This week I have left my fair ocean behind for a leap back into the air. To fly through the air high above the islands, way beyond the world, to see what it's like to be as free as a bird. My topical choice for the week has been hang gliding. The spelling varies so often, but meaning is always the same. I began as always manipulating the info seek search to my advantage to find links on hang gliding. (You may be wondering why I always use this search engine...well it's because I get the best results this way. It's what I would call personal preference.) Anyway I searched and nearly all the links were to a Hang Gliding Digest. Unfortunately I did not find their articles very interesting or appealing to the needs of my browsing soul, so I moved on and looked at the Hang Gliding WWW Server Home Page. Here I thought I would find all I ever wanted to know about hang gliding, well, I did and didn't. This homepage contains links to a gallery and a place to browse through photographs. Those are actually the best places to look, the pictures are cool. Other than those links there are connections to those Hang Gliding Digest's that I didn't find informative and even a search on HG Digests. It's a good idea to have a search capability, but it takes a long time. If you have the time then try it out. The list of info doesn't stop there it also contains links to what's new this month and movies. In actuality this stop wasn't very exciting.

I proceed to fish around and came across a link to Adventures in the Air. It was a Hawaii link to air plane tours, glider rides, hanggliding/paragliding, helicopter tours (I don't trust them.),parasailing and skydiving. Great listing of things to do and places to look, but still not informative. By this time I was getting very discouraged. I didn't think I would find anything worthwhile. I honestly thought I would have to start and entirely new search on some boring non-automobile activity.

Then I found it. It was right under my nose. What was it? A link to Hanggliding Servers. I was saved! Under this link there were listings of hanggliding links all over the world, some even offered in different languages. It was fantastic. I got so excited and quickly found a location to search. I clicked on Hang gliding in New Zealand and under this link there were even more. There was a section on clubs and contacts, but I quickly skipped over that and moved on to Flying in New Zealand. In this link I found into on everything you need to know before flying. In this section it went over rules and regulation (let me tell you there were a lot), ratings, country codes and air space regulations. All of these very important facts before you can even begin. It reminded me of our drivers handbook. They both outline laws and rules by which we are bound as long as we are an operator of a vehicle. Whether it is a hangglider or a car, it does not matter. There were also sections on where to learn, shops galore and great places to fly from (those have photos). In actuality I have found traffic psychology applicable to any activity involving motion. Even as a hangglider one must pay close attention to the weather, the care and maintenance of the glider and the well being of the driver. All of these factors are concern of traffic psychology.

Once again I leave you, this time high in the sky, above the traffic of the streets to battle the traffic in your mind.

Hang in there...need to talk, drop me a line.
Braden Kato's Week8 Report

Aaron Takahashi's Week8 Report