What glider were you flying? Who else was flying here then? My Dad brought me on a business trip to Scripps Institute of Oceanography in 1975. There is footage from the Wright Brothers. (laughs) There were cameras on balloons before the Wright Borthers. JH Leroy Grannis told me that Bob Keeler was the first to mount a camera on a hang glider.ĮR Well, the Wright Brothers did that too. I started, even with my standard to figure out ways to activate the camera remotely, so I could mount it on the nose or the tail or the wing of the glider. Why did you start taking photos of hang gliding? I would rather be Hang Gliding Champion than have a degree in photography. I’m glad I did, because I was US National Champion by the time I would have graduated. I went to college for professional photography, but I dropped out after two years to pursue my hang gliding career. I always had a camera from as long as I can remember. Too good to last.ĭid you have photography experience before you started flying? Imagine a sports utopia with dirt-biking, skate-boarding, hang gliding, etc right in the neighborhood of Los Angeles. Point Fermin in San Pedro was a really amazing place to fly hang gliders. What launch sites did you fly in the early days that are not accessible today? His goal was to take a trans-Alps camping trip on a hang glider, but weather did not cooperate. photo Eric RaymondĮric after landing high in the Alps to spend the night. This is Eric's Comet 2 after landing on a glacier above Fiesch to camp for the night. I was just trying to stay ahead of this frontal activity, so I was flying really fast over the most scenic terrain, right down the core of the Alps. In a hang glider, It would probably be when I flew from the middle of Switzerland into Austria. I guess it would be in the Voyager when I did the 121 miles in 1980. Have you had any serious injuries? I broke my arm hang gliding. Just those guys from Sky Truckin’ that one day. How old were you when you started hang gliding? They came to the high school and gave one-day lessons on Bennett “standards”. Near the high school I was going to in Maine, there was a Bill Bennett dealer named “Sky Truckin’”. I am living in Slovenia with my girlfriend, who is a competition sailplane pilot and instructor. I remember I could barely keep up with them on a racing bicycle. That was a revelation for me to fly those flying bicycles that were so fast. Then, in Europe I was invited to fly the Musculair II just before it was retired. They invited me to fly the Bionic Bat just before it got retired. I was working with Paul McCready’s group. I was invited to fly the two fastest human-powered airplanes. I owned a Stemi, which is a sophisticated motor-glider, but you can fly it with a sailplane rating. I got a sailplane rating, commercial and flight instructor in gliders. My father, the oceanographic engineer made the first deep-sea cameras that photographed the Titanic, and a lot of other deep-sea equipment. My grandfather invented the fist automatic doors that opened by so-called “magic eye”. There is a history of engineering and inventing. Is there a history of flying in your family? Hang gliding is a perfect dynamic sport where you get lots of athletic exercise. In flying sailplanes for example, you’re just sitting there twiddling controls. The plans and sail were from Sky Sports.īecause I like it. I bought the sail and started hang gliding. I got some plans and built my own glider. I saw pictures of hang gliding and it looked like the thing for me. I tried sailplaning, but that was kind of a disappointment from the model airplanes. I was flying model airplanes and got into radio-control. During his recent visit back in the USA, I took the opportunity to ask him these questions: Last year, Eric moved to Switzerland to work for Solar Impulse, a group that intends to build a 4-motor electric airplane to fly around the World. His plane, the Sunseeker, stood as the only working electric airplane in the World for many years. When finished, he flew it across the United States. Eric was a pilot’s pilot, and he still is.Īfter about fifteen years of being a major influence in hang gliding, Eric decided to design and build his own solar-powered electric sailplane. I remember just wanting to be like Eric Raymond. He made beautiful hang gliding photographs. When I started flying in 1978, Eric Raymond was already a hang gliding legend in his own time. Interview with Hang Gliding / Photography Legend Eric Raymond
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