From Stewart Midwinter, HPAC/ACVL Records Chair
I have received a claim for a new open distance record in paragliding, 334 km by Alex Raymont.
From a surface tow just after 11 am near the town of Camrose, southeast of Edmonton Alberta, Alex flew 8 hours almost straight south towards the US border, landing after 7 PM in the evening. His flight of 334.5 kilometres smashes the old record of 227 km by more than 100 km! (That record was also set by Alex two years ago during the same record encampment week).
The tracklog can be found at: xcontest.org or paraglidingforum.com
Female Canadian record-holder Nicole McLearn was towing for the group at the time, with plans to go after her own record in the remaining days. For more details of Alex’ flight go to: http://www.nicolemclearn.com/2017/05/miles-in-may-camrose-may-20.html
Peter Spear got away an hour later around noon, but also had a very good day, making a 7 hour, 307 km dogleg flight and landing not far from Alex. Tracklog: xcontest.org
A group of paraglider and hang glider pilots are all gathered together in Alberta this week for the “Miles in May” record encampment, taking advantage of the yearly dry weather window between the end of winter and the beginning of the rainy month of June. As we draw near the summer solstice, pilots on the northern prairies can take advantage of nearly 16 hours of daylight, as the sun does not set until 9:30 PM.
The picture above is a view of the sky south of Calgary (about 100 km west of the flight line), taken by pilot Glenn White around noon on the same day. Landing fields everywhere, and retrieve roads spaced every 1 mile apart as far as the eye can see.
The PG record is now a mere 60 k short of the Canadian HG record of 395 k held by Ross Hunter.