HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 15 May | June 2019 The conditions were challenging, with climbs difficult to track down low and strong winds up high, pushing us downwind fast. I was fairly happy to hear only Halina was in the air – these were not novice conditions. Halina landed in challenging conditions at 82km, and I landed in very challenging conditions at 138km. I was pleased with my flight, enjoying the new scenery and feeling like I had shown the group what was possible despite such conditions. As a competition pilot, however, my flight was not remarkable. Halina was definitely the rockstar of the day. Interestingly, whilst the other fly-ins had taken some effort to fill, the tow safari sold out in 24 hours. When I negotiated one more spot, it also sold instantly. Phil’s tow safaris have a great reputation in the community. He’s an experienced tow operator, engineers and builds his own winches, and runs a super-smooth operation. Towing is not for the faint-hearted, though. It requires spending time in a hot, dusty, fly-blown paddocks, kitted up for the cold temperatures aloft and being tethered to the ground when dusties are kicking off everywhere. Towing in thermic conditions is scary. Controlling the wing through the turbulent air at ground level, then holding your nerve to continue the tow as the line twings and twangs, the vario screaming through thermals, the wing pitching forward as you exit them, and then relaxing slightly as you see the tow vehicle slow down reaching the end of the paddock so you can ping off to go find that first thermal. It takes courage. It takes the type of courage some of us need to find in a completely supportive environment. Some of us won’t find it if we feel we’ll be judged. Once we find it, most of us can access it again in less supportive environments. Often, we can’t even describe what the environment is that we seek. Lucy described it like this: “It’s so good to go flying with a group of women, to be the 100% rather than just the 10%, to find that there are a few of you, to fly, laugh, chat, practice some towing skills we don’t use so often, camp out under the stars and share why we all love this flying thing. It’s easy to think you don’t need things like this, because here we all are, doing it anyway, because it’s what we love to do and we have great flying friends and we’ve all probably been the 10% in many of the things we’ve done in life, so we’re just used to it. For me, going on… these fly-ins over the last year, has helped me find my own way back into flying (which I didn’t do so much for a while), to remember exactly what it is I love about it, and to have the confidence to just get on with it in the way I want to.” Sharon was our rookie, with less than 20 hours under her belt. She had come along to the Sydney Fly-in and I was instantly impressed with her background and attitude to being a novice again. She is confident but humble, able to let you know her weaknesses but assure you at the same time what she can manage. She pushes her boundaries, some of which I push back on, some of which I leave her to manage. I felt the most amount of responsibility for her, but at the same time, she was in touch with what she needed guidance on and what she knew she was capable of. She handled her tows like a pro. I loved seeing Cath, who complained originally she couldn’t hold her wing down adequately because the brake lines were too long for her arms, take on a different method and nail her ground handling. Her wing was going nowhere till she was ready. And I loved that Erica was our team fix-it manager. She sorted out Phil’s preferred tracking option of Skylines, phoned people from the tow paddock and got everyone sorted. Nothing was beyond Erica. Not to mention her beat-boxing skills. Women bring colour to paragliding. Both literally and figuratively. We are in touch with how we feel, Kirsten arrives at the local pub after her flight Lucy gets ready Sharon