Downtown Los Angeles may not qualify as...

Downtown Los Angeles may not qualify as a paradise for athletes yet, but the Freeway City does offer a growing number of hidden-away sports facilities above the fumes.

The latest is a driving range for golfers on the roof of the L.A. World Trade Center off Figueroa Street. Just the thing for the duffer who can’t get height on his shots--you start out six stories above the ground!

“I think it’s a great way to spend your lunchtime--to kind of get away from it all,” said Trade Center Director Al Dougal.

The driving range joins such out-of-view attractions as the YMCA’s rooftop tennis courts (alongside the driving range), the jogging track atop City Hall East, and the third-floor bowling alley in Yaohan Plaza in Little Tokyo. (Alas, the fitness craze suffered a setback when the avant-garde miniature golf course at the L.A. Contemporary Exhibitions gallery recently closed.)

The Trade Center hopes that the driving range, which opened two weeks ago, will attract Civic Center types as well as visiting businessmen.

There’s even a rooftop pro, Jim Westmoreland, on hand to give lessons.

For those who choose to go it alone (at $5 per half hour), Dougal said: “Our two lanes are about 70 feet long so you get a good idea of whether you’re hooking or slicing.”

While errant shots from the Griffith Park courses often land on the Golden State Freeway, Trade Center hackers needn’t worry about skulling an automobile or pedestrian below.

“The lanes,” Dougal said, “are double-netted.”

When he was 15, John Goddard made a “blueprint for life” of 127 goals, including diving in a submarine, landing on an aircraft carrier, riding in the Tournament of Roses Parade and walking on the moon.

One of the above has eluded him: The moon walk. Yes, he did survive the terror of the post-Rose Parade traffic jam.

Goddard, an anthropologist/explorer who belongs to the Royal Geographic Society, says he has accomplished 108 of the goals. His home in La Canada Flintridge is filled with mementoes and clippings attesting to his feats, which he recounts in lectures and motivational speeches.

After thinking up new projects over the years, he drew up a second list. And the other day, he fulfilled a more recent wish--flying a B-1 bomber.

Goddard, 64, took off from Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Tex., with a bomber crew, and flew a four-hour training mission. “It was a tremendous thrill,” he said.

Lt. Col. Joseph Purka, a spokesman for the Air Force, said that Goddard--a pilot during World War II--was approved for the mission because he “met the qualifications.” Goddard confessed that he was aided in his dream by a friend, former Secretary of the Air Force Verne Orr.

What’s next? Goddard isn’t sure. But there’s always goal No. 127--”to live to see the year 2000.”

On today’s City News Service calendar: “6 p.m., Hollywood--Frederick’s of Hollywood will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its Celebrity Lingerie Hall of Fame. Milton Berle will take part.”

That’s appropriate. The only question is which old female costume from his television days is Uncle Miltie going to contribute?