Neville Almond
Neville Almond flew a new UK hang gliding open distance record of 269km (167 miles) on Tuesday 10 May on his Air Atos VR.
He flew from Milk Hill, a small site near Devizes in Wiltshire, to the Norfolk coast, his last turnpoint being a mile out to sea, in less than five hours. The flight scored close to 279km in the UK’s National XC League, where you can use up to two turnpoints.
The British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association’s magazine, Skywings, featured an article this month entitled ‘Beating the British Record’ and predicted that the national hang gliding open distance record would fall soon. The magazine must have hardly come off the press before Neville’s flight proved them right.
Neville's Google Earth tracklog for the 167 mile open distance record hang glider flight
Not only did he beat his own current rigid wing (Class 5) record of 249km which was set in 2009, but Neville’s 269km is the longest ever UK flight on a hang glider of any class. The Class 1 (flexwings) record is 254km, and has been held by Nick Pain for twelve years; the Class 2 (Swifts) record of 260km is held by Robin Hamilton.
Although, as in this case, running out of land is a major issue in the UK, and airspace restrictions and the thought of long retrieves also make long open distance flights difficult, there is a general feeling that the magic 200 miles – 321.86km – may happen soon. Neville believes, “250+ miles is a possibility on a good day.”
He’d originally planned a 300km flight for Tuesday, but had to change route because of a Notam. The new plan was then to land north of Skegness, but, “a trough came in from the west and started shutting the sun down”, so he was forced to deviate east.
The day was good but not outstanding. Cloudbase started at around 1,200m (3,937ft) and rose to 1,400m, with a small blip to 1,800m at the North Sea coast in convergence. On a good day, Neville says, you’d expect 1,700m to 2,000m.
Neville said: “The flight was a mix of some amazing fast stretches, like 10-20 minutes straight-lining at 50-60 mph airspeed, some tip-toeing in the blue to get around airspace, and a few moments lucking out very low in big blue holes”. His groundspeed exceeded 139km/h (80mph) at times.
He described the landing as “frightening”, with remnants of the sea breeze still coming into play and the wind switching constantly. He said, “I simply could not determine which way to land – I couldn’t even find a tree-sheltered paddock to negate the wind, so in the end I bisected SW (wind) and N (sea breeze) and made a crosswind landing – damage limitation, worked well.”
It’s not surprising that retrieves can put some hang glider pilots off attempting open distance flights. When he flew from Mere to Liverpool in 2009 on his previous record flight, Neville said the retrieve was a 26-hour epic, involving a hotel, hitching, trains and a mate’s lift, and then a 650km glider retrieve, at a total cost of £250.
This time he got lucky.
“My flying buddies Tim King and Malcolm Beard picked me up – they got decked early by the approaching trough that cut the sun out. It was a 700km round trip retrieve drive – I would have understood if Tim and Malcom had left me there!”
Congratulations Neville on a great flight.
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