DATE: Sunday, May 4, 1997                   TAG: 9705010326

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 2    EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Lane DeGregory 

                                            LENGTH:   41 lines

FROM THE EDITOR

I didn't want to do it.

For five years, I've managed to let other reporters land every hang gliding assignment. I've never had to strap wings on my back and climb Jockey's Ridge. And I never wanted to.

It's not that I'm afraid of heights. I love climbing lighthouses and water towers and fire platforms. It's not that I'm afraid of flying. I adore jet rides, helicopter trips and even loops in open-air cockpits of World War II fighter planes.

I just had no desire to hang glide.

Maybe I didn't trust myself to control my own fate once my feet left the ground. Maybe I was afraid of falling face-first in a mound of scratchy sand. Or maybe I was just afraid of failing.

I didn't.

I flew.

It wasn't very far. I didn't float farther than half a football field. I wasn't very high. I didn't rise above my instructor's head.

But for a few, brief moments, I felt the wind beneath my rented wings. Only air was between my body and the ground. And I saw the earth from the close-up, quiet, bird's eye perspective of a circling seagull.

No wonder this graceful, peaceful sport has taken off so much during the last 20 years. No wonder more than 100 hang gliders from across the country are arriving on the Outer Banks this week to celebrate their passion for flight. No wonder Kitty Hawk Kites instructors insisted that if I was going to write about hang gliding for this week's cover story, I had to fly.

While I was surfing the skies last week, our new intern, Miles Daniels, surfed the sound. He went kayaking around Roanoke Island on an ecotour excursion for our "Fun in the Sun" feature. And he saw a side of the Outer Banks most motorists miss.

Movie marquees are fairly visible on the beach. But finding screening schedules from home can be frustrating. So starting this issue, The Coast will include weekly movie listings and descriptions in "At the Movies" - compiled by Susan Vaughan, who also does our Club Hoppin' band calendar.

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