Jason Yao soared 1,500 feet above Lookout Valley, viewing the mountainous topography below. Vast woodlands stretched as far as his eyes could see. Creeks, ridges and houses became tiny specks as he flew above the mountains, getting views of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina while fastened to a seasoned pilot inside a hang glider.
Yao, 21, took in the area's stunning views as the pilot navigated air pockets, gently guiding the glider through the Georgia air for more than 15 minutes.
"Amazing. Beautiful. It was really surprising how safe it felt," Yao said.
Hang gliding, an activity in which a pilot, and often a passenger, are strapped to a non-motorized glider to fly through the sky, was his girlfriend's idea.
Yao and Nicole Jung, also 21, saw the adventure on a travel website. They already had seen Rock City and Ruby Falls and ridden the Incline Railway on their trip to Chattanooga, but they saved this adventure for last. It was their final activity on the last day of their road trip to cities in the eastern United States. The next morning, they would head home to New York City.
As Yao slowly descended, Jung stood below, at the edge of adjoining fields used as the landing strip for Lookout Mountain Flight Park in Rising Fawn, Ga. A growing group of tourists stood by an equipment truck, getting ready for their trips. As they waited, more people pulled into the parking lot, eager to strap into a glider, connect to a plane and be released in the sky.
Almost all of them had never been hang gliding before.
Surrounding them, an RV park, camping sites and dozens of condominiums and cabins lined the fields, providing the opportunity for a stay for flight park visitors.
Twenty five years ago, such a scene was unimaginable.
"None of this was here," pilot Dave Miller said.
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The first flexible wing hang gliders, which were relatively inexpensive and easy to build, were introduced in the 1940s.
With advancements in aircraft, pilots began building their own bamboo and polythene gliders and the sport took off in the '60s.
Hang gliding reached new heights nationally - literally and figuratively - in the coming decades as pilots would take their gliders and leap from the nearest mountain, sand dune or hill. However, the sport almost entirely consisted of pilots who made hang gliding a central activity in their lives.
Since then, the number of registered hang gliders certified with the U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association has decreased, but tandem flights have spiked. Self-regulation by the sport to increase safety has made it more expensive and oftentimes less exciting for those original pilots seeking thrill and danger.
As it became safer, the number of pilots declined nationally, the association's Nick Greece said. However, in certain places such as Chattanooga, the sport has grown tremendously.
"Lookout Mountain Flight Park is one of the best communities for free flight in the world," Greece said. "Chattanooga is one of our crown jewels of the hang gliding community in America."
Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau director Barry White has been on the job only for a few months, but the activity is something he quickly learned is a lure for the Scenic City.
"This is definitely something that differentiates Chattanooga from a lot of other destinations," he said. "With a premiere site that sets us apart from other places, along with the beautiful setting, that really makes us unique."
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Local resident and pilot Mitch Keebler began hang gliding in the early 1980s.
Sure, hang gliding existed when Keebler started, he said, and Chattanooga was known as a hang gliding destination. However, it wasn't entirely safe, and it certainly wasn't a major tourist attraction.
"It was wild people, crazy people. There were a lot of negative aspects of that. That's just a fact. It was more people that this was their life. They did it daily. Not everybody, but a lot of the sport was like that," he said.
Keebler was a regular hang glider then, but once he had kids, he gave up the sport to focus on his family and keep himself safe. When his children were grown and out of the house, he returned to the sport last summer.
He was amazed by the changes.
" there's a lot more women in the sport, a lot more professional people, too, who do it as a hobby compared to as a lifestyle," Keebler said.
Lookout Mountain Flight Park had more than 3,300 tandem and introductory flights last year, records show. That doesn't include the 300 members who regularly hang glide from the facility. As the number of national pilots has decreased, the park has seen some of its busiest years in history over the last decade.
There's no one answer as to why the activity has grown so much locally or why Chattanooga has become its de facto capital. However, local, regional and national pilots credit several key changes that led to the growth of hang gliding in the area: safety improvements, accessibility, predictable winds due to surrounding mountain ranges, the proximity to city amenities and topography.
Glider designs have improved steadily in the 21st century. Regulations and technological advances have made sturdier, safer gliders and limited the number of homemade aircraft being used. Lookout Mountain also began aerotowing in 1997, making the sport safer and more accessible.
No longer would tandem flyers be forced to run and jump off the mountain, which led to problems when riders would panic in the final seconds of the launch and stop running as the pilot tried to jump off the cliff. Instead, tandem flyers would start at the landing zone. They would connect to a seasoned pilot inside the glider, be attached to a small aircraft, be taken up to altitude and released.
That change also allowed the flight park to do about as many tandem flights per hour as it used to do in a day, flight park owner Matt Taber said.
Those passengers - out-of-town visitors, people celebrating birthdays, etc. - now make up a majority of the industry, taking trips that start at $149.
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As interest grew, the city of Chattanooga began putting resources behind marketing hang gliding to visitors. City and tourism groups will regularly plug the activity when tourists or residents ask for something to try in Chattanooga, Outdoor Chattanooga Executive Director Philip Grimes said.
Thanks in part to those marketing efforts, thousands of people have now taken part in a breathtaking activity once reserved for the few willing to devote the time and money while taking the risks associated with the sport.
"It's a major attraction here in the Chattanooga area," Keebler said. "For those who get to do it, it's a pretty amazing feeling."
Contact staff writer Mark Pace at mpace@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @themarkpace and on Facebook at Chattanooga OutdoorsTFP.