This summer we said farewell to our good friend and longtime pilot Brooks Ellison.
Brooks was among the first hang glider pilots. (USHGA Member # 6306) He was flying from Mt Greylock, running a flight school and local competitions, and flew for a demonstration team at a ski area in the early 1970s. He was an early pioneer of ultralight aviation, and there wasn’t much he couldn’t do on snow skis (For example, the powerline on the east face of Mt Greylock!)
By 2021, Brooks was still the pilot to keep up with at his home sites of the Mohawk Trail and Mt Greylock, though he would begrudgingly leave his valley for occasional trips to Virginia, Florida, and other sites in the northeast.
Click on the links for videos of Brooks’ remains being released to the winds over the Hoosic ridge near his home in Vermont, and The Thunderbolt Ski Trail on Mt Greylock.