My main passion if flight, I first looked at hang gliders in 1974, I was in boot camp for the us navy and would go to Torrey Pines Glider port and watch the guys flying the hang gliders over blacks beach. The equipment back then bothered me and I would not try it, then years later during a stormy period off the Florida coast while thumbing through the yellow pages I found an ad for a tandem boat launched hang glider flight, needed something to do since i could not go scuba diving. I needed something to do..... during an extended business trip .

So I met Todd and hisfather Roger off of hwy 520 on the Indian River just south of Kennedy SpaceCenter, both hang glider pilots and having fun in the Floridian sun. I lookedat this glider strapped to the platform on the back of this boat, after someintroductory insights we were in our harnesses and running down the rivergaining speed until we reached 35 mph's then we launched, the winch startedpaying out line and we were gaining altitude and within moments I looked atTodd and asked.... You are going to teach me how to do this.... the reply was, yes. Then 2000 ft above the Indian River we “pinned off” and floated down to the water , where the glider would land on floats.

So, 19 tandem flights later I was at the moment that all pilots find wondrous.... your first Solo flight, this time it is going to be just me, no instructor beside me to help if needed. It was near sunset and I launched from the back of the boat alone, once achieving altitude I once again pinned off and floated my was back to the water. Simply a tremendously wonderful moment I remember so fondly.

Once my time at Kennedy Space Center was over I came home to California with 83 flights in my logbook but now needed to be taught how to foot launch a hang glider off the top of a mountain. I ended up in Santa Barbara with Ken DeRussy who was patient with me until I had the “feet thing” figured out. I then visited a few of the clubs in the area and soon came to claim Kagel Mountain and the Sylmar Hang Gliding Association my home when it came time to fly my hang glider, and I flew hard and I flew often for years due to the pure wonderful joy that I received while soaring across the sky flying my glider.

Over the years that followed I learned the art of soaring and came top look forward toe the various trips that we as a group would go on to places in Mexico and to Utah , the Big Sur area and even flying in Yosemite National Park off of glacier point.

I have met many wonderful people through the pursuit of free flight. These people will be my extended family till I can no longer fly above this planet of ours.

My second love is the art of photography; cameras let one capture a moment in time and share it with others. As a kid, I would use my mothers brownie to take photographs, then while I was a teenager I received a n Olympus camera with a parallax viewfinder.  I was off to experimenting. Every now and then I would setup the back bathroom into a darkroom and stink up the house from the chemicals that are needed to be used.