Dockweiler State Beach is a beach in Los Angeles, California, with of shoreline and a hang gliding practice and training area. Although a unit of the California state park system, it is managed by the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors. Part of the park is located directly under the flight path of the adjacent Los Angeles International Airport. The property was established in 1948. Originally part of Venice-Hyperion Beach State Park, it was renamed in honor of prominent early Angeleno Isidore B. Dockweiler in 1955.
Location
Dockweiler State Beach is in the Playa del Rey neighborhood at the western terminus of Imperial Highway. Between the beach and the airport lies the ghost town of Palisades del Rey. In August 2000 parkgoers witnessed smoke and flames shooting out of a Boeing 747's engine and metal parts as large as a dishwasher landing on the beach. The KLM flight bound for Amsterdam had just taken off from LAX and suffered a possible bird strike in one of its four jet engines. The aircraft was able to circle and land again without injury to the 429 people aboard.
Hang gliding
The park boasts the Dockweiler Hang Gliding Center and the Hang Gliding Flight Training Concession; where beginners can learn the sport of hang gliding; experienced hang glider enthusiasts may practice the art and sport as the plaque set in 2000 at the site indicates. Enthusiasts and students of the concession launch off dunes. The facility was built by the city, county, and state; to serve lesson-and-renting needs a concession is operated by a concession named WindSports International, Inc. under a limited contract. With gentle breezes and a broad, sandy landing zone, Dockweiler was a major testing ground for hang gliding pioneers in the 1960s. Concerned about safety and liability, however, city officials banned the sport at the beach in 1986. Practitioners lobbied for 13 years to reopen Dockweiler to hang gliding, ultimately winning a $6 million renovation in 2000 that included the Dockweiler Hang Gliding Center. It was the first hang gliding park established in conjunction with a city government. Friends of Dockweiler Gliding Society was founded at the 2015 Otto Lilienthal Birthday Party sponsored by the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association; the FDGS is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the park's gliding activity for the public.
