Fly until the country runs out

June 30, 2019

Jouni Makkonen has flown a new Finnish record: For just 380 kilometers he glided over the forests and lakes of his home country. He had to turn back at the Baltic Sea. Jouni Makkonen's view just before he turned for the final approach, 1000 m above the Baltic Sea. // Source: XContest.org, J. Makkonen In the end, Makkonen even flew out to the sea for three kilometers and turned over water in a thermally offset thermal up to 1600 meters above the Baltic Sea (see XContest). So he could have come a few miles further. But, as geography would have it, he simply ran out of land he could still land on. Inevitably, he turned back to set up on the port island Mussalo 200 km east of Helsinki. He started from the winch at an airfield near Kauhava. Ironically, another Finn, Pekka Raudaskoski, also flew a new country record the same day: 350 km. However, he had just under an hour inventory. Then it was clear that Makkonen had come a little further. The comparison of the two flights shows that, given the right conditions, Finland should also offer the potential for flights well over 400 km. Raudaskoski blew an hour before Makkonen, about 100 km further north. Makkonen flew a cut of 50 km / h. With an hour longer flight time and more land under his rear, he could easily have made it over the 400km mark.

This article has been translated for your convenience and was originally written in 독일어.