Hungarian paraglider pilot Pál Takáts, better known for his acro prowess, is more than pretty good at flying cross country too. He flew his U-Turn Passion on a 300km XC in Chile on 5 December.
In fact, he is making a series of cross country flights up the Chilean coast, and broke the Chilean XC record a few days before, on 1 December, with a 244km flight. The 300km flight on Monday was just under nine hours long, and all flown at a maximum altitude of only 1,100m. Conditions varied from tricky at the start with a particularly difficult crossing to Tocopilla, to racing along ridges with speedbar full-on. And the air was not entirely gentle.
Of his longest-distance and longest-airtime flight ever, Pál says, “It´s crazy tiring to fly for such a long time always being close to the mountain and thermals can get very nasty. I had some situations while crossing through lee rotor thermals and my acro experience came in handy to keep the wing open”.
Watch out for the full write-up in Cross Country magazine soon.
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