SAFA Skysailor Magazine

43 SPRING 2025 | September-October-November SKY SAILOR feeling every bubble of lift, working every individual thermal core, gliding lets me sample the air over a far greater canvas without wondering if I’ll end the day in a hot dry paddock, waiting for a lift back. Longevity is another factor. As much as I’d like to think otherwise, there will come a day when charging down a shallow slope with nearly 50kg of hang glider and harness, or managing a hot, nil-wind landing won’t be quite so easy. Gliding future-proofs my flying, keeping me in the game as age and weariness inevitably set in. The learning curve Was it easier to learn gliding thanks to my background? Absolutely! At least when it came to understanding thermals and making cross-country decisions. But gliding is far from ‘hang gliding with a seat’. Three-axis control, check-lists, different techniques for working lift, structured circuits, faster approaches, more complex outlanding considerations, and formal VHF radio coms all provided their own challenges to overcome. Each sport’s strengths Hang gliding and paragliding still hold their own magic: the bird-like direct immersion Photos: Craig Taylor