The Sauratown Mountains in Stokes and Surry counties used to be a hotspot for hang gliding. When conditions were right, the sky filled with brightly colored wings as pilots took off from the ridge, drawing spectators from across the region. But it’s been decades since those days.
That got listener and flying enthusiast Avery Colburn wondering:
“What happened to all the gliding activities on Sauratown Mountain?”
WFDD’s April Laissle tracked down the answer for this edition of Carolina Curious.
"Surfing” on Sauratown
Search online, and you’ll quickly find a piece of that history: a 1993 episode of Rescue 911 hosted by William Shatner. It tells the story of a 1989 hang gliding crash in the Sauratown Mountains and the successful rescue that followed.
One of the people who helped save that pilot was Doug Rice, the former president of the Sauratown Mountain Hang Gliding Club.
Rice says that kind of accident was rare — he and about 30 other hang gliding pilots flew safely in the area for decades.
Standing atop Pilot Mountain, he can still point out the old launch site across the valley. In the early 80s, Rice built a metal platform into the mountainside so pilots could take off.
With nearby access roads, open landing fields and a ridgeline that produced good wind conditions, the area was ideal for long flights.
“It’s just like surfing,” Rice says. “You're just hanging out where that wave is. You can go back and forth and just soar. My longest flight staying right there at Sauratown was six and a half hours."
Eventually, the gliders became a kind of local tourist attraction. People would drive up to watch launches and see the colorful wings sweep across the sky.
The end of an era
Access to the site ultimately depended on the landowners. When Rice was flying, Pulitzer Broadcasting gave his club permission to use the location as long as members paid a yearly fee. Then Hearst Broadcasting took over.
“The new owners didn't want to have anything to do with these guys jumping off of the mountain,” Rice says.
The hang gliding club hosted its last fly-in there in October 2002.
At that point, Rice was ready to hang up his glider. He became a full-time photographer, capturing views he used to enjoy from the air.
Finding another flight path
Pilots who still wanted to fly were left without a lot of options. State parks in the area ban the sport, so Pilot Mountain and Hanging Rock were out of the question. That’s one of the reasons question-asker Avery Colburn says a lot of locals have turned to powered paragliding, or paramotoring.
“I fly powered because we can't fly from here,” he says. “We’ve got to drive five hours to get a good launch. So, powered paragliding, you just need a field. You hit the gas, and the engine flies you.”
Paramotoring pilots wear a backpack engine with a propeller that lets them take off from flat ground. It’s not quite as fun as hang gliding, he says.
“Not quite as freeing, but I'll take it,” Colburn says. “If I can't jump off the mountain, I'll start from flat ground and fly myself to the mountain.”