SAFA Skysailor Magazine

21 SUMMER 2025 | December-January-February SKY SAILOR I have been a driver for the last 18 years, mainly for my partner Andy, a hang glider pilot of 27 years. My experiences have been mostly positive, except for the odd grumpy pilot (we’ll call him ‘Mr Grumpy’) who didn’t get picked up first when he thought he should! While most pilots and teams are re- spectful, drivers I have spoken with over the years found this unfortunately not always to be the case. Some have relayed stories of driving for teams where they have been verbally abused and generally disrespected, treated poorly and given abysmal reimbursements! Back in 2007 when I started driving (I think I got tricked into it!), the share of reimbursement for a driver was $25 per pilot per day which I considered to be a reasonable token of appreciation at the time. We are now 18 years down the track and I hear some teams still reimburse at $25! Pilots are even trying to not reimburse their driver for ‘no fly’ days, which is not new, as I have had this happen many times. Remember that your volunteer driver is there to look after you, they are not on holiday, pilots shouldn’t expect volunteers to not get reimbursed on no fly days! Drivers actually hate the ‘no fly’ days All photos: Supplied courtesy of Tracey Meyer