From
Toys to Wings
in the Forever Bonds of Flight by C.J. STURTEVANT with DONNITA HALL
O
nce upon a time—a time so
what wild, perhaps; definitely adven-
upon a time” days right up to today.
long ago that many of you
turous; often “think outside the box”
Dennis Pagen, one of the young male
had not yet made your ap-
creative types. A miniscule propor-
pioneers who’s been flying these big
tion of those hang gliding pioneers
into existence a brand-new sport.
were women. I’d like to introduce you
Those first flying contraptions were
to one of those women, the only one
and development of modern hang gliding for us all. The amazing thing
“Donnita Hall represents the birth
aptly referred to simply as “kites” but
who fell so in love with hang gliding
eventually those who hung under
that she made it a focus of her life
is she has continued her involve-
them named them “hang gliders.” In
for almost 50 years, from those “once
ment all along to today. Perhaps no
the beginning, almost all of those participants were young men: some-
40
kites almost as long as anybody, says,
pearance on this Earth—there came
HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE
ABOVE Lake
Tahoe, 1970