Kitty Hawk Kites Hang Gliding School

Reviews

• CJ

  Captain Jones

  Jan 13, 2026
  5.0
  Drake is a very good instructor! Genuinely happy and interested in student success. Billy is extremely knowledgeable and loves to talk hang gliding, exactly what I wanted. A great place to start for your flying experience. Thank you for helping me achieve my hang 1 goal! Jonesy
• CR

  Craig Massie (Massie Realty)

  Dec 30, 2025
  5.0
  Best hang gliding instructors around! My 5 year old and 8 year old loved it! You can’t go wrong with the hang gliding lessons with Kitty Hawk Kites!
• SL

  Stanford Lin

  Dec 25, 2025
  5.0
  I visited in December 2025 a few days before Christmas Day. I booked a beginner hang gliding session for my two kids in advance -- easy to do online through the hang gliding school website. My kids had a wonderful time and want to go again on our next visit to the Outer Banks. I want to especially thank Drake and Kevin (the two gentlemen in the photo), who were exceptionally patient and professional throughout the session. Highly recommended!
• AA

  Amber

  Oct 10, 2025
  3.0
  I visited this place mid July. I did the beginner hang gliding school, as well as a mile high tandem flight. These were done on two different days, the ground school included the dune gliding. Initially my mile high tandem was the second day after the dune gliding/ground School. But the weather was unfavorable so they called to ask if I could reschedule to the next day. While this was not ideal since I was leaving town the next day, I did not have any pressing agendas, so I was able to do this, it just meant getting home later than anticipated. Mid summer - it is hot & obviously windy because you're up high on the dunes near the ocean. They make everyone bring water with them. I recommend something with a lid because of the sand and wind. I also recommend some kind of sunglasses or even goggles because you may feel the sand blowing up into your face at times. They will tell you to wear something for your feet because the sand can get so hot. If you tend to go barefoot a lot your feet will probably be fine. Our instructor himself went barefoot but he probably spent years going barefoot all his life. If you don't want to wear gym shoes I recommend at least something that you can run in. Something else that is popular out here are "sand socks". You can probably find something like that on Amazon if you want to purchase them ahead of time. You probably can wear a hat underneath the helmet. I had a baseball hat on and though I was able to wear the helmet over it, I did find it to be somewhat obstructive to my view. So I highly recommend something more flexible. The helmets are mandatory and they do provide them. To get the most out of the experience I highly recommend if you've never done this before, just watching videos on YouTube. Learn about the ways a hang glider is maneuvered so that way when you get in it you might have a better experience than I did. Hang gliding steering and altitude is affected by the weight of your body so however you lean will affect how the glider behaves. A trap I fell into was over thinking and over correcting. You really just want to hang their like in a potato sack and let the wind and the glider do its thing. For the ground school/dune gliding we each got five runs on the dune. It wasn't until my final run that I started to get it but by then it was my last run and almost all of my runs were lackluster - I did not get as high as I was hoping and that made me sad. The instructors were very helpful and encouraging and even children were out doing it with us. I do wish that my instructors were a little more attentive to coachingme because I wasn't getting very high up. After my third run I began really trying to pick some people's brains and I began to pull out from them what I wish they would have just been telling me already, and that was that I need to try to not think so much. The photo package that is offered there is crap. It cist $50 and only photos come from cameras mounted on the gliders facing you so you get one angle. It just doesn't do the job if you want photos for this experience. I was there by myself and made it a point to talk to others who would be willing to take photos of me. I did find some and the photos that they took were not only wonderful, they were free. The photos I am sharing in this review, if they include me in the glider, they were taken by those people out there that were kind enough to acquiesce to my request. All that being said, if you do the tandem hang gliding, I do highly recommend getting the photo/video package for that because views will be better. If I had chosen that I would have had footage that included a rare experience called a brocken spectre, when you are above a cloud and your shadow casts onto the cloud below you it creates a circular rainbow. Sadly I have no footage of this because I chose the wrong experience to purchase the photo package on, don't make my mistake.
• KP

  Kathy Phillips

  May 13, 2024
  5.0
  Yesterday, I did the tandem mile high hang gliding flight. There were some small poofy clouds & Charlie (my pilot & temporarily most importent person in my life) and I reached the bottom of them. Too bad we couldn't fly through them! It was cold up there & I was glad that I had worn warm layers. The view up there was spectacular! Yes, I've been in airplanes, but it's very different when you're flying in just a glorified kite! Charlie was great! He showed me how to steer & offered to do some aerobatics (my stomach said no to that!). Sometimes, I held my arms forward in Super Kathy position and sometimes to the side in eagle position, but mostly I held my handles so I could better see forward. At first, it was a full body workout as my hands were in a death grip & every muscle was tensed, but when I relaxed everything, it worked much better. I had so many emotions, though not fear, flying through my head that I needed the rest of the day to process through them. It was a thoroughly satisfying adventure! I want to do it again when we come back next year!

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