HGFA Skysailor Magazine

10 SKY SAILOR September | October 2018 about five seconds earlier. It’s a complex decision. A tugmaster as experienced as Simon has the ability to move the trike across to help bring things back on line, but another tuggie might have problems of his/her own (like thermals) and the Duty Pilot is better placed to make the call during these early stages of the launch. It is part of the hang gliding tradition dating back to the 1960s when pilots were teaching themselves or each other; they tended to fly with a group and in the group they fell into the roles of assisting with set-up, walking the wing and holding the nose. Togetherness gets sort of built in. As part of this, a Duty Pilot encourages low hours HG pilots to keep their flights reasonably short (half-an-hour-ish). This also applies to coastal operations where landings tend to be more critical than launches. Being ‘fresh’ is a bonus. Here too the observer on the landing site, with a radio, has a clear view of wind strength and direction. Visiting pilots at regional sites should always try to touch base with locals. They will have good insights to consider. Flying alone has seen some very close shaves and more than one fatality; not just in hang gliding… Flying with others is obviously also much more fun. Just flying around at a coastal site is a great thing, but it is much safer to have somebody there who can help when things get marginal or worse. In WA, we had the sad case of a young fella who was very keen to fly and who seemed to have been ill informed about suitable places for him to fly. His being alone contributed to a situation which ended in his death. Having a mate with him might have made a huge difference. How did you get into hang gliding? It was about 1982, I was living in the Warnbro Rockingham area (coastal, outer-metro Perth) and I was driving along a road near the beach when I saw these huge kites. I was amazed how fast they were skimming along sand dunes. I watched for about an hour and asked the guys how they got involved. They explained about clubs, but there were not Simon Shuttleworth eases off the dolly Peter Roberts Maintenance checks and tips Gordon airborne Gordon performs a neat flare Gavin Nicholls holding, in low-tow Aerotow