HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 15 September | October 2018 Rob de Groot Our China trip started with a five-hour delay at Sydney Airport which would normally be a real drag, but it turned out alright because the eight of us became closer while we shared the anticipation and mystery of how two weeks hang gliding in China would go. We included: the boss, Vicki, and first fella, Greg; Australian team pilots, Rohan Taylor and Harrison Rowntree; internationally renowned pilots Steve Docherty and Brad Porter; myself and super support crew, Jude de Groot. Fortunately, Vicki had arranged for us to fly five new Geckos. The Moyes China dealer, Longfei, already had them at his airfield in Guyuan. One potentially large problem was therefore eliminated. Just as well, because we arrived at 3am to only one customs officer processing a whole plane-load of tired passengers. Three hours later we all crashed at a nearby hotel, and six hours later our wonderful hosts, Longfei, Lola, Bin Duan and his wife Isabel, daughter Cici, and FuYu Shan drove us out of Beijing, up through the mountains, past sections of the Great Wall to the high plains of Inner Mongolia.  At the Wozaifei airfield, the air was surprisingly cool and clean. City people come here to enjoy the big outdoors, horseriding (Genghis Khan style), boating, fireworks and hang gliding. As we unpacked and set up our Geckos, we started to get to know the local pilots. Some of them spent the whole three- month season here, helping, training and flying. Translation wasn’t easy. Using Google Translate on our phones sort of worked, but without Bin’s ability to speak both languages fluently, we wouldn’t have been able to get to know these great people as well and have so much fun together. Longfei has done a great job of developing China’s first aerotow flight and training facility. There is a clubhouse and kitchen, accommodation, office, glider and equipment sheds, a stationary winch, and a large hangar with two Dragonflys so far. There are also perfect foot-launch training hills nearby, gently rising out of the wide open flat grasslands. The tow launch field is high, at around 5000ft ASL. We were towing to over 7000ft into a mostly volatile and layered sky with clouds every day. The days were longer than we realised because conditions changed so thoroughly and quickly. But from the first flight, it was clear this was a place for legendary XC flying. We had a bit of a competition clinic and talked about XC flying skills, then started setting tasks for the day. Return to launch was always favoured because many fields were criss- crossed with powerlines and there was only one dual cab ute to pick up gliders. Naturally, the wind did not co-operate and we ended up having some amazing retrieves. Landing fields were plentiful and never too far from a small road. The local people were always welcoming and willing to help. Retrieves were done without fuss by our expert navigator, driver and launch marshal, ShiShao. Google Maps is a bit wobbly in China, so everyone uses WeChat with Chinese maps. One afternoon, the ute was loaded to the max with seven gliders and nine people (and lots of beer), but we got back in time for another super BBQ at the clubhouse and more fireworks, thanks to cracker-boy Harrison. Longfei didn’t fly in the comp, but he was a champion tug pilot. Expertly towing all of us in the morning and then training new pilots for the rest of the day. His brother, Beibei, and Bin were doing the best in the comp, with first time XC pilot Han keenly chasing them. So, after eight fabulous days with six days flying, it was back to Beijing to get a bullet train to Linzhou. Easy for us, but the surprisingly difficult task of moving us and the gliders to Linzhou was brilliantly Photos: Harrison Rowntree Harrison Rowntree at cloudbase Rob de Groot with his outlanding retrieve instructions