SAFA Skysailor Magazine

26 SKY SAILOR March | April 2020 H eld in the province of Guizhou at Zangke River, Martin qualified in the top eight to perform battles. The idea of these bat- tles is that each pilot chooses manoeuvres for their opponent to perform in the hope they themselves can outperform them. Martin’s competitor (Luke De Weert, fifth in the FAI World Ranking) performed with surgical precision, automatically eliminating Martin from the top four. Moved to the semi-finals, Martin won against a Swiss pilot, to qualify for the finals before placing fifth overall. As per acro competition, the top six winning pilots take the podium. “The event is well funded and organised, but the best part is the opportunity to get together with my friends, team mates and some of the world’s best acro pilots to compete against each other in such events,” said Martin. “My biggest challenge during the event was competing against my friend and team mate, Luke, but my challenges don’t end there. Living in Australia, the highest hill at one of my local sites is only 183m high. Training acro safely requires great altitude, i.e., at least 1000m over a lake. Many acro pilots push their boundaries training over ground and at lower altitude, however, for pilots in Australia, it is even more challenging due to the lack of big mountains and lakes beneath them.” Despite his challenges, Martin has achieved highly in the sport in such a short amount of time. “Being ranked 44th in the world after just three competitions is a very big achievement for me, but that also means my ranking will improve as soon as I do my fourth FAI Acro Competition,” said Martin. “This was all achieved while training on low Australian sites and some European mountains, compared to most acro pilots, who live and train in the Alps. However, I am currently the oldest competing acro pilot in the world and flying against all the young guns doesn’t make my job any easier.” Last year, Martin competed in the World Acro Tour, qualifying for the CAT1 FAI World Champion- ships this year. He will be the first Australian acro pilot to represent our country in this category. “Ever since I started acro, I wanted this type of flying to expand in Australia, bringing knowledge, skill and safety to Australia pilots in the form of SIV training and safety clinics. I hope to develop better understanding and acceptance of this art form within the Australian community,” said Martin. Sky High Thrills in China Paragliding Acrobatics pilot, Martin Wysocki, aka ‘Hollywood’ was invited by the Chinese Government (along with some of the world’s best paragliding acrobatics pilots) to help introduce and expand the sport to the people of China for the second International ACRO Competition.