Hang gliding on the dunes

[oliver]

I was fortunate enough to go hang gliding in Atlantis with some friends yesterday.

We started off at 7am in the morning to arrive in Atlantis by 8am. Once there we met our hang gliding instructor, Lennox, who we then got into a bakkie with and drove over to the dunes. As Lennox explained, we needed to drive around and investigate the wind directions in a few spots to see which would be ideal to learn to fly. Crosswinds are a big no no for beginner hang gliders.

We found a decent spot after about 20 minutes and offloaded and started rigging up the gliders. One glider was a perfect training glider (210 sq feet), the other was more aerobatic (160 sq feet). The trainer weighed almost nothing - 18 kgs.

When we were set up we all had goes just running the glider along almost flat ground. I could feel the lift on my first go, giving rise to what Lennox deemed a "bunny hopping effect". In subsequent goes I got some small airs.

The wind changed direction after a while and we decided to seek out another spot. This time we found a steeper and higher dune which would set the next run. This time I only needed to take 3 steps and the glider took me into the air. I drifted to the right but managed to keep a sensible level of control over the glider. It felt fantastic, I got my first inkling into what it would be like to glide hundreds of metres off the ground. My brother was more careless and (not being very good at listening to what anybody says in general) did his own thing, completing nearly a full loopback with the glider but luckily landing quite smoothly.

The whole activity lasted until 1pm. Despite being an introduction to hang gliding it was great fun and the dunes were absolutely beautiful. I will be sure to post back when I complete the subsequent levels.

Here are some pictures of the trip

Matt takes a dive into a dune bush


The first place we set up to train



My brother getting ready before his loop back