The Beginnings

I will try to make the end of this post come as close to the beginning as I can:

For as far back as I can recall I had always wanted to fly. Whenever I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I always responded with 'A bird!' This was demonstrated through my childhood aerial acts of jumping off tables, out of trees, and off the roof of the garage with my arms outstretched hoping something cool would happen. Then, a revelation.. I saw a hang glider on TV when I was about 6 years old. Afterwards, whenever dad had a woodworking project going, I would steal scraps of lumber and some drop plastic and would sit in the driveway in the summer creating my own hang gliders complete with control frames. Dad's only request was 'please don't jump off the roof with those things'. My feet never left the ground and the frames never lasted longer than an hour of me running around with them trying to get airborne.  

One day, while watching a show I saw an advertisement for Morningside Flight Park in Charlestown, NH and the pestering began. For two summers I harassed and begged my dad to bring me to NH to hang glide and I started working and saving money up for it in a little jar. On my 13th birthday in 2000, to pacify me, he finally decided to bring me and we made the 3.5 hour drive to the park so I could start my lessons. Years later he admitted he never expected it to last more than that one weekend..

We pulled up to the hangar that morning - a half hour late. I got my little jar of money out and ran in to pay. I remember the 6'7" owner Jeff Nicolay asking my dad how old I was and reluctantly allowing me to join the class after stating they never had someone so young learn to fly. We went to the classroom and I took my seat among about a dozen adults. My instructor, Dave Baxter seemed puzzled to see me in his class and everyone actually assumed my dad was the one doing lessons.

June of 2000, dad and I with my new Falcon 140.

We went through the paces. Weather briefing, training harness, glider setup, and out onto the training hill. It was like being in boot camp with triple digit temps added, that summer was absolutely brutal. Baxter had a no-nonsense approach to instructing, he was strict, but the man taught me how to stick every single landing. I remember a lot of running, getting yelled at, grass stains, and wipe outs. I was about 4'6” and 90lbs at the time and that little falcon was a handful to move around. I had to get creative to get the wheels off the ground for my launches by shrugging the down tubes up my shoulders until they cleared. All the while my dad was out there with me pushing my glider up the hill when I would start getting tired. (Thanks dad, I couldn't have done it without you!) It was grueling, there were tears, but I was tenacious and I wanted to be up soaring in the clouds like I had dreamed about for years. Fast forward through the thrills and spills and by summers end my dad was taking flying lessons and I had just got my H2.

In Spring of 2001 I got my AT rating. The training was a little unconventional. I was still very small, had short t-rex arms, and was unable to fly the tandem glider. Keith Murray took me up with him to explain and show me what happened on tow. I jumped into the cart, they hooked me up, said 'just follow the plane' and off I went in my trusty little falcon. Insta-mountain, I was hooked.
Summer of 2001 I entered and placed 3rd in the Regional Competition at age 14. I remember coring up the middle of a gaggle on the last task and Dennis Cavagnaro later wrote a colorful article about a 'kid in a falcon outclimbing him in his Atos'. As I progressed that season the need for a better performing glider became apparent with XCs happening and the desire to do more competitions in the future. Rob Kells and I sat down and designed a custom UltraSport 135. It was delivered shortly after and I spent the summer learning my new double surface and getting as many hours as possible. At the end of the year I got my H3. Kari Castle was my idol and I wanted to be just like her.

2001 Region 8 Competition - The only falcon in the bunch

In 2002 I got my wings clipped. I suffered a bad crash on the first flight of the season at Rutland. It was a windy day, I was first off launch, and I was in my falcon after being in the UltraSport the prior season. I was so used to the double surface glide and penetration and waited too long to leave when I got below launch. I realized that I wasn't going to make the field while on final and had power lines coming. I had to peel downwind into the only open spot I could find - a swamp. 

I hit the ground with a tail wind, flipped the glider past it's nose and upside-down onto it's king post, and hung there suspended and unable to unhook. I knew I was badly injured and alone with no comms so I made a sling out of my speed sleeves and waited. The guys on launch could see me, I hoped. I was found later by PK. The crash resulted in a full right shoulder dislocation that would plague me the rest of my flying career. I became an overly conservative pilot after being introduced to the ground like that. The competitions never happened.. and adulthood struck. Between school, medical issues, and work I didn’t fly after 2005. 

 

USCGC Forward - JayHawk on deck near South America

I put a nail in the no-flying coffin after joining the military and getting stationed in Virginia in 2009. I thought about hang gliding daily though and brought my harness down south with me in hopes of hitting Kitty Hawk. I never went. I still don't know why. Even in the military I wanted to fly aircrafts but came to discover that there were very few fixed-wing pilot positions in the Coast Guard, even fewer for females, so I became a diesel mechanic and got stationed on one of the 270' Cutters in Portsmouth, VA instead. It wasn't what I wanted to spend my entire career doing. I wanted to fly, damn it! I was deploying half of the year, staying awake for 24+ hours at a time, chasing drug runners in a 24' boat while holding an M-16, and spending a majority of my 'free' time in a 125ºF engine room with no windows. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

I finished my enlistment and began going to school to become an A&P mechanic. I figured if I wasn't going to fly then I might as well work on planes instead, but after a year of school I realized I hated it. I wanted to be flying, not wrenching. I moved back home to Maine, and in 2013 decided to go back to the flight park. I'll never forget that first flight after 8 years away- Jonny Z had been mentoring me years before and came up that weekend to help me get back in the air. I kept my gliders and still had all of my gear. It was scary but everything came back to me as soon as my feet left the ground. I spent the next couple of years getting back into things, towing, soaring my face off and it was like I never left, and I was wishing that I hadn't. 

RX3 and US 135

In 2015 I got my H4. It was a happy victory. I had passed the test and spot landings back in 2004, but the promise of my rating being given to me the following spring never came through. I decided to purchase an RX3 with the intent of starting to get back into competitions.. which taught me one important thing: Never buy a used glider from someone you don't know. Long story short- I bought it sight unseen and upon getting it I discovered that it was so molested and trashed that I sold it off for a song and I was back into my UltraSport. I just wanted to fly and enjoy myself again. 

In 2016 my injury from ‘02 was rearing it’s head again, and it was getting worse. My UltraSport was outdated and was a handful to fly- tech came a long way since 2001. My shoulder was dislocating in the air, I wasn’t able to thermal to the right, and my arm was very weak. I ended up venturing to Wallaby for Demo Days with Ilya and it was the best thing I did. I flew a T2C and fell in love, but it was still a handful with my arm weakened. Frustrated, I was told to take a Sport2 for a spin which I hadn't even considered. I landed with an ear to ear grin and ordered one the next day. It was the most fun I've had flying in years and I realized that's what it should be about. If it's not fun, why the hell am I doing it? When the season started, Morningside was kind enough to let me borrow a Sport2 135 that they had for sale until mine came in 6 weeks later- Thanks guys! 
I flew XC from Ascutney to Morningside opening day and a month later broke the female New England distance record with it. I was back!

Henniker Airport XC in a borrowed Sport2

My new custom-sailed blue Sport2 named Jewel came in. Taking that bubble wrap off the nose is the best feeling ever! Then my custom Tenax 3 race harness arrived a couple of weeks later. I finally had my gear sorted, fitted to me, and the colors I wanted. I spent the year giving Ilya and Max a run for their money. But as the season went on I realized that something had to be done. I could barely pick my packed glider up onto my shoulder or cam my tip wands, and I was landing early or not flying at all. I remember one day in particular (Corn-Husk Day) where I gave up 3+ hours of airtime, left a 400fpm thermal with Ilya and Max, and spiraled down to land because I was in so much pain. I remember Max saying "Where are you going!?" on my way down. It sucked. When I did fly, it hurt. I had put the doctors off for 15 years but Ilya had finally managed to convince me that my injury was serious, and I'm eternally thankful. An MRI revealed my shoulder was indeed torn and in need of immediate repair. On November 22, 2016 I underwent major surgery to reconstruct my shoulder. It lasted 3 hours and I got 4 bone anchors installed to hold the 140 degrees of torn labrum back in place, my tendons cleaned up, and some bone ground off my collarbone. It was much worse than expected, the 15 years of waiting had caused further issues and damage, and recovery was put at 12+ months..

Back in the air in 2017
(Photo: Max Kotchouro)

Spring rolled around and all I wanted to do was fly. It took 7 months before I was healed up enough to get back into the air again safely. I was going to fly for the first time in years with a shoulder that worked and I was having a hard time imagining it. The first flights were interesting. I didn't have full rotation or range of motion back so I improvised by turning my whole body to reach the right down tube. As the season went on I was beginning to get my range back and transitioning was getting easier. My shoulder was so strong. Then in July of 2017, about 4 weeks after my surgeon cleared me for heavy use of my shoulder, a group of us decided to go fly Mont Yamaska in Quebec. It was a shallow grass launch with a slot landing field, nothing out of the ordinary it seemed. We flew, we soared, and almost all of us got re-introduced to the ground compliments of Sir Isaac god damn Newton in that field. It was a weird day, the wind kept switching and lifting off. I flew until my shoulder was sore and I needed to get on the ground asap-huge mistake. I came in on final to a thermal lifting off and a 90º cross, I tried to cut diagonal into the wind across the field but got into the rotor of the tree line on the other side. I was in a full right correction trying to keep the glider under control, got popped up, pulled in to get back into ground effect.. and it never happened. The bottom came out and I just flew into the ground, that was new. My body was the first thing that hit the ground and the glider took none of the impact. No damage, not even a bent downtube. The boys came running over to me- I couldn't get up, couldn't even sit upright, and felt that I had injured my newly repaired shoulder. I thought both of my arms were broken and asked Ilya if I had bones sticking out. Kevin unhooked me, Max tried to move my glider and I ended up yelling at him because I was laying on the nose wires still and it hurt when it moved me. All of the excruciating pain I was feeling ended up being a C6-7 spine compression and nerve damage. It took a month and a half for the feeling to come back into my hands and forearms and the numbness and burning to go away. It set my shoulder recovery back and it caused me to struggle the rest of the season mentally. Even keeping me from flying the gem of the northeast, Mt.Washington, on an epic day because of the restricted slot LZ.. my new nemesis. 

By the 2017 seasons end I had just started getting my mojo back, trusting my shoulder repair, and flying aggressively again. I was having no-stepper 'Crystal landings', which was a relief. But as far as weather goes, we got hosed this year so there wasn't a whole lot of flying to be had. This year I am hoping for a repeat of the 2016 season with non-stop soarable days, epic XCs, and good times again. There's records to break and 'firsts' to be had. The dream of flying to the coast is at the top of the bucket list. Only about a dozen pilots over the last 40 years have made the journey, and no females have done it yet. With several 10+ mile jumps with no landing fields, it's clear why.

After years of flying, injuries, and absence I have always found my way back to hang gliding. The New England winters always bring anxiety and hopes for warmer days and Westerly winds. This year is no exception.
This March I will be flying the 2018 GSSK competition. At this point in the Maine winter I am ready for some southern sun and airtime. I will be joined by Ilya and Max and a handful of the Morningside gang. It will be my first comp since 2001 and I can't freakin' wait. We'll see if this old girls still got it!     😎