Take Flight Aerial Adventure Park Takes Off

Editor's note: Welcome to "Across the River," which offers stories and news from Kittery, Maine. Each Thursday, Portsmouth Patch will present a story about this community along with a short list of upcoming events and happenings around town. All Portsmouth Patch stories about Kittery, Maine will also be posted in our new "Across the River" topic page that can be accessed by clicking on the News section of the tool bar any time.

At first glance, the new Take Flight ropes course aerial adventure park in Kittery, Maine looks a bit intimidating, but Stephanie Retrosi says people of all ages and abilities quickly discover it is really fun.

“Physically, you don’t need to be in really great shape to do this,” she said.

Take Flight opened on Aug. 4 and Retrosi said the response has been great. They have already hosted many Seacoast area residents and visitors as well as groups. Most recently, the new park hosted 65 St. Anselm College residential assistants for a team building exercise, she said.

With the help of Take Flight’s staff, patrons attend a 20-minute flight school where they learn the basics of navigating the ropes course that is laid out on three levels that range from 12 feet above ground to 24 and 36 feet.

Every patron wears a body harness, helmet and is securely fastened with lanyards to the wires that stretch across every area of the course, Retrosi said.

Soon they will add four big nets for patrons who don’t want to be secured with lanyards and zip lines in September that will take patrons through five acres of woods.

When they complete the addition of the four nets, Retrosi said Take Flight will be the first facility in North America to have the ballyless feature.

She said Take Flight’s ropes course plans to be open through October and the zip line park will be open well into November, weather permitting. Retrosi said they plan to add up to seven zip lines, which will allow Seacoast residents to experience this recreational activity without having to travel north to ski areas that are now offering the same thing.

Take Flight employs 20 people, 10 of whom are full-time, and ensuring the safety of their guests is paramount, Retrosi said. Each morning before the park opens at 9 a.m. staff members walk every inch of the ropes course to make sure every line is secured and everything is ready to go.

When asked why she and her brother, Charlie Williams, chose Kittery to locate Take Flight, Stephanie Retrosi said her brother has been building ropes course and ziplines parks all over the world for years with his company, Wing Speed Adventures.

He decided he wanted to build his own park on the Seacoast and the site located just north of the Kittery Outlet stores was perfect. She said it took 10 weeks to construct the ropes course park.

The rates are also reasonable. Retrosi said children ages 12 and under pay $25, children and students over 12 pay $35 and adults pay $40. Each person gets to use the ropes course for two and a half hours, which includes the 20 minutes of flight school time.

Retrosi said their goal is to make their park a very friendly family experience so that everybody can experience it.

“We want to encourage everybody and make everyone feel 10 feet tall by they time they leave here.”

Back to school, the Kittery School Department calendar shows the following dates for children to return to school: Sept. 5 - Grades 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9, Sept. 6 - Grades 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12; Sept. 7 - Kindergarten

Meetings:

Kittery Port Authority, Thursday, Aug. 31, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Kittery School Committee, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.

Town offices closed on Friday, Sept. 3. and Monday, Sept. 6 for Labor Day Weekend.

Events:

Kittery Trading Post, Septemberfest, Monday, Sept. 3, Labor Day, through Sunday, Sept. 9. Great sales, discounts, special events and happenings offered throughout the week.

 Want to contribute to "Across the River?" Kittery, Maine residents are free to contribute photos, news and any other items of interest they want to share directly to the site or they can sign up as bloggers by e-mailing robert.cook@portsmouth-nh.patch.com.

Interested in advertising on Patch? Contact Ad Manager Sharon Melanson sharon.melanson@patch.com 603-479-3650