KEY POINTS:
Richie McCaw at the controls over Omarama. He first flew solo about a year ago.
"Hell, it's awesome," Richie McCaw beams while describing gliding.
And, the All Black captain says, standing on the bustling Omarama Airfield with gliders taking off every few minutes: "It's great not getting bashed up."
McCaw, 25, is in Omarama honing his skills in a sport he took up a couple of years ago, inspired by the gliders he used to see at his parents' farm in the Hakataramea Valley, the former base of the North Otago Gliding Club.
His father, Donald, was keen on gliding and McCaw recalls being around gliders when he was young.
While he had flown fixed-wing aircraft since 2002, clocking up 180 hours, gliding was providing a different challenge - and he was loving it.
"I'm really, really enjoying it," McCaw said yesterday, before launching for a flight with instructor Gavin Wills.
He is staying in a house he and his parents recently bought in the Waitaki Valley township and looking forward to spending Christmas there with "a few mates" to celebrate New Year.
A month off rugby was a perfect time for gliding and, while in the air or on the airfield, he did not think about the game.
"You've got to have other things ... otherwise it would get too much."
A member of the Canterbury Gliding Club, McCaw said the New Zealand Rugby Union had given him permission to follow his flying passion.
"At the end of the day, everything has got dangers," he said.
He was learning all the time and it was a challenge to just fly somewhere.
"You don't know if you're going to get anywhere for the day. I think that's what I love about it. You're on your own, doing your own thing."
Flying solo, which he first did about a year ago, was when he "well and truly" caught the gliding bug.
Climatic conditions were extremely important for glider pilots and he had learned a lot about the weather.
While there was a lot more to learn, he was around some of the best pilots in the country and they were happy to share their knowledge.
McCaw intended to spend "a bit of time" in Omarama and, even when he was not gliding, he enjoyed the relaxed, country atmosphere, not far from his old stomping ground further down the valley where he grew up. "It's quiet. It's home really."
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES
