SAFA Skysailor Magazine

43 WINTER 2026 | June-July-August SKY SAILOR way back, we had time, so we drove in and spent about an hour talking to Rohan about hang gliding and how he trained. We left thinking, “We have to do that.” It took another 15 years! We tried to learn while living in the UK, but life got in the way. By 2016, we decided we couldn’t keep putting it off. We started training with Tony and Rona Webb, who ran a school that trained in Spain and the UK. We did a couple of weeks in Spain on tow, then continued in the UK, where we also trained with John Barratt and Matt Lewis. Because of the weather and the way I learn, it took me a long time. My husband progressed faster, but I was fully signed off by the end of 2017. Then we moved back to South Australia at the start of 2018, and have been flying there ever since. What do you love most about flying? I love that relationship with the air, the ground, and the world around you. Being tuned in to all your senses – whether it’s smelling the salt from the ocean, hearing the wind in the trees, or spotting a bird in the distance. You can start to feel like part of the airmass itself. Because we mostly fly the same coastal sites in South Australia, I’ve also come to really appreciate the reward of knowing a site deeply. That kind of familiarity takes time. You have to fly the same place over and over again, in slightly different condi- tions, and slowly learn how much even the smallest shift can change the site. It’s also about the shared moments. One day at Cape Jervis, we’d had a bit of flying and landed back on top when one of the experienced pilots said the wind direc- tion might be good to get around towards the turbines. We don’t get to Cape Jervis very often, maybe once or twice a year if we’re lucky, and conditions to fly towards the turbines are even rarer so a few of us were keen to go. Photos: Courtesy Lynelle Williams