Dick has been an active participant in gliding since he went solo in June 1960. He was a passionate competition pilot who has flown in virtually every National, regional and club competition in South Africa since he and his wife Brenda emigrated to South Africa in July 1969.  He has been National Champion 7 times and represented South Africa at 6 World Championships. He says that his intensely competitive days are over but continues to fly in the occasional regional competitions, just for fun.

Since his arrival in South Africa in 1969 he has been very active in the organisation of South African gliding as a club chairman and subsequently the Chairman of the Soaring Society of South Africa. He was the Director of the very successful 27th World Gliding Championships that were held at Mafikeng in December 2001 and has subsequently been Chief Steward at many World and Continental Gliding Championships.

Once upon a time he had a job in the “real” world where he was the Managing Director of a software development company that produced payroll and time management systems that were used by more that 6000 companies in South and southern Africa. After 15 years as the company’s CEO he elected to take early retirement to pursue his dream of developing a full time gliding operation in South Africa. Going into the 20th year of his new vocation he still does not regret this decision.