#259 Pete Thompson cracks the 300 FAI in Colorado’s Deepness

November 8, 2025

Pete Thompson had a hell of a summer in Colorado. After years of planning and trying to fly big, epic FAI triangles across the highest terrain in the lower 48 he finally beat a record set only last year by Galen Kirkpatrick when he put down a 275 km FAI in early August. A week later he went even bigger with a 292. Then just two days later he did it again, this time cracking the vaunted 300 for the first time in North America with a 305 km perfectly drawn FAI across some serious Colorado deepness. Pete shares his journey in the sport which began in the early 2000's, including his recent vol-biv across the state and flying competitions and tandems.

mayhem

Gavin McClurg hosts a podcast (The Cloudbase Mayhem podcast) dedicated to free flight where he interviews the best pilots in the world to glean out what makes them great and contributes regularly to magazines like Cross Country and Parapente and many others.