Rising Above It All : The Age-Old Lure to Be as Free as a Bird Still Keeps Tugging

In everything from hot air balloons to helicopters, people are jumping at the opportunity to soar, dangle and float over North County.

Although the aerial excursions are rarely what one would call cheap, they can be reasonably affordable. A glider flight for one over Warner Springs can cost as little as $34 and as much as $93. Balloon flights range in price from $120 to $160 a person.

“It’s such a unique opportunity,” said Alan Jenkins, a 36-year-old police officer after a recent balloon flight. “When you’re going to have an experience that you will remember for the rest of your life, it’s worth $135.”

Here are a few of the aviation experiences available in North County:

BALLOONS

Sunset balloon flights over the San Dieguito River Valley in Del Mar are probably North County’s best-known way to see the ground from the sky. Nearly a dozen different companies offer such flights.

One recent Friday evening, 13 of the multicolored hot-air balloons floated over the valley, just east of Interstate 5.

“It’s the most romantic form of aviation,” said Sam Slaughter, the operations manager and a pilot for A Beautiful Morning company of Del Mar. “It’s very soothing.”

Many balloonists offer sunrise flights as well, though coastal fog typically make the evening flights a better buy.

Besides, Slaughter said, “People aren’t as grumpy.”

The average altitude on a balloon flight is between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, though pilots can take their passengers as high as 5,000 feet.

Balloonists can also bring their passengers within just a few feet of the ground, navigating their 70-foot-tall vehicles along hillsides.

To steer the balloon, pilots track the direction of the wind before the flight with the help of local weather services, and by launching small helium balloons called pibals. The wind shifts at different altitudes, so pilots can dip or soar to change the direction their balloons are traveling.

“You can’t steer (a balloon) as much as you can steer a plane or a helicopter, of course, but it is surprising the degree of control you do have,” Slaughter said.

Since balloons travel with the wind, the breeze does not blow in passengers’ faces and the gondola does not swing. As a result, there is very little sense of motion, even though the balloon is moving at average speeds of between 5 and 15 m.p.h.

Slaughter’s passengers on this particular Friday include Tricia Taylor, a 42-year-old secretary whose husband, Mel, took her on the flight as a birthday present. The fact that it was Friday the 13th seemed to trouble Mel, a Navy lieutenant commander who says he prefers deep seas to open skies.

“When he told me he was going up with me I about fell over,” Tricia said, watching Mel pace nervously. Although this will be Tricia’s second balloon ride, it’s Mel’s first.

Slaughter says that up to a third of his passengers are nervous before a flight, though they usually calm down once they see how serene ballooning is.

“Have you ever had anybody freak out up here?” Tricia asked as the balloon began its ascent.

“Only the pilot,” Slaughter said.

The temperature in the air is about the same as the temperature back on terra firma. In fact, the propane burner, which keeps the balloon aloft, is so hot that passengers actually may be warmer in the air than they are back on the ground. However, the temperature on the ground after sunset can get quite cool, so balloonists generally recommend that their passengers wear layered clothing.

The entire trip is spent standing up in the gondola, so comfortable shoes are a must. Transportation to the launch areas and from the landing sites--which could be several miles apart--is provided by the balloon company.

In addition to the flights themselves, most Del Mar balloon companies provide complementary Champagne after the landing, buffet or picnic-style hors d’oeuvres or meals, photographs, pins and flight certificates. The exact combination of these and other goodies depends on the company.

Most of the balloon companies require reservations, especially for flights on Saturday or Sunday evening. Friday flights are usually not as busy as other weekend evenings.

SAILPLANES

On at least a few occasions, passengers have lost their cookies in Bret Willat’s sailplanes.

In most cases, Willat and his pilots can adjust their flight plans to accommodate the interests of their passengers, not to mention their passengers’ stomachs.

Willat’s company, Sky Sailing, is based at the Warner Springs Airport.

“We tailor our ride to the individual,” Willat said. “For the person who’s more nervous, we tone it down.”

More than a dozen of Willat’s passengers have used Sky Sailing’s two-person flights as opportunities to propose marriage to their dates, including one passenger who had Willat’s staff unroll a huge banner on the runway, popping the question in 3 1/2-foot-high painted letters.

For those passengers who feel more adventurous than amorous, Sky Sailing flights can be a roller-coaster ride that would make Disneyland’s best engineers drool, Willat said.

Several two-person scenic flights are available, including a 20-minute flight over No Name Mountain for $68, and a 25-to 30-minute flight over Hot Springs Mountain for $98. A 35-to 40-minute, mile-high flight for two over Mount Palomar costs $138.

For single passengers, a 20-to 30-minute scenic flight in one of the company’s modern, hi-performance sailplanes costs between $45 and $62. A 35-to 40-minute, mile-high flight for one costs $78.

For an additional $3, customers interested in the single-passenger flights can receive some instruction on the ground before takeoff and actually do most of the flying themselves.

“We don’t like to admit this, but flying is very simple,” Willat said.

Sailplanes, or gliders, are engineless aircraft that are carried high into the air behind small, propeller tow planes.

A 200-foot-long, 1/4-inch-thick polypropylene rope connects the two aircraft. When the rope is released, it makes a popping noise loud enough to scare an unprepared passenger out of his or her seat and through the glider’s bubble-shaped canopy.

Willat’s aircraft have a glide ratio of more than 20 to 1. In other words, they can travel more than 20 miles for every mile of altitude.

Sailplanes do not need wind to fly. Instead, they ride on the rising air currents generated by Warner Springs’ sun-baked ground. Pilots also use the lift created when wind and shifting air masses run into nearby mountains. “As long as there’s air and as long as there’s gravity, we can fly,” Willat said.

But intense sun in the middle of the day can make the afternoon air somewhat unstable and bumpy. Passengers who think they would prefer a smoother ride should plan on flying either in the early morning or late afternoon, Willat says.

“This is the ultimate E Ticket ride,” he added. “Our pilots get paid, but if we charged them they’d still do it.”

HELICOPTERS

Flight Trails Helicopter Inc., operating out of Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, often provides impromptu tours for people who decide on the spur of the moment they want to go flying.

“We get a lot of people who call and say, ‘Gee, it’s a beautiful day, I’d really like to take a ride up and down the coast,”’ said Tish Krebs, office manager of Flight Trails. “We’re pretty flexible here. Depending on the time of day, we can take anyone on tours all over San Diego County.”

Flight Trails averages about 50 helicopter pleasure rides a month and has a fleet of five copters available, Krebs said.

The firm offers 30-minute tours of North County for $95 for one to two passengers; $200 a half-hour for three passengers.

Also offering flights over North County is Corporate Helicopters, based at Lindbergh Field. Owner-operator Ivor Shier said that for the past several months he has been using the company’s fleet of two, four and six-passenger helicopters to carry non-business passengers.

According to Shier, Corporate Helicopters has been carrying an average of 40 aerial tourists a month.

A 30-minute tour of the San Diego area costs $65 a person. For those interested in longer flights, Shier offers a 45- to 60-minute tour that can include the North County coastline for $120 a person.

In addition, Corporate Helicopters regularly offers 40-minute sunset flights to the Del Mar and Torrey Pines areas. At $135 a person, the flight includes Champagne.

“This is my office,” said Shier, 38, climbing into the cockpit of his 1989 Bell Jetranger helicopter.

Shier flies his helicopter north from Lindbergh along Interstate 5, about 100 feet below an approaching cloud bank and 1,100 feet above the ground. “It’s kind of fun to dodge around the clouds,” he said, turning the helicopter west at La Jolla and dropping down several hundred feet. At the coast, he turns south.

Through the glass by the pedals in front of them, passengers can see surfers, swimmers and sailors gazing up at them like fish peering up through the deck of a glass-bottom boat.

At an average speed of between 80 and 100 m.p.h., a helicopter tour is about as smooth as the ride in a small propeller plane.

“It’s great, It’s beautiful,” exclaimed passenger Michelle Dormish, 24, of La Jolla. “There’s no better way to see San Diego.”

AIRPLANES

For those who prefer more traditional forms of aviation, Montgomery Field-based California Wings offers sky tours in two different types of classic airplanes. One is a vintage twin-engine, eight-passenger Beech 18. The other is one of only two Bushmaster 2000 Tri-Motors, a modified version of the old Ford 4-ATs and 5-ATs that revolutionized passenger air travel in the 1930s.

The Tri-Motor can accommodate up to 12 passengers.

California Wings flies two, regularly-scheduled $49 tours covering an area from Del Mar south every Saturday and Sunday. The company can provide additional flight times for six passengers or more if booked in advance. A tour of the entire North County coastline for six passengers is also available out of Palomar Airport.

A newcomer to the North County skies is Rhumb Line, a company at Palomar Airport that provides scenic flights and sunset cruises. In business only two months, Rhumb Line offers tours for $35 per half-hour per couple. With a fleet of seven single and twin engine planes, flights are available by reservation only.

“We’re good for first dates, for couples, or even for businesses who want to give us out as a prize to an employee or for promotional use,” said Colette Laurain, manager and part-owner of Rhumb Line.

HANG GLIDERS

It’s possible to experience a ride in a hang glider without actually having to jump off a cliff by yourself.

The Torrey Pines Flight Park offers tandem rides on a two-person hang glider with one of their instructors. The rides over Blacks Beach, which cost $75, last about 20 to 30 minutes, plus another 20 minutes of instruction on the ground.

The Flight Park is open every day from sunrise to sunset, though the tandem rides are only offered when the winds in the area are from the west at 10 to 15 m.p.h.