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COMBAT at the Outer Banks!

The Outer Banks are one of the year-round windiest places in the country, which is why the Wright Brothers went to Kitty Hawk to practice gliding off a huge dune into 35 mph winds. In 1902 they made over 1000 slope flights. Later they were sucked into flying with power, which is another story. Since you can't walk on that dune now that it's a National Monument, I went (after a few symbolic tosses) to Jockey Ridge, an even larger one three miles north in Nags Head, N.C.

The dune is about 75 feet high and has a fairly flat top of five acres or so. The hike from the parking lot takes about fifteen minutes, and in August is a really hot proposition. Although hang gliders are required to check in with Park Rangers, everyone else just comes to fly in a genial free-for-all. There's no frequency control, or control over much else.

This attitude extends throughout the banks- another day when this ridge was closed for a hang gliding competition, the Rangers rattled off the names of 6 other areas nearby with larger-than-average dunes, and said I could fly at any of them, no problem. But with no contests today, I headed into this maritime desert, well stocked with ice water. As I crested the rise I saw about 100 people, some taking hang gliding lessons off one slope, some flying aerobatic kites at the other end, and only two folks flying RC gliders- a 2 meter ARF and a converted free flight model.

The views of the Atlantic and Albemarle Sound were white-speckled blue with 2 lines of creamy dunes embracing the Sound. I suspect the sloping would be best with a SW through SE wind. When I was there conditions were NE winds at 12 or so, and very smooth. My Zagi Thl wouldn't stay up, but I could get flights of 30 seconds or so. Environmental conditions were very harsh on both plane and transmitter- I'm still finding sand in odd places. Spectators were friendly but not obnoxious, and an air of camaraderie prevailed due to our shared ordeal of being baked alive.

At the right is Will Dough, local outer-banker who worked on the 1911 Wright glider.

Later that week I figured out how to fly the typical dune that extends the entire length of this area - only about nine feet high, with sea oats sticking up an additional three feet. In the 1930's the Civilian Conservation Corps created dunes by planting snow fence 50' or so beyond high tide. When one fence was covered, they planted another on top. These dunes have to be maintained- the natural process of overwash (storm waves breaking over the whole dune) tends to remove them.

The dunes are higher and better for flying on Pea Island, a bird sanctuary just south of Oregon Inlet. Typically the Summer wind rises to 15 mph from the SW and blows all day. In this case you have to fly between the highway and the west side of the dune. There's prickly pear cactus and scrub on that side, so you have to stand and land on the top of the dune.

This August I found the wind NE to SE all week, which gave me the luxury of flying on the beach side. Here there's no vegetation for mosquitoes to lurk in, landing is easy on the flat beach, and the scenery is better. Usually the wind was oblique to the dune and 10 mph, but delightfully smooth from its origins at sea.

I learned the technique from gulls. You stand next to the dune, throw into the wind and immediately station the plane just above and in front of the crest- watch out for those sea oats! You can just barely stay up, following the undulating altitude of the crest as far as you can see - maybe ten feet up. Occasionally a favorable bump will allow you to get 20 feet up. This obviously is fun, but it can't go on forever.

The upwind turn can be made anywhere, and a surprising amount of altitude can be gained as the plane wheels up, toward the sea, and begins to wobble downwind toward you. Quickly find your station- slightly to windward of the crest- and slowly pull back on the stick as the plane hurtles past you. You'll need every inch of height for the downwind turn. At a favorable bump, pull abruptly back and up wind. If you're lucky, the foamie will flip around and have a little forward air speed while not losing too much altitude. Now you have to slowly build up speed while maintaining station. Don't worry if you fall below the top- keep flying, dodging sea oats, following the contour, watch out for that crowd coming to the beach through a break in the dune - just fly between them and try to gain enough height and speed to make a decent upwind turn! A foamie is a natural in these conditions (rough).

When the wind blew straight onto the beach and its dune, it seemed to be much stronger. Then I could really get up and in front of the crest, maybe 40 feet high and 100 feet in front. I was surprised to be flying over the surf, over the bikinis, and still maintaining in that beautifully smooth updraft. I enjoyed hiking the beach, walking a mile or so and working the wing across the dune as I went. It was easy as I lost altitude to stall the Zagi right into my hand at zero ground speed. With a backpack stocked with drinks and repair tape, only pilot overheating could stop the flying, and the solution to that problem was obvious! John Vigour (c) 1998

This is the 1903 flyer that made three powered flights just behind the dune where the gliders had cataulted 1000 times the year before. The wind wrecked this one the same day but nobody really cared. Wilbur came back a few years later and set a glider duration record that stood for many years.

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