Landing is generally very safe and easy, although good spot landing skills are sometimes needed and it is always important to keep a good lookout for any obstacles or dangers and choose a good landing field early, whilst you still have height and options. It pays to know where to land and not to land, as landing on the wrong side of a river or hill (that really didn't seem much from the air!) from the road can mean a long walk out, and there are some very attractive looking dark green fields that can turn out to be a bit of a bog with 8ft buffalo grass!
The locals are generally very friendly and inquisitive. Wherever you land you seem to just about always be greeted by a group of local children who run over to come and have a look at any new aerial arrivals.
There are good main roads for retrieve, and we will always try to set our XC route along one of these. The retrieve bus with then drive along these main road picking people from our group up as we go along. Although there are also side roads that run off from these main roads it is not always possible for the retrieve vehicle to drive down these, as they can sometimes be quite rough tracks, and so if you have not landed by the main road you may have to walk for awhile to get back to the main road before the retrieve vehicle will be able to pick you up.
Landing
Landing is generally very safe and easy, although good spot landing skills are sometimes needed and it is always important to keep a good lookout for any obstacles or dangers and choose a good landing field early, whilst you still have height and options. It pays to know where to land and not to land, as landing on the wrong side of a river or hill (that really didn't seem much from the air!) from the road can mean a long walk out, and there are some very attractive looking dark green fields that can turn out to be a bit of a bog with 8ft buffalo grass!
The locals are generally very friendly and inquisitive. Wherever you land you seem to just about always be greeted by a group of local children who run over to come and have a look at any new aerial arrivals.
There are good main roads for retrieve, and we will always try to set our XC route along one of these. The retrieve bus with then drive along these main road picking people from our group up as we go along. Although there are also side roads that run off from these main roads it is not always possible for the retrieve vehicle to drive down these, as they can sometimes be quite rough tracks, and so if you have not landed by the main road you may have to walk for awhile to get back to the main road before the retrieve vehicle will be able to pick you up.