**** Exklusiv ein Bericht zum neuen Weltrekord ***
Vielen Dank an Tobias für die schnellen Infos.
Name: Nevil Hulett
Date: 14 December 2008
Declared Goal: 404kms
Open Distance: 504kms
Tracklog overall distance: 540kms
Glider: Mac Magus 6
Weather conditions: Forecast was for 18 knots / 32kms (Nevil reckons it turned out to be quite a bit more)
Take off Location: Copperton, 40km SW of Prieska. gariep 5500 kms oxygen
Take off Time: 11h30
Landing Location: Lesotho where the Orange River comes out of the mountains at the foot of the escarpment
Landing Time: 19h00
Flight time: 7.5hrs
Average speed: excess of 60kms an hour
Conditions: From Copperton to Gariep Dam altitude was low at around 1000m, slowly improving as the day went on. At 14h00 he was flying at 1400m altitude. From Gariep Dam he got up to cloud base 5500m Max height. (Nevil was flying with oxygen)
Difficult areas: At one point Nevil was low and in a valley, 140m off the ground and going backwards at 40kms an hour. I-think-I-am-going-to-die moment
FAI observer: Penny Frost (she was registered a week ago)
Papers were collected from James Braid and filled in half an hour before take off
Anyone else flying? The Gradient boys (James and the Czech pilots) were there, James still sleeping, did not launch – wind forecast deemed too strong.
Retrieve: Nevil flew on his own with Penny following using Nevil’s amazing piece of technology – the Compeo Plus, sending his coordinates every 15mins to Penny’s car GPS. She wason the landing spot an hour after he landed! What a retrieve driver!!!! Penny also speaks fluent Tsotho, the Lesotho tribal language which proved very useful.
The Planning:
The route was planned. Nevil gave the Valic Brothers tracklogs to local South African Weather forecaster Deon Der Mesch (he was one of the guys who gave a talk at the Bedford Comp), the location Nevil wanted to take off from, Copperton and to land in Lesotho at the position he calculated would give him the 500km record and said – tell me the day. Deon did his calculations and said: Monday 14 December 2008 is the day. What a forecast!
Niggly things: Radio not working, oxygen leaking, camera lanyard fiddly – he left it behind, no time to waste. Really regrets it. Says the view of the Orange River coming out of Lesotho was breathtaking, big ox-bows, CU’s on the mountains, warm afternoon pink light after some rain had fallen in the area … aaaghh!
Landing: Coming up to landing, Neil flew over a funeral and waved, calling out to them. How bizarre and amazing this flying machine must have been to them.
Tracklog: Nevil will upload his tracklog at some point, but they are still coming back from Lesotho and he and Penny are on holiday.
Geschrieben von Gaynor Schoeman (http://flygirl.co.za/content/view/695/302/)
Tags: Gleitschirm, Nevil Hulett, Rekorde