Serge Durrant. Photo: Tarquin Cooper

On launch with: Serge Durrant

Serge Durrant won the Sports-class Racing Series 2024 season and also competed in the X-Pyr 2024. He is the author of Fighter Pilot: Mis-Adventures Beyond the Sound Barrier with an Australian Top Gun

20 January, 2025

Dad was a hang glider pilot back in the day, when they used to make their own hang gliders. I was four years old when I had my first hang glider flight on his back. After that I always wanted to be a pilot.

I joined the military out of school at 17, in 1988. I flew the F 18 right through to the end of my career. The highlight was doing the Top Gun course. 

My first hang glider was the Moyes Mars, highly modified by myself with a Mylar leading edge. Then I went to a GTR World Beater, and then a topless carbon racing machine.

I had a good friend...

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