Hugo Hadaš – just 17 – flies 500km in Brazil

At the age of 17 Hugo Hadaš has become the youngest person to fly 500km after a record-breaking flight in north-east Brazil, which he made alongside the wing designer Stanislav Klikar. Both pilots were flying the Merlin, the two-line EN C from Sky Paragliders.

The Czech pair successfully flew 512.74km in a time of 10h 47m after tow-launching from Caraúbas. They’re claiming it as the longest flight in the EN-C category, the furthest flown by Czech pilots and the furthest flown from the site – as well as an age record for Hugo.

“The first flight with Standa here was incredible,” Hugo tells us. “We flew 414km, so I thought breaking the record might be possible on a windier day. And it happened on 20 October. As a fantastic bonus, we crossed the 500km mark.”

In an Instagram post, Hugo recalled how the day didn’t begin too promisingly. “In the morning, clouds started forming very early, and just 10 minutes after takeoff, it already looked pretty bad, like there would be too much cloud cover.

“Fortunately, we handled the part where there was shadow everywhere with ease, except for the morning climbs when we twice got back up from 200 metres. After that, the clouds nicely spread into rows with strong thermals.”

He says the pair worked together to find cores quickly until the 420km mark, when Standa lost altitude beneath a cloud and the pair separated for about 15km. “From then on, it was just about holding any kind of lift, drifting as far as possible, and gaining as much altitude as we could for the final glide,” Hugo posted.

It worked out pretty well. At 20km out from the magical 500km they still had 2,000m agl. “There wasn’t much doubt we’d make it. The final glide into the sunset was amazing – flying 35km without turning is always a great reward after 10 hours of flying. In the end, we landed on a football field, where lots of locals gathered. People here are really awesome – they took us to their home, gave us wi-fi, made us a great dinner, and waited with us for the retrieval.”

Hugo Hadaš is a rising star from Czechia. Both parents were pilots and he started flying on his 12th birthday in 2019 after his brother Kvido discovered their parents’ old wings in the attic. Since then the two boys and their father have been flying as often as possible.

He competed at the FAI Junior World Paragliding Championships in Tolmin this summer where he finished mid-field overall, including seventh on the final task. He’s also flown 300km in the Czech Republic, which brought him to the attention of Sky Paragliders.

Stanislav Klikar is the designer of the Merlin – which both pilots flew – an EN-C two-liner that he originally released under his own brand Drift Paragliders before it was acquired by Sky. He also recently won SRS Saint-André.

Their route can be seen on xcontest here.