The missed double record

December 2, 2018

The season flight season 2018 in the Brazilian Sertao is over. Despite a rally of top pilots, the distance world flying record has not fallen. But the tactic already fit. Parallel start on the rope, then to go in a double on track. // Source: Aaron Durogati, Facebook video, screenshot October and November are considered the most important months of flight in dry northeastern Brazil. Driven by the Southeast Passat, many pilots hope to break their personal course records - or maybe even set the world record. This year, there was a big rendezvous of the top international pilots, all hoping to get blown up on the "one" record day, when all the outside conditions fit for an extremely long flight. For the first time, most of the airmen, who also had the world record in their sights, set for the winch launch (see also on Lu-Glidz: "Hunt for the 500 + X"). Unlike in hill starts, for example in Quixadá or Patú, where the compression on the slope quickly causes you to fight with too much wind, you can safely reach the rope over shallow land with a strong breeze. Unfortunately, the wind did not really play the pilot this year. For Brazilian conditions he blew on many days too weak or at least not constant enough to achieve sufficiently high cutting speeds. Nevertheless, there were seven 500s of different pilots in the books at the end of the two flight months. Michael Sigel's flight over 551 km was even submitted to the FAI as a new distance flight record "free route over three turning points". The twins of the skies In relation to the comparatively low-wind conditions, however, there were some very successful cross-country flights. Striking the tactics: Many pilots went through the parallel use of two unwinding winds in a sense as a double in the air and then flew even large parts of the routes together. Particularly impressive demonstrated Aaron Durogati and Primoz Susa the art of team flying. They started together, they landed together, and in the end they had in the sum of five flights over more than 400 km only a difference of 0.07 points. These air twins deserve a "double record". There were also interesting things to report from the days with a weaker wind. Here, above all, some Swiss pilots tried in triangular flights over the Brazilian lowlands. Outstanding here is a 258 km FAI triangle of Dominik Welti, where he was also on long stretches with Daniel Rissi as a wingman on the way. In retrospect, Dominik even says: "Purely by flying, the triangle is more demanding." The per-kilometer performance is greater at the triangle. " If you want to get a first impression of the record hunt in Sertao, you can watch the following two videos. "Brasile" by Aaron Durogati shows impressions of the winch start, the joint cranks and the landing of a long distance flight. The second, somewhat more detailed documentary on Youtube shows the route hunting of the Swiss XC League pilots.

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