After a slightly disappointing start to the season at the Flytec Records Encampment at Zapata, close to the Mexican border in southern Texas, USA, things improved dramatically mid-July. Davis Straub, meteorologist Gary Osoba and the rest of the dedicated enthusiasts searching for records there saw the early cloud which announced the arrival of moist air flowing up from the Gulf on the south-easterly wind. This delivered the conditions they had been waiting for and records were spectacularly smashed!

Manfred Ruhmer pushed his Laminar for an astonishing 692 km (430 miles) to claim the Class 1 record which has stood to Larry Tudor since 1994. Manfred added nearly 200 km to LarryÂ’s 495 km mark. Davis Straub regained the Class 2 record, which heÂ’d lost to Mark Poustinchian a couple of weeks earlier. DavisÂ’ 651.7 km (405 mile) flight puts the record securely back in his hands, but for how long?

The flights ended in the vicinity of Big Spring, west of Abilene. Apparently the day was very good, but the pilots may have been able to get away an hour earlier. What might be possible with a really early start on a really epic day?

Manfred’s flight is the longest on any type of hang glider and is good propaganda against those who say that Class 1 is passé.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2001 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.