Hang Gliding South Mountain

In honor of Veterans Day we opted for flying South Mountain right here in Phoenix. It was intense flying over streets, homes, cars, Power lines,Trees, Pools, and making it to an open field. I had to avoid a few kids in the landing zone as well! LOL! What a great day flying with my favorite Vietnam Veteran Eric and my friend Davis.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• South
• Mountain
• Hang
• Gliding
• Eric
• Smith
• Arizona
• Airfoils

[lOoNeYbIrDiFLY]

The Bailout zone is at the base of the mountain directly below. if you can't make the school, and you can scratch your way down to it. The Bailout zone is a very small oval open patch off the hiking trail and you can see it from the launch, but there are Cacti there and it's slightly downhill. Most PG'ers land there and hike the trail back up to the saddle, and then hitch a ride up to the top again. I heard that to the west is a golf course as well.

[lOoNeYbIrDiFLY]

The school is the primary landing zone when school isn't in session and you can make it. It looks like a 4 to 1 glide so it's not that difficult. It's best to aim for the tiny square patch of grass closest to the street which opens up to the field because it then drops down into a bowl.

[pdutube]

Cool! I always wondered what it must look like hang gliding over Ahwatukee. I couldn't visualize where the LZ is either - is this the usual LZ or was it done just for Veteran's Day?