SAFA Skysailor Magazine

35 SPRING 2026 | September-October-November SKY SAILOR President Allen Weynberg SSOs Gavin Zahner and Dave Gibbs Pete Trulson in the Millennium Falcon It was an obvious slow start to the day. Many people had a sleddie, got into the feel of the place, or chatted on launch. Hang Solo (Jonny Durand) gathered a crew – the Princess Leias and a few Lukes – and they all put on a show of solidarity, used the force, and bombed together. No worries, we had retrieve drivers Allan, Pete, and Rachael doing laps of the hill to bring everyone back up. Conditions slowly turned on and the puffy clouds popped in the blue winter sky. Dirk reached cloudbase, two Glenns in tow, and others began to get away. Many Low Airtime Pilots (LAPs) concentrated on more local skills. Ade Cherry managed eight flights in a day, five of them included a hike from the halfway station. The most adventurous flight by a PG3 was Scott Devine’s 40km Odyssey into the depths of the border mountains and then back almost to Beaudesert in three and three quarter hours. Glenn Pascoe got away with help from Mentor Dirk Barber and made it to Beaudesert – around 20km. Lots of happy LAPs did laps of Hinchies – a chat group poll suggested 107 flights had been safely completed, I suspect the actual number was much higher. As the day faded out, a few flew the light sea-breeze until well after 4pm. In Ben Kenobi Photos: Hammed Malik