FLYGIRL

Cyril is my Swing Astral Team Mate. He is unique because he is the first black South African to paraglide and compete nationally.  Through publicity  and with Cyril leading by example, we hope to encourage more black people to take to the skies.  In Life we  encourage others to dream and to achieve through persistance and dedication, what they are passionate about.

Here is his Sponsorship Presentation in word document.  Please feel free to distrubute to those you feel may be interested.

To find out more about his first XC Open experience - read on....

South Africa's Zulu Warriors are legendary for their power of endurance and Cyril does his tribe proud.  Now there is an international paragliding competition that supports endurance marathon-of-the-skies flying.  It is called the XC Open World Series .

2008 

I knew that Cyril would do well in this kind of environment and was pleased when he managed to secure sponsorship in order to compete in the Pre-XC Open in South Africa in 2008.

His Sponsors:  

Qumo Group of Companies - Financial

FlyDeAar - Paraglider and competition Pre-XC Open Entrance Fee

Cyril finished 25th out of 37 pilots, ahead of seasoned XC Open competition pilots Bernie Kelly, Hans Bausenwein and Gaynor Schoeman.  Not bad for a novice competition pilot :-)  Overall Results

2009

In 2009 Cyril was leading the Sports Class in the Gradient XC Africa in De Aar, until he was dumped by a whirly/dusty, spraining his ankle (we thought it was broken).  Fortunately it was not as serious, but it did force him to retire from the days task which turned out to be the last.  This meant he lost his 1st position to take 8th in Sports Class and 27th out of 44 pilots. Still , not bad.

His Sponsors:

WRP - Water Resources Planning and Conservation  

CYRIL MAZIBUKO

My first XC Open World Series Experience in 2008

I am so glad that I flew in this comp.  I find it much easier than the comps that I have flown so far. This is my first competition where I have flown my own way.  In this competition I did not have to fly to certain way-points.  I could fly where I wanted to fly, going with the wind.

In the XC Open in De Aar my flying improved a lot.  I flew my longest distances even though I was not used to the flatlands.  I am used to mountain flying which is much easier because I can use the ridge lift from the wind up the mountain even if I do not find the thermals.  In the flatlands I have to always look for places on open ground where there might be a thermal and I have to use every thermal to get up and stay flying.  Always, I must take the thermals right to the top so I can fly far. I learned quickly how to find those flatland thermals.  In De Aar I was able to stay in the air for hours.

In 2007, I came to De Aar to fly 100kms.  I only flew 38kms.  I really had difficulty and did not understand how to fly these flatlands. After that trip I read lots of books like Thermal Flying by Burkhard Martens and stories by other pilots in Cross Country magazines so that next time I would know how to fly better.  I learned about thermals in the flatlands, where to find them, about flying clouds to clouds, about following roads and listening to my vario properly.  I learned about flying with speed bar and what happens in dust devils.  The knowledge in these books gave me confidence to return to De Aar this year in November 2008.

This is how each day went:-

Being there for each other ...

TASK1
The first day I was a bit scared seeing the dust devils all around.  I almost did not fly.  My fellow pilots encouraged me to fly and I tried to winch launch twice but it was not working for me.  Slowly my confidence came back and I did get away and flew 44kms.  It was a lovely four hour flight.   The worst part was that I landed in an area of no cell phone coverage.  I could not communicate with my Flygirl retrieve team.  At 16h30 I left my glider by the side of the road and climbed a small hill nearby hoping to get some cellphone reception, but there was nothing.  I walked back down to my glider. It was now 18h00 and I had not reported into the Meet Centre that I had landed safely.

I started walking.  There was a tarred road several kilometers away.  It took me one hour to get to it. No cars came past.  I walked around a bit more to try and find some cellphone reception and was able to send an sms to our driver and my team mates with my coordinates (thank you God, you love me!) and ask them to report me safe to the Meet Centre.  Unfortunately my GPS was not on the right format and the GPS coordinates sent my team mates to the wrong location, far away from me.  When they did not find me, I had to give them directions by SMS on how to find me.  They eventually found me at 21h30.  All the time I was sitting in the dark with lots of noises around me and I was very, very scared.  Five and a half hours after I landed, we got back to De Aar.

TASK 2
The second day I flew 113kms straight line, 115.7km XC optimisation.  I achieved my goal to fly 100kms, landing next to the N1, north of Colesburg.  My dream came true! This was my Personal Best flight.

TASK 3
The Polish pilot was still missing.  This took my spirit.  I took off and landed straight away.  I did not get away that day.

Task 4
We flew in the direction of Richmond.  There was me, Gaynor, Dirk and Chrissi.  The women left me and Dirk, thermalling better than us men.  Unfortunately my Team mate Dirk landed.  I followed the small ridges for a long time and when I was 50m off the ground I think I found a dusty because the lift was very strong and very rough.  I was going up at 4ms and I had to spiral in that narrow lift.  Luckily it worked.  Finally, after flying the ridge some more I climbed to 2300m.  Mmmm, thank you Lord.  I am happy now. Up and up I go, but the air is very rough and my glider is jumping around and at 2500m I decide to leave that rough thermal.  I am now 45kms from De Aar.

I was now flying cloud to clouds, when suddenly I found my Swing Astral 5 glider speeding up and take an asymmetric collapse. A full collapse follows and then the glider was in front of me and I was in free fall.  The glider opens violently and I think that the thin upper lines must be snapped.  I look up at my lines and my glider and everything is ok.  I focus again on my flying and climb to 3000m.  My hands are freezing.  I see Richmond and pass it, then land, 79.5kms.  Half hour walk back to the N1.

Thanks to my team mates, Gaynor, Bruno and Dirk for looking after me and each other and thanks to Peter our driver.

If you can help Cyril fly the XC Open World Series, please contact Flygirl - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

2010 Series Dates
Araxá - Brazil	# 10.OCT - 17.OCT 2009
Manilla - Australia	# 30.JAN - 10.FEB 2010 (*)
Piedrahita - Spain	# 28.AUG - 04.SEPT 2010

2011 Series Dates
Araxá - Brazil	# 8.OCT - 15.OCT 2010

XC Open World Series Website