On track to 367.6km with Jonny Durand. Photo: Jonny Durand / Facebook
The longest task in hang gliding or paragliding history was flown at the Forbes Hang Gliding Championships in Australia on Thursday. An amazing 26 pilots made goal after the 367.6km task.
Jonny Durand (Moyes RX 3.5) smoked in first, completing the task in 5h41mins, six and seven minutes respectively ahead of Rohan Taylor (Moyes RS 4) and Michael Jackson (Moyes RX 5) in second and third. Jonny’s average speed was 62.9km/h.
The slowest flight to goal was 6h52mins, and the last pilots made it in at just after 7.30pm. Yoko Isomoto was the only woman to make goal and placed 25th.
Launch at Forbes is by tow and the task was elapsed time, with 59 pilots in the competition.
The task setters took advantage of a strong tailwind and good conditions and sent the pilots on a south-to-north downwind flight that took seven hours.
The task beat the previous longest task by nearly 22km. That 346km task was set at the Big Spring Internationals in Texas, USA, August 2008.
Full results of the world record task are at www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html
