Pilot Stories & Interviews

Follow up:

Thermal Flyer: Give us a little background on yourself and your flying.

Gill Couto: I was 12 years old when I got a glimpse of a few hang gliders flying off the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk, NC. A passion for birds at the time turned into a mesmerizing desire to fly like a bird myself. It was a lasting impression that would grip me forever.

One day 10 years later, during an afternoon bike ride, I rode by a small man-made hill and saw a few hang gliders going down the slopes. I was captivated. I watched for a while and approached the instructor. There was an overwhelming sense of thrill in everyone and when they were done for the day, he let me try out one of the gliders on flat ground.

That was all I needed to get hooked and start taking lessons the following weekend. I had no doubt I had discovered something very special.

Several months of lessons at the hill followed, I sold my car, bought a hang glider and gear, and I was realizing my dream. There was nothing I wanted more than to fly through the sky. The more I flew, the more I wanted to fly. Motivation to stay in college fizzled and dropping out seemed inevitable.

So out I went, really out. Out of the classroom for a whole year, out into a new circle of friends, out of a car, out of my mind. I went back to living with my parents who had just moved back to our hometown, and everything in my mind said soaring. Just seeing a hill, ridge, sand dune, cloud, or bird would grab my attention.

Thermal Flyer: You changed your equipment. What led your decision to head down this path?

Gill Couto: Experience and desire for better performance. I learned a lot from flying intermediate gliders and with more experience I started looking into a high performance wing. I got lots of great advice from more experienced pilots which made me realize how much I had yet to learn in this great sport.

Then I got a chance to test fly one of the hottest ships at the time, called a UP TRX. The TRX was the state-of-the-art in hang gliders in 1995, the Ferrari of hang gliders. It was mid-October when I chose the colors for my new wing and placed the order. By Thanksgiving, it was ready and I was at the factory doorsteps. Especially when I got to meet hang gliding legend John Heiney. He test flies every glider out of the factory and that day I would get to watch him test fly my shiny, new wing. After his second flight, he landed and said to me: "It's a sweet one.". Boy did I feel special.

The TRX has very smooth handling. It has a very neutral response to pilot input, it does what the pilot wants it to do instead of flying for the pilot (make sense?). It's also very stable throughout its speed range. It thermals very well too: you can park it banked in the core of a thermal and maintain precise control with slight corrections with plenty of aggressive handling available when the air get rough.

Thermal Flyer: Do you have a favorite site?

Gill Couto: I like many sites but Mingus Mountain definately stands out. Over the years, the club has made Mingus a great place to fly. It is a lee-side site, which makes it typically a morning launch site.

On a typical day, there will be lots of activity in the morning and all the pilots are usually flying by noon. The launch ramp is absolutely perfect and the air is true big air, not for the faint of heart.

Mingus has many moods: it can be a gorgeus blue sunny sky one day and another it might be covered with thunderheads. Fog will often dance with the ridge on humid days and there can be several feet of snow in the winter.

The flying is simply spectacular at Mingus. The cross-country routes are full of picturesque scenery. The route over Sedona in particular is out of this world. It is followed by nothing less than the Mogollon Rim, Meteor Crater, and the Painted Desert. I've reached my greatest altitude ever right over launch, flown my longest flights from Mingus, and had the best time around the campfire when everyone gets together as pilots return from a day of awesome soaring and prepare for another.

Thermal Flyer: Do you have any secrets for predicting the day's conditions for XC or for a particular site?

Gill Couto: I wouldn't call them secrets, they're just subtle signs that you normally would ignore but are very significant for soaring. The first thing I always look for are clouds forming between 9 and 10 in the morning. These small puffy clouds tell you everything you need to know about what kind of soaring day it might be. When the clouds have a smooth, cottonball-like shape, I look for vertical development over time. When they remain nearly flat at the top, the thermals are mellow. When they extend higher than their width, the thermals are strong. One thing to look for is the edges: smooth edges mean smooth air, shredded edges mean turbulent air and it might not be a lot of fun up there.

Thermal Flyer: Got any safety tips for us?

Gill Couto: I sure do. The most important factor in hang gliding is your personal judgement. Each pilot must know his or her own abilities and their limits. Accidents due to equipment failure are very rare, most accidents are a result of pilot misjudgement. You'll often hear a pilot who just broke his glider say "I thought I could make it". Thinking isn't enough, you have to actually KNOW before you commit to an action.

In general though, I found carrying a safety kit in your flying harness very usefull. I've used it on myself many times and to help other pilots after a bad landing. When flying in the desert, one of the most useful things to have is a tiny pair of folding scissors and a pair of pocket pliers for pulling out cactus needles. Out of all forms of desert vegetation, nothing stands out to avoid more than the cholla cactus. Chollas will eat you! Hit a big saguaro before landing on a cholla.

Thermal Flyer: Tell us about the AHGA web site.

Gill Couto: Is it cool or is it cool? I got it off the ground in March 2000 and still maintain it on my free time until someone else volunteers to do it. I rely on a lot of photos to show what hang gliding is like rather than describe it in words. I only wish I had taken more in-flight photos when I used to hang glide.

The Ahga was lucky to get the www.ahga.org domain name when the idea of creating a web site was voted on. Just do a search on Google to see how many other organizations have the same acronym. It's a great way of sharing information between members and with anyone curious about hang gliding.

I also want to make a note on the pilots who aren't with us anymore. Accidents tend to happen to any hang glider pilot and some of the pilots mentioned or shown on this website have been killed by the sport they loved so much. Friends and relatives I've contacted about removing their website content prefer to leave it as is. I really like their stuff still being around too, they still motivate the rest of us.