EASY GLIDER SOARING THROUGH THE SKY NOT SO LOONEY, IT'S AN ACTIVITY FIT FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY.

Byline: BILL BECHER

``Run. Run, like Wile E. Coyote,'' says Rob Sporrer, my instructor at Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara.

I'm at the top of the hill looking down at the Pacific with a 30-foot wide paraglider attached to my back. The wind blowing off the ocean lifts the glider and I run into the void. Sporrer is telling me to keep moving my legs in the air, in case the wind slows and I find myself back on earth. ``Don't sit down,'' he says. That's what I did on my first flight attempt and the colorful nylon glider that looks like a skinny parachute settled on my head like a shroud.

This time I make like Wile E. before he realizes the Roadrunner has tricked him into running off the cliff. Beep-beep.

The wind strengthens and I'm flying 200 feet above Elings Park in Santa Barbara. I can see out over the beach to the Pacific as the glider climbs a bit in a gust. Sporrer has strapped a radio to my chest and I hear him giving instructions: ``Try an easy turn to the right, then the left.'' I pull on the brakes, a couple of handles attached by long lines to the trailing edge of the glider. It works and I can control the direction of flight.

Paragliding is a family sport. Just ask the Fohts, who journeyed from Florida to California to train at Eagle Paragliding after researching paragliding on the Internet. The training hill and Southern California's weather provide ideal conditions for learning to fly. Richard Foht had flown sailplanes and wanted to get his whole family flying. His teen-age sons, Eric and Cory, and his wife, Nancy, took lessons.

Foht admitted to a bit of trepidation, saying: ``I think, 'There goes my son into the abyss.' But they do it in little steps. You can get hurt doing this, but you can get hurt doing anything.''

Said Nancy Foht: ``It's pretty cool. I took the introduction. I'm not gung ho but might get back into it. It's not real scary.'' She was doing the Mom chauffeur role, driving the retrieve truck down the hill to pick up her kids and husband for another flight.

Sporrer, who has a nice way of keeping you focused while being supportive when you mess up, said, ``We want everyone to be successful. We're trying to raise the bar for instructors to make training more consistent.''

He has been flying paragliders for seven years and instructing for 3 1/2 years. None of his students have been injured during training, although this can be a dangerous sport if you push the envelope close to the ground as some stunt flyers have done. I signed five different waivers before starting the class. Safety is always at the top of Sporrer's list. High-altitude flyers carry a reserve chute, and we wore helmets and went over a preflight checklist before launching.

Sporrer has flown his high-performance paraglider 50 miles in a single flight that lasted 4 1/2 hours. Experienced paragliders launch from mountains to take advantage of thermals, rising currents of air that can take up paragliders thousands of feet. The flight duration record is more than 11 hours and the distance record is more than 185 miles. For those wanting to experience paragliding without going solo, a longer tandem flight with an instructor is an option.

Paragliding, which came to the United States in the mid-1980s, is minimally regulated by the FAA and does not require a government issued pilot's license. The U.S. Hang Gliding Association has established a series of ratings for paraglider pilots. I wasn't going for a rating, just trying to see what it's like. It's a quiet sport and very much in tune with nature. Sporrer pointed out a pair of red-tailed hawks climbing in lift near the hill. He watcheed the hawks and the wind patterns on the ocean below us to gauge conditions.

I was on the one-day lesson program. We started in the morning with a short video on the mechanics of paragliding. Then Sporrer demonstrated how to buckle into the harness and inflate the wing, also known as a glider or paraglider.

A big part of paragliding is learning how to handle the wing on the ground. Essentially, it's like a big kite that you control by pulling on the front or rear risers or the brakes, the lines that run from the harness to the wing. That's why they call it ``kiting.'' This is easier said than done for beginners, especially if the wind is a bit inconsistent. But I began to get the hang of it after a morning of practice. Next up was instruction on the launch and landing.

``Flying is the easy part,'' Sporrer said. And he's right. It's like being suspended in a big easy chair with a great view. After spending the morning running around trying to control the wing, flying is a relief. On my first flight, as the ground got closer, Sporrer coached me via radio to ease back on the brakes to ``flare'' the glider, bringing it to a stop as my feet touched ground. I pulled on the rear risers and the wing collapsed on the ground. I gathered it up and headed for the van for a ride back up the hill and high fives from my fellow flyers.

A short flight, but at least it was longer than Orville Wright's 12 seconds in 1903. Wright said about that one, ``The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine.''

My flight was pretty much the same. But I'll try it again.

Beep-beep!

IF YOU FLY

Eagle Paragliding ([phone]; Web site: eagleparagliding.com) has one- and two-day introductory classes beginning at $200. Introductory fees can be applied to the ``novice'' certification package that costs $1,200. Tandem flights are available for anyone under 250 pounds at any age with no prior experience necessary. Cost is $200 with a video of your flight taken with a ``helmet cam'' or $150 without video.

The U.S. Hang Gliding Association (Web site: www.ushga.org) lists paragliding schools in California and elsewhere, along with events and other news and information.

Books: ``Paragliding - A Pilot's Manual'' by Mike Meier. Covers equipment, beginner skills and aerodynamics. ``The Art of Paragliding'' by Dennis Pagen includes step-by-step training, soaring, history, equipment, flight rules, weather and ratings.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Richard Foht, who paraglides with his family, floats through the sky.

(2 -- color) Pat Mosier launches his paraglider at Elings Park.

Bill Becher/Special to the Daily News

Box: IF YOU FLY (see text)