ST. PAUL, MINN. — As this issue went to press, the Christmas cards and calls were
arriving as usual. One call was a flashback to precisely two years ago, when in this
column (Feb. ’03) I wrote a farewell to longtime Hang Gliding editor, Gil
Dodgen. So, perhaps it was fitting that he should call recently.
Gil was charged up over a big success by his employer of the last couple years. Vertigo
is an aviation and defense developer and they’d just done a specialized parachute
drop that hit the target perfectly. The SoCal company creates solutions and has found
answers when others couldn’t to create a successful enterprise. This is no surprise
as Vertigo has quite a brain trust so the addition of software writer Dodgen was
quite appropriate. In addition to Glen Brown, who you may not know, Vertigo’s staff
is “hang gliding heavy.” Brown’s founding partner is CEO Roy Haggard whose
most notable hang gliding claim to fame was developing the UP Comet, a glider
widely believed to have forever changed the design of hang gliders.
Archives for April 2005
Powrachte Eclectic Star
Kansas-based Powrachute has become one of the country’s largest powered producers because they keep innovating. Their latest creation is a full enclosure for their Eclectic Star model. Before that they wowed visitors to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh when they showed a powered parachute propelled by a T-58 jet engine. Talk about a crowd pleaser; no one missed hearing it. In fact, company president Eddie Johnson (no relations to yours truly) said it flies just like any powered parachute, “only louder.” No exaggeration in that comment.