Paragliding

If law enforcement has its way, James Miller, the pilot who flew his motorized-paraglider over the Los Angeles Coliseum during Sunday's Raider-Denver Bronco wild-card playoff game, prompting a delay, will not be dropping into any more sporting events for a while. On Nov. 6, the Henderson, Nev., man crashed into the ring ropes during the Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe heavyweight championship fight at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

As the ancient Dodge van bumped and creaked up the mountain road to one of Southern California's legendary hang glider launches, a 68-year-old thrill-seeker sitting in back mentioned that the 83-year-old riding shotgun is attracting condors whenever he flies. "He thinks it's because he talks to them," George Boswell said of his older friend, Rome Dodson. "We don't have the heart to tell him it's because they're vultures. " There's never been a shortage of gallows humor among hang glider pilots.

A paraglider landed at Buckingham Palace, reportedly hoping to publicize his unpublished novel, and was arrested by royal protection officers. Authorities questioned the suspect at a London police station, the Metropolitan Police said. He was later released on bail. A friend identified the paraglider as Brett De La Mare, 36, of Darwin, Australia, but police declined to confirm the identification. The royal family was away at the time, Buckingham Palace said.

A paraglider was killed Friday afternoon in a crash-landing on a hillside trail near Corral Canyon, authorities said. The unidentified victim died at the scene of the accident. The incident was reported at 3:40 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Police were involved in two incidents at the Coliseum Sunday--handcuffing a Raider who participated in a fight that broke out among Raider and Denver Bronco players and arresting a paraglider who threatened to disrupt the game. James Trapp, a Raider rookie cornerback who is not on the active roster because of a groin injury, was in street clothes on the sidelines when the second-quarter fight broke out.

A paraglider from Costa Mesa who crashed into a cliff near Pacoima Dam and became entangled in a tree was rescued Monday by county firefighters who reached him by sliding down ropes from a helicopter. The 40-year-old man, whose identity was not made public, suffered injuries that included a broken ankle, according to a spokeswoman for Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. The man was spotted on the cliff near the 15300 block of Pacoima Canyon Road about 2:30 p.m.

"Runrunrunrunrun!" The voice shouts from be hind with a do-or-die urgency as you charge downhill toward the precipice. "Run hard! Don't stop!" So, you run as hard as you can until your feet are barely touching the ground and then you are pawing the air like a cartoon character that has just stepped into space. You tuck your legs to avoid the sagebrush and hope. Running headlong toward a cliff requires a death wish or the faith that soon--very soon--you can fly. And you do.

As the ancient Dodge van bumped and creaked up the mountain road to one of Southern California's legendary hang glider launches, a 68-year-old thrill-seeker sitting in back mentioned that the 83-year-old riding shotgun is attracting condors whenever he flies. "He thinks it's because he talks to them," George Boswell said of his older friend, Rome Dodson. "We don't have the heart to tell him it's because they're vultures. " There's never been a shortage of gallows humor among hang glider pilots.

Fliers call them "paragliders" and use them to soar like sea gulls riding on the wind. Increasingly, the fragile and controversial craft can be seen over the Palos Verdes Peninsula cliffs, their pilots suspended only by a harness under the fabric of the parachute-like wings. Riding thermal updrafts, some pilots stay aloft for hours and soar thousands of feet in the air. Experts warn, however, that the sport can be dangerous.

Steve Larsen, a self-described "fortysomething" sales manager from Pasadena, always looked to the skies. "I used to have those dreams where you fly," he said. Once he tried airplanes. Too noisy. Then sailplanes, but "there's always a rush of wind." Hang-gliding? "Too twitchy for me. You have to do everything perfectly." Skydiving? "When you jump out of an airplane, you can't say, 'Oh, I want to go back and try that again.'

La Jolla Jumping off a cliff isn't everyone's idea of a good time. In fact, I wasn't so sure I would even like it when I paid $150, signed a stack of waivers, strapped myself to a seasoned paraglider and leaped from the 350-foot ledge at Torrey Pines Gliderport. But 35,000 people can't be wrong, can they? That's how many tandem fliers have paid to make the jump in the last 10 years and lived to tell the tale.

Britain's top female paraglider was attacked by a pair of eagles 8,200 feet above ground in Australia. Nicky Moss, 38, watched, terrified, as the birds began tearing into her parachute canopy. One of them became tangled in her lines and started clawing at her head. "I heard screeching behind me.... They launched a sustained attack on my glider, tearing at the wing," she said.

Ever since she was a 7-year-old farm girl in South Dakota, Vi Cowden has wanted to fly with the birds. The 89-year-old Huntington Beach resident got her pilot's license at 24, flew military planes during World War II and just weeks ago became the oldest person to sky-dive with the U.S. Army. "Just because you're a certain age, it doesn't mean you can't accomplish your dreams," she said. "Sometimes people think at 50 or 60 that their life is over. But there's still a lot to do.

Israeli troops exchanged fire with Hezbollah guerrillas Wednesday to provide cover for an Israeli who accidentally drifted into Lebanon on a paraglider. Hezbollah and Israeli military sources said the civilian on the paraglider took off from the cliffs of the Israeli border town of Menara and was blown across the frontier to land near this Lebanese village.

Where have all the least terns gone? Scanning the white sand at Ormond Beach, where the endangered shorebirds traditionally nest in abundance, Al Sanders thinks he knows. The local Sierra Club point man suspects they've been driven from their breeding grounds by motorized paragliders that have taken to the skies above the Oxnard preserve, tucked into one of Southern California's largest seaside wetlands.

Volunteers and sheriff's deputies in helicopters, on foot and atop all-terrain vehicles scoured hills and mountains in eastern Kern County for a paraglider missing for nearly a week. More than 50 people on Friday searched the area near Black Mountain for Ronald Rosepink, a test pilot for Edwards Air Force Base. The search for Rosepink, 52, of Palmdale, began Tuesday evening after the man's family reported him missing.

A para-glider pilot attempting to break a distance record instead was set upon by sheriff's deputies when he made an emergency landing at the Pitchess Detention Center after his non-motorized aircraft began losing altitude, authorities said Saturday. "It makes a good story: Pilot lands in jail or whatever," the pilot, Thomas Truax of Carpinteria, joked Saturday night. "I didn't realize the jail was there," Truax said. "I thought it was a business center."

La Jolla Jumping off a cliff isn't everyone's idea of a good time. In fact, I wasn't so sure I would even like it when I paid $150, signed a stack of waivers, strapped myself to a seasoned paraglider and leaped from the 350-foot ledge at Torrey Pines Gliderport. But 35,000 people can't be wrong, can they? That's how many tandem fliers have paid to make the jump in the last 10 years and lived to tell the tale.

Bruce Wallace, a distinguished biologist and one of the first employees of biotech giant Amgen, was killed last week when his paraglider crashed into a cliff face near Mt. Whitney in the Sierra Nevada range. The 54-year-old Ojai resident, known for his dry wit and adventurous spirit, was flying at 12,000 feet Friday when the accident occurred, according to the Inyo County Sheriff's Department.

A French stuntman dangled precariously from the Statue of Liberty on Thursday after the parachute of his glider snagged atop the monument's torch. Startled tourists on Liberty Island and office workers in lower Manhattan watched as rescuers climbed to the top of the statue and, after 45 minutes, used ropes to gingerly hoist the daredevil with a taste for political activism to safety. "He was wrapped around the torch, in danger and in peril," Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said. ". . .