Page 130 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

Around 1980, I met Rick Hendrix at Paxon Field on Jacksonville’s Westside one
morning as he removed a large basket and gas cylinders from his trailer. After
spreading out a large balloon and placing the cylinders into the attached basket, we
climbed inside and he ignited gas burners to fill the balloon with hot air. After a couple
of minutes, the balloon lifted us across the field and over Woodstock Park, then across
Riverside about 3,000 feet above the Fuller Warren Bridge. We had no sensation of
motion. I felt like the basket was stationary and that I was just seeing the landscape
below me move westward around 15 mph. Rick saw that we were drifting towards the
sand dunes next to Southside Blvd, so he reduced the heat from the gas burners so that
we soon had an abrupt stop on the soft ground.

A few years later, I received a call from Dr. William Clarke asking me if I would like to
go soaring in his glider. I told him I always loved flying and that I would be delighted to
go with him. We met at Herlong Field along Normandy Blvd on Jacksonville’s
Westside. When we climbed inside, he showed me the altimeter and the indicator that
would tell us if we were gaining or losing altitude. After a tow plane taxied in front of
us, we gradually picked up speed across the field and were carried into the air above the
pine trees. We must have risen a couple thousand feet before he pulled a lever to detach
the tow line. He told me that he would observe the puffy cumulus clouds because they
would have updrafts under them. As we circled under one large cloud, the green light
indicator let us know that we were gaining altitude. We were soon soaring to an altitude
of 3,000 feet. As we drifted away from that cloud the red light told us that we were
losing altitude until we found another cloud to give us a green light. Within 15 or 20
minutes we had maneuvered three or four miles farther east over the St. Johns River
and part of downtown.

After flying with Dr. Clarke for about a half hour, we started to return to Herlong Field.
I was surprised when he asked me if I would like to take the controls. When I did, we
were under a large gray cloud that gave us an updraft that kept lifting us above 3,000 ft.
A few raindrops splashed on the windshield as he told me to push to control stick
forward enough to slowly descend. He then said that we were going to land at Herlong
and to turn and bank into a descending spiral. I thought he would soon take over the
controls, but he kept directing all the way down to the landing approach. He finally
took over the controls as we came within 500 feet of the field.

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