In just a few short weeks, Chris has become a mer-man, gone indoor skydiving, played bubble soccer, so what’s next?! He’s getting high. Really high. Literally — he went hang gliding! The best part was getting to tell his instructor, mid-flight, “get your head out of the clouds!”
Leonardo da Vinci famously said, “Once you have tasted the taste of sky, you will look up forever.” At the Florida Ridge Air Sports Park in Clewiston, you can taste all the sky you want.
James Tindle, Florida Ridge Airsports Park: “It’s not like flying in an airplane. It’s more like a Peter Pan moment where you’re floating through the air.”
Located an hour and a half northwest of Miami, this is the only place in Florida where you can learn to hang glide.
Chris Van Vliet: “Most of the time with hang gliding, you’re going off a mountain or something. We don’t have mountains here in Florida, so how does this work?”
James Tindle: “No mountains in Florida, so we have an air-to-air tow system.”
That system consists of hooking up to an ultralight plane and getting towed to elevation. Flights start at $150 to glide at 1,000 feet, but we’re taking things up a notch — going up a full mile, 5,200 feet above the earth…
Chris Van Vliet: “You know, I didn’t ask you before but there’s a parachute, right?”
James Tindle: “Yep, we’ve got a parachute. Bo’s got that parachute because we need it.”
Chris Van Vliet: “OK, that’s important.”
I climb into the harness with my pilot, Bo and gear up.
Chris Van Vliet: “So we’ll put the helmet on and we’re ready.”
And just like that … we’re airborne!
Within a few minutes, we’re already half a mile up.
Chris Van Vliet: “We’re at 2,500 feet right now.”
When we get to the mile mark, we unclip, and we’re gliding!
Remember that thing I said earlier about tasting the sky? Well, I think it probably looks like this — gliding right through a cloud.
Chris Van Vliet: “Woah! Oh man!”
On our way back down, Bo decided to show me some tricks.
After about 10 minutes of gliding, we came in for a landing.
Chris Van Vliet: “That was one of the coolest things I think I’ve ever done in my life. Thank you.”
And if you know of an adventure Chris should tackle, share it with him at keepingupwithchris@wsvn.com. I’ll send my messenger pigeon to your home with a response.
FOR MORE INFO:
Florida Ridge Air Sports Park
12671 East FL-80
Clewiston, FL 33440
(863) 805-0440
http://www.thefloridaridge.com/
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