The hang gliding ranch
Wallaby Ranch in Davenport is America's hang gliding institution: a grass-strip ranch where tandem flights launch by aerotow — a tow plane pulls the glider up to 2,000–3,000 feet before release — and the whole operation runs at a hang-out pace between flights. Owner Malcolm Jones has flown more than 30,000 tandem flights without incident.
Al Roker went first
The highest-profile student on this page is Al Roker, taking his first flight with Jones and steering the glider himself. The segment lays out the path honestly: most students need about 20 tandem flights before flying solo — but the first tandem needs nothing but a reservation.
Who can fly? Almost anyone
The beloved proof on this page: a family brings their great-grandmother for her 100th birthday, and she flies tandem and is ready to go again. The Outdoorsy Diva's first-timer account adds the texture money can't buy — the surreal quiet after the tow plane releases, weather rushing one launch, and a flight that climbed above the clouds high enough to see the 'pilot's halo,' the circular rainbow the sun casts on the cloud deck.
The ranch rhythm
Flights, brunch with the crew, watching the next students go up — Wallaby Ranch sells a day at a flying club as much as a single ride. Bring time; the regulars clearly do.
Sources: the six videos on this page — a national TV segment, two first-timer accounts, a centenarian's flight, and two flight films — summarized from their entries in our catalog.