Tag Archives: nate scales

#218 John Heiney and 45 years of Hang Gliding

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John Heiney started hang gliding in 1978 and he’s still going strong today. His photographs of free flight have been on more than 50 magazine covers. He broke the Guinness World Record for looping in 1988. And then he broke his own record again ten years later! He was crowned the world aerobatics champion four times. He’s a machinist; diesel rabbit aficionado (he’s driving his fifth these days); hang gliding instructor, has more than 40 wings in his garage; worked on numerous commercials and films; designed gliders; was a test pilot; stunt pilot and has invented dozens and dozens of camera mounts to capture the magic of flying. His incredible flying stories span over four decades. Grab a cold one and kick back, you’re in for a treat.

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Episode 142- Urs Haari and the Sweet Spot

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Urs Haari has been at this game since the game began. He got several world records early in his career in South Africa in the early 90’s, stood on the podium multiple times at World Championships, PWC’s and at the European Championships and brought home champion titles at the Swiss, AND US Nationals. This past season he won the sport class in the Swiss Cup Championship for the remarkable 5th time, and is now the permanent holder of this coveted award. Given he only gets to go XC 4 to 6 times a year because of his work- a hell of an achievement!

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Episode 23- Guy Anderson and Lessons for Everyone

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On the last day of the World Cup in Sun Valley in 2012 British pilot Guy Anderson disappeared in an area we call “no man’s land.” Three days later, in a heroic search effort involving thousands of man hours and a very fired up team Guy was found, in no small part due to his own monumental efforts to stay alive. Guy suffered some pretty major injuries but three months later he was flying at the top of the stack at the Superfinal and hasn’t looked back since.

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Episode 10- Josh Cohn and Staying Consistent

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Josh Cohn has been the most consistent competition pilot the US has ever seen. His competition CV reads like Kelly Slaters. Soon after Josh learned to fly at age 16 he has been dominating the US comp scene and has notched up not only state distance records (New Mexico, Hawaii, Texas) but PWC wins, two National Championships and task wins at the Worlds to boot. In this episode we dig into how he’s maintained his consistency and passion, accidents, reserve throws, what can be done on non-comp wings, the current state of the CCC class since banning open gliders in 2011 and a LOT more. Josh talks about how he trains, his best and worst flight, best and worst wing, advice he’d give to his 16 year old self after all these years, and how important it is to switch gears- and how you know when to do it.

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Episode 8, Nick Greece and Progression

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I met Nick Greece in Haiti in 2012. I was living in Morocco trying to figure out how to become a better pilot, and getting an invitation from Nick to fly around in the sky wasn’t something I could pass up. Nick has become a great friend and one of my greatest mentors. We have worked together on film projects like 500 Miles to Nowhere, and Malawi and I’m forever trying to figure out how he’s always at the top of the stack. In this episode we learn how Nick got started, how 9-11 affected his choice in careers, what brought him to Jackson Hole, his epic 204 mile flight in 2013, winning US Nationals in 2014, why the US Team hasn’t done well in the Worlds, and all his own mentors in his own journey to the top.

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CNN’s “The Great Big Story” takes a new view of 500 Miles to Nowhere and More

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Just completed a great project with CNN called “The Great Big Story” that came out really well. They took a bunch of the footage from 500 Miles to Nowhere and some other tasty bits from other shoots from around the world and packed it into a really fun couple of minutes. Stunning, and makes me want to get out there! Hope you enjoy.

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Episode 5 Nate Scales and Staying in the Game

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Nate “Papa” Scales got his first flight in 1991 on a glider that had 11 cells in Sun Valley, Idaho. The next day he moved to Utah to learn how to fly and hasn’t looked back since. I’ve never met anyone as passionate as Nate is about flying nylon and string and he’s even more psyched today to go big than ever. We cover a LOT of ground in this hysterical episode. Nate discusses the value of competitions; his only (and very wild) reserve toss; risk and safety; his recent decision to step down to an ENC glider after flying comp gliders for more than 15 years; his “dream” line; learning from failure; and we go way back in time and talk about the days of taking pictures of waypoints before there was GPS; his 2007 X-Alps campaign and much more.

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Hypoxic Magic Lines

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It’s kind of hard to write this log knowing what happens on the day after this flight went down (wait wait, don’t fast forward yet!), but it was a magnificent day and deserves it’s own place in the Mayhem blog. Things looked…ok, but not great for a big flight. The wind looked once again right on the edge and given it’s July I thought things would be a bit hairy up in the sky. I was up the hill first, knowing we’ve got a short launch window on Baldy and I feel like we’ve been leaving a lot of distance on the table launching too late.

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What to Do, What to Do?

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Cabrinha Quest on Instagram!
Arrived Paris two weeks ago with Nate Scales, my Sun Valley flying buddy with huge plans of massive triangles in the Alps. Spring flying in Europe is spicy, strong and when you get the days completely RAD, but the days don’t come often. Patience is the key. My flying partner Bruce Marks arrived in the middle of April, got three back to back days of 8 hours+ in the air in the Wallis area (Fiesch, Riederalp, Zermatt, etc.) but since then it’s been…challenging.

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