BILL MOYES: 1932-202425 September, 2024, by Ed Ewing
Bill Moyes, a legendary free-flight pioneer and one of the founding fathers of hang gliding, has died. He was 92.
His death was announced in a family social media post on 24 September: “Bill Moyes passed peacefully away this evening, surrounded by his loving wife of 73 years, kids, grandkids and great grandkids.”
Tributes immediately started to pour in from around the free flight world, with hundreds of pilots from across hang gliding and the different disciplines of free flight offering their condolences and sharing their memories.
“He was an amazing man and a legend to many,” posted one, a sentiment echoed by pilots worldwide.
A tribute film to Bill Moyes made in 2017
Bill Moyes truly was a living legend in hang gliding. Born in pre-war east coast Australia in July 1932 he was one of a handful of hang gliding pioneers who, in the 1960s, took to the air beneath home-made kites towed up behind water-ski boats.
In 1967, just six weeks after he had completed his first tow flight, he reached 1,045ft above Lake Tuggerah on Australia’s Central Coast, setting the world’s first hang gliding altitude record. A year later he reached 2,870ft while towing on Lake Ellesmere, New Zealand.
That year he also became the first hang glider pilot to transition from tow and water-ski launch to foot-launching in the hills. According to the Moyes website he launched from Mount Crackenback in the Australian Alps.
“Bill never anticipated when he first flew off the mountains that [hang gliding] would explode as a sport, but it wasn’t too long before friends began asking Bill to build them a hang glider,” Moyes state.
“He made 12 gliders for friends in the first year, perfecting and refining as he went along and with 20 orders in the second year, Moyes Delta Gliders was born.”
As hang gliding literally and figuratively took off around the world, Bill Moyes helped spread the word by travelling to the USA where, among many firsts, he made the first flight in the Grand Canyon in 1970, performed numerous show flights and took part in the nascent competition scene.
By the mid-1970s he was back in Sydney, Australia and focused on designing, developing, building and selling hang gliders. Moyes the company went on to become one of the main hang glider manufacturers for the next 50 years.
Speaking on the 50th anniversary of Moyes in 2017 he said, “Once you get up there knowledge is forced into you. You don’t invent things, you make discoveries. Some things work better than others.”
The recipient of many honours in later life, including the Order of Australia in 1998 for contribution to sport, he was awarded the FAI’s Gold Air Medal in 2013. One of the FAI’s, World Air Sports Federation’s, two highest awards, it is reserved for those who have contributed greatly to the development of aeronautics by their activities, work, achievements, initiative or devotion to the cause of aviation.
Moyes have asked that pilots who have photos of Bill Moyes send them to moyes@moyes.com.au to be included in the Book of Bill. “In honour of Bill’s legacy, Bill’s wife Molly has requested that instead of sending flowers, you share your photos and memories.”
Bill Moyes, 12 July 1932 to 24 September 2024
Join a National Hang Gliding Organization:US Hawks at ushawks.org View my rating at:US Hang Gliding Rating System Every human at every point in history has an opportunity to choose courage over cowardice. Look around and you will find that opportunity in your own time.
At Torrance Beach, I had the pleasure of hand kite-launching Bill Moyes with a tow rope. Once off the cliff, he let loose of the line. Bill was ever a polite man.
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