James Hall likes to spend his time living his dream and maybe a dream you've had, too.

"You know that dream where you fly?" he asked. "It's like that. It's probably the closest thing to the dream of flying, the closest thing you're going to experience to running and kind of flying away."

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At age 28, Hall is a six-year veteran of powered paragliding. Assisted by a small engine harnessed to his back, he flies under a parachutelike wing. The activity has become the newest and probably, the Caledonia resident said recently, the last way he'll need to get the thrills he said he's seemed to seek since his childhood. He hopes to encourage others with an adventuresome spirit to follow him into the skies for recreation.

"Pretty much from the get-go," he said. "I guess I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie."

After attending bareback bronc-riding school, he left the rodeo behind and took a turn at flying a conventional ultralight.

"Think of a go-cart with wings," he said. "The thing with that was it was a pain in the butt to move around. And ... I couldn't get it off the ground more than a couple feet."

After learning about powered paragliding, which required less bulky equipment, he eagerly purchased a used powered paraglider on eBay.

"I got junky equipment because I didn't know what I was getting into," he said. "Luckily, I didn't injure myself."

He spent too much money on repairs, money he said he instead should have spent on instruction, which he later sought and received from Bruce Brown of Ohio Powered Paragliding in Bowling Green.

"If you're new to it altogether and you don't have any friends or someone you trust to look over your equipment, find an instructor and basically go with what the instructor is comfortable training you by," Hall said.

He took his first solo flight a few weeks before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It was probably a combination of the most terrifying experience I ever had while at the same time it was like being in a dream," he said. "That first minute and a half, I was terrified."

Rochelle Hall said she supports her husband's pastime, but isn't in any hurry to join him.

"He likes doing it, and I like watching him, but I'm not interested for myself,"

If you've flown a kite, you have some idea of how a powered paraglider works, said James Hall, local enthusiast.

Instead of running as you hold the string of the kite waiting for it to soar into the air, you fasten yourself into a harness with a two-cycle engine attached to the back, attach parachute rigging, known as a paraglider wing, and run until the air expands the wing, start the engine for lift and jump into the air.

The apparatus has two control systems, a throttle that makes the pilot go up and down and brakes that assist the pilot in making turns.

"It's kind of the most basic form of aviation there is," said Hall's instructor, Bruce Brown of Ohio Powered Paragliding in Bowling Green. He estimated about 3,000 individuals fly powered paragliders on a semi-regular basis in the United States.

A powered paraglider typically flies about 22 miles per hour at an altitude of 400 to 500 feet, usually in mornings and evenings when thermal activity, with its rising and sinking air, normally is at its weakest.

"Fortunately, because we have motors on our backs, we don't have to expose ourselves to the time of day to get lift," Brown said, noting that the engine provides the powered paraglider's lift. "We can choose not to fly when the winds are strong."

Anyone interested in taking up the recreation should obtain instruction from a certified trainer, Brown said.

The cost of the equipment probably will be $7,500 to $8,500, he said, adding that he does not instruct anyone unless they own their own equipment or purchase it from him.

"The reason I do that is I want someone who's committed to moving forward," he said. "It takes a pretty decent commitment of time and energy and money and effort to accomplish. People don't do this typically on a lark. It is aviation, and they have to be serious about it."

Instruction usually takes about five consecutive six-to-seven-hour days, beginning with learning how to handle the paraglider, running and flying, and how safely to hold the motor, he said.

After making sure your equipment is in proper condition and you have adequate training, watching weather conditions is the key to a safe powered paragliding experience, he said.

"Watch wind conditions, watch the gusting of wind, watch out for storm fronts moving through," Brown said. "Those are the kinds of conditions that cause problems."

Learning how to get off the ground is the most challenging part of powered paragliding, said Hall, a Caledonia resident.

Beginning pilots may have to abort a couple of launches, "but if you fly long enough when you go to a field you're going to fly," Brown said.

Powered paragliders are governed by Federal Aviation Regulation Part 103, which prohibits flight over congested areas of a city and generally limits their altitude to 18,000 feet.

"The higher you go the safer you are," Hall said. "The higher you are the more time you have to recover."

Brown said most important to being a safe powered paraglider is making wise choices and added he doesn't know of any accidents caused by equipment failure.

"Most of the time it's people making choices that are bad choices," he said.

Hall agreed.

"Don't fly over anything you can't land on," he said.

she said, before adding she might go with him on a flight if he purchases a tandem paraglider. "When I first met him, he was doing it. It kind of freaked me out then, but I've warmed up to it."

Brown described Hall as a "very conservative, very safe pilot. He's very particular about the strength of the wind he flies in. He likes to fly in the evenings."

The instructor, who also sells powered paraglider gear, said he prefers flying in winds of 8 miles per hour or less. In Ohio, wind speeds in excess of 8 mph tend to be turbulent, which can cause the tips of the flexible paraglider "wing" to fold under, possibly leading to the aircraft's collapse, he said. As a result, most pilots fly in the early morning or late evening. Law prohibits powered paragliders from flying any more than a half hour before sunrise or a half hour after sunset.

"Most of us that fly try to fly a couple times a week," Brown said. "The thing is you can go out in an hour-and-a-half and have an hour flight. That's a good bit of flying. I like to check the deer, the crops."

Hall said he gets his adrenaline rush from the freedom and solitude of the recreation, not the riskiness of the activity, which he said is minimized by purchasing reliable equipment and knowing your limitations.

"It's fun going up, flying around by myself," he said. "Part of what's cool about it is you're separated from everybody. It's you, God and the wind."

He usually takes off from Marion Municipal Airport, but always looks for new places to launch and land. He hopes that by promoting powered paragliding he will help educate the public and possibly encourage property owners to allow him and his colleagues to use open fields they may have for take-offs and landings.

Powered paragliders generally fly at an altitude of 400 feet or higher.

"Altitude is your friend," Brown said. "Nobody hits the ground when they're at 500 feet."

Hall and others as they gain experience like to fly low, as well.

"The higher you go, you don't feel like you're really moving," he said. "It's kind of like you're just hanging there."

Paragliders call low flights "foot drags, where you kind of skim your feet along the surface of the ground," to enhance the sensation of movement, Brown said.

He said he prefers powered paragliding to conventional aviation in an airplane.

"It's just fun," he said. "It's a lot more kind of intuitive when you start to fly. You start to feel like you're part of the paraglider wing, like your arms become part of your wings. I know guys that are 747 airline captains for commercial airlines that fly paragliders more than they do their airplanes. They enjoy the basic fundamentals of flying the paraglider."

Hall said he's had some "humbling experiences" while paragliding, which he blames on his own lapses in judgment.

"Most of those were me thinking I could take off and land places I shouldn't," he said, adding that a pilot should be safe if attention is paid to weather reports and equipment condition. "Weather changes while you're up would be the risky part, if a gust front goes through and bumps you around a little bit. Engine failures are not an issue because you're under a canopy, you'll glide down anyway."

Keeping an eye on the weather and exercising caution are practices well worth the joy that can be received, he said. He hopes someday to organize a powered paraglider show in the Marion area.

"There's nothing like standing feet on the ground, taking off running, no cockpit and you just jump into the sky, having your feet off the ground," he said. "It's the closest thing to really flying."