A Redwood Valley resident has soared over North Macedonia in eastern Europe while representing New Zealand at the recent FAI World Hang Gliding Championships.
Piers Throssell, who has competed in the air sport for about six years and got his first world champs off the ground in Italy in 2019, says the 2023 competition was another opportunity to heighten his experience.
“[It was] mostly to have fun and enjoy the culture over here, but also to improve my hang gliding skills by flying with the best pilots in the world,” he says.
“Climbing up to 9500ft gives a great view all around, the landscape here is not like New Zealand though, it is a lot drier and flatter… and it is often quite hazy.”
He described the experience as “fantastic”.
“Except that I caught a cold, possibly Covid, on the second day which drained my energy for the rest of the competition.”
Piers, who usually practices his glides from Tākaka Hill, Havelock, and home of the annual New Zealand Hang Gliding Open Championship, Murchison, says he had also competed in other global hang gliding competitions before the World Hang Gliding Championships took to the skies on 7 August.
These included a magnifiek aerial display at the French and Czech Open in Val Louron in southern France where he placed 16th out of 60 hang gliders.
He also pulled off a 14th place finish out of 80 hang gliders at the Spanish Hang Gliding Championship and the XI Vila d’Àger Hang Gliding International Open in Àger, west of Barcelona.
