and sometimes crashing into their property. To preserve their flying grounds in Sylmar, hang-glider pilots organized and mounted a public relations blitz-imposing rules on fellow pilots and spectators alike, befriending the annoyed homeowners and working to acquire some political clout of their own. The altitude record for a hang glider is now over 21,000 feet, and the distance record for a straight-line flight is 221 miles. ![]() Cross-country flights of 50 to 100 miles have become common. Hang-glider pilots, who originally floated a few feet off the ground from oceanfront bluffs to a landing on the beach sand, now routinely fly to 5,000 or 10,000 feet or higher, carried aloft by thermals-upwellings of warm air. The high-altitude flights that began there led to dramatic changes in the nature of the sport. Nationals competition for hang-glider pilots was held in Sylmar. He said modern hang gliding began at Dockweiler State Beach in Venice in the late 1960s, and as early as 1970 there were flights in Sylmar, which is where high-altitude flying began.Ĭommonly used launch sites in the San Gabriels are from 1,400 to 2,200 feet above the landing ground in Sylmar, and a descent can take from 10 minutes to five hours, but usually lasts 60 to 90 minutes. “Thousands of people come from all over the world just to say they’ve flown at Sylmar.” and co-owner of Windsports, a Van Nuys firm that sells hang gliders and gives flying lessons. “Sylmar is world-famous as the home of hang gliding,” said Joe Greblo, one of the founders of the Sylmar Hang Gliding Assn. Andrews to golfers and Wimbledon to tennis players. The mass change of heart was the result of a determined drive by hang-glider pilots not to lose the right to fly over Sylmar, which is the equivalent to them of St. “You can’t satisfy 100% of the people, so I suppose there must be somebody out there who is opposed to them, but, by and large, the community is very much in favor of them now.” “It’s spectacular to watch these colorful gliders come down out of the sky on a sunny day. “The hang gliders have become an asset, an attraction of Sylmar,” said Dean Cohen, president of the Sylmar Civic Assn. One of the things I like about my house now is watching the hang gliders.” “We don’t have any problems with them at all anymore. “We like the hang gliders,” said Susan Kacy, leader of a 1983 homeowners’ revolt against the kite pilots. Today, even some of their most vocal former foes describe the hang gliders as a welcome addition to the neighborhood, giving Sylmar a picturesque distinction, something to point out to visitors and provide a colorful free show for residents. ![]()
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