Nationality : South African
Relationship : married to Arnold Pansi
Flying since : 1994
Hours flown : 1000+ (lost count)
Best distance : 186km (SA PG distance record)
Interests : paragliding
Born:
Main flying : De Aar and Europe
About Des : Des is married to Arnold Pansi and they run Fly De Aar. Anyone who has been to De Aar will know her well.

More about Des:
In 1994 my boyfriend Arnold wanted to start paragliding but didn’t want to do it alone. He tried to convince my brother to join him but he couldn’t, so I told him I was keen. We got engaged and gave each other a special engagement present – a paragliding course.

After getting my license, the first year’s flying was slow because we knew nobody in the sport and felt intimidated by the more experienced pilots in Johannesburg. A couple of years later we discovered other pilots that felt the same, and we started a club for inexperienced pilots. I was elected as the Chairperson of the Xntrix Club. Later we amalgamated with 1st Para, the club for the hotshots, and I became the marketing manager.

I started competing a few years later but then left for Europe, as Arnold was offered a position with a paragliding manufacturer. While living in Austria, I worked for a paragliding school and later joined Arnold at Airwave. While at the company, I completed my license to be a test pilot.

In 2003 we decided to come back to South Africa to develop the best flying destination in the world. We needed a viable business to support us while we built up the flying site. So we took over a guesthouse, Potties B&B, which I built a website for and started promoting. Through my continued efforts to promote the guesthouse and paragliding in De Aar, I won the TWIB Tourism award in 2004 and 2005 and was the elected by the DTI to become an ambassador for SA to attend the PAN African Woman’s Expo in Ghana. To further grow the sport in SA, I got my instructors license and was elected to do the marketing for SAHPA (the South African Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association).

We were right about De Aar as a premier paragliding location. In December 2006 we had pilots here who set 3 new world records, so the site has become world renowned.

Running the business over the last 4 years left me with little time for my own flying, so in the last year I have tried to apply more time to this. I attended an XC World Paragliding Series event in Spain, where I was placed 3rd Lady overall. The main reason I was there was to present a bid to get the XC World Series to South Africa – and we were successful!