Read Part 1 here>>
Camila Antonorsi flew 120 km to set a new Venezuelan women’s distance record
I’m 28 and have been flying since I was 17
I’ve been competing internationally for the last two years at competitions like La Monarca 2008 where I was second woman, the pre-Worlds in Mexico (fourth) and World Cup in Brazil this year (second). Before the record my personal best was 90 km at the pre-Worlds in Valle de Bravo.
The day of the record looked amazing…
And the clouds were high and very well formed. But once I hit the sky I realised conditions weren’t as good as I expected. Thermals were pretty soft and it took a long time to get to the clouds. Things got better when I hit the flats. At the beginning I was sort of bumping slowly down. But in the flats the wind stopped breaking up the thermals and things improved.
There were five of us at the start
Two of them made it way high a lot faster than the rest of us and were able to head off right away. For the first 20 km I was flying with Marcos del Rio, an Argentinean friend, but he didn’t have much luck. In the end it was just Micky and me.
I was anxious
Because I was alone for the first 15 – 20 km, I was flying an unknown place, and I basically had no clue where I should be going. But once I got in touch with Alex Popow, who had been there before, he guided me so I got my confidence back and starting to fly at a better pace. Thermals were pretty strong but luckily I had the wind at my back so it helped.
Micky didn’t sound that optimistic
Later in the flight I had already flown south towards Micky when he told me, and I could see, a huge blue hole between where I was and where he was. So I had to turn west, which wasn’t that appealing either. But that was when I realised I could probably reach the record.
There were no scary moments
The only hard decision to be made was around 100 km, where the only landing looked tricky and narrow – and I was certainly not that high. It wasn’t a scary situation, however if I had had to land there it probably would have been a bit critical.
I didn’t know when I hit 100 km
I’d forgotten to erase the last track on my GPS so I didn’t know exactly how far I’d flown. Over the radio I spoke to the people who were driving and asked them to let me know the start coordinates so I could figure out how far I’d gone. I discovered I was at 108 km and I had created the new women’s record!
I rang everyone immediately!
The first thing that came to my mind was to call my husband. I took the cellphone from my pocket and sent a message to him and to my best friend Raul saying I had reached the record and I was going for more
I pretended I was over the sea so I wouldn’t come down
From 100 km landings were difficult to find and I had to pass over a huge yard full of ‘cijuis’, a Venezuelan tree well known for being short but full of thorns. I made myself believe I was flying over water and that I had to stay high so I didn’t drown! A little before 120 km the day wasn’t as good as it started so I decided to take the safest way out and make a good landing where I could.
I landed next to the car
Right next to the main highway in a village called Kilometre 52. While coming down I could see the retrieve car right underneath me getting ready to celebrate with me. I was so happy with my flight!
