I hadn’t been hang gliding long, had a Moyes mission 150 glider, which was a cow of a glider for ones first new glider. On a trip to Sydney with some HG mates around circa 1990, Bill Moyes invited us all to stay at his holiday home in Port Stevens He towed us off the beach in a glider complete with floats. When it was my turn, I think I was first, I looked up to the nose of the glider just before launch and noticed there was no weak link. I yelled out to Bill who was at the controls of the motor boat, BILL THERE IS NO WEAK LINK. Bill yelled out in reply. YOUR THE WEAK LINK , and he shoved the throttle down . Now unbeknown to me this glider had a very light pitch, my mission 150 had a heavy pitch and I was inadvertently holding the bar in too much and not letting it go to trim. The net result was I was not climbing enough to make it back to the beach. Dave Cookman and another bloke was in the boat with Bill. Bill was cursing and getting up Dave, saying to him amongst other profanities “ I thought you said this bastard could fly” Dave was shitting himself. After he had towed me halfway across Port Stevens still not climbing enough, he yells at Dave “ Ping him off and let the bastard drown”. I did a beautiful landing in the ocean a kilometer off the beach. Bill gave me a dressing down like only Bill can, and to my surprise he told me that I had to do it again and do it properly because you have just made a fool of yourself in front of all your mates. Take two, on the beach ready to go again (Dave whispered in my ear, you were holding in too much let it go to trim and climb. Whoosh, off again , I’m wriggling my fingers making sure I was at maximum climb. Now this time there was a motor launch coming from the port side and Bill was reluctant to ping me off in case the tow rope fouled in his prop. I got so high I couldn’t believe it. Bill finally pinged me off after we were clear of all boats. I did a perfect flair when I landed on the beach. Bill got up me again when I was in earshot. You pulled the bar in too much , you idiot , you could have stayed up there another fifteen minutes. Once again the light pitch tricked me up. I went on to fly hang gliders for 23 years, owning two Enterprise Wings gliders, a Sting, and three Moyes hang gliders over the years. Some of the happiest years of my life, with my last log book recording 600 hours. I was on the training hill in 1989 along with John Durand snr, and I watched young Jonny Durand at 15 years old do his first high glide off Tambourine Mountain. Hope you are still going strong Bill, thanks for the memories.
Happy birthday Bill and best regards to Molly and all the family. Loved flying a Moyes Litespeed for New Zealand at the Texas Worlds. Now into Wing Foiling.
