It’s as close as you can get to flying like superman or soaring like a bird.
Located just north of Grand Valley, the Southwestern Ontario Gliding Association (SOGA) is the largest hang gliding club in Ontario focused on ensuring that members always have a place to fly.
“You are swimming in this big ocean of air, trying to find currents that are going up so you can stay up. That’s the goal, to see how long you can stay up by finding bubbles of rising air, try to get in them, and stay in them,” said SOGA treasurer, Kevin Thomson.
Taking off in the 1960’s, hang gliding is a recreational activity where a pilot flies a light, non-motorized foot-launched, heavier-than-air, aircraft called a hang glider.
“There is this amazing sense of freedom, plus what an awesome view, especially on a clear day. There is also quite a sense of accomplishment for working your wing that has no power, and then finding that lift,” Thomson said.
“It’s kind of like fishing. You know where they might be lurking, but you have to go find them. And then you get one on the hook, you have to try to keep it on the hook and reel it in. These thermals in the air, they are changing shape and can be turbulent as you try to work your way through them.”
Thomson first learned to hang glide in 1978.
“Back then, in Kitchener-Waterloo, it was called The Hang Ontario Flying Club. I had started my university career in physics at the University of Waterloo, but after a couple years, I wasn’t too sure what I was going to do with it,” he said.
Thomson thought a change of scenery would be interesting, so he went off to study at the University of British Columbia.
“All I really got out of that, was learning how to hang glide,” Thomson said.
Of course, coming back to Ontario, Thomson noticed something big was missing, the mountains.
“Back then, in the late 70’s and 80’s, hang gliding for pilots in Ontario, mostly took place at the steeper shorelines of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and sometimes Georgian Peaks,” he said.
“I threw myself off Old Baldy a few times, a cliff in the Beaver Valley. On the long weekends, we would go drive down to the Finger Lakes, where the hills were much bigger, 700-800 feet high, and then we would soar.”
Over the years, Thomson worked his way up from president of Hang Ontario, president of the Ontario Hang gliding Association, and eventually president of the Hang Gliding Association of Canada.
“Now, I’m just a retired guy who loves to fly,” Thomson said.
When the wind hits just right, Thomson said you can stay in the air currents, often, for hours.
“The longest for me, was in Gaspé in a little town, Mont-Saint-Pierre, which is famous for hang gliding. I think I was up with a friend of mine for close to five hours, over the mountains and ocean, it was a lot of fun,” he said.
“And to fly with the birds, literally, we found 'thermal' by following red tail hawks circling in one, and we just fly with them.”
In Ontario, Thomson said he can get up to cloud base, which is typically 4,000 to 5,000 feet.
“Sometimes you get an exceptional day where you can get up to about 7,000 feet above the ground. From there, some of the most experienced pilots will not only see how long they can stay up, but how far they can go,” Thomson said.
SOGA's roots trace back to the Kitchener-Waterloo Hang Gliding Club which was established in 1979.
The not-for-profit organization has been around for more than 40 years and consists of a dedicated bunch of hang glider pilots.
“SOGA is an organization that is dedicated to all its members. Right now, we have membership of about 40. But we have guests that come in from Quebec, Michigan, New York State, and Ottawa,” Thomson said.
“We are always looking to grow our membership.”
SOGA offers aero-towing using a custom-designed ultra-light aircraft called a Dragonfly to tow wings aloft at the end of a 200-foot rope. Take-off is facilitated by starting on a three-wheeled launch cart. Once flying speed is achieved, the launch cart is released, and the glider takes to the air.
“When we got into towing in the 1980’s, we converted an old pick-up truck. You would pull the release and fly away from the truck,” Thomson said.
“By the end of the runway, we would get to, on average, about 1,000 ft off the ground. The big advantage of aero-towing is that the tug pilot can look for clouds and drop you off at 2000 feet, right smack dab in the middle of a thermal," Thomson said.
SOGA offers many other benefits including glider storage, camping, large glider set-up area, glider rental, camaraderie, cross-country flight mentorship, planned and free seminars.
To become a SOGA member, Thomson said people first need instruction.
“That’s a growing concern for our club because there aren’t as many training schools now. In our area, the only one available is Instinct WindSports,” Thomson said.
“We are looking to grow that school. The owner who operates the school, received introductory hang-gliding lessons from my school, which at the time was called Grand Valley Hang Gliders,” Thomson said.
“I taught him how to fly and he fell in love with the sport. He became a world class pilot, competing in international competitions around the word and began his own school here in Ontario. He has been a great source of students for us.”
Thomson said, typically, hang gliders launch from the side of a hill. Pilots pick up their glider and run off the hill until they fly.
“It’s very niche. I think for a lot of people who haven’t tried it, hang gliding can appear to be scary, or dangerous. Over the last 30 years, we’ve had the odd sprained ankle or broken arm, but that’s about it,” Thomson said.
“Hang gliders are built to withstand g-forces that you don’t see in aircraft until you get to military aircraft,” Thomson said.
“They are designed to be so stable, that you can take your hands off and just fly like a very well-balanced paper airplane.”
Thomson said when it comes to a fear of heights, it’s not so much the height, as it is the fear of falling.
“And there is a difference. But to get up to six or 7,000 feet on a clear day, and see all of Ontario just laid out in front of you, it's just beautiful," Thomson said.
“It’s a great sense of accomplishment and freedom, just by yourself in the whole sky."
