There are people whose dreams remain a concept of the mind, and then there are the likes of Kale Makeham, who push them into reality. 

When a video of Bob Correll, an American daredevil famous for his long-distance jumps on his infamous kite cycle popped up on Kale’s phone, a flight across the Murray became his next challenge. Having already made a splash on October 2023 when the motorcycling enthusiast rode his Yamaha YZ across the Murray River “full noise” across Australia’s most iconic river, the former Koondrook resident turned to a Ballarat-based hang-gliding champion, Rowan Holtcamp, for guidance. 

“It’s not entirely crazy in the realm of physics,” said Holtcamp.

“There are aircraft that are truly motorbikes to the sky and they’re called trikes, they were designed and developed by a company called Airborne Windsports in Newcastle.

“They only recently went out of business, but I had been their main glider test pilot for development since 1991.”

With a wealth of experience, Holtcamp was able to help with glider selection and provide a safe design for local engineering company Colville Pumps and Fabrications Barham to mount the wing to the bike. 

“We chose that span of glider because it’s one of the shortest spans, but it also was chosen because it has the best glide performance for that wingspan. 

“It’s a very, very sturdy design developed in Australia, that model, and the prototypes of which I flew various comps and basically won national champion on prototypes of that wing.”

With the wing mounted, Makeham spent four to five days in an open paddock getting used to the contraption.

“Testing all went really well; it’s just when I line up for the river, it gets really, really tricky because you’ve got to do the best jump you’ve ever done,” said Makeham.

“The jump itself is not too bad, but getting to the jump is the hard bit, because it’s so top heavy. It sways and has a lot of flex. 

“Any small movement with the bike is like a big movement with the glider and so any big movement with the glider means you’re going either left or right for 10-20 metres at a time. 

“So, that is by far the hardest part, just riding it on the ground.” 

With a low river, the team found an ideal spot at Tocumwal. With a limited runway and a tree gap that only provided a metre of clearance each side of the wing, Makeham had to be on target and on speed to not take off too early, or collect a gum tree.

“The biggest issue is finding the fine line between having enough speed and not taking off too early, which is around sort of 45 to 50 kilometres.”

With the best paddock jump being 75 metres and a river gap of 86 metres, it was hoped that the elevated take-off position on the five-metre-high river bank would be enough to aid in gaining the much-needed extra 11 metres. 

With fading light and nerves of steel, Makeham sent the two-stroke zinging toward the point of no return.

“I’ll be honest, I was dead set I was making it to the other side. I had zero intention to be in the water, but yeah, turns out it is pretty hard to swim with boots and the helmet!”

Landing in two metres of water, Makeham and the bike were retrieved from the muddy waters.

Two additional attempts were made the following day, but the goal of a beach landing has remained elusive so far.  

Makeham remains confident the goal will be achieved.