French paraglider pilot Thomas Puthod has set a new record for Piedrahita, Spain, with a flight of 312 km on 29 July.
Taking off from Pena Negra he flew south east, over the Gredos mountains and into the plains south of Madrid.
The flight is unusual in that most big distances from Pena Negra have been flown in a north east direction, using the 300 km long convergence that sets up along the classic Avila / Segovia route.
Thomas was flying an Ozone R10.2, and hit a maximum height of 4,600 m. He took off at 10.45 am and landed at 6.45 pm – eight hours in the air. Climbs hit 4.6 m/s.
He flew much of the flight with friend Guy Parat, who made 259 km.
The previous record was 245 km, set by Bruno Croué (FR) in August 2009.
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