SAFA Skysailor Magazine

62 SKY SAILOR March-April-May | AUTUMN 2026 AIRS Safety Wrap-up – Autumn 2026 by Iain Clarke – SAFA Safety Manager Greetings fellow pilots and welcome to 2026. Autumn is on the way. Sunrise down here Hobart is getting later and the end of daylight savings is looming. Changing seasons mean changing conditions. As always, it’s important to treat every forecast and every flight as discrete events; every flight is unique and will not flow the same way as a previous flight in a similar forecast. As I’m writing this, I’m looking at a good forecast for tomorrow at my favourite winter site, Gaff’s Hill. The isobars are nicely placed, and it should be a good day. But this site can turn on a dime and blow-out quite suddenly. Caution is required as the hill is quite rocky and can bite hard if things go wrong. Additional ex- citement is provided by the local wedgies – they can be pretty fickle as well. Fingers crossed for a good day as I’m long overdue for a flight. Equipment is charging, but I need to load a few more files into my newest Air3 before it’s fit for flight. Am I fit for flight? I will be if I get a good night’s sleep tonight. The ground handling wing will be going along so I can maximise the day’s potential regardless of conditions on launch. I’ll let you know how I went next issue. Now to this edition’s reports. As with recent issues, we’ll dive into the past first, then come back to more current events. #1046 – HG crossbar break after landing, Qld/S PIC outlanded their hang glider after a competition flight from Dalby (Qld/S). As while walking it backwards towards the road to pack up, still in their harness and attached to the glider, they were hit by a strong wind gust. PIC pitched the nose down towards the ground to wait out the gust. During the wait, they heard a loud bang and the right wing fell closer to the ground. After exiting the harness and unclipping, an inspection found that the crossbar had broken and a portion had punctured and torn the sail. PIC had made a hard landing on the previous day, breaking the left downtube; no evidence of other damage had been found on inspection following that event. Regular inspections of aircraft, adherence to maintenance, immediate rectification of damage detected, adherence to