One Comment to “Argentine paragliding record broken”

1. Sergio Crespo Says:
   February 12th, 2009 at 1:52 am

   Argentinean free distance record broken in Pehuajó,
   Buenos Aires, Argentina

   On the night of Friday, 23 January 2009, I decided next day’s flight in which I would try to break a record which looked impossible to beat, even less so to break the 300 km barrier. All the meteorological data indicated that Saturday was going to be the perfect day. The only mistake in Wind Guru´s predictions was at which time the wind would abate: the forecast indicated 16:00 hs, however, the wind never stop blowing that Saturday, but rather kept on going all day long.

   Meteofa’s metheograms also looked good and the convection curve was very pronounced, which added to the expected wind conditions was right what I needed for my attempt.

   Approximately at 10:00 I was together with Ricardo Paladino in the area called “the triangle”, on the North side of the city of Pehuajó. Ricardo would be my Tugboat and provide logistical support during the flight that day. The wind was already blowing from North, sometimes rotating towards Northeast, but that was not a problem. What was problematic was its intensity, with an estimated maximum of 70 km/h and a minimum of 50 km/h, which were too much for a safe take off. We decided to wait as it would be impossible to decollate in that way.

   At 11:30 approximately we started to see signs of convection: some chimangos trying to navigate a small Thermal and also a few storks, although it was still too dangerous to fly due to the strong local winds.

   I did not manage to take off until after 13:00, still with string winds. The uplift was very fast and rather violent, but very well controlled, as I always do when flying in windy conditions. I was shot upwards, practically speaking, so I clenched my teeth fearing a possible Double at low altitude, or a rope cut with the ensuing frontal Double. Luckily, none of that happened, everything happened very quickly but in a controlled manner, and the day was getting better and looking promising.

   It seemed as if the wing wanted to escape from my hands even above an altitude of 200m, but higher up the turbulence diminished considerably and the ascension continued normally. At around 500m of altitude I noticed the first termical so I asked Ricardo to relieve the tension in preparation for take off.

   My personal equipment for this flight was the customary for me: 2 GPS’s (the main one, a Garmin 60 Csx and an Etrex as backup), a Flytec varioaltimetro, a Yaesu FX150 handy and another Yaesu 23R as backup, one rope cutter in the cutteway and another one in the cockpit, a hydration bag, three small frozen water bottles, two apples and two bananas (I forgot to buy granola bars this time…), 6 AA batteries for the GPS’s, mi carenada chair HA, my Hi-Tec helmet, mi Bolle sunglasses (which I won in one leg of the regional championships), my Independence gloves, my Lycra t-shirt SOL, my friend Poison from Skywalk and my ever-present great friend: a round Secura Max 38.
   I first reached the access road to Mones Cazón, and then I reached Henderson around 09:00 hs., and afterwards Daireaux. This was possibly the most critical point of the entire flight, since I could not find any updrift and ended just above 100m from the ground. I looked down and could see the crops strewn by the wind and told myself that I needed to get out of there urgently. Finally I managed to move forward, not without significant efforts.

   The flight became more and more relaxed as it progressed, even though the wind was picking up and I was being shaken more and more. My Poison wing made a great job though, so I was grateful to my friend Abelardo Wilhelm who helped me equip in the best way by selling me a great piece of hardware which was now showing its worth. Really this wing, a Poison 1, behaved very well, it is relatively quiet and allows sharp turns and Sloping good in thermals of small diameter; it quickly responds to commands, it’s soft and it warns you quickly about its next move, so it’s just a matter of flying it, making good friend with it and then ask it for more and more.

   When I was about to reach Coronel Pringles I also started approaching the Ventana hill chain. I did not want to fly over its middle section at low altitude, with the associated risk of falling and To meet turbulences to lee, so I started veering towards SE. It seemed that the wind direction was also shifting towards SE, so I ended up crossing the hills practically on their eastern end, where they are lowest and merge with the surrounding plain. There is a train station there, whose name I can’t remember at this very moment.

   The city of Coronel Dorrego was some 60 km ahead of me and the city of Bahía Blanca further ahead, but the wind pushed me in the direction of Coronel Dorrego, so I told Ricardo to wait for me there, since I was close and everything was going well.

   At that moment I had almost flown 240 km, so breaking the 300km barrier seemed feasible, since I was keeping a good altitude and could easily manage to reach Monte Hermoso. Bahia Blanca was too off track and it would be impossible to reach under the existing wind conditions.

   At 1500m of altitude I got ready to complete a transition, accelerating since I was falling and imperiously needed updrift, but instead of falling I started climbing and accelerating with back wind, a clear indication of the dynamic of the weather front which was approaching from the ocean to the South.

   By the time I reached 290km, it seemed impossible for me to reach the 300 km mark, as the storm approached more and more. I decided to fight as much as I could manage to break the 300 km mark and then land safely, and that’s what I ended up doing.

   The Poison wing behaved very well, demonstrating its reliability once again as it swallowed km after km while flying safely in very turbulent conditions. Even so, I was very tired after flying for almost 5½ hours; my arms were very tense and I didn’t want to become get exhausted at 500m altitude while looking for a safe place to land.
   According to the weather forecasts, so much wind at that tome of the day was unexpected, and I found that the Poison was flying backwards, so I braced myself for a tough landing. Luckily, a few meters above the ground the wing started flying forward, which showed that the wind intensity was safe for me at that time.

   Once on the ground, safe and calm, I just had to thank my dear Poison wing fir this great flight, where it once again was demonstrated that it is possible to perform a great flight with a used Poison I wing. Just try to imagine what would be possible with a new Poison II! In this way the national free distance record was broken in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.

   Sergio Crespo
   Pehuajó- Buenos Aires
   Argentina

Leave a Comment