Cowboy Up Hang Gliding

My friends wanted to go skydiving, I was like, uh nah I’d rather fly than fall. So I had a tandem flight with Cowboy Up. After that first flight, I knew that flying hang gliders was something I wanted to pursue. I ended up taking lessons with Bart and Tiki and had my first solo within about 6 months. I could have learned to fly solo faster but things got in the way, work, moving,… Anyways, I love flying… it’s all I think about now. You HAVE to try it!!!

We decided on hang gliding for my son’s 18^th!
Easy to find. The airport is just off of I-​69 in Wharton. Just plop the airport into your nav and you’re there.
Upon arriving at 3pm on a Sunday, there were a few hang gliders preparing to fly. We watched them take off, sore, and land. We met «Bart», the flyer that would be flying with my son. Super nice, personable guy!
My son is autistic. I think they were a little apprehensive about taking him up. Even still, I appreciate the way they handled it. Cleary communicated their concern and what needed to happen in order to ensure everyone’s safety.
I felt completely at ease putting my most precious thing in there hands. Watching him take off was awesome! He seemed to really enjoy it!
A few negatives…
It took 20 to 30 minutes to check out. I don’t really understand why. Everyone just seemed to lull about between take offs.
And they charge $ 40 for pictures. The camera takes a snap every 10 seconds I believe so you get a lot of pictures. However the pictures are all very similar. They’re given to you on one of those old timey memory cards that look like oversized SIM cards. Not cool.
Overall we really enjoyed the experience.

I’m a intermediate (USPHA Hang-​3) Hang glider pilot looking for a little fun on the weekend during a business trip, so I decided I would get my aerotow rating with Cowboy UP! Hang gliding.
The couple that runs the business Tiki and Bart (I Found out later) are legends in the Hang Gliding world, and gave me the disciplined, active instruction I was looking for. They put me through Aerotow ground school, two tandem flights and 3 solos over two days to get my Aerotow rating. They kept it fun, safe and it was fantastic to learn from such a skilled pair of pilots.

I had purchased a Groupon and left them a voicemail three weeks ago. They never called back and I tried calling multiple times. Eventually I contacted Groupon and they were unable to reach the business also, so they refunded my purchase.
So I can’t say how hang gliding was, but from a customer service standpoint my experience with this company was a disaster. Now I’m looking for another hang gliding company in Texas

I would highly recommend this place to everyone. My husband and I went a few weeks ago and we are bringing our moms back for Mother’s Day. We showed up 30 minutes late and they were so sweet and accommodating that our experience was extremely stress free and fun. They have a go pro on the hang glider and it takes a photo of your every 10 seconds and once your done you can buy all 200 photos for $ 40, which was worth it. We did a discovery flight so we got to go up to 3,000 ft in the air and on my first attempt we just barely didn’t reach it so after a 20 minute glide down they apologized and took me up again to reach at least 3,000 (I would have never noticed but was ecstatic to go up again). The pilot even teaches you and lets you steer for a bit and if you are scared he’ll let it look like you are for the pictures. :) A Blast. Very relaxing and not scary at all. It’s gliding, not falling, you just enjoy the scenery not even realizing you’re slowly descending. Smooth take offs and landings too.