Today was not the first time I've caught somebody trespassing on the big ranch but it was one of the best stories yet.

About a half mile before I hit the main gate I find a Red F-150 parked in front of a neighbors gate, it's locked and nobody around. Called the neighbor and he didn't know who it was. Took some pictures and went about my business. When I hit the main gate it was obvious somebody had pulled up and turned around at the locked gate. When I get into the ranch I start looking around and sure as hell seen somebody up on one the sister mountains. Took about 30 minutes but I convinced him to come down. he was caring a pack looked as big as he was. Well it turns out that pack was a hand glider and he was going to launch off the first sister and was planning on landing it well south of San Angelo. He said he's from Dallas but had Oklahoma plates and DL. He hauled that rig for a good two miles then up the side of that mountain, kind of hurt me to have to shut him down. Put him in the back of the truck and hauled him back to his truck and sent him on his way.

The nerve of some folks. They act like everything is community property.

Ruined his day.

Tough call to make him come down and not go ahead and launch, but it is the right call Give them and inch and they will take a .......

My thought was let him do it, but then the word would be out and every other idiot would be showing up. But I would have loved tp have borrowed his hang glider and went down and told him to meet me at the bottom. LOL

I would have let him launch

Due diligence says NO

I thought it was another doomsday thread before I clicked.

My first thought is that the worst-case scenario would be that this dude crashes and burns on the property, and his family tries to sue the landowner.

But I'm not knowledgeable on that sort of thing, so I could be totally wrong.

Then shoot him. Has to be easier than a dove anyway!

"Alright buddy, let's just see how fast you can fly on outta here before i start shootin'"

The first thing I thought of was to let him launch.

You should have let all the air out of his tires.

Probably right. You did the right thing.

Ok, takes off and lands South of San Angelo, then what? Thats a long walk back to his truck...

Record for hang gliders is 222 miles
https://xcmag.com/news/hang-gliding-world-record-222-miles-out-and-return/

I'm pretty sure there's more to the story than I was told. I asked him twice if anybody was still on the mountain and he assured me there wasn't. Either they were going to have to come back and retrieve the truck or somebody was going to come get it after he took off and drive it down to him. I can't imagine him going to all that trouble and not have somebody following him on the trip.
When I got back to the house the Game Warden called me ( Other rancher called Matt), he and i both had a pretty good laugh about it. I'm still impressed he carried that gear all the way to and up the mountain. Interestingly enough he was planning on carrying everything with him on the flight down.

Now that's interesting. As the crow fly's that trip to El Dorado would be about 125 miles. I don't know if he was going to try and fly it back or not.

Was there a motor visible? These people have been known to use a chainsaw motor, a small one, easily fits into less than a 1 cubic foot area. He could easily hit the 125 to Eldorado with a motor.

All his stuff was packed in the big bag, don't know if he had a motor or not.

And then used him for target practice

You made the right call. He will get the word out as he bashes you.