Aspen 3 28 Certified

The Aspen 3 should be ready by the end of January 2009. Rumours are that the 28 has just passed certification Cen C

2 NEW WORLD RECORDS

On Sunday 14th December, Nevil Hulett flew the first ever 500km flight on a paraglider from Copperton in South Africa. He also broke the Distance to Goal record at 402km. The flight took 7 hours 40 mins at an amazing average of 65kph.

The forecast was for perfect zone close to the trough line with a 15,000-18,000ft cloud base and 5m/s thermals and strong winds from the WNW.

James Braid reports:-

The conditions were really strong, high clouds, strong winds, strong thermals, just the stuff one needs. Unfortunately, only a handful of pilots in the world can handle that kind of flying.”

Other pilots choose not to fly as it was 'technically blown out'.

Congratulations to Nevil. It is great to see the Record back in South Africa!

For more news see ParaglidingForum and FlyGirls Website

STOP PRESS Nevil has downloaded the flight log here. 503.6km straight line using WGS84 Ellipsoid!! (One airspace bust to resolve before ratification - Airway W81 and , um, landing in another country!)


On the same day a group of Atos pilots who have been at a record encampment at Postmasburg to the North West had some great flights. The longest was Toni Raumauf who flew 527km (but his flight goes through Kimberley and Blomfontein CTR's, lets hope that Neville's flight is deemed legal)

Big Distances in South Africa

South African Gradient importer, James Braid, reports that flights of 342 and 321km were made from Groblershoop (100km SE of Uppington) on 1st December. The day started perfectly but high level cirrus later in the day shut things down. The pilots landed near Colsburg with one pilot climbing at a sustained 10m/s along the way.