HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 13 May | June 2018 What’s your favourite destination to fly and why? I think it’s flying cross-country in the UK. Australia is fantastic for flying competitions and I’ve had some terrific flights; 40km final glides from 10 to 12,000ft. However, the UK is set apart in terms of the pure pleasure of just floating along cross- country. You can drift across countryside that is forever changing with little villages or something of historical significance every four or five miles and you can always land next to a village and a pub. I was born in the UK and one of my favourite flights was flying along the south coast, north of Portsmouth and over the Solent towards The Needles, off the Isle of Wight. There’s just so much interesting countryside packed into a small area. Although the flying doesn’t compare to the phenomenal flying that we have in Australia, it’s just interesting terrain with so much to look at. It wouldn’t be my favourite place for competitions, however, for pure cross-country flying pleasure it’s great. Why are you particularly attracted to hang gliding? I’ve done a little bit of paragliding and I suppose if I had started later, I might have gone down that path. However, hang gliding gives me the ability to always get in reasonable cross-country flying in terms of distances, and I can fly a reasonable wind speed range. I’m also very keen on the hang gliding aerotow comps. I guess what has kept me primarily interested in hang gliding, rather than some other form of soaring, is the fact that I can afford to compete overseas. Also, apart from paragliding, there’s not many forms of aviation that are self-portable when going overseas. Although it used to be easier when you could put a glider on your shoulder and check it in as baggage, now, checking in and out of Australia has become extremely difficult. But competition and travelling overseas is certainly what’s kept me interested. Also, the great international hang gliding community – and the number of Australians who fly in comps all over the world has been one of the reasons why I’ve remained in hang gliding. It’s just a great sense of community, no matter where in the world we meet. I’m already looking forward to the next big international competitions for me, which are the Pre- worlds in Italy and the Europeans in Macedonia! What glider do you currently fly and why do you prefer it? I fly an RX 3.5 from Moyes which handles beautifully. Perhaps there’s a bit of a compromise in terms of performance for good handling, but it’s a very safe glider and extremely well supported. Moyes is very much a family company and they always ensure their pilots feel part of that family. What’s your longest flight on record? In the past 20 years, I haven’t consciously gone out to fly big distance or gone after records. This is simply because of time commitments. So my longest flight is the 380km task I completed at the Forbes Flatlands this year, where 16 of us made goal. I still work full time, so when I go flying it’s generally just for comps, and I don’t tend to fly much between comps. As a result of this I haven’t been flying to break records. I would love to fly over 500km in Australia as a goal, but I guess most of my pleasure comes from competitions rather than just distance. My next one will be at the Dalby Big Air in South East Queensland. It’s a great competition; the Dalby Club is conveniently located at the airport and they always put on a great show. Competitions like Forbes, Canungra and Dalby are great social events for supporters and pilots too, where we can all gather at the end of a day’s flying for a joint meal. They are also superb places for racing. Clockwise from top left: Flying at Starfish Hill Reminiscing at Laragne goal, France Steve above Ager, Spain Encounter with the Mt Terrible Wedgie All photos: Courtesy Steve Blenkinsop