THE Alpine Shire is rich in its supply of paragliders and hang gliders who enjoy flying around the high country, performing over 10,000 launches per year.

Pilots who live locally, visitors from around the area and visitors from around the country regularly return to such launch sites as Mystic Park in Bright, Mount Buffalo, Buckland Ridge and Gundowring.

President of the North East Victoria Hang Gliding Club (NEVHGC), Roger Turner, said members are able to choose their best launch site and fly approximately 300 days out of the year.

"The bad weather tends to go around us," Mr Turner said, flying at Bright's Mystic Park last weekend.

"Feathertop and other mountains located at 2000m above sea-level have heavy and erratic weather patterns.

"We fly out to the north and west from our Bright location at 797m above sea-level and most often it has perfect flying weather."

The Mystic Park site is a multi-use venue, offered by Hancock Victoria Plantations (HVP) to provide a safe location for all manner of recreational activities - from hiking to mountain biking and paragliding.

In the 1980s, paragliders were using Myrtleford Hill as a launch pad.

The Victorian Plantations Corporation (VPC), which owned the land at the time, were accommodating, but the site eventually started to regrow trees and flying became impractical.

The VPC then suggested Mystic Hill as a new site.

The topography far better suited paragliding, due to the location of surrounding hills and the use of the ideal thermal currents.

The VPC later became Hancock Victoria Plantations and worked to get a formal licence and acquire the land where the Mystic Park launch area was located.

"HVP are extremely tolerant of what we do," Mr Turner said.

"Their job is to grow trees on their lands and they've been very gracious to keep us flying and accommodate us when we launch."

As for the landing zone, the NEVHGC currently list 52 blue, safe-landing areas between Harrietville and Everton, with only 33 red, out-of-bounds zones.

"We're always immensely grateful to the landowners for allowing us to land on their property," Mr Turner said.

"We haven't consulted everyone; some zones remain uncoloured.

"We fully respect the red-zone landowners' wishes.

"We also list orange-zones, where the landowner has agreed to have pilots land on their property, but only in an emergency situation."

Each location is assessed by the NEVHGC to check that there are no surrounding powerlines, trees or other hazards to block the landing.

Members are considerate of the landowners by ensuring no gates are left open and no littering or smoking occurs on the property.

Membership to the NEVHGC is currently at an all-time high, thanks to the club's temporary registrations, ranging from two weeks to a year.

Mr Turner explained how experienced pilots pushed their boundaries with cross-country flying.

"It's the greatest part of the sport...you can balance on one thermal lift to the next and take yourself cross-country flying," he said.

"One fellow landed at Feathertop yesterday and others flew to Mount Beauty.

"On a good summer's day you can achieve good heights and travel 3500m.

"Someone once flew over the flat lands as far as Shepparton."

Semi-retired paragliding instructor, Brian Webb explained how he came over from England for the World Hang Gliding Championships during the Australian bicentenary celebrations in 1988.

"I just came to Bright and fell in love with it so much I forgot to go back," he said.

"Paragliding is much easier to run a business with so we moved here permanently, started a paragliding school and that was it.

"Paragliding was a relatively new sport at the time, there was only one school in Thredbo.

"I didn't lose the love for this sport after turning it into a business...I loved it more and more."

While he flies quite regularly, Mr Webb doesn't teach much anymore.

"I have just come back from Korea after attending the Continental Championships with a couple of other people from Bright," he said.

"So I'm still 'turning-circles', as we put it.

"There were five or six other pilots from Bright and they did very well.

"One of our pilots, James Brewer, is currently in Europe on the World Circuit."

Mr Webb then spoke to the personal benefits of flying.

"Like many people, I suffer from depression and I found that flying, though I didn't realise it at first, was a good way to have a distraction and deal with what I was feeling," he said.

"I'm old enough now to understand it and be able to talk about it.

"You have to commit to paragliding mentally...you have to concentrate on only this when flying and it really is a form of meditation."

One of NEVHGC's senior safety officers, Karl Texler, said that their members are a very active, very cohesive, close-knit community, but who are also welcoming to any visiting and overseas pilots.

"Our flying venue is world-renowned," Mr Texler said.

"We host important high-level competitions, from Paragliding World Cups to the Bright Open.

"We all basically enjoy the sport year-round.

"Paragliding is a low-level form of aviation...if you are prudent and safe it can be very enjoyable."

Oliver Barthelmes has been hang gliding for over 30 years after some friends lured him up to a training hill.

"My feet lifted off the ground and from there it's history," he said.

"In the very beginning, the feeling of leaving the ground, when you take off, it's hard to describe.

"That feeling hasn't gone away in 30 years because every day is different; landscapes are different and you meet different people.

"I flew in a hang gliding competition for just over 15 years as a German national team pilot.

"That's what brought me to Australia, then I started to come back 25 years ago and I've been here off and on, seasonally at first and then I settled here.

"The Alps in Germany are spectacular but in Australia the season is longer and has more sun."

Paraglider, Marcus De Vecchi, is relatively new to the sport, starting two years ago.

"Paragliding is a little more comfortable; being seated rather than essentially laying on your front with hang gliding and it's easier to stay up in the air for longer periods," he said.

"The feeling of freedom, exhilaration and peace is what I love about it; you're above the clouds and today we even flew alongside an eagle.

"There's still fear at every launch, thinking about what could go wrong, but part of my challenge is working out what part of that fear is my friend and how to push through."

Fellow paraglider Kirsten Seeto said she learned to fly powered planes when she was younger, but that was expensive.

"So when I discovered paragliding existed, I tried it out and became obsessed," she said.

"I've been doing it for 16 years now and it's the freedom of it that I love.

"Getting away from it all, it really puts your problems into perspective."

For Lucy Leggett, feeling the air, with views changing as you go higher and travel cross-country, is just magic.

"I've been up there for six hours at a time some days and you get to see the day change," she said.

"I started 20 years ago and there were hardly any women involved, now there's much more and it's really nice to see.

"The sport attracts some really quirky people which I think is great."

Paraglider Peter Steel spoke to the life changing nature of the sport.

"I was in the navy from the age of 17-50 and leaving is like going through a breakup," he said.

"At the age of 52, I took up paragliding and realised it was a sport and a skill you didn't have to be young to learn and at the time it just made me feel alive.

"I live in Torquay, so I surf a lot too, but the surfing community is honestly more rife with rivalry and it's a very individual sport; there's only one wave and everyone wants it.

"Paragliding has been much more welcoming.

"You can't be alone, and you don't want to be.

"It's in everyone's best interests to look out for each other and be safe.

"The sky is big, there's room for everyone."

For more information, visit the NEVHGC website: https://www.nevhgc.net/home