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Tony Smashes the world record PDF  | Print |  E-mail
 Tony Smashes the World Record

Finally we have it all in place and done.
The planning for a world record attempt is a long time consuming event. George Patterson my FAI observer was there first thing in the morning to weigh me and all my Kit and then again after landing. Got all the elevation readings and checked my gear. I weighed in at 150kg all up, I never knew I took off as heavy as that. Well all was set and Alison and Nico were operation the photo equipment getting some good preparation photos. After the official sunrise took place I started kitting up. First turn on all loggers and cameras, then strap on the extra Fuel tank in the bag on my chest. Then my Nirvana Instinct was strapped on and I was now ready for the launch. My motor needed to be pull started and I was ready. I had a good launch but directly after lift off I was turning hard right and needed to try untangle my tip steering line on the right. After a number of attempts I had to abort the flight and land to sort out the trouble. I landed with my left break and my right D-Riser flared. I really was not looking forward to doing this launch again. I sorted out the lines and then was ready for the second attempt. I managed a easy launch in the zero wind running up the slope of our field. After a quick check I was set. I flew out to the SE to get my height sorted out for the run in to the start gate. I held the required height and crossed the start gate we had on the field marked by a painted spot on the ground. George started a stopwatch as I was over the mark and my GPS and 2x Data loggers were all active. As I crossed I was doing 66km/h and was heading to my first ridge that was going be crossed. I had a slight tail wind and I decided to only climb as little as possible to cross it. You will note I had 4 routes planned and chose one before take off according to the wind forecast. I crossed this ridge with meters to spare and my shadow came rushing in to me as I zoomed over and disappeared down the opposite slope. I was running in the high 50’s and early 60’s all the was across Atterageville and on to the Magaliesburg valley. One thing I was doing is making sure I did not hit power lines and masts as the flight progressed. The next big obstacle was looming ahead and it is a big one, The ridge where the Paragliding launch is at the Hartebeesport dam. Well I got lucky here my track was straight through the gap between the two mountains so I only had to climb to half the normal height to cross the ridge, what a bonus and I never planned for this.

Then on to glance Brits Town to the east and then also glance the big hill North of town to it’s west. Now I just had to hit the waypoint and then turn and run home. I got there in no time and turned hard with a lot of power and used the extra speed to start climbing from 3000 odd feet to 7000ft for the run home. I never closed the trim on the plasma as this really slows me down a lot. I just blasted the instinct for awhile to get up and find the tail wind at altitude. I was relived once my 40km/h touched 60km/h and then pushed on up to 70 and then later I was doing 115km/h once I got to 6800ft. I maintained more than 100km/h for the rest of the run home and on arrival had descended to far and lost the 100km/h speed to cross the gate doing high 80’s.
My unoficial time crossing the gate on the stopwatch is 1h19min13sec and the gps track is 1h 13min 31sec. My total distance flown was 103km. I set the route for 102km to make sure I was further than the 100km distance and would sacrifice the extra distance to make sure I was in on the total to be flown. Even so I have shattered the current record Michele Carnet set by about 47%. If I work it out correctly then my average speed is 75km/h. The current record is 51.9km/h.
Now it is up to FAI if I can claim a World record for this as well as the Continental and South African records.

 

Thankyou George, Nico, Dawie & my Lovely Wife Alison for assisting in this record attempt. I also thank all you who wished me well for the record attempt and to Michele Carnet for assisting in the understanding of the rules.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 18 April 2010 )
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