Jocky Sanderson has been paragliding for many years. During this time he has won many competitions. He also was in many dangerous
situations. The latest, as he describes below, nearly cost him his
life.
Over the past few days competitors from all over the world have gathered in Italy to battle for the championship.
I was standing on
the slopes of the mountain waiting for the signal to start. Best day
we had this week, I agreed. Together with the other pilots I was waiting anxiously for the right wind conditions. We ran down the
mountain slope and our parachutes began to rise in the warm air.
I was sailing up and I could almost touch the bottom of the clouds. To
go higher would be dangerous, I knew that five Italian hang glider
pilots had frozen to death some years before, when they had flown into an icy storm cloud.
Then suddenly just as I was starting to relax disaster stroke. The pressure gauge round my
leg began to click loudly and I realized that I was falling out of the sky!
