Flying High, Flying Far

(author - Dirk Barber)

My first day aerotowing, Tocumwal.


My glider from Jonny Durand Jnr's wingtip, Tocumwal.

It all started when I was 18, back in 1985. I had always had a fascination for flying and had decided to act on it by learning how to hang glide. I was living in Clayton in Melbourne and had got on to a guy who could teach me how to fly. He said that going up in a trike was the quickest and easiest way to learn. The method of running up and down hills with a glider was hard work and slow going he said. This new method was the go I thought. So off I went out to Sunbury to be a passenger in a trike. Yes it was easy, but also very expensive. So with mounting debts and the high cost of my then girlfriend, I decided to abort the whole thing till I had more time and money.

Fast forward to January 2005.

Well, I still didn't have the money, but I had the time, as I had no girlfriend. I thought, well if I keep putting it off then I'll never do it. So I rang up a tandem hang gliding business and booked in to do a tandem. It was with a guy call Brian from Byron Airwaves. My brother Mitch, was with me and we were very excited to fly. The wind was about 10-15 knts and Brian said that he could take me up (90kg), but Mitch (100kg) was a bit too heavy. Mitch was devistated as he had flown over from the UK and was heading home in 2 days. Bad luck Mitch, I'll tell you what it was like. We had both done a tandem paraglide a year earlier in Austria and he got to fly for 20 mins longer than I, so now was a little bit of Karma.

After helping Brian set up his glider, we ran through the take off process. "Will I be allowed to take control?" I asked. "Sure" he said. So after a couple of steps off a short ramp, we were in the air. "This is awesome" I said. I think I was addicted right then. We flew for about 15mins before I got to hold the base bar and fly the glider, but only after some more instruction and with Brian having one hand on the bar. I was flying without a motor. I was definately hooked now. I had control (mostly) for about 20 mins. I have to learn how to do this, I thought.

I soon contacted some people and found out how much it was to do a course. Ken Hill, local Hang Gliding guru, was going to the man, but he was not teaching anymore. He put me on to Leeroy Patterson (Altitude Windsports) who gave me the run down. "Training hills did you say?" "Yes" said Leeroy. Oh well, maybe that guy down in Melbourne had it wrong I thought. Well, it wasn't until July 2005 that I had the money and Leeroy had some land with good training hills sorted out. I booked in to do the 9 day course and after the first day I was nearly dead. This is a really good way to find out exactly how fit you are. It was really hard work. Fortunately it wasn't too long and I was launching from halfway up the hill. My first solo flight. It only lasted all of 10 seconds, but I'd done it. It was the best feeling ever, well next to jumping out of a plane, but that's another story. My next goal was the top of the hill, but I was already thinking about going off the top of Mt Tamborine. I got to do both reasonably quickly. My first flight from Tamborine was awesome. Soon Lee was radio controlling me up to 3, 000 feet. By mid August I was thermalling for 2 hours on a blue day with only 5 hours in my log book.

Lee suggested going down to Tocumwal for the Top Gun Challenge in December 2005. He offered to take my glider (Sonic 190) down so I really had no reason not to go and I'm so glad I did. I met up with Lee in Sydney and we drove to Lake George for a couple of flights. Then it was on to the Bogong Cup. There I flew Mystic Launch and met up with some of the legends of hang gliding, Phil Pritchard, Dave Seebs, Steve Moyes, Attilla, oh yeah and Jonny Durand and many others. All of them are great people and didn't mind chatting offering good advice. By the time we left Mt Beauty I had enough hours and experience to get my intermediate licence, so I did my Intermediate licence with Lee in the car on way down to Tocumwal. There at Sportavia I learnt to aerotow with Tove and Grant Heaney. Also fantastic people who just want to help everyone.

After doing my aerotow endorsement I was ready for the Top Gun challenge. The first day was a spot landing comp because the weather no good for cross country. Dave Hudson won that. The second day I flew 43km and on the third day I flew about 90km over 3 and half hours, getting up to 7,500ft, with a bit of help from Jon Durand. I was grinning from ear to ear for about a week after that.

On sunday the 12th of March I reached another milestone. With just over 39 hours under my belt I went cross country from Beechmont launch (SE Qld). Cloud base is one of the best places you can be. So at about 3,900ft Trevor Purcell and myself headed west. With Trev giving me pointers I flew about 35km over spectacular mountain ranges with eagles soaring by and landed at a place called Locked Gate, about 10km West of Beaudesert. It wasn't my longest flight, but it was 1hr 40 mins of pure bliss. The sky really is the limit in this sport and you can never run out of challenges. So if you're not doing it, what are you waiting for?

I'd like to thank everyone at the Cunungra hang gliding club, all the great pilots who've helped me so much on and off the hills. Especially Lee, Cath, Ken Hill, Jon Durand (Jnr and Snr). Stay safe, fly high and fly far, see you on the hill.