Jochen Zeischka has filed a claim with the FAI for a World ‘Speed around a 50km triangle’ hang gliding record, flown at an average speed of 59.6km/h.
His flight on 13 August 2021 was on an Icaro 2000 Laminar 14 from Saint André-les-Alpes in southern France. If ratified, it will take the record from Tomás Suchánek who has held it for 21 years! Tomás flew his 50km triangle at an average speed of 48.84km/h in Australia in 2000. Jochen said in an interview with the FAI that the record was “long overdue!”.
A 50km triangle flown at 59.6km/h takes about 50 minutes to complete. In practise, that broke down as 11 minutes climbing (in three thermals) at an average climb rate of 3.7m/s, and 39 minutes gliding at 81km/h. “A 50 km speed triangle is 50 minutes of trying not to waste a second!”, Jochen said.
Jochen also holds the World record for ‘speed over a 25km triangle’, which he flew from Laragne in southern France in 2020 at an average speed of 65km/h.
Read the FAI’s interview with Jochen here.
