Franz Grossbechler rose early to celebrate his 80th birthday last week.
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With a careful eye on the weather, he headed north of the ACT to Spring Range where he set up a parachute and soared through the early morning sky.
It was a fitting gift for the Palmerston man, affectionately known as Frank.
At 80, Mr Grossbechler is the ACT's oldest paraglider.
"The wind held off until I finished my flight – after that it actually came in quite strong so, I was lucky on my birthday," he said.
While many retirees might prefer bridge or Tai Chi, Mr Grossbechler was always enamoured by the paragliders that drifted over his home country, Austria.
He was 62 years old when he first set sail as part of a tandem paraglide.
Nearly two decades later he hasn't looked back.
"I always thought, 'oh, maybe I'd like to do that one day'," he said.
"I was already retired and my wife said, 'go and do it now otherwise you'll be too old'. So I did.
"I enjoyed it so much I joined up and here I am.
"It was 18 years ago when I took it up but one year I had off because I broke my ankle paragliding – but I went straight back into it."
Mr Grossbechler said he enjoyed the freedom of floating through the sky.
But paragliding wasn't always smooth sailing with extensive training and the sport's dependence on the unruly weather.
"It's a sport where you're free, you're up there hanging by about 20 to 30 strings," he said.
"You're exposed to the elements and you have to read the elements to fly correctly.
"It is a sport which is very unforgiving. You've got to do the right thing; you don't get too many chances."
Aside from Spring Range, Mr Grossbechler also enjoys flying near Uriarra and at Lake George during easterly winds.
While he admits it is usually a sport "for the young", the 80 year old has no intentions of stopping anytime soon.
"You want to make it to 100 – maybe it's a little bit ambitious," he said.
"At least the next five years I will while I'm still fit and able and get enjoyment out of it. It's great."
Australian Paragliding Centre chief flying instructor Peter Bowyer said Mr Grossbechler was "a regular face on the hills".
"He's always out chasing the flying – and he often gets out and chases it a lot more than a lot of the younger guys," he said.
"He's actually fitter than a lot of them too. I've seen him walking up the hill with his backpack on his back – a lot of the newer generation are too lazy to do something like that."
Mr Bowyer described Mr Grossbechler as a lovely, "very driven" man and an inspiration to his fellow pilots.
He said it wasn't often a man of Franz's age set sail, although there were a few other paragliders in their 70s enjoying the sport.
"Paragliding is not that physically demanding which is why you can do it well into your 70s and 80s," he said.