SAFA Skysailor Magazine

11 May | June 2021 SKY SAILOR Photo: Tina Thorburn tapering my flight goals accordingly. Yet, the mere fact that we’d voiced our fears before launch helped dissipate its power, and instead I was left with its benefits: a keen sensitivity to reading the conditions. After about 90 minutes, I was well and truly in the flow, and I departed from the others and followed my own route from Mystic to the Kiewa. I have made this crossing several times, but I am still heightened to the risks involved and treat it with respect. Once in the Kiewa valley, I headed north, hugging peaks for lift. I’d settled into my flying homeostasis of searching for lift, keeping safe landings in sight, assessing the changing air and adapting my route accordingly. At times, I saw other gliders go in different directions, and felt that familiar spike of fear. Was I doing the wrong thing? Should I follow them? What did they know that I didn’t? However, instead of letting doubt increase my anxiety level, I used fear as a tool to remind me of my own motives and conditions, and insist on backing my own decisions as pilot in command. After four hours in the air, I reached a crossroads: Do I attempt to get the planned triangle or do I head for home? Once again fear was there to help me make a decision. I assessed that there were safe landings and my goal was within reach, so ‘go get that triangle!’ Eventually, I ran out of lift after choosing to avoid a certain ridge for fear of getting attached by a cranky, resident eagle! I landed several kilometres short of closing my flat triangle and completing an FAI triangle, but I credit my healthy respect for fear, favourable conditions and my inherent persistence for my first attempt at a 50km flat triangle. I thank the other female pilots, and our instructor Wally Arcidiacono, for sharing the sky with me and helping me re-frame fear to get the most of that day. The next time you find yourself on launch or in the landing zone, I invite you to remember that fear shapes the way we fly, and for some of us why we fly. Should you find yourself judging the way someone shows (or doesn’t show) fear, remember that fear is an essential part of being human, of staying alive, and how we relate to it is deeply private and shaped by our individual life experiences. Left: The Kiewa valley, looking west; Women flying together (l-r): Tina, Laura Pratt and Carly Hayman Below: Looking east over Porepunkah on what ended up being my final glide that day!