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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works

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Speaker 1: dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,

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Speaker 1: and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry Roland,

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Speaker 1: and as I said, there's me Josh Clark, which makes

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Speaker 1: this Stuff you Should Know a sore In addition, wow

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Speaker 1: soaring soaring Okay, the sore toe edition. I don't know

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Speaker 1: what that means either. It doesn't mean anything. It's just

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Speaker 1: kind of a sore toe is kind of the opposite

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Speaker 1: of soaring, you know, really drags you down to earth

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Speaker 1: because you think, like now I have to go to

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Speaker 1: like a urgent care center and get this toe checked

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Speaker 1: out and probably take some pills that make me throw up.

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Speaker 1: And it's just not like soaring high above the earth

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Speaker 1: on a hand glider, I imagine. And I've never hand glided,

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Speaker 1: of you, um no, but I've had a sword too,

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Speaker 1: so so you know, so do you have any desire

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Speaker 1: to hang glide after this? Because I gotta tell you, man,

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Speaker 1: I got kind of jazzed about the idea of trying

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Speaker 1: it from researching this article. Not really, no, so like

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Speaker 1: if you were somewhere on vacation and they had like

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Speaker 1: hand gliding lessons as part of the place you were staying.

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Speaker 1: Would you like go over and try it, you think,

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Speaker 1: or you just absolutely aren't enthused by it at all. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it kind of depends, I guess on my mood and

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Speaker 1: what else is going on. I mean, I could see that.

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Speaker 1: I think that's fair. I wouldn't I wouldn't like seek

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Speaker 1: it out though. But if I was literally within fifty

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Speaker 1: ft of someone doing this right, and somebody picked you

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Speaker 1: up and put you into the hardest and I might

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Speaker 1: do it. But and I'm not afraid of it or anything.

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Speaker 1: It's just I don't know, I don't really care. Yeah, No,

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Speaker 1: I get that sense that you're not afraid of it.

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Speaker 1: I am terrified of heights, as you know. Um, but

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Speaker 1: this still sounds pretty appealing to me. Actually, I think

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Speaker 1: I might try it. I mean I used to do

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Speaker 1: repelling and stuff like that. So oh yeah, with your

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Speaker 1: dad right down Stone Mountain, they'll let you do that.

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Speaker 1: I thought they might. So hand gliding is what we're

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Speaker 1: talking about, Chuck. And it turns out this article, this

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Speaker 1: is an old school, old school how stuff works article,

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Speaker 1: which were really weird in a lot of different ways. Um,

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Speaker 1: But once we kind of dug in. We've we found that,

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Speaker 1: like the topic is actually a little more interesting than

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Speaker 1: the house Stuff Works article would lead someone to believe, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a little dry, just his head bone dry, and

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Speaker 1: this is a Freud and Rich joint. He knows what

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Speaker 1: he's doing. He's got a PhD after his name. But

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Speaker 1: I think it was the culture of the age, you know, Like,

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Speaker 1: for example, in the article, he talks about a personal

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Speaker 1: experience hang gliding. You know exactly what I'm gonna say,

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Speaker 1: don't you. I don't know. I don't actually, so he

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Speaker 1: said that the place that he was taking this hand

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Speaker 1: gliding lesson is called Jockey's Ridge and it's a public park.

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Speaker 1: So he writes that, as you know, before they took

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Speaker 1: off the hand gliding instructor check to make sure that

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Speaker 1: our intended flight path was clear of obstacles and people

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Speaker 1: because it was a public park. That's like such a

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Speaker 1: two thousand one era how stuff works thing to mention

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Speaker 1: in an article. You know, yeah, I kind of found

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Speaker 1: myself skimming that part once I started reading it. There's

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Speaker 1: some good info in it, but yeah, the whole personal

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Speaker 1: experience thing, it just doesn't it doesn't click with me.

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Speaker 1: You know, so, um, hang gliding, should we should we

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Speaker 1: do a little history. I think we should do a

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Speaker 1: little bit of history because, like I said, it's kind

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Speaker 1: of interesting. Yeah, and this is one that you would

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Speaker 1: not Um. I was a little bit surprised to know

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Speaker 1: that NASA had anything to do with hang gliding, because

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Speaker 1: it seems like obviously those two things would be opposite

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Speaker 1: of one another, sort of like tow toe gliding sort

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Speaker 1: toe and storing. Yeah, it's like an s A T question,

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Speaker 1: it is. But there was an engineer for NASA named

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Speaker 1: Francis Rogelo, so you kind have had an idea in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen forties to use his Rogallo wing, uh, which

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Speaker 1: was I guess sort of a crude hang glider to

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Speaker 1: return space help return spacecraft to Earth. Yeah, instead of

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Speaker 1: a mere parachute, which is what I guess had been

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Speaker 1: used for a little while. Yeah. Like you know those

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Speaker 1: famous images of like the Gemini capsules coming back to

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Speaker 1: Earth and splashing down the ocean and they have like

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Speaker 1: a drag shoot you know that they're from Originally they're like,

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Speaker 1: what if we try this other thing? That's that will

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Speaker 1: be one day. The predecessor of the hang glider and

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Speaker 1: everyone said, what's the hang glider? And that person said,

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Speaker 1: just wait a little while. So Rigalo and his wife

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Speaker 1: actually were amateur aviation enthusiasts, and that's they were just

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Speaker 1: kind of doing this on the side. But when he

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Speaker 1: started working at NASA, they he said, hey, I've got

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Speaker 1: this idea. And it didn't pan out. But the the

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Speaker 1: the pictures of these tests that made it into magazines

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Speaker 1: captured the imagination of some people around the world all

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Speaker 1: at once. Different people who weren't in communication with one

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Speaker 1: another saw these pictures and thought, you know what, I

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Speaker 1: could do something with that. I could turn something like

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Speaker 1: that into like a personal, non motorized flight machine. And

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Speaker 1: they did. Yeah, But he was not the first person

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Speaker 1: to ever do stuff like this, because everyone, i think

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Speaker 1: has seen images of weirdos in the nineteenth century jumping

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Speaker 1: off of buildings with all manner of winged suits and

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Speaker 1: things like that, and one such guy, and that's just

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Speaker 1: the humans obsession with like literally flying themselves, like not

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Speaker 1: in a plane. There's also that it takes a certain

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Speaker 1: type though, if you think about it, like even today,

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Speaker 1: like somebody who says, wow, I'd really like to fly,

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Speaker 1: and someone who says wow, I'd really like to fly,

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Speaker 1: so I'm gonna spend ten years creating my own personal

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Speaker 1: flying machine. Those are two different people, yeah, for sure,

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Speaker 1: like the right brothers versus uh, this guy right exactly

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Speaker 1: that you've never heard of because he didn't do anything

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Speaker 1: otto lilienthal is that is that a good way to

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Speaker 1: pronounce that? Oh yeah, not this guy. This guy did

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Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah. Oh yeah, you're talking about the crackpots. Uh. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: He was a German engineer, obviously from that name, and

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Speaker 1: he was crazy about this stuff. And he literally did

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Speaker 1: over two thousand successful flights with these what they called

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Speaker 1: weight shift hand gliders, so hang gliders, where as you

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Speaker 1: will see, like the modern hang lider, you you shift

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Speaker 1: your weight to steer the thing, and he was he

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Speaker 1: was doing that in a kind of a crude way. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he basically I mean like Leonardo da Vinci had like

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Speaker 1: some design for a hang glider. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: he's ever built, and the Chinese used to make criminals

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Speaker 1: hang glide for fun. But this is like the guy

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Speaker 1: who like actually went to the trouble of figuring out

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Speaker 1: how to make this right from his own designs, and

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Speaker 1: and like you said, two thousand successful flights. Is I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's that's proven technology, you know, so I say, and

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Speaker 1: I don't think it's just us, but Otto Lilienthal is

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Speaker 1: basically known as the father of hang gliding, the Opah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I guess OPA's grandfather. Yeah, but isn't that is that German? Yeah? Oh,

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Speaker 1: I thought that was Greek. Well I don't. It may

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Speaker 1: be Greek too, but I don't know. Opa is German

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Speaker 1: for uh. But you know, he did a good job.

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Speaker 1: Then the Rogue Rogallo machine or whatever they called it,

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Speaker 1: the Rogallo, the fantastic flying Rogallos came on the scene. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but they apparently were not inspired by anything Lilienthal did.

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Speaker 1: His stuff really kind of fell to the wayside once

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Speaker 1: the Right Brothers started. You could see that a motorized flight, right,

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Speaker 1: Everybody's like, why would you want this thing when you

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Speaker 1: can just fly in a plane. And the Right Brothers

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Speaker 1: themselves experimented with hang gliders first and then um moved

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Speaker 1: on to two planes from their hang gliders. But by

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Speaker 1: this time, like the idea of hang gliding was was

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Speaker 1: dead and from what I understand, unknown to the Rigalos, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we should totally do a right brothers show at some point.

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Speaker 1: I can't believe we haven't. I know there's a lot

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Speaker 1: out there. We will. Uh So flash forward some though

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Speaker 1: toe at the very hot party, the Auto Lilienthal anniversary

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Speaker 1: meet up in California. So he still had his people,

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Speaker 1: you know, I would guess the sort of early um

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Speaker 1: extreme stunt enthusiasts who held people like Otto Lilienthal Is

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Speaker 1: in high regard, and people came from all over the

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Speaker 1: place too to hang out and hang glide, I guess,

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Speaker 1: And that's where I think it was. Everyone sort of

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Speaker 1: points to that meet up that year is when the

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Speaker 1: reinvention of modern hang gliding came around, do you care

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Speaker 1: to say? I think so? And part of this that

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Speaker 1: So you've got alto Lilienthal, You've got the rigolos who

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Speaker 1: may or may not have been influenced by Lilienthal. And

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Speaker 1: then you've got a guy named Bruce Dickinson. No it's not,

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Speaker 1: he's the guy from John Dickinson and Australian Tom. No,

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Speaker 1: well this is Tom h Are there two of them?

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Speaker 1: Doug Dickinson? Was it Tom Dickinson? I mean that's what

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Speaker 1: this one article says. But okay, well I'm sure that

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Speaker 1: one's right. But so Tom Dickinson. I think he was

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Speaker 1: one of the ones who was inspired by those photos

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Speaker 1: of the Rigala wing from NASA and built his own

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Speaker 1: hand glider. And he created um like what you would

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Speaker 1: call um what's it called when you're like on a

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Speaker 1: your parasailing and you're being towed behind a boat parasailing. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So he invented basically that which later, to confuse things,

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Speaker 1: was reinvented in the eighties or rediscovered in the eighties

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Speaker 1: and became basically a separate but related sport to hang gliding.

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Speaker 1: But his designs for this paraglider early paraglider, was based

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Speaker 1: on the Rigala wing and basically improved it enough so

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Speaker 1: that other people said, hey, you know what, you could

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Speaker 1: turn this into what we call a foot launched hand glider.

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Speaker 1: And and by the early nineteen seventies it was under

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Speaker 1: it was it was the design had been improved enough that, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you could have like an invitational meetup of the crackpots

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Speaker 1: who are into this kind of thing back then, right,

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Speaker 1: And then a couple of years after that, a couple

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Speaker 1: of brothers named Bob and Chris wills Uh started Manufacturing

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Speaker 1: actually formed a company called Will's Wing, and by all accounts,

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Speaker 1: those dudes really really grew the sport in the early

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Speaker 1: to mid seventies because it's a very I mean, I know,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of been reborn now with these uh what

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Speaker 1: are they called, not solid wing or I guess you

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Speaker 1: could call him solid wing rigid Yeah, rigid wing. But

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Speaker 1: those early hand gliders, it's a very seventies sport, you know,

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Speaker 1: and they're so pretty in the seventies way to like

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Speaker 1: the colors they use. Yeah, for sure, love looking at

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Speaker 1: hand gliders looks like a catamaran sale up there, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like a Hobie Cat or something. And you know, like

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Speaker 1: every I'm sure there was an episode of Chips where

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Speaker 1: one of them hand glided. They were it made its appearance,

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Speaker 1: It had its fingerprints all over seventies pop culture. Do

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Speaker 1: you remember, like back in the day on prices, right,

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Speaker 1: one of the standard um one of the standard prizes

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Speaker 1: was a Hobie Cat personal sailboat. Yeah, like anyone, You're like,

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Speaker 1: what am I going to do with that? In Texas? Right? Well,

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Speaker 1: I guess Texas has a shoreline though, look at me? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there you go. How about Nebraska? Yeah, no shore line

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Speaker 1: of Nebraska. So by the seventies this thing had kind

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Speaker 1: of taken off, if you will forgive the unintended punt um,

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Speaker 1: and it's it's I don't have the impression that it's

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Speaker 1: like nearly as much of a craze today, even though

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Speaker 1: there have been major improvements like the rigid wing design.

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Speaker 1: It seems like it's the seventies and maybe the eighties

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Speaker 1: were the heyday, right. I get the feeling that today

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Speaker 1: it's sort of in that extreme sports category, especially with

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Speaker 1: these rigid wing But back in the seventies and eighties,

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Speaker 1: like dudes like my dad would probably go out and

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Speaker 1: give it a whirl right in his jeep. Yeah, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: Like my dad para glided or paras sailed on one

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Speaker 1: Florida trip one time, I remember, and in true like

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Speaker 1: my dad fashion was he was like, I'm the only

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Speaker 1: one doing this. It's like, I'm not gonna pay for

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Speaker 1: you guys to do it. The one but no way,

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Speaker 1: the one behind the boat. Mhmm. Yeah, Uman did that.

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Speaker 1: Once it got stuck up there for some reason, they

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Speaker 1: couldn't get her, like her and the friends she was

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Speaker 1: with down for a while, suck floating aloft. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: don't they just stop the boat and you come down.

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Speaker 1: I don't remember what the problem was, but there was

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Speaker 1: an issue that they couldn't like her her turn or

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Speaker 1: her ride or whatever, just kept going on and on

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Speaker 1: and on for some reason. I feel like the boat

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Speaker 1: didn't stop. They're like, I can't take my foot off

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Speaker 1: the gas. But by the way, and something you do

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Speaker 1: probably it's usually with the hand. I can't take my

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Speaker 1: hand off the gas. Yeah, exactly. There. So you want

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Speaker 1: to take a little break and then come back and

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Speaker 1: get into hang gliders themselves, Yeah, let's suit up. Okay, yeah, okay, man.

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Speaker 1: So hang gliders at its core an extremely simple machine, right,

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Speaker 1: and uh, it's actually a pretty clever one too, to

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Speaker 1: tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure. I can't

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Speaker 1: really put my finger on why I'm so jazzed about

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Speaker 1: the idea of trying it, but it's somewhere in here. Okay, Okay,

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Speaker 1: So you get the hang glider, which is basically an

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Speaker 1: air foil, right, yeah, and are we going to differentiate

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Speaker 1: a lot between the sort of the old school and

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Speaker 1: the and the new ones and the rigid wing. I

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Speaker 1: I looked up the difference and I didn't see a

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Speaker 1: terrible amount of difference. I saw that the rigid ones

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Speaker 1: have um they glide a lot longer, I think um

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Speaker 1: or they have like less of a sync rate. But

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Speaker 1: other than that, it's more of like a matter of

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Speaker 1: personal preference. And then you would train on the flexible

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Speaker 1: one for sure, So they still use flex wings. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I just wasn't. I had for some reason thought reddit

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Speaker 1: as sort of like the rigid wing took the place

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Speaker 1: of the flexible wing. No, I think it did not. Actually,

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Speaker 1: it's a different it's a modified design. And if you're

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Speaker 1: really really good at um at hand gliding, you you

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Speaker 1: may prefer the rigid, but you may also prefer the

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Speaker 1: flex you don't, you wouldn't necessarily graduate from one to

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Speaker 1: the other. And then the rigid didn't replace the flex wing,

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Speaker 1: all right, And just so people know for sure, we're

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Speaker 1: talking about the flexible wing. It's sort of that old

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Speaker 1: school hang glidder you think of that. Uh, it looks

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Speaker 1: like a modified parachute, and in fact it is like

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Speaker 1: a nylon parachute that you can hear kind of flapping

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Speaker 1: in the wind over some sort of aluminum frame. The

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Speaker 1: rigid wing is ordered the same but the fabric, it's

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Speaker 1: the wings themselves are it's just stiffer. It's not like

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Speaker 1: it's made out of wood or anything like that. It's

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Speaker 1: just like a stiffer um like the exoskeleton. I'm not

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Speaker 1: describing this very well. Once you bring the exo skeleton in,

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Speaker 1: it's all downhill from there. How would you describe the

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Speaker 1: rigid wing? So like it was, like you said, the

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Speaker 1: flex wing, it kind of flaps in the wind. It's

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Speaker 1: it's it covers a skeleton. But the rigid wing is

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Speaker 1: is virtually the same thing, but it has like struts, say,

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Speaker 1: woven into it that keeps it from flapping as much.

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Speaker 1: It makes it makes the fabric rigid. Yeah, and it's

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Speaker 1: like a pre fab wing you know that you would

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Speaker 1: load out of your car. Yeah. They're really tough to

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Speaker 1: travel with it from what I understand. As far as

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Speaker 1: like if you're flying somewhere on an airplane, you would

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Speaker 1: you would have to take your flexible wing pair and

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Speaker 1: glider like on an airplane. Yeah. Yeah, they disassemble really easily.

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Speaker 1: The like all of the joints are hinged, the tubes

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Speaker 1: pop out of one another. Um. The the actual um

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Speaker 1: fabric folds up and comes off and the wires, you know,

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Speaker 1: snap off. It's like whenever you're you're going to hang glide,

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Speaker 1: you want to put your thing, you want to assemble it,

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Speaker 1: and then you disassemble it when you're done. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: they're like somewhere between forty seventy pounds, and from what

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Speaker 1: I can tell, the ones that way less are the

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Speaker 1: much more expensive ones because they might not even be

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Speaker 1: made out of aluminum. They may be made out of

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Speaker 1: something even light or like carbon fiber or something like that.

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Speaker 1: So the so, the whole, the whole point, whether you're

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Speaker 1: talking about and I don't really think we need to

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Speaker 1: get into two rigid wing just because it is just

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Speaker 1: a modified version of the flexible wing and the flexible

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Speaker 1: wings the one that everybody's familiar with. But with the

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Speaker 1: flexible wing, it's basically it's just a triangular skeleton made

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Speaker 1: of hollow aluminum aircraft grade aluminum tubes or carbon fiber tubes,

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Speaker 1: and you've basically got three um three tubes coming out

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Speaker 1: at one point. Did you ever take an art class

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Speaker 1: of drawing class? Nope, this can not make sense to you. Then,

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Speaker 1: well I've seen a hang glider though, Okay, well, so

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Speaker 1: if there's a point, if there's a the very front

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Speaker 1: tip of the triangle of that, that the that is

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Speaker 1: the hand glider. Then right the widow maker, the that's

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Speaker 1: the nose. Out of the nose, going directly back away

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Speaker 1: from you is a piece of metal, a tube called

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Speaker 1: the keel, yes, going at angles out of the nose

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Speaker 1: backward away from you as well. Those are the leading

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Speaker 1: edge tubes. And then about halfway back from the nose,

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Speaker 1: crossing the leading edge tubes and the keel connecting them all,

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Speaker 1: that's the crossbar. You have those four bars put together,

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Speaker 1: that's the basically the basic skeleton of the of the

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Speaker 1: hand glider. Okay, And if you haven't seen one of these,

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Speaker 1: just crawl out from under your rock, go to your laptop,

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Speaker 1: look at a picture of it. And you know, when

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Speaker 1: I was researching this, especially when Freud and Rich started

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Speaker 1: to get into the wires, the front wires and the

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Speaker 1: landing wires, and I was like, now I fully understand

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Speaker 1: what they mean when they say that a picture is

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Speaker 1: worth a thousand words. Like Freuden Rich could have spent

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Speaker 1: five thousand words explaining all this and he still wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have nailed it like a picture would it's just impossible

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Speaker 1: in a situation like this. Well, you've already explained more

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Speaker 1: than I would have. I would have just said, a

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Speaker 1: series of tubes and wires. Okay, So a series of

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Speaker 1: tubes connected, and then you've got the fabric covering that

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Speaker 1: you got wires having like holly, connecting everything um and

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Speaker 1: stabilizing it. And then the key to all of this,

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Speaker 1: there's a couple of keys. This is where it starts

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Speaker 1: to get fascinating. There's something called the control bar, right,

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Speaker 1: and the control bar is like a triangle that dangles

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Speaker 1: right in front of you when you're hanging from the

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Speaker 1: hand glider. And this is the thing that you you

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Speaker 1: have your hands on. It's it's how you control the

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Speaker 1: hand glidder, which is why it's called the control bar.

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Speaker 1: And then the next really essential piece, and I'll stop

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Speaker 1: after this, I promise, is the harness, which is suspended

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Speaker 1: from the keel above you, right behind where the control

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Speaker 1: bar hits the keel right, and so you are prone,

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Speaker 1: you're lying on your stomach when you're flying, and you're

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Speaker 1: hanging onto the control bar and you're dangling from the

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Speaker 1: hand glider above, which is why it's called hand gliding.

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Speaker 1: Because you're hanging from the hand glider. Fascinating it is,

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Speaker 1: and I imagine in the nineties seventies it seemed like

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Speaker 1: a fun idea when you're in Hawaii, we've had a

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Speaker 1: couple of rum drinks to uh to get in a suit,

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Speaker 1: throw on the helmet, strap into that harness and run

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Speaker 1: off the side of a cliff because that's how you used.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you can still launch like that, but it

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Speaker 1: looks like it's gotten a little more uh, like that's

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Speaker 1: fallen out of fashion a little bit, the run off

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Speaker 1: the cliff version. I don't know if that's true. Man,

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Speaker 1: I think that that's like, um, that you're an advanced

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Speaker 1: hand glider, that's probably how you're going to try it,

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Speaker 1: although you yeah, although you can't, I mean, you can't

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Speaker 1: do um, you know, like a dune or something like that.

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Speaker 1: It's really good for training or whatever. But they have

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Speaker 1: like I don't know if you call it, like a

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Speaker 1: launch ramp or something like that, but like some sort

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Speaker 1: of launch that they build onto the edges of cliffs

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Speaker 1: to run off of for hand gliding, and they're just

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Speaker 1: terrifying to even look at pictures of. Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: i'd say I'm not scared to do it, but I'm

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Speaker 1: I imagine I would have some butterflies when you go

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Speaker 1: and run and jump off that thing, Right, I would too, man,

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Speaker 1: So don't feel bad. But you see people do it.

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Speaker 1: And my immediate thought is I'm gonna nose dive, But

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Speaker 1: you don't knows dive thanks to physics. Right, And do

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Speaker 1: you want to take a break and then get into

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Speaker 1: the physics. Yeah, we might as well hang gliding shock

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Speaker 1: all right, physics. So the reason a hang glider works

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Speaker 1: is because of its elegant lightweight design and the way

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Speaker 1: the air moves over these wings, and then all of

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Speaker 1: these other forces acting in concert with one another to

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Speaker 1: make sure you stay up there for as long as possible. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So the first one we're talking about is lift. The

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Speaker 1: air goes over the surface of that wing, and that's

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Speaker 1: going to generate that lift when you run and you

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Speaker 1: jump off of that platform, and it's going to counter

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Speaker 1: the gravity. But gravity in this case is not bad

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Speaker 1: like gravity is actually going to be. While it does

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Speaker 1: want to pull you to Earth, it's what's making you

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Speaker 1: go forward continuing that airflow. Gravity is is your friend

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Speaker 1: in this case. Yeah, and then you've got drag, which

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Speaker 1: is really the the other one. Um, those three factors

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Speaker 1: together are what really applied to hang gliding, and drag

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Speaker 1: is what ultimately slows you down. It's you're running into

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Speaker 1: air molecules, and the faster you go, the more drag

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Speaker 1: you have, the more the faster you get slowed down,

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Speaker 1: which then brings in the syncrate, which is the speed

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Speaker 1: at which a hang glider starts to descend towards Earth.

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Speaker 1: It's measured in like feet per second in still air, okay, right,

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Speaker 1: and the distance it can travel is determined by something

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Speaker 1: called the glide ratio, which is the ratio of the

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00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:12,520
Speaker 1: forward distance through the vertical distance dropped for forward distance

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00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 1: you've traveled to your to that drop rate. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: like say every twenty four ft you move forward, you

401
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:27,720
Speaker 1: drop like one ft downward. Right, So that's I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's really basically it for physics. But the hand gliding

403
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,080
Speaker 1: would be like an entirely different sport if it weren't

404
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,879
Speaker 1: for um, the ability to catch air currents. Yeah, it's

405
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,359
Speaker 1: kind of all about that. Otherwise they would just be

406
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 1: pretty quick rides. They would be I mean, like it'd

407
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:45,719
Speaker 1: be pretty awesome still, especially if you like you launched

408
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Speaker 1: off a cliff and then just kind of glided slowly

409
00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: downward toward the toward the Earth. It's still be pretty cool,

410
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: but you can you can catch air currents if you

411
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Speaker 1: know what you're doing and stay aloft for hours and

412
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: go across parts entire parts of the country. As a

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00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:06,920
Speaker 1: matter of fact, the um the record for the longest

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00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:12,240
Speaker 1: distance traveled is like four hundred and seventy two miles,

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00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 1: so I think it's like seven kilometers. They basically what

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00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 1: these two dudes went from Lubbock, Texas to Nuevo Laredo

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Speaker 1: over the course of I think like eleven hours maybe

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Speaker 1: something like that. And the way that you do this

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Speaker 1: is that you go find these air currents, and there's

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Speaker 1: a couple of places you can reasonably expect you're going

421
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 1: to find upward lift from air, right, Yeah, hot air

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00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 1: is one way thermal lift. And that's like over a desert,

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00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:46,080
Speaker 1: like hot sand or pavement prefer the hot sand over pavement,

424
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,600
Speaker 1: or if it's super sunny. And and I get the

425
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: feeling that when the more experience you have, the more

426
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 1: you know how to how to look around your environment

427
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 1: to feel and see where this might be happening. Yeah,

428
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,520
Speaker 1: Supposedly one way that they do it is to look

429
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 1: for birds that are just sitting there kind of soaring. Uh,

430
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: and you can just go catch that air column whatever

431
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,159
Speaker 1: it is that they're soaring on. Right. That's one of

432
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 1: the most like relaxing things for me to see. Yeah,

433
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:19,640
Speaker 1: there's a hawk, almost emotionless, just sort of floating. Now

434
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,879
Speaker 1: imagine doing it yourself. Yeah, didn't that seem relaxing? I

435
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,400
Speaker 1: think it sounds great. Yeah, No, I would. I would

436
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: enjoy it. I'm sure it's not gonna get through a

437
00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:31,640
Speaker 1: lot of effort to make it happen. Yeah, apparently I've

438
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 1: made it my mission to get you hang gliding for

439
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,360
Speaker 1: some reason. And what it's a in the Chips episode,

440
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:41,680
Speaker 1: you will have rigged my hang glider to cratch right,

441
00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:47,359
Speaker 1: poor Robert Pine. Uh. And then he's Robert Pine. He

442
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:51,679
Speaker 1: was there like captain or sergeant. Yeah, great, great actor.

443
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: I can picture him immediately in my brain. Uh. And

444
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: then you've got something called ridge lift, and that's air

445
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:01,680
Speaker 1: that's that's deflected up by um like a mountain or

446
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 1: a ridge, and the basically the topography of the ground

447
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:08,360
Speaker 1: beneath you and around you. You can learn to read

448
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,400
Speaker 1: that stuff and you know where these swells and columns

449
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 1: of air gonna be right. And when you when you

450
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,920
Speaker 1: find these columns of air, these lifts, like, you don't

451
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 1: just fly into them and all of a sudden you're

452
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:22,919
Speaker 1: up because they're actually usually fairly small. Um, so you

453
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 1: would basically fly right through them, maybe get a little

454
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 1: bit of lift, but then you just keep going and

455
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:30,360
Speaker 1: start descending again. If you're going to catch an air

456
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:34,679
Speaker 1: current and upward air current, you um basically want to

457
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:40,080
Speaker 1: enter into a tight spiral, basically an upward corkscrew spiral.

458
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,880
Speaker 1: You're you're following the air current upward. And to do this,

459
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: it's all just basically based on simple movements of your body.

460
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 1: That's the whole thing with steering and controlling a hand glider.

461
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:57,240
Speaker 1: It all has to do with the different um adjustments

462
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,239
Speaker 1: to the weight you're putting on the control bar at

463
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: triangle that's in front of you that you're hanging onto.

464
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. So um, you know you go left and right,

465
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:10,720
Speaker 1: but I think literally shifting your body as it's hanging

466
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 1: and you go up and down by tipping and it's

467
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 1: you know, it may see encounterintuitive or who knows. Once

468
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:19,400
Speaker 1: you're up there. It may seem like the right way

469
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: to do it, but in order to go up, you

470
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 1: tip the nose down, and then vice versa. Yeah, And

471
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:28,080
Speaker 1: to tip the nose down, you pull the control bar

472
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,960
Speaker 1: towards you, so you're shifting your weight forward, and when

473
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: you push put that that nose down, your trade again

474
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: some of your altitude. You know, you're you're basically creating

475
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 1: a nose dive, but just for just enough to to

476
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 1: speed up and then to slow down. You push the

477
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: control bar away from you, which tips the nose up,

478
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: which basically stops the um the glide of the glider.

479
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 1: It turns it. Yeah, it turns it into like a

480
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 1: piece of fabric trying to go forward through space rather

481
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 1: than something just cutting smoothly horizontally. It's it's starting, it's

482
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 1: now vertical in some way, and it slows it down.

483
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 1: And that's actually the way you land too. Apparently you

484
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: can land on your feet very gently. Once you're close

485
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 1: to the ground, you start to stall by pushing the

486
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 1: control bar away from you, That lifts the nose up,

487
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,000
Speaker 1: cut your speed off, and then you just kind of

488
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: in a nice gentle trot, hit the ground and and

489
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 1: you say, I just hang glided. Yes, I think what

490
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 1: I would worry about for myself is that, um, some

491
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: of this stuff may not be intuitive or instinctive, and

492
00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 1: I would do the wrong thing and then panic. So, uh,

493
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 1: that's actually a really good point. Um. This group called

494
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 1: Kitty Hawk Kites from North Carolina, which are actually sited

495
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 1: in the House to Works article, they had like a

496
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,719
Speaker 1: really good tips for beginner's article as well, and they

497
00:29:57,760 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 1: say one of the things that you have to learn

498
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 1: is to remain calm, because it takes a bit of finesse.

499
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: From what I understand it takes. Um. You have to

500
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 1: you have to be able to very smoothly move your

501
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 1: weight around and if you're anxious and you're hanging onto

502
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:19,360
Speaker 1: the control bar too too tight, your movements are going

503
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:21,560
Speaker 1: to be kind of herky jerky, and it's it's not

504
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: a good way to hang glide. So you want to

505
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: be you want to be relaxed and controlled. And they

506
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 1: say that the best way to do this is to

507
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: have a few tandem lessons. First, I have a few drinks.

508
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:35,240
Speaker 1: I would guess that. I don't know if they would

509
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: recommend that or not. Maybe yeah, and maybe one for

510
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 1: when you're up there too. But yeah, yeah, they're like

511
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 1: where'd you get that? But they offer like tandem lessons, right,

512
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 1: so you're you're on there next to somebody who is

513
00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 1: an experienced hang glider and they're controlling and then they

514
00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:59,720
Speaker 1: can hand over the control the control bar to you,

515
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 1: but say, okay, now let's go left or let's go right,

516
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,240
Speaker 1: And all that is is just shifting your weight left,

517
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:08,479
Speaker 1: shifting your weight right, shifting your weight forward or backward

518
00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: for up or down. It's as simple as that. But

519
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:13,800
Speaker 1: I think remaining calm is a huge part of the

520
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: whole thing. That's a good point, yeah, for sure. Um

521
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: So if you're an experienced pilot, you might also have

522
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 1: some other gear up there with you, um, like in

523
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 1: a variometer, and this is what in a lot of

524
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:30,040
Speaker 1: these you can hear, so you don't have to look

525
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: at it. It'll like, I guess it barks out. You know,

526
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: you're climbing in descent rate, which is pretty handy. Uh.

527
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: And then what's the other one the altimeter? Uh altimeter. Yeah,

528
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 1: that's the one that just tells you what your altitude

529
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 1: is called the altimeter altimet tear and you're gonna want

530
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 1: goggles and obviously the helmet. And I think if you

531
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 1: do these more, the higher up extreme things, you're gonna

532
00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 1: also have a parachute. Yeah, when you're hitting thousands of feet. Yeah.

533
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 1: They say that most of the accidents that happened happened

534
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 1: on takeoff or landing, that it's rarely. Um, does somebody

535
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 1: just fall out of the sky even when they hit turbulence.

536
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: You're not gonna like just drop out of the sky

537
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: like a stone. Um, that's just not how aerodynamics works.

538
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 1: But you'll have a bumpy ride. It's more like you, um,

539
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:26,840
Speaker 1: you hit a tree or you um like you feel

540
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 1: like you fall off the cliff, like you're your your

541
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: hand glider doesn't catch air right or something like that.

542
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 1: That that's usually on takeoff or landing when you when

543
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: you have a crash. Although I did see, um I

544
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 1: think it was might have and because that is of course,

545
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 1: looked up hand gliding deaths and um, this one guy

546
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:50,400
Speaker 1: like fell out of his hand glider entirely, oh man

547
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 1: and went to the ground. Yeah, that would be That'd

548
00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:55,320
Speaker 1: be one way that it could happen too. And I

549
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,520
Speaker 1: don't know if we said or not. Otto Lilienthal died

550
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 1: in a hand gliding crash. That's how he went, Oh,

551
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 1: I don't think I need that very appropriately, you know,

552
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:08,479
Speaker 1: so um in reading Kittie hawk Kites description of you

553
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 1: know what what it feels like when you're learning how

554
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 1: to hang glide? So they hang glide on sand dunes,

555
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:18,080
Speaker 1: which is virtually the same area that the Wright brothers

556
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 1: tried their stuff out on. And the reason why they

557
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 1: use sand dunes because there's a gentle slope for one,

558
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,479
Speaker 1: but number two, if you fall, you fall into sand,

559
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: which is much more forgiving than, like you said, pavement. Right,

560
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: But when you're when you're hang gliding, when you're learning

561
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 1: how to do this, the whole point is, man, they

562
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 1: did such a good job describing me. And basically they said,

563
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: imagine you're running down a hill, right, and you don't

564
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 1: have a hang glider. You're just running downhill. Eventually you're

565
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 1: gonna pick up enough speed that your legs can't keep

566
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 1: up with it. Gravity is pulling you downward, and you're

567
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:56,880
Speaker 1: gonna start tumbling downhill. So it's you you just crashed

568
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: running downhill, right, they said. With a hang glider, what

569
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: you're doing is you're running downhill and you're picking up

570
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 1: that same speed. But you're using the hang glider to

571
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 1: stabilize yourself so that your legs don't get ahead of yourself.

572
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:12,279
Speaker 1: And if you can find that balance, and it just

573
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:15,440
Speaker 1: takes a few times to practice this, well, probably several times,

574
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 1: but if you can find that balance to where you

575
00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:20,880
Speaker 1: can trust and stabilize yourself with the hang glider as

576
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 1: you're running down the slope, eventually the weight of your

577
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 1: body and the hand glider that you're holding, because remember

578
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: it ways up to about seventy pounds, the weight of

579
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 1: the two things starts to be transferred as the there

580
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 1: as lift is produced under the hand glider from the

581
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,280
Speaker 1: bottoms of your feet to the straps of your harness,

582
00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 1: and little by little that that weight is transferred and

583
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:47,200
Speaker 1: eventually your feet are no longer making contact with the ground.

584
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: And I'll bet there's a cute few seconds where your

585
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 1: feet are just going through the area, you know, and

586
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 1: the it's now the straps holding you up and through

587
00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:58,239
Speaker 1: so it's the hang glider through the straps holding you up,

588
00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 1: and you've just taken off and now you're so ring

589
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,200
Speaker 1: but I would be like, I'm not ready yet, and

590
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: then then you just pull the pull back on the

591
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 1: control bar or push No, I'm sorry, you push forward

592
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:09,840
Speaker 1: on the control bar, the nose would go up and

593
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: you'd you'd land after just you know, being a couple

594
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:14,839
Speaker 1: of feet off the ground if you had your head

595
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:18,080
Speaker 1: about you. But what they're saying is is like, even

596
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:21,000
Speaker 1: if you never do catch air, as long as you

597
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 1: don't hesitate and you just keep you know, using the

598
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:27,440
Speaker 1: hand glider to stabilize yourself, at the worst, you're gonna

599
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 1: just end up at the bottom of the hill having

600
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:32,640
Speaker 1: run down there and never caught air. At best you

601
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 1: will have caught air right and you'll just taken off.

602
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 1: But the whole point with them is is that you're

603
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:39,759
Speaker 1: training on sand, so even if you bite it, you're

604
00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 1: still just in sand, so it's fine. All this explains though,

605
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,279
Speaker 1: why they don't just say, okay, here's a cliff with

606
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 1: a lawn tramp run off. You have to know what

607
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 1: you're doing and it eventually you wanted to be You

608
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,600
Speaker 1: wanted to go from a gradual transfer to a very

609
00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 1: sudden transfer of weight from your feet to the strap

610
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,719
Speaker 1: to the harness. Correct. Yeah, And then there's one other

611
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,759
Speaker 1: way that you can do this too, and it's being

612
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:10,239
Speaker 1: towed by a machine. Like Paris sailing right, you're being

613
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:13,200
Speaker 1: towed by a boat. Well, I was reading this article

614
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 1: from I think, and people in Kansas they have nothing

615
00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:21,080
Speaker 1: to launch off of. But they were still in hang gliding,

616
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: so they were using tow trucks or not toe trucks,

617
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 1: pickup trucks. They just sit in the back of pickup

618
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 1: trucks with like a little cable attached to them, and

619
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 1: as the pickup chuck gain speed, there glider would start

620
00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:36,440
Speaker 1: to be picked up and they eventually disconnect themselves and

621
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:40,479
Speaker 1: hang glide around. Kansas launched me a pickup of course,

622
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:45,400
Speaker 1: it's Kansas awesome. It does not surprise me. No, that

623
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:47,040
Speaker 1: makes sense. I think I might even feel a little

624
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 1: better about automobile doing the work for me. Oh really,

625
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,920
Speaker 1: a pickup chuck? Well maybe, I mean, do they do

626
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,880
Speaker 1: they just tell you around? Literally parasl styled. Do they

627
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,080
Speaker 1: tell you to ord a Well, they don't have any

628
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,760
Speaker 1: cliffs in Kansas. No, they don't. They don't have anything.

629
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:07,640
Speaker 1: You're your your golden in that respect. The only cliffs

630
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:13,719
Speaker 1: in Kansas are delivering your mail. Nice one, Um, I

631
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:16,759
Speaker 1: have one more thing, You got anything else? I got

632
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 1: one more thing. So the earliest earliest hand gliding designs

633
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:24,520
Speaker 1: didn't use a harness. It was like a hang glider

634
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 1: like you have, right, but you would run and then eventually,

635
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,719
Speaker 1: like the hang glider would would just lift off and

636
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:35,439
Speaker 1: you'd be dangling like a rock from the control bar,

637
00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:39,759
Speaker 1: hanging on for dear life. Rather than being connected by

638
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:42,840
Speaker 1: a harness in a prone position. You would just be

639
00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:48,040
Speaker 1: hanging from like downward from the control bard. Yeah. I

640
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:52,160
Speaker 1: mean it was nothing like the hang glider like experience

641
00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:54,640
Speaker 1: that we have now. They didn't last very long and

642
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 1: they didn't go very far and get very high. But

643
00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of like a zip line. Wow. Yeah,

644
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 1: so that's it. That's hang glider man. There you have it.

645
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 1: We're gonna go do it this uh this spring. We

646
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,719
Speaker 1: are yes, we are all right. If you want to

647
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:14,920
Speaker 1: know more about hand gladding, go take a lesson and

648
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:16,600
Speaker 1: try it yourself. And in the meantime you can go

649
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:20,719
Speaker 1: check out this ancient how stuff works article. It's hilarious. Um,

650
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:23,560
Speaker 1: and just type in hand gliding and the search bar,

651
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:25,759
Speaker 1: you know, bring this up and said say said that

652
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 1: it's time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this, uh,

653
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,920
Speaker 1: just a really nice email from a nice, dude, o't nice. Hey, guys,

654
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 1: just recently finished my second run of every episode. How

655
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:43,279
Speaker 1: about that. Hats off to you, dude, after hearing the

656
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 1: Simpsons podcasts and understanding how it shaped so many lives.

657
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:48,279
Speaker 1: We'll let you know the stuff. You should know. It's

658
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,000
Speaker 1: helped me just as much, if not more. Just as

659
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:54,239
Speaker 1: you said, the Simpsons pointed me, you guys into the

660
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:57,440
Speaker 1: direction of pop pop culture. I think you said that. Um,

661
00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 1: your podcast shared of and shared knowledge have done the

662
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 1: same for me and many other people who listen. I've

663
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:04,799
Speaker 1: been listening since two thousand nine, when I got my

664
00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:09,160
Speaker 1: first iPod at sixteen. Oh that's adorable, And at that

665
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:11,280
Speaker 1: time it did not have many friends, suffered from depression,

666
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 1: and was dealing with a stressful life at home. When

667
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 1: I first found the podcast, I was immediately hooked because

668
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:19,080
Speaker 1: it seemed like an audio version of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader,

669
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:21,920
Speaker 1: which I was already an avid van of. Man, this

670
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:25,600
Speaker 1: kid's got it nailed. Um, I know he mentioned Mad Magazine,

671
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:30,000
Speaker 1: then I'll know it's you. He As I continue to listen,

672
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:32,440
Speaker 1: I grew more and more attached to the comforting feeling

673
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 1: of two intelligent guys having a friendly talk about interesting information.

674
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:38,879
Speaker 1: The show managed to give me a mental safe haven

675
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:41,240
Speaker 1: during rough times at home, and your nuggets of wisdom

676
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 1: throughout the shows provide subtle life lessons that were crucial

677
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 1: to my formative years. The constant awareness of guiding listeners

678
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:50,800
Speaker 1: to have an open mind and warm heart is a

679
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:53,319
Speaker 1: needed reminder to be the best person I can be,

680
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,600
Speaker 1: to be more like Josh and Chuck. After high school,

681
00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:00,520
Speaker 1: I joined the army and was isolated often in different

682
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:03,240
Speaker 1: parts of the country. Knowing that I could hear the witty,

683
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:05,799
Speaker 1: friendly banter of you two whenever I wanted always made

684
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,800
Speaker 1: me feel right at home. Right now, I am finally

685
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:12,040
Speaker 1: going back to college the Rifles, age twenty four and

686
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 1: is mostly thanks to you guys. You are my academic heroes.

687
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 1: Stuff you should know. May not have changed the world

688
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:21,960
Speaker 1: as much as The Simpsons yet, but it has certainly

689
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:26,400
Speaker 1: changed mind. Man. How about that That was a great email.

690
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 1: Thanks for picking that one, man, it was Thanks for

691
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 1: always being there. It means more than you can ever know.

692
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 1: Christian Stanley p s. If you read this for listener mail,

693
00:40:34,239 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: it would be one of the highlights of my life.

694
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:40,880
Speaker 1: And will there you go, Christian Highlight achieved level up.

695
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for that. That was a really

696
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:45,680
Speaker 1: great email, and thanks for listening all these years. We

697
00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Yeah, Christian, we'd super duper appreciate it. And

698
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:51,840
Speaker 1: if you want to tell us high and that, uh

699
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,759
Speaker 1: you have been listening all these years, well we appreciate

700
00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 1: you too. You can let us know via Twitter at

701
00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 1: Josh M Clark or s y SK Podcasts on Facebook

702
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:04,880
Speaker 1: dot com, slash stuff you Should Know or slash Charles W.

703
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,680
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant. You can send us an email to stuff

704
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,280
Speaker 1: Podcasts at how stuff Works dot com and has always

705
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:12,400
Speaker 1: joined us at our home on the web, Stuff you

706
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:19,280
Speaker 1: Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands

707
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: of other topics. Is it how stuff Works dot com