On 29 June this year nine pilots flew 300km+ from a new site in eastern Turkey, smashing all the national records and pushing the sport in the country into a new era. Dora Göksal tells the tale
I started paragliding in 2011, through my university club the METU Aviation Society. Since the very beginning I have basically been stuck on the sport and spend most of my time reading about and watching the amazing pilots flying all over the world. I have been intrigued by the distances they fly, tricks they can do, and scenery they get to see. I have been trying to be one of them ever since.
The season in Turkey starts by the end of March, and lasts until November. But the big distances are usually flown in July and August. This year it felt like the season was never going to begin. In the Alps European pilots were flying incredible distances while we were having cups of coffee and watching downpours.
Always hoping for the best I had made it my goal to fly the Turkish national XC distance record this season. For a relatively young pilot flying 300+ km does not seem a realistic aim, however, that was the only thing my flying buddy Umut Yetistiren and I were thinking about.
The odds actually were good: Ankara where we live is the place where the last records were set (259km), the wings we fly were very well-trusted (Ozone Delta 2), and we never miss a chance to fly, even though early on it either rained while flying or conditions were really stable. It seemed that getting the record was only a matter of getting the right weather, but the weather was far from pleasant…
Read the full story in issue 155, Sept/October 2014.
