History of Willamette River flying

[Steed family]

Great video guys - I'm going to send the link to Art Laws, who is probably the king of Willamette River airtime*.  He has flown along the Willamette through downtown Portland countless times.  This happened before paragliders and before hang gliders as we know them, nearly 60 years ago, with a kite towed behind a boat.  This pentagonal kite had no harness of any sort - he just held onto an aluminum crossbar.  Paula and I recently had the pleasure of being dinner guests at his stunning Sun Valley Idaho home.  He described one flight where he smacked into the underside of not one, but three bridges, because his driver was speeding up too soon.  He also took one ill-advised steep turn where the kite became uncontrollable and he nearly crashed onto the deck of a Rose Festival ship.  This hobby became a business for a few years -- a waterskiing stunt show that traveled all around the west.
 
While I had never met Art before, he is an avid mountaineer and we discovered he knew my parents from circa 1950 at the original Mazama lodge.  He developed the curriculum for the Timberline Ski School, and taught it to my parents, who advanced from instructing at Summit to Timberline.  In his spare time he ran the family car dealership (Timberline Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep) and later moved to Sun Valley Idaho and the ski school there.  He doesn't instruct any more, but he's a very fit great-grandpa with a new season's pass, and I have no doubt he will get his money's worth.
 
Mike

 

* not counting Portland Airport traffic from its original Swan Island location
 

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From: ja...@leisek.com
Subject: DAR: Eight Pilots Rip it Up in Portland, Oregon - Over and Under Ten of Portland's Historic Bridges
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:55:54 -0700
To: deserta...@googlegroups.com

A Little Bridge Fun - Powered Paragliding Portland, Oregon

http://youtu.be/1UQ4bFUuRQg

So what kind of fun can eight powered paraglider pilots have in Portland, Oregon?  Well here's a sneak peak as captured by seven cameras as we have a bit of fun flying over and under 10 of Portland's Historic Bridges on a beautiful Sunday morning.

Do note that safety and proper clearance was of importance to us. On top of having a signed letter from the FAA, we took proper precautions with life vest and a chase boat should one of us were to have ended up in the drink. Luckily the only thing we needed the chase boat for this time was to capture additional video footage. 

A note to newbies and/or really everybody. Foot dragging anything especially a river can be dangerous. Even with a quick release harness, and flotation devices, something could still go wrong. This is a risk/reward and you as a pilot must weigh your skill level, your desires and if you can afford to retrieve and/or replace your equipment should you not be able to recover it. For me personally, it's a risk worth taking. 

Jared 

541-390-9597

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[Steed family]

Actually I should correct my description now that I remember the conversation.  Art blamed his bridge-smacking not on the driver but on the winds through the bridge piers.  A local venturi hit him, and with a stretchy tow line the driver may not have been able to correct the problem.
 

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Subject: Re: History of Willamette River flying
From: ja...@leisek.com
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2012 04:57:45 -0700
To: steed...@hotmail.com

Sounds like Art is lucky to be alive that's quite a story on how it was once done and I can only imagine the words Art had with his driver afterward. 

Jared