Piloting Hang Gliders Gives Frequent Fliers a Global Outlook

When Joe and Kris Greblo land in a foreign country, they carry no luggage.

When you have wings on your back, it’s better that way.

And whether they are dropping in on Russia, China, Japan, Thailand, France, Norway, Brazil or Colombia, they always find fellow travelers willing to jump off cliffs with them at a moment’s notice.

Piloting hang gliders has taken them over some of the most scenic locales on the planet.

“Sometimes when we are traveling with a group and are really organized, we will have a ground crew with a radio and truck follow us with our clothes and things,” Joe Greblo, 42, says.

“Other times we will leave our things at a hotel and head for the nearest hill or mountain and fly for 10 to 200 miles, depending on the air, and then circle back,” he adds.

Kris and Joe are 20-year veterans of frequent flying. They met at the beach when both had on their wings.

Joe is part-owner of Wind Sports in Van Nuys, where he is an instructor, and Kris manages the office. They have been married 12 years.

A graduate of Monroe High School in North Hills, Joe learned to fly off the foothills in Sylmar. “Back then there was no formal instruction, so it was a pretty hairy thing,” he says.

“I taught myself by trial and error,” he adds. That was back in the crash-or-learn era. Now there are instructors all over Southern California, Joe says.

He became one of the country’s first instructors, in the early ‘70s, certified by the newly formed United States Hang Gliding Assn. Since then, he and his two other instructors have taught thousands of Valley residents how to soar safely.

He says his operation, which offers free ground school as well as giving flying lessons, is more than a way to encourage the buying of equipment sold at Wind Sports.

“This is a sport that offers so much to the flyer,” he says. “But it is dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing up there.”

You also have to have lots of financial fuel to get going. The 25-day flight school costs about $1,150. To get equipped can cost between $2,000 and $5,000.

The Greblos fatten their coffers with flying in movies and commercials and doing television stunt work. They are in the upcoming Bruce Willis film, “Color of Night.” They are also in “3 Ninjas Kick Back,” helping the good guys flee the bad guys from the top of a skyscraper in Japan.

The extra income helps because Joe says glider sales have hit turbulence caused by the economy. Another factor is the Hula-Hoop syndrome: Today your sport is hot, tomorrow you are toast.

He says his shop and school are the oldest and largest in Los Angeles, partly due to attrition. “Twenty years ago there were about 25 others in our area. Many have shut down,” he says.

Still there are, he estimates, about 20,000 glider pilots in Southern California. The average age is 39, the average income is $50,000.

He says the prototype hang-gliding pilot is a well-off engineer or computer programmer looking for action. “But I’ve taught doctors, lawyers, housewives and kids to fly.”

Horses and Dogs Part of These Wedding Planners’ Circus

For 22 years the Calabasas Inn has been the scene of thousands of traditional and not-so-traditional weddings.

And while being a wedding coordinator means practicing discretion, the folks there say some of the bridal attendants have been dogs.

Brides may choose to marry in one of the garden rooms inside the facility or outside on the green lawn in front of the waterfall. About 5,000 couples have begun their married life exchanging rings and vows here.

But, like other idyllic wedding spots around the Valley, this place has seen its share of rain delays, nervous bridegrooms and semi-hysterical mothers of brides.

It has also seen some things one wouldn’t expect to see at nuptials, such as horse-drawn carriages, golf carts and balloon-seeking birds.

“We try not to let anything throw us. We try to let people have the wedding of their dreams,” says Jean Hollenstein, wedding consultant and part-owner. That includes having brides arrive at the scene in a horse-drawn carriage.

“That happens so frequently it’s almost commonplace,” Hollenstein says.

She adds that there are several local places where couples may hire a coachman and carriage that will bring the bride to the altar and then take the wedded couple for a spin.

Perhaps not so frequent an occurrence is one wedding described by another Calabasas Inn wedding consultant, Elissa Chenen.

“When Western star Monte Montana got married here, he rode his horse down the path to the altar and then lassoed his bride,” she says.

One bride was so attached to her dog that she had it fitted with a pad for its back and put the wedding rings on it. Ergo, a ring-bearing dog.

Another bride was obviously trying to wedge her wedding between tee times. She made her triumphant entry riding in a golf cart.

Another couple, both of them USC graduates, insisted on honoring their alma mater at the ceremony and had everything done up in maroon and gold.

Chenen says the most common problem for people planning a wedding is trying to make decisions from a wide range of choices.

One bride, faced with a multitude of options, decided not to choose at all.

“She had everything,” says Chenen, “including a harpist, bagpipers, dancers, horse and carriage and both a balloon release and dove release.”

The balloon release is when dozens of helium-filled balloons rise to the heavens. The dove release is when dozens of little white birds fly into the same airspace, which to them must look like a Technicolor sky.

UCLA Extension Offers Class in Getting People Off the Road

UCLA Extension and the California Department of Transportation are offering a program for people interested in thinning out traffic.

The program will not cover such innovative ideas as neutering cars so they don’t reproduce as quickly or forcing solo drivers to traverse the freeways in reverse.

It will, however, cover ride sharing, public transportation, work-hour adjustment and ways to encourage folks to stay at home and use the communications superhighway.

The first of three courses leading to a certificate in Transportation Demand Management begins Sept. 29 at the UCLA Extension facility at Universal CityWalk.

It is meant to train people from local businesses to create programs for employees of their companies.

Overheard:

“Is it my imagination or has the oil slick on Pat Riley’s hair grown since he’s been coaching in New York? Maybe the Knicks could learn the fast break if he used it on the soles of their sneakers instead.”

Encino man to viewers of Game 3 of the New York-Houston NBA finals.