Flygirl back in South Africa after 9 months hitch
hiking and flying around Australia and the journey has done me and my
flying a world of good. I have loved the conditions during the
Gradient XC Africa. The day I flew 130km I was crying, the view and
the feeling of being connected to the whole world so incredible. The
clouds were amazing, the line I took over no-mans land following
powerlines for 100km was just perfect and I felt so in-tune with it
all. Not exactly a competition pilots way of looking at things, but it
is for these reasons I fly - to be connected. It is on days like these
that I perform well, this flight effectively putting me into the Ladies
lead. The Gradient XC Africa was hard for some,
and many people retired from the competition, battered and bruised. I
took off early every single day taking the opportunity to get in the
air early and settle down in the softer conditions before the afternoon
thermals and whirlies started to party. My success rate off the winch
was excellent and I never launched more than twice on any one day. It
was anyone's competition though. We had three successful tasks which
validates this competition, but we were all only one flight away from
going into the lead in our respective classes. So I was lucky once
again to take the honours in the Ladies Class. On
free flying days we had the most amazing flights. A pity on two of the
days the tasks were cancelled before 12 noon. Not sure that much would
have changed in the top 3 Overall, as Charlie (Karel), Ondrej and Jan
never had a bad day, but certainly things could have been different in
the other Classes. So, many thanks to Gradient
and FlyDeAar for giving us the opportunity to fly distance in a
competition format in South Africa and to the overseas pilots who
joined us and gave us something to aspire to. | 
