Flying High at Morningside Flight Park
Assistant Manager Gisele Dierks of Morningside Flight Park picks up her hang-glider as she prepares to go to the top of the 450-foot launch site at the Charlestown facility. (Lee Caldwell Photo)
By Lee Caldwell
Nestled in the Connecticut River Valley in Charlestown, Morningside Flight Park is New Hampshire’s home for all things hang-gliding and paragliding. In addition to offering lessons and selling equipment, they have mountaintop zip-line tours and outdoor laser tag, plus camping and rustic cabins.
Upon arrival at the facility, two paragliders are sailing down the green hill on a gentle current of air. The paragliders are leaving from the 150-foot launch site and appear to be doing very well as each lands gracefully. A truck waits to carry them back up the hill for another launch.
Assistant Manager Gisele Dierks, nicknamed Gigi, is the daughter of one of the founders of the flight park. The site is a former dairy farm, and some remnants of the original buildings remain. Gigi shares that some pilots from the 1970s approached farmer Phil Haynes regarding the use of his hill. His response: “Sure, as long as you teach me.”
One can only wonder what the cows thought about the human birds swooping down the hillside.
Gigi’s father, Jeff Nicolay, started working with Phil and they operated the flight park together for almost 40 years. In 2011, after the deaths of both the original founders, Kitty Hawk Kites, based out of North Carolina, purchased the flight park, which today is celebrating its 50th year of operation.
Gigi explains the differences between paragliding (“uses all light, flexible materials”) and hang-gliding (“uses aircraft-grade metal and has a fixed wing.”) Other differences include seating: In paragliding, one sits upright in a comfortable sling-type seat. In hang-gliding, the pilot is horizontally suspended and hangs face-down. Hang-gliders typically fly in higher winds than paragliders, but they both can reach to the same heights and travel the same distances.
Hang-gliders, with their rigid metal structure and triangular-shaped wing, weigh around 50 pounds. Paragliders, with their more flexible materials, weigh about seven pounds, not including the harness set.
One gentleman passing by smilingly comments, “Seven pounds keeps you in the air.”
Whether they are flying a hang-glider or a paraglider, the pilots at Morningside Flight Park always fly with a reserve parachute for safety, in case of emergencies. Says Gigi, “The parachutes are attached to just the pilots in our harnesses, but we are attached to the wings, so all three of us (wing, chute, pilot) come down together.”
The flight park offers tandem hang-gliding. In tandem hang-gliding, the student (or participant) is hooked into the glider with the pilot. The glider designed specifically for tandems boasts a larger wing area for more lift and tricycle landing gear to simplify take-offs and landings. The tandem hang-glider is pulled into the air by an airplane and launched from the sky.
The cost for both a new hang-glider and a new paraglider is in the $4,000-$6,000 price range. All associated gear is extra.
The rules are the same for hang-gliding and paragliding, and like most flight parks, a rating (license) is required to fly solo. Proper training is essential for the sport.
A paraglider who launched from a 150-foot site above the field, lands safely at the bottom. (Lee Caldwell Photo)
Gigi shows the classroom where students start by learning the basics, including interpreting the all- important weather conditions and the mastering the safe airspace maps. For lessons, there is a hang-gliding simulator. Students must be at least 14-years-old to both take lessons and to fly tandem. According to Gigi, one 96-year-old flew tandem, and some folks in their 60s and 70s have taken paragliding lessons.
Gigi shows her hang-glider and then hops into a pickup truck with a special hitch for transporting hang-gliders. We zoom up, up, up a narrow, paved road past a pond, past the 150-foot launch site, past the 250-foot launch site, past some rustic cabins that are offered for rent (which are currently being renovated), past the fifth-oldest oak tree in New Hampshire (a 440-year-old behemoth called Grandmother), past a 380-year-old oak tree (called Grandfather), past rare and indigenous species of plants, to the top of the hill at the 450-foot launch site. A plaque commemorating Phil Haynes and Jeff Nicolay is located near the launch site.
The view, facing roughly westward, is spectacular. In the distance looms Mount Ascutney, a widely known ski peak in Vermont. Gigi comments that one of the challenging hang-gliding flights is to sail from Ascutney to Morningside Flight Park. There is a tradition that those first-timers who accomplish the flight are thrown in the pond for a celebratory swim.
She also affirms that the sunsets there are amazing and that, in the morning, the mist rising from the Connecticut River, just beyond the distant trees, is also beautiful.
At the top of the hill perches a small, white cabin called The Castle, which is available for rent. Its porch overlooks the valley below and the launch sites. Three wooded platform cabins are being renovated for use. There are spots for tents and campfire pits nestled among the trees. The 160-acre flight park borders on a land trust with hiking trails.
In the woods behind the uppermost launch site are the zip-lines and zip-line platforms. The former offers two tours: a basic Mountain Top tour (perfect for youth) and the longer, more exciting, Superman tour, with a 1,100-foot run.
Laser tag is played in the woods. Described as “paintball without the sting, mess, or environmental impact,” laser tag has guides taking participants through a variety of games in a one- to two-hour period, using the Tippman brand state-of-the-art laser tag system.
Gigi encourages reservations for all activities.
For more information, call 603-542-4416, or visit www.flymorningside.com to book online. Morningside Flight Park is located at 357 Morningstar Lane in Charlestown.