Bunch of loonies maybe, but nothing comes close to hang-gliding

David Seib & Vanessa Burrow, January 5, 2007

TO ME, hang-gliding is one of the most amazing, beautiful things I've done in my life.

I'm 39 and I've been flying for seven years. I'm reasonably new to the sport. I started competing about two years after I took up hang-gliding and I've progressed to being No. 2 in Australia and No. 11 in the world, but I've been No. 7 in the world.

I started doing well reasonably early. I won the 2005 Spanish Open and straight after that, I came second in the British Open, also held in Spain.

We have a world championships every year. In 2005, it was in Australia, in Hay, and the Australian team won the team event. A guy from Ukraine won the individual event.

We hadn't won a world championship in 17 years so it was a really big win for us. We got gold medals from the FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale), the world governing body for all aero sports.

Australia is well known for hang-gliding because it's very hot and dry and has constant conditions.

There are two big competitions here every year. At Forbes, there's a big international competition with 85 to 90 pilots. It's really fun because you get towed up behind planes.

At Bogong, there's usually about 80 people. I've been going there for the last six or seven years. It's just spectacular flying around the mountains and the valleys.

Hang-gliding is very similar to sailing, where you have a pre-defined course and you go around that course. You could call it three-dimensional sailing because you've got the wind and gravity to contend with.

Each pilot starts off at a different time and the course is usually anywhere from 60 to 200 kilometres. You fly around the course and if you make the distance, then you are measured on time and distance. If you don't make the distance, you're just measured on distance.

The sport requires a certain amount of respect because you're doing something that man isn't normally meant to do.

A lot of people died hang-gliding in the early days, but the sport is much safer now. All hang-glider pilots have a parachute.

I was a semi-professional windsurfer and competed in triathlons, but I couldn't imagine giving up hang-gliding. It just captures the imagination. It's either a sport that grabs you and makes you extremely addicted, or you write us all off as a bunch of loonies.

My friends still look at me blankly when I talk about hang-gliding and it took me about three years before my mum started talking to me again, once I'd taken it up. I used to ring up and say, 'Hi Mum, it's David', and you'd hear the phone being put down at the other end and my father would pick it up and answer it instead. She was probably just a bit shocked.

■ The Forbes Flatlands hang-gliding championships will run until January 10 at Forbes Airport, NSW. The Bogong Cup hang-gliding championship will be held in the Kiewa Valley, with headquarters in Mount Beauty, from January 13 to 20.