When Mike Durrant stands on a cliff edge or climbs a ladder, he is overcome by the spinning and tilting sensations of vertigo.
You'll never catch him standing on a roof, although he will clean his gutters.
But when he's in a cockpit soaring thousands of metres in the air - sometimes performing rolls, spins or loop-to-loops - the veteran glider pilot is in his element.
It's a contradiction the two-time national gliding champion can't quite explain.
"I've never been frightened," Mr Durrant told AAP, recalling his first flight in an aluminium Blanik at the age of 13.
"I've just been hooked on aviation for as long as I can remember."
After decades in the skies, Mr Durrant is organising the 37th World Gliding Championships in Narromine, central NSW, where teams from more than 20 countries will compete in early-December.
The sport is an addictive combination of adventure and endurance, as pilots use columns of rising hot air to soar around assigned courses at high speed.
The currents, known as thermals, can be 500m wide with enough force to lift a half-tonne aircraft 30m per minute.
Fluffy white cumulus clouds signal strong thermals and act as stepping stones for pilots, who can also watch the movement of birds or the formation of willy-willies to read the conditions.
"The top pilots, it's like magic," Mr Durrant said.
"You'll think you've had a good day, and you'll get back and they've gone 10km/h faster.
"They are super good at finding the best climbs and often when you talk to them, they don't really know how they've done it."
The championships involve hours of flying for days at a time, requiring high levels of mental and physical stamina, along with the occasional burst of extra oxygen at high altitudes.
Narromine, a flat and hot broadacre cropping region, produces the ideal conditions for gliding.
The town of 6000 has a storied aviation history dating back to 1920, when brothers Ross and Keith Smith touched down following the first England to Australia air race.
The pioneering siblings landed their Vickers Vimy bomber - with registration G-EAOU or 'God 'elp all of us' - to a crowd of 4000 people after the race, a federal government bid to open the air route.
The local aerodrome was home to an RAAF training school in World War II, and was later the site of a record-breaking gliding height record of more than seven kilometres.
Mayor Craig Davies said the region will extend a warm country welcome to teams coming from as far as Switzerland, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.
"It's a rare event to have in the southern hemisphere, and it's hard to describe the value it brings to the shire," Mr Davies said.
"I hope they take away a real sense of fulfilment and the hospitality that's renowned in this area."
Mr Durrant said the teams were looking forward to the dense summer heat of country Australia.
"All Australians go to the beach in summer, but we don't," he said.
"We go inland to a hot, dry, dusty airfield."
