SAFA Skysailor Magazine

6 SKY SAILOR November | December 2020 by Jeff Hoffmann The Pico Club is based around Milbrulong in southern NSW. Jos Weemaes gave it the name because we do Powered Paragliding. Smaller than micro, smaller than ultra, pico is a very small unit and we fly very small aircraft. We have been meeting at Milbrulong and flying from my farm every September for the last 22 years. This was to be 23, but then along came the virus. Covid safe mini fly-in We have to obey the law, and we have to make sure we do not spread the virus into the local community. We have to be sure we do not spread it amongst ourselves. It is a bad disease to get. Also, we must not get the local community off-side with the perception that we have just gone ahead regardless. They have had to call off all community events. They welcome us flying overhead, and we value that. The Pico Club had a meeting in my shed and decided this fly-in would be different. Firstly, we officially cancelled it. Then, we decided to have it anyway as a private party, invitation only, camping on and flying from private property and of course, NSW and ACT pilots only. A week out, the weather forecast was for rain and wind gusting up to 60km/h. We postponed for a week on the reasonable assumption that it was not going to be worse. A week later the forecast was not a lot better, but most of them came anyway. The border bubble opened just wide enough to include Milbrulong, so a couple of the old regulars were able to get across while keeping the numbers below the legal limit of 20. PPG pilots came from all over and the flying was good at times. At other times we had to wait out the wind and rain in the shed drinking coffee, fixing motors, testing motors on the thrust test bench and socialising with The Pico Fly-in that wasn’t