Issaquah paraglider is out to prove he's among the best in the world

POO POO POINT, Tiger Mountain — For one brief, glorious moment, I flew above the top paraglider pilot in the United States. In the blink of an eye, though, he hooked into a small thermal and climbed while I sank slowly away. But there was that moment ...

With no other means of staying aloft, paraglider pilots must hone their skills to find and make efficient use of rising columns of warm air, or "thermals." The man I was chasing through the chilly air above Tiger Mountain on a recent afternoon has mastered the art of thermal flying, doing it better than anyone else in the United States over the past few years.

Because of his skillful flying in a variety of international competitions, Tom McCune, of Issaquah, has earned the No. 1 ranking in the United States and the right to compete in the Paragliding World Championships beginning Saturday (and continuing through March 8) in Australia.

In the three years he's been competing internationally, McCune, 44, has never finished outside the top 20, and only once outside the top 10 (18th last year in the Mexican Nationals). In 2005, he won both the Rat Race Competition in Medford, Ore. — one of two sanctioned competitions in the United States that year — and the Canadian National Championships (foreign pilots are allowed to compete in any country's national championships to earn world ranking points, but the "national champion" title goes to the highest finishing citizen of the host country).

Learning to paraglide

Instruction

Aerial Paragliding School is operated by Doug Stroop and Denise Reed, each of whom has earned the U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association's Instructor of the Year Award. Aerial operates on a Flight Park ranch just outside Cashmere, Chelan County, where students are taught on a variety of training hills, allowing instructors to build skills gradually and safely.

A two-day introductory class ($350 for weekdays, $425 for weekends) allows potential pilots to get a solid feel for the sport and its requirements before investing in the full course.

If you continue with the full training course, tuition for the intro course applies to the full fee of $1,500. You may attend weekends only, with no time limit on the course, so you may learn at your own pace. Full training will require 5-15 days of flyable conditions to earn USHPA's Paraglider-2 (or P-2) rating, the basic certification level necessary for safe, individual flight without instructor supervision. $500 of the tuition applies toward gear purchases if the student buys equipment from the school. Total cost of basic gear (paraglider wing, harness and reserve parachute) typically runs $1,500 to $4,000, depending on whether it's new or used, as well as size, make and model.

Contact: www.paragliding.us or 509-782-5543.

For instruction west of the Cascades, contact Lawrence Wallman at Goodlaunch Paragliding, www.goodlaunch.com or 206-595-8364. He works one-on-one with students at Tiger Mountain, Fort Ebey State Park (Whidbey Island) and other flying sites around Western Washington.

Tandem flights

Newcomers may experience paragliding via a tandem flight at Tiger Mountain before investing in individual lessons. Best times are late spring through early autumn, though flying may occur year-round. Contact Stefan Mitrovich at alpineflight@yahoo.com or 206-819-0962.

More information

Learn more on the Web about U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association: www.ushga.org.

Given McCune's uncanny ability to stay aloft on his glider when other pilots sink to the ground, I was thrilled to be able to share the air with him, and to be above him even if only briefly. But as I zigged and zagged, fruitlessly scouting out any pockets of rising air strong enough to carry me upward, McCune smoothly circled up and away from my slowly-sinking paraglider.

I watched helplessly as he rose — I tried getting into the same air to grab that lift myself. No such luck. I consoled myself by repeating the mantra: "He's better than everyone, not just me!"

In rarefied air

In his decade of flying, McCune has developed a keen ability to find lifting air and eke out the greatest possible altitude from it. Like most of the paragliding pilots in Western Washington, he is a regular at Poo Poo Point on Tiger Mountain, the premier local paragliding site.

I've frequently set out to fly with him there, but all too often, once we are in the air together, we go different ways. While I scratch and claw my way up as high as I can, McCune has already topped out on the first thermal and glided away toward some distant point. That's one of the traits of a top paragliding competitor — the ability and willingness to just go for it.

In paragliding competition, pilots fly through an established course, or "task," each day of the competition. Most competitions are a week long, but the World Championships will stretch over two weeks. The pilots fly with GPS units that record their flight track so competition organizers can verify the pilot's completion of the course. There are set "turn points" throughout the course over which the pilot must fly. Scoring is based on distance flown (even if pilots don't complete the task, they earn points based on how far they flew) and time on the course.

Competition wasn't on McCune's mind when he first took up paragliding 10 years ago. An avid outdoorsman his whole life, he found that paragliding opened a new door into the natural world. He fell in love with the freedom and adventure of the sport. It also reignited a simmering competitive spirit: In his youth near Roseburg, Ore., McCune broke seven school and regional records while on the Glide High School track team.

After he started flying, his innate competitive nature first pushed McCune to keep upping his own "personal best" achievements, which led to him setting several cross-country flying records from Tiger Mountain. Over the past half-dozen years, he set distance records every year or so. He was the first to fly a paraglider from Tiger to Crystal Mountain, near Mount Rainier — about 44 air miles — and, later, the first to fly to Cle Elum, about 8 miles farther. Eventually, he sought greater challenges and turned from individual goals to organized competition.

Amazingly, the year he started competing he also underwent extensive back surgery. After years of athletic competitions and outdoor adventures, plus hard physical labor as an auto-body technician, McCune could barely stand erect. In 2003, surgeons twice cut into his back to repair the years of damage. Surgery ended the pain, and he says flying has been a great way to rehabilitate his weakened back muscles.

"Flying actually takes a lot of physical ability," McCune said. "It's not about power and strength, though. Flying paragliders really requires good muscle control, finesse and endurance."

It also requires sharp analytical skills. Pilots who want to stay aloft and fly cross-country must hone their ability to identify where and when those invisible thermals will develop and release. They also must be able to judge their glide ratio, distance to the next potential thermal or turn point, and decide when to leave the area of lift and glide to that next objective. It's a tricky equation.

Soaring on ground, too

Doug Stroop, a paragliding competition organizer and co-owner of Cashmere-based Aerial Paragliding School, has worked alongside many members of the U.S. Nationals Team, and he says they share some common traits. To get to the World Cup level of competition, Stroop said, pilots must be strong, fit and, above all, smart.

McCune has those traits in spades. He worked himself back into peak physical condition after his surgeries, and his native intelligence is illustrated by his nonflying achievements. After his back problems ended his previous career, he went back to school, earning a degree in business from Renton Technical College. He graduated recently with a perfect 4.0 GPA and will pursue a new career upon his return from the Australia competition.

"This is an incredible experience," McCune said. "I'm thrilled to be in a position to represent the United States on the world stage."

He headed south Feb. 11 with the moral support of his wife of 21 years and their two teen-age children, who stayed behind in Issaquah. He said being away from his family for upwards of five weeks will be difficult on all of them, but they all understand this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for McCune.

Like every competition he goes into, his plan is simple: Do the best he possibly can while having fun doing it. He also hopes to inspire others.

"Just because a person has a disability doesn't mean it should stop them from achieving their goals. They may have to work a little harder, but that makes the reward that much sweeter."

Dan A. Nelson of Puyallup regularly reviews outdoor gear in Northwest Weekend. A paraglider since 2000, he has flown sites throughout the Western United States, Canada and Mexico. Contact him: gearguy@adventuresnw.net.