Hang Glider Competition in Sylmar Honors Legendary ‘Big Bird’

When Debbi Renshaw-Armenta began hang gliding 10 years ago, Jeff Scott was a guy she looked up to--in more ways than one.

Scott, 6 feet, 7 inches tall, stood out because of his height and because of his stature as a hang glider. He had set a long-distance record, gliding from Palmdale to Santa Monica in 1979, and could fly under the most difficult conditions.

“He was the sky god,” said Renshaw-Armenta, 33, of Green Valley Lake. “He would stay up when nobody else could.”

Renshaw-Armenta was one of more than 60 hang gliders who paid tribute to Scott on Saturday, the first day of the Jeff Scott Hang Gliding Competition. Scott died last September at the age of 32 after a nine-year battle with cancer.

Local hang gliders established the four-day competition, which they hope to repeat annually, to honor the man who inspired so many of them.

Wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan, “A Guy You Could Look Up To,” 40 competitors launched off Kagel Mountain on Saturday, at an elevation of 3,300 feet above sea level, for a race along the ridges of the San Gabriel Mountains. More than a dozen others made a recreational flight along the same course.

To spectators at the landing field in Sylmar 2,300 feet below, canvas-wing gliders appeared to be giant paper airplanes in the sky or a flock of fowl.

“Hang gliders are our local bird,” said John Riggs of Sylmar, who came to observe the competition.

And it is largely thanks to pioneering pilot Scott, often called “Big Bird,” that the skies of Sylmar have become one of the nation’s most popular gliding sites. He first launched his glider off the Kagel Mountain summit in 1972, when hang gliding was still in its infancy.

“He didn’t have any lessons. People were still just experimenting with the sport,” his sister, Janet McDonald, said Saturday.

Scott was widely known for his willingness to help new pilots, offering friendly tips and suggestions to improve their techniques.

“He was a nice guy, not pretentious. He kept his eye on me and gave me tips that let me know he was really paying attention to what I was doing. That’s the kind of guy he was,” Renshaw-Armenta said.

To support himself, Scott worked as a maintenance man for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He participated in national and international gliding competitions and tested new glider designs. He continued to glide until six months before his death.

His parents said they were touched at the outpouring of affection for their son.

“It is such an honor that they did this. This was his whole life,” said Joel Scott, his father.