Racon Hill, Golbasi, Ankara

Look at this exodus of students all off training on Saturday. That line of people stretches for nearly a kilometer. There were scores of them, bus-loads - all off flying! We saw five buses at least. These were students from Hacetepe and METU universities. The guy having a drag on the cigarette is the Bilkent University bus-driver. Our guys - another bus load - added to the throng. For those of you in the UK, could you imagine such a turn-out from university clubs?

The selfless dedication to teaching novices here is very impressive. Bilkent paragliding club's sole instructor Ozgun Babur astounds us by his dedication and consistency. He has been teaching Bilkent students on every flyable weekend for 2 years or so and has been a regular in the club for 5 years or more. He doesn't get paid a Kurus. He puts his whole body into his teaching and is obviously very efficient in getting the basics across. Here is the man in action.

I was hoping to get some teaching experience with Ozgun. But it doesn't look like this is going to happen. There is a well-honed system in place, and there is the language problem. I could perhaps help in Olu Deniz or if pilots are interested in entry level XC flying.

Yigit was at Racon too - with one student of his who'd just bought a new wing. Yigit was planning adventures for next summer - Vol Bivouac, and a competition that moved from one mountain range to another over the course of the week's event. Yigit is excited about the untapped potential for XC here in Turkey - particularly Vol Bivouac. I hope to get involved in some of these adventures.

We met some more experienced local pilots at the top of the hill. They enjoyed playing in the thermal cycles the skygods - Zeus, etc - sent our way just like Annie and I did. They were a little surprised to see two blondies up there on that hill, where so few westerners go. But like all Turks they were welcoming and friendly, and even offered to break off a bit of a banana for us to share. Turks love to share. It's become instinctive for them to share everything. These guys had some nice wings. One was a Skywalk Poison which Yigit said was a fantastic 2/3 - high performance, but safe with no big surging on stall recovery.

Locals off on a glide from Racon Hill.