Better than sex

But it's more than just an extreme board game.

Just ask Richard Lovelace, a 39-year-old Network Rail signaller and Great Britain international hang-glider from Strensall.

"If you take your best ever sex, multiply it by ten and add a bit then you're nearly there," he says.

"It's just a fantastic feeling -- it's a complete roller-coaster and you have to be in it mind, body and soul."

What started as a 'quick-go' in a battered glider belonging to his brother-in-law at the age of 19 is now bordering on a self-proclaimed obsession.

His world championship debut in Australia in January proved to be a crash course in top level competition -- and not only because of getting knocked-out on one landing in the middle of the Australian desert -- as he finished 59th out of 120.

Competition hang-gliding is all about completing a series of turns over 130 - 180kilometre routes - and the fastest time wins. But with thermal pockets and changing wind-speeds and directions to negotiate, it's not just a case of joining the dots, even with the help of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems.

The three-race British series gets under way at the end of this month at Long Mind in South Wales. And trips to Croatia, for the pre-European competition in June, then Spain in August for the British Nationals are followed by the Bleriot Cup -- the annual Anglo-France battle with the Brits currently on top.

After that it's a relative home-coming for the born-and-bred York man for the British Open on the Yorkshire Dales.

Hang-gliding training can be a bit of a hit-and-miss affair thanks to the British weather but when not launching out of the gallops on Sutton Bank attached to a microlight or jumping off hills in South Wales, Lovelace, who is a member of White Horse Aerotow, also spends a fair amount of time in the gym.

Stamina is essential to endure the gruelling five hours-plus competition flights -- pilots can lose pints of fluid every time -- and upper-body strength makes life easier when riding the rough thermic pockets.

"It's extremely physical," he said. "If you're just going out free flying and to look at the view, there's very little thermic activity and there's not a lot of effort required.

"But once you start going into competitions it's hard work, particularly on your top half.

"You have to get yourself mentally right as well. You do things like maths problems to get your brain into gear because once you're up there it's like a game of chess as there are so many things you have to consider at the same time."

Lovelace has spent half his life dodging airzones in the world of the clouds and birds and continues to constantly aim higher.

On a domestic level, Lovelace is waiting for his chance to fly into the record books with a new British distance record. Only the threat of entering air space stopped him from turning the longest British flight of last year at 137 miles into a new all-time best of 163 miles.

A second tilt at the world championships is also on the horizon, this time in Texas, USA, if he can prove his talent in the next 18 months. And despite being past the 40-year mark by then, he will be aiming for a top 20 individual score and a team medal for Great Britain, preferably, he adds, with him included.

Technical data

Minimum and maximum age: 16. Maximum age depends on fitness

Basic cost: Modern hang glider £5,000 - £6,000, Harness £1,000, Parachute £400 -- £500, Instruments £1,000 -- £1,400, Flying suits, boots GPS systems all extra.

Lovelace flies an Aeros Combat 'L' weighting 33kg. Max speed 110kph. Sail area 13.6 sq metres.

Sails need replacing after 100-hours flight time due to UV and stretch damage.

lThe average UK pilot will fly 30 hours a season. At the world championships in January, pilots flew more than 80 hours in three-and-a-half weeks.

All hang-gliders are put through a British Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association safety test at Rufforth.

To sponsor Richard Lovelace, call him on 01904 492927.

Updated: 10:12 Saturday, April 23, 2005