[piano intro] -[Deborah] Next on North Carolina Weekend.

Join us from The Durham Hotel rooftop as we reach new heights.

We'll fly high from an air museum.

Spend the night in a tree resort and go indoor rock climbing.

Coming up next.

- [Narrator] Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by, Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our State's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of Barrier Island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our State has to offer.

[upbeat cheerful music] ♪ - Welcome to North Carolina Weekend everyone, I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we're reaching new heights from the rooftop of The Durham Hotel, a mid-century modern boutique, hotel in the heart of downtown.

The Durham is a vibrant destination with a panoramic view of the city center from a cool rooftop bar.

Today, we're showing you how to get in the air, all across North Carolina.

And we start in Hendersonville at a museum that's dedicated to the flying heritage of our State.

Let's join Clay Johnson at the Western North Carolina Air Museum.

[plane propellers buzzing] - This is a 1943 Boeing Stearman built as a primary trainer of World War II.

About 80% of the pilots in World War II, when they started doing basic training, that's the first airplane they would fly.

[plane propellers whirring] It sits on its tail instead of on the nose gear.

And because of that, the center of gravity is behind the main wheels.

So it wants to turn around and go backwards all the time.

That was intentional because they figured if you could beat, if you could handle that on landing, you could handle about anything.

[plane engine roaring] - [Clay] Dennis Dunlap loves flying his Stearman.

- [Dennis] Once it's off the ground, it's a great airplane.

- [Clay] So great, this is the sixth one Dunlap has owned and rebuilt.

- [Dennis] Every time I sell one, I buy another one right behind it and go again because I just can't stand it.

You pull up on a ramp somewhere, and here's a $3 million [mumbles] or a Falcon or this or that or whatever, I mean, million dollar airplanes, you pull up in that and everybody comes out.

- [Clay] Dunlap's Stearman is part of the Western North Carolina Air Museum and so is Dunlap.

He, along with Ken Stubbs and Bill Schreier imagined the museum while sharing their own stories about flying.

- And they had the idea to kind of establish something that people could come and visit and share in those stories and experiences.

And it grew quickly from there.

- [Clay] They founded the museum in 1989, making it the first air museum in the State that was first in flight.

- [Jarrod] We're essentially a hub of all groups of aviation and a place for people to come together and sort of experience and share ideas.

- [Clay] The museum is connected to the Hendersonville Airport, the oldest private airport in continuous operation in North Carolina.

It houses 23 aircraft representing eight decades of aviation.

- Most of our planes are donated from the local community and others from outside the community that want to sort of preserve, mostly the Carolina flying heritage.

Some of those still have their current flight worthiness certificates, although we don't fly them.

We encourage everyone to be up close and personal with the aircraft, as opposed to staring at displays at a distance.

It's very rewarding when families come in and say, "Well, gosh, we've never been able "to get close to an airplane."

And so they're able to come here and really tap into our resources.

- [Clay] There are other exhibits too, things like cockpit simulators, ejection seats, and aviation memorabilia.

The museum has an annual Airfare where people, cannot only see, but also ride in a vintage plane.

Visitors can also watch volunteers doing aircraft restorations.

Many of whom are veteran pilots themselves.

- [Jarrod] They're up close and personal with the people who may have built these planes or who continue to work on them and the people who fly them or the people who design them.

[plane engine roaring] - [Clay] And every once in a while, visitors may get to take a ride in a 1943 Stearman.

[plane engine roaring] - [Jarrod] And that's a really, a very good representative aircraft of what the museum's about and the type of heritage and how those aircraft touch many people throughout time.

- [Clay] People like Dennis Dunlap whose love of flying is inspiring.

- It's so engrossing and so demanding of your thoughts, that it's almost relaxing for me because I forget about the family and the kids and the job and life in general.

When I'm in that airplane, I'm in that airplane.

[plane engine roaring] [dramatic music] - [Narrator] The Western North Carolina Air Museum is at 1340 Gilbert St in Hendersonville, and they're open Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, from noon to 5:00 p.m.

Admission is free.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 698-2482.

Or go online to westernnorthcarolina airmuseum.com - If you're interested in staying at The Durham Hotel, they have a beautifully designed indoor space and the rooms are equally as inviting.

Now, if you dream of getting way up high and away from the city, we may have just the thing for you.

Let's join Rob Holiday at a magical Treesort in China Grove.

- Beautiful living space, comfortable beds, not only hot water and heating, but we have refrigerators, microwaves, beautiful deck.

- [Rob] Amenities that are all more than 10 feet above the ground.

Not in a beach house, but in a... - Tree house.

- [Rob] And aboard among the branches, that's one of several here at the Cherry Treesort in China Grove.

About 40 minutes on outside of Charlotte.

- Cherry Treesort is it's a 27-acre farm.

And we have built seven tree houses out here, overnight rentals, anywhere from 10 to 18 feet up in the air.

- [Rob] Treesort owner, Trent Cherry, initially thought about building a cabin here when he bought the land back in 2015.

- We were looking at it and we're like, "No, why don't we just build a tree house instead?"

Make it nice like a cabin, all the amenities and just do that.

And I said, "If we can do one, let's see what two can do.

"And then maybe let's see what three can do."

And we just kind of piecemealed it together.

They're done as nice as you can get with all the amenities, but you still, when the wind blows, you can feel it move, like we don't build stick houses.

Every one of our tree houses has a tree support.

You can feel the tin roof when it rains, you can hear it.

I mean, you know you're in a tree house.

- Every house is a different theme, a different style.

Everything is custom-built.

- [Rob] Down to the finishing touches, like shelves and railing.

None of the Treesort's houses are the same.

Each house is named after a member of the Cherry family and they have varying designs and sizes, sleeping as many as eight people in some cases.

It helps make an ideal setup for groups of friends and families.

- Wherever your tree house is located, you have lots of green space, there's fire pits at every location, which is nice for like having the s'mores and the fun or just having dinner or whatever you'd like to do.

And then there's opportunities for everyone to gather around and enjoy each other's company.

We have been prepping our children for the tree houses for the past six months.

The anticipation of going somewhere where you can sleep, where your home is absolutely lifted up in the trees, it's unbelievable.

And so the children were so excited.

- [Rob] Even the ones who are a bit more comfortable on solid ground.

Most of the Treesorts houses are located in the limbs, but not all of them.

- Our daughter doesn't like heights.

So they have these nice Hobbit houses and they're basically built into the side of the hill and there's two of them on the property right now.

It gives a nice difference for people that wanna be up high and then people that just wanna be down low.

- [Woman] It's underground, which, it's very cool.

It makes it incredibly warm and cozy.

It's really unique, it's just enough space.

- The top is all grass.

So the children were up there doing cartwheels and playing, not getting too close to the side, but for the most part, that's been the most enjoyable thing.

- There was a good bank and there wasn't really any good trees to kind of build on there.

We said, "You know what?

"We're gonna put a Hobbit house underground."

They've been huge successes, you can't find those.

There's really not any like it.

And we weren't trying to mimic "The Lord of the Rings."

I've actually never watched "The Lord of the Rings," believe it or not, we get a lot of both.

Some people come for the Hobbit house and wanna stay in the tree house.

Some people come to the tree house and wanna stay in the Hobbit house.

[tractor engine whirring] We've got a big 25 Pasture Wagon.

We give kids wagon rides.

- [Rob] One of several activities at Cherry Treesort that have nothing to do with the housing itself.

- [Woman] There's lots of swings and green space for the children to come play and run.

- [Man] The children can run up and down the creek.

And you really don't, I mean, you keep an eye on them, but they're not going too far.

Kids aren't on their tablets, they're out enjoying nature.

- They've got 27 acres to run and do what they want.

There's no WiFi on the property, which a lot of parents send me emails privately, "Thank you for not having WiFi."

It's the best of both worlds out here.

Usually we have families that come, and half the family loves the camp and half the family wants to be in a five-star resort.

So you get the best of both worlds.

- [Rob] And more guests will be able to experience those two worlds, there's an expansion plan in the years ahead.

- [Trent] We've got zoning for five more, we plan on building two of those five this year, and then seeing how it goes.

We're just trying to find that happy medium of, how big do you get without getting too big?

And also keeping the privacy of all of our guests.

So you're not, we don't wanna build them on top of each other.

- [Rob] Guests make their way to Cherry Treesort from all 50 States and even a few other countries.

Trent Cherry wants to make sure they all come away with a fun and unique collection of memories.

- It's really cool to wake up and look out your window from your bed and you're 18 feet up in there in the middle of the wood.

One of the things that we enjoy is giving the experience to people that you can't get anywhere else.

[slow bright piano music] - [Narrator] Cherry Treesort is at, 1920 Flat Rock Road in China Grove.

To book your tree house, give them a call at [704] 467-5496, or go online to cherrytreesort.com.

- We all know North Carolina's Inner Banks are famous for their picturesque rivers, marshes and forests.

And now you can get an [mumbles] eye view of it all on a hot air balloon ride with IBX Balloon Flights.

[slow piano music] - [Man] There we go.

[slow piano music] It sure does rise quickly, doesn't it?

- [Narrator] The hot air balloon from Inner Banks' balloon flights takes off from the town of Bath.

- [Man] Man.

- [Narrator] The balloon heads west over Bath Creek.

- [Rusty] Now how high are we up in the air?

- [Neal] Probably a couple hundred feet [mumbles].

- [Narrator] Pilot Neal Langford has been ballooning most of his life.

- [Neal] I took my first balloon ride when I was five years old.

Friends and my parents owned a balloon and I was back in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the early 70s.

And Albuquerque's kind of known as the balloon capital of the world.

Just grew up around Albuquerque and knew I always wanted to be a pilot.

I think it's just the adventure of there's that part that you don't know where you're gonna go exactly.

You don't know how the end of the flight's gonna be.

You don't know what the flight's gonna be like.

Every flight's a surprise.

There's always something different.

- [Woman] With the trees and then you see something.

- [Narrator] Neal's partner, Skip Van Wyk, needed to be close to his family in Bath.

So Neal decided to start a ballooning business here.

- [Neal] Well, it's just the beauty of it.

I mean, it's just, it's a cute little town, it's historic, the water's right there.

There's no ballooning out in this area so people are pretty excited about it.

And I'm excited too 'cause it's always fun to find new places.

- [Narrator] It's not a new place to his passengers, Rusty and Patsy Duke.

They live in Greenville, but have a home in Bath.

- [Patsy] Well, it was really exciting to get to go up the air over an area that we're familiar with and see things that we don't usually see when we're driving down the road.

- [Rusty] This is incredible.

- [Patsy] It is beautiful.

- [Rusty] It really doesn't compare to a plane ride.

This is totally different.

- [Narrator] The ride began back in the parking lot of the Bath Historic Site Visitor Center.

Neal uses a regular balloon to test the wind speed and direction along with the help of a balloon app on his phone.

- I think the biggest challenge in ballooning is weather 'cause we're a very weather-dependent sport.

- [Narrator] The weather's good today.

So Neal and Skip unload the basket and balloon and connect them together.

They semi-inflate the balloon with a big fan, [fan whirring] Then inflated the rest of the way with the burner.

[playful classical music] The passengers get in and Neal takes off while Skip follows in his truck.

- [Patsy] This is great, so smooth and quiet.

- [Neal] People are always really surprised when they get in the basket.

All of a sudden you'll be a couple hundred feet in the air and they, all of a sudden they realize, they're flying.

I want them to have an experience of a lifetime.

Something that they'll talk about years down the road.

- [Skip] Change the flier.

- Yeah, go ahead.

- [Skip] So where are you headed?

- I'm not sure yet.

- [Narrator] After about an hour in the air, Neal guides the balloon down over a cornfield.

They usually ask permission in advance to land on private property.

But even when that's not possible, Neal says most people are fine with it.

- A lot of people aren't familiar with balloons.

Some people have never seen them.

So if one lands in their cornfield or something, they get pretty excited about it.

Try put it right on that road.

- [Skip] If that's what you want.

[slow emotional music] You having a good time?

- Yes.

- We had a wonderful.

- This is fabulous.

Thank you so much, Neal.

- Thank you very much Neal.

- No problem.

- It was a great ride.

- This is wonderful.

- A great ride on a great day.

We really enjoyed it a lot and we just hope other people will do it 'cause they'll find out how much fun it is.

- [Narrator] IBX Balloon Flights is in Bath.

To book your balloon ride, give me Neal Langford a call or text him at [505] 720-5438 or find them on Facebook.

- What if you're interested in reaching new heights, but you just don't know where to get started?

Well, there is a fast growing collection of indoor rock climbing clubs and they have offerings for everyone, from beginners to advanced climbers.

Let's join Rick Sullivan at the Triangle Rock Club.

[slow ominous music] - [Rick] You might think rock climbing is too dangerous, too hard, or simply a sport that requires a nearby mountain, but you don't need to do anything risky or have access to an iconic location like Pilot Mountain to experience the thrill of the climb.

Triangle Rock Club facilities are located in Raleigh, Durham, Morrisville and Fayetteville.

- We all offer bouldering and rope climbing.

Bouldering is shorter climbing where you don't use a rope.

So it's usually just a couple of feet off the ground, maybe like 12 to 16 feet in the air.

And we use big mats underneath those climbs so that you can just, when you fall, you come all the way down to the ground.

Usually harder moves and it's kind of more dynamic, more athletic.

Rope climbing is we, do top rope and lead climbing.

So top rope climbing is where the rope is connected to the top of the wall so those are a little more like endurance climbs, the moves are generally a little easier, but you're going for longer.

- [Rick] And lead climbing is a little more do it yourself, which is getting a rock or two ahead of us.

The TRC walls reach over 50 feet, intimidating to look at, but not so impossible to climb if you know where to begin.

- I think there's two really good options for people who are beginners and it kind of depends on what you're looking for.

If you just wanna come and give it a try, one time.

All of our locations are set up with something called an auto belay device.

It kind of does the belaying for you.

Belaying is a skill that you need in order to your climber from the bottom of the route up to the top.

So it's kind of like a machine that'll do it for you.

You can just clip in and you can give it a try without needing to know any skills.

If you're looking to get a little bit more information, we all offer Intro to Rope Climbing classes that'll teach you how to belay.

It teaches you some basics of movement and is a really good, it's a one-hour class, it's a really good way to kind of get introduced to what's happening with climbing.

- [Rick] Jacqui Kruse and Graham Jagger took that introductory course six years ago.

They've been climbing at TRC ever since.

- Everybody that works here is really nice.

The community is amazing.

If you come in here and you're having a problem with a climb or something and somebody is next to you, you can say, "Hey, can you help me?"

It's very safe.

It's a lot of fun, great community, really just a fun sport, mentally and physically challenging.

- It's not like climbing a ladder where you just automatically go tap, tap, tap.

You have to look at the pieces and how flow is to figure out how you wanna do it.

- To me, the most wonderful things about this sport, this gym is it is, as they like to say, "A judgment free zone."

It doesn't matter if you are small, big, tall, short, old, young, what your fitness level is.

There's something you can do in here, it's gonna be fun.

- [Rick] As TRC's Programs Manager, it is Maddi Hightower's job to be sure you find that fun.

Kids seem to take to it naturally, but grownups should not sell themselves short.

- I actually run one of our meetup groups and our meet up age range, ranges from about 24 all the way up to our oldest reoccurring participant being 67.

- [Rick] Many of the climbers in this gym will surely test their skills in real world rock formations, but starting in a controlled environment like TRC gives them a great headstart.

- A lot of it is kind of confidence building.

So really getting comfortable being up above the ground since your body's like, "Hey, we're not normally up this high, what's going on?"

So kind of helping you get into the mindset that, "Nope, you're okay, you're strong enough.

"You got these moves down."

- [Narrator] The Triangle Rock Club has four locations, Raleigh, Durham, Morrisville, and Fayetteville.

To learn more, go to trianglerockclub.com.

- Our next story will take you really up high.

Let's go hang gliding at Jockey's Ridge State Park with Kitty Hawk Kites.

[upbeat playful music] ♪ - [Man] Why would you not wanna learn to fly?

It's one of the oldest dreams humans have ever had, and this is the purest kind of flying there is.

It really hits some primordial urge that we all have to fly like a bird.

- [Narrator] Kitty Hawk Kites hang gliding school help satisfy that urge and dream to fly.

- [Man] Kitty Hawk Kites is the largest hang gliding school in the world by a factor of probably 50.

We teach more beginners here than all the other schools combined.

- [Narrator] The school is in Jockey's Ridge State Park in Nags Head.

It's near the Wright Brothers National Memorial, site of the first flight.

- Jockey's Ridge is ideal for the same reason the Wright brothers came here, we've got consistent wind and we've got soft sand.

Almost all aircraft have to take off and land into wind and hang gliders are no exception.

We're lucky that we have hills that face every direction.

If the wind changes, we just move hills.

They're called hang gliders because we hang from the wing.

We start with a ground school.

That's about 35 or 40 minutes long.

You're gonna be suspended in a harness, laying down in this position, in the prone position.

And you're gonna be moving your weight side to side and forward and backwards.

I do a little talk about out the mechanics of how to fly the glider and a little bit about the history of our sport.

- [Narrator] That history begins with Francis Rogallo.

- Francis Rogallo is considered the father of modern hang gliding.

He was an aeronautical engineer who worked for the NACA, which was the precursor to NASA.

- [Narrator] Rogallo designed the lightweight, flexible wing that gave birth to hang gliding.

Photos of him hang on the classroom wall.

- That's it guys.

- [Narrator] After class students head out to the dunes.

- [Billy] Drop your elbows inside and eyes up, perfect.

That's how I want you most of the flight today, right?

- Okay.

- [Narrator] Student Debra Torrence is getting ready to take her first of five flights.

- So try hips left of all your body.

All your body, shoulders.

Yeah, there you go, now hips right.

Perfect, back to center.

Dig your toes into the sand and now push the bar up and over your head.

Michael Jackson stand up.

[Billy chuckles] There we go, we're clear, let's walk.

Let's jog, let's run.

Keep running, keep running, keep running, lay down.

Good, pull in a little bit, yeah.

[Debra screams] - Push out a little bit, push out more.

All the way out, come to your feet.

[Debra laughs] Yeah.

- Oh my God, it's wild.

- That was awesome.

Let's jog, let's run, keep running.

- [Narrator] Debra goes a little higher and a little longer on each of her flights.

- [Debra] I think it was relaxing, definitely.

And I think it was getting over the initial nerves.

- Push all the way down here, yeah.

- [Debra] I thought it was amazing.

- That was sweet.

- I thought their instruction beforehand was really helpful.

And then watching other people do it, of course, is great.

[upbeat playful music] - What I want people to walk away with is the idea that hang gliding is possible.

It's not this impossible daredevil feat that people do only in rare occasions and in really remote places.

Hang gliding happens all over the country.

Mere mortals commit foot launched aviation every day and we're here to help spread that word.

Yeah.

[dramatic ominous music] [slow music] - [Narrator] Book your hang gliding lesson at Jockey's Ridge State Park by visiting Kitty Hawk Kites' website at kittyhawk.com.

- Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We have had such a fun time, here on the rooftop of The Durham Hotel, a fabulous boutique hotel space in Durham.

And if you've missed anything in today's show, just remember, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org.

Have a great North Carolina Weekend everyone.

[bright music] ♪ - [Narrator] Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our State's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of Barrier Island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our State has to offer.

[piano outro]