The priest did quite a superb job of weaving his sermon in to the wonders of thermal soaring at the Kzn commemorative service, yesterday. The biggest impact for me was just how incredibly brave Mike had been during his decade long battle with cancer, even undertaking marriage to Ruth recently.
The Cape link is worth a mention for the present NvS slope combatants. Mike scooped the South African F3B thermal soaring title down in Cape Town in 1981, as a teenager, nogal. Mike also went to the F3B thermal soaring world championship and it is commendable that he did both with his OWN designs and OWN builds, the Witblitz glider going on to be a local Kzn legend. Probably a gross generalisation from my side but it was pretty close to three decades before Kzn folk Messrs Russ Conradt and Michel Leusch got to scoop some silverware off the Cape Peninsula, again!
On a lighter note, it was not a small shock to see "young" Ron Uken reading one of Mike's eulogies from Mike's sister, having last have seen Ron with a shock of blonde hair - he now having joined the ranks of us grey haired ole geezers (sorry Ron ;-)
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