#258- Ariel Zlatkovski and Project 100: the Ultimate XC Challenge

October 24, 2025

This past XContest season (2025) Ariel Zlatkovski decided to take on a fantastically bold and totally mind-bending mission: Fly 100, 100km flights in a single season. To pull it off he'd have to spend a full 10% of his hours on Earth flying (nearly 20% of daylight hours), he'd cover 12,000 kilometers of open distance, and rack up 893 hours in the sky. He'd live the entire year away from home in India, Colombia and the Alps and while one imagines this would be most pilot's dream year, it was often lonely, and often very intense. Much of it was a real grind and subjected Ariel to too much risk. Ariel shares his rather obsessive journey into paragliding, how Project 100 took hold, and the challenges and emotional highs and lows he faced along the way.