CHARLESTOWN – An expert hang glider pilot from Connecticut got an unplanned ride in a medical helicopter after a takeoff accident at Morningside Flight Park yesterday afternoon.

Jeff Nicolay, owner of the flight park, said the injured man is his longtime friend, Rick Tenan of Avon, Conn., who was trying out a new high-performance glider when the accident happened. "Those are tricky," he said.

"Since he doesn't fly in the prone position and he chooses to fly in a seated position, he has to run when he's being pulled into the air by the tow plane," Nicolay explained. "And he dropped his glider and the nose hit the ground and he came to a raging stop."

"It rung his bell," Nicolay said.

Tenan had "a nasty cut from a cable on his nose," and blacked out briefly, according to Nicolay. "He was very banged up."

"It's kind of like running into a tree."

Nicolay said an EMT who works at the park attended to Tenan immediately. "We couldn't find any broken bones and he had feeling in all of his extremities. He was conversing with us right up until they took him in the helicopter."

Tenan was airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where he was being treated in the emergency room last evening.

Nicolay said his friend is an "advanced" hang glider pilot who's been flying for about 25 years.