Notes on Hang Gliding

I am bored, I dream of flying, and soon I’m bored of it. The sky has its flaws, the wind is aggressive, up in the air it seems to be effortless, but they look at you like you’re crazy if you want to do it in the rain, or at night. On launch and land it can hurt you the worst, anything with a bunch of horror story chit chat at the waiting point seems not worth it given all that is statistically safer activities that I have yet to let consume me. The training lecture is boring, let me jump off the face of this hill already you don’t need to say “round off to trim” over and over, experience will teach me better than you can. Assembling and disassembling the glider is boring. None of this is creative. But it is in my head. I can’t work with cars, or bikes easily, this fits me. Learning about mechanics and electronics is only interesting from this selfish perspective – that my upper-body strength may be capable of manipulating what ever transportation device I’m using. No one’s helping me manipulate motorcycles, I would have to do it myself. Hang-gliders are supposed to be as nothing as possible, this is my only option in a world built for people who can do pull-ups. Learning to manipulate hang gliders is a valuable skill, one that will protect my fragile artistic insides from having to sell themselves in to stay alive – that’s how I ended up as a degenerate electrical engineer at a space exploration company. Also, I’m afraid of getting into the habit of watching something without the ability to manipulate it. I am here to manipulate as much as I can – right?