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2007 Dec - Gradient and Swing - It is hunting season in De Aar... |
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Swiss Swing Team
| And the Swiss Swing Team have also brought their record attempts to a close. Thank you so much for sharing your adventures with us. Go safely home and we hope you will return soon - perhaps for the XC Open in 2008? Swiss Images of Flying in De Aar |
| Team Gradient | Gradient are winding up their record attempts and will be going home in a day or two. More from James Braid: Well we're still camped out here in Prieska. We've been flying pretty much everyday, still doing lots of 100+km downwind glides but nothing big...
Thursday looked like the record day, good clouds, strong winds etc, we all launched from Vanwyksvlei. Conditions at first were really difficult and most of us bombed, except Marko and Primoz who managed to survive and get super high at Vosburg. Ground speeds increased to what would be required for a new record and the game was on. The clouds to the east were looking really good. But unfortunately, Marko and Primoz both flew into a hole just before De Aar (200km) and landed there just after 3 hours of flying.
Friday was forecasted for similar conditions and again we headed west to launch from Vanwyksvlei.
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Pete Prukl came down to join us. The day only started working after 1pm so the record hunters had lost hope and decided to return home. Pete got away first, followed by the two recovery drivers, Alister and Jeremy, and then Walter himself - all just in time for the sky to switch on. Pete climbed to 4500m and after feeling a bit hypoxic, decided to land at Britstown (160km). Jeremy with 95 flights, flew a new PB of 130km and climbed to 4200m. Alister with 65 flights too achieved his new PB, flying 140km!! Both of them on Goldens. So it seems the record hunters had written the day off too early. ;-) Rather ironic the pilots chasing after the recovery drivers.
We're here for another two days. Conditions have been quite mellow and the karoo is looking really green, so sadly doesn't look like there'll be any records this season.
Best regards
James | | | | * DESIREE PANSI * SETS A NEW SOUTH AFRICAN LADIES OPEN DISTANCE RECORD!! | | | These FLYGIRLS are setting Records in South Africa !!
| | | | * EWA WISNIERSKA * SETS A NEW GERMAN OPEN DISTANCE RECORD IN SOUTH AFRICA !! | | | | 13 December 2007
And last words from Greg Hamerton on the South African Mixed Nations Team Record attempts  Greg Hamerton - Swing Media Man 'The girls have saved the day for us. Ewa doing 300km means we have the new German Record. Des doing 185km set the new South African Ladies Record. For the rest of us men, we've tried our utmost in difficult conditions and scored 255km, 186km, 170km, 168km, 100km. The World Record of 462km remains unbroken. The Swiss have clocked up a bit more distance during the same time, due partly to the drier conditions west of De Aar and that they are prepared to fly in more extreme conditions. I've experienced the excitement of launching a serious assault on the World Record, there have been ups and downs, I have been on the edge of my personal safety envelope and pushed my own performance beyond anything I'd achieved in 15 years of flying. I've shared the challenge with a great group of pilots, and we've had a fantastic opportunity to enjoy the big South African sky. Exploring the air over the Karoo has been a privilege, and our thanks go to Anglorand and Swing and all the supporters who made it possible to spend two weeks flying at such a high level.' www.x-sa.co.za   
| | | 11 December 2007 Ewa Wisnierska on Cape Talk Radio. Photo by Jeff Ayliffe (www.jeffayliffe.com) Ewa's time in De Aar is over. She returned to Cape Town and was interviewed 'live' in the studio with Lisa Chait at 2:15pm on the 11th December 2007, on 567 Cape Talk Radio. Thank you to Jeff Ayliffe for arranging the interview, but as Jeff has warned us, the majority of the interview was likely to focus on Ewa's experience with the thunder storm in Australia earlier this year. He asked Lisa to chat to Ewa about her record flights, but Lisa said listeners, and her, are more interested in her experience of being sucked into a charlie bravo. (a big bad cloud that spits lightening and hail, with extreme air movements upwards and downwards) How sad.
A woman launches a paraglider from behind a car in the middle of South Africa, in the flat Karoo desert and not only does she manage to stay in the air, but she flies 300 kms displaying tenacity and skill and good decision making, a distance that has only been done once before anywhere in the world by a woman - ever - and everyone would rather hear about a time when she made bad decisions and flew into a thunder cloud and almost died. Well Ewa, congratulations on your massive achievement with flying the 300! Your flight is awesome and a major boost to us FLYGIRLS who hope to one day fly further than this bench mark, here in South Africa. You almost brought the record back to my country - it was a fantastic flight and so very close, just 3 more kilometres.
But maybe this continent is waiting for an African woman to earn the title and bring that coveted World Record back home to Africa.....
And Africa is patient. The beauty of South Africa and particularly De Aar, through the eyes of Ewa WisnierskaEwa's Gallery And the Swiss Swing Team?
They have made a lovely video short which sums up all that I love about flying in the Karoo. Nice one guys. Thank you for sharing it with us. |  Ewa Wisnierska - Swing Pilot in De Aar A German Open Distance Record
Ewa Wisnierska set a new German Open Distance Record (Male and Female), yesterday at 300km and narrowly missed the Ladies Open Distance World Record of 302kms. It is also the longest flight by a lady of any nationality flying in South Africa. Previous record was held by UK pilot Kat Thurston at 285km from Kuruman It is also the new De Aar site record for Ladies (previously 188km by French pilot Lulu Viarg) Ewa's flight log can be viewed on www.xccomp.org This shows a distance of 308.73kms because it calculates in 3 waypoints. Records are calculated in Straight Line distance from take off point to landing point. The imagery shows how she veered off to the left before Noupoort to go around the first mountains. If you can read German, you can go to Ewa's website and read about her experiences in De Aar and about that flight. There are photo's. Ewa was interviewed on Friday 07 Dec by Jeff Ayliff on Cape Town local radio station 567 Cape Talk on her 300k record flight. Tune in between 8:35 and 8:45'sh, for Jeff's outdoor report. And how did the others do? A nice story of Greg's Personal Best flight on this day - the day Ewa broke the German Open Distance Record www.x-sa.co.za Greg Hamerton flew another personal best - 255kms. Magic Day !!! Nevil Hulett clocked 170kms. He is so dragging eveyone out to the airport right now. He wants his day!! Short update from Greg on www.x-sa.co.za There was a storm in De Aar a few days ago that took out the landline communications so he borrowed someones 3G cellphone to make this update.
And the Swiss? Alfredo Studer flew the longest distance from Copperton - 250kms. Live Tracking on the Swiss website is not working well in this area as it uses cellphone reception to communicate the GPS updates.
Well done to the Swing pilots for great flights.
Des Pansi was stuck on the ground winching everyone up with no-one to winch her. Husband Arnold was attending to the insurance man at Potties BnB regarding the storm damage from a few days ago. Talk about frustration!
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| TEAM GRADIENT - SOUTH AFRICA AND SLOVENIA |  Jimmy the Blade and Mrs Braid aka John Broderick, SA Open Distance Record Holder But there is another team north of De Aar, in Prieska. GRADIENT have a Slovenian South African combination going for the Men's World Record. All flew big flights, one of them 310km to Colesburg. Here is more from Jimmy the Blade (James Braid, South African Gradient dealer)
Hi everyone Just got back from a 400km recovery trip. I'm sitting here in Prieska with a group of Slovenian pilots who, forget the world record, are trying to fly 500+ km. So far there hasn't been too much to report, only the odd 120 km and 180 km flights here and there, you know, one-thermal-downwind-glide kinda stuff. Anyway, today wasn't looking so good in the morning, lots of high level cirrus and very weak winds, but the conditions improved during the day. The JimmyTheBlade day rating was only 6.5 out 10. We decided to take a drive to Vanwyksvlei anyway to take advantage of the westerly winds, and it paid. Marko and Primos flew 310 km, landing in Colesburg. Peter landed at 240 km, just past Hydra, and I spiralled down at 215 km at De aar to help with recovery. The upper air wind strength was about 30 km/h and climbs averaged about 3m/s to 3500m ATO. If we get a good day here, these guys are going far. They're all flying SR7s, and they fly them like puppies - the performance is just unbelievable! The Swiss team also had good flying, doing 250 km, according to Walter. And Cloudsuck Ewa managed approx 300 km from De Aar, which is only a few clicks short of the current womens open distance record. An excllent achievement! I finaly had a chance to fly the XC2, so here's a 1 minute review. Well, first flight on it took me 215 km, so it must be good. Feedback is like a serial class glider, but it's very well behaved. Recovery is very fast, and despite the glider being quite thin, it's very stable and mellow. The most I had was the odd tip tuck in nasty stuff. I was either cranking it in the rough thermals, or on half speedbar with one hand holding the toggles and the other eating chocolate. Glide and speed are very good although I didn't have much opportunity to compare with other glider - besides all the others are SR7s, so not a fair comparison. In short, a stunning glider, suitable for experienced XC pilots. The only problem with a glider with such a thin chord is that one's face and feet get sunburnt - viva the training gliders. Tomorrow looks very easterly and irritable, so it's sleep-in time. Alister our recovery driver has done about 1000 km today, so the sleep in is well deserved. Mon and Tues are looking good. James 'Jimmy the Blade' Braid From Flygirl: And why is Gradient in shocking pink? It has got to do with their new Golden 2 glider colours and a De Aar party some years back - I am looking for the evidence and will post shortly :-) ...... and now you know :-) |  Des Pansi our Pocket Pixie - about to set a new South African Ladies Record |  Des Pansi photographed by Martin Pacejka who was pacing her all the way |
04 December 2007 The Swiss Flights are using on Live Tracking..... Not sure how good it is for the De Aar area. Says Urs got away, but just a short flight of about 30kms but they report around 100kms each on their Blog. Perhaps poor cellphone reception. When the Green lights are flashing on their website it indicates that the Live Tracking mode has been switched on. This is the link to the website www.x-sa.ch Click on the Flashy Green lights to watch his progress on Google Earth. | 03 December 2007
A massive storm,described by some as a hurricane, hit De Aar Last night and caused extensive damage to communications, trees, houses etc.
| 02 December 2007 From Greg's latest posting on www.x-sa.co.za it looks like the South Africans now feel that their best chance of a World Record is to support the women, Des and Ewa, and go for the Ladies Open Distance Declared Goal World Record. Yesterday they set it at 256kms to Aliwal North. The Official Ladies Open Distance Declared Goal is 247.7kms set by Petra Krausova in Quixada, Brazil, on the 18 November 2005. Ewa, being Number 2 in the world of traditional competition flying, flies very fast, but is new to winching and long distance flying. Her best Open Distance was set a few days ago at 110km in De Aar. However, Ewa will be in De Aar with Greg and Des until 10 December (the others all returning home soon) She seems to have converted to winch launching well, but launching in strong winds on tow is still a tough call and yesterday she stepped down after a few tries when the wind became too strong for her. Hopefully over the next week or so Ewa will have the opportunity to take on Petra's Krausova's (Nbr 1) Declared Goal of 247.7kms. The SA Team as a whole, has yet to crack 200kms on this particular expedition. The Overall Open Distance Record of 462kms set in Brazil in November this year is very far away (unofficial at present). 423.4km is the official record and set by Will Gadd of Canada in Zapata, Texas, USA) on 21 June 2002 For more about Women's Open Distance World Records
They are now held in Brazil, but before that, they were flown in South Africa. For more about the Overall Open Distance Records (Male records) | 01 December 2007 Slow day. Pete - 131kms direction Colesburg
Greg - 99.6kms to Noupoort aaarrrghhh!!! Just missed that nice round figure we all cherish so much, 100kms
Nevil - 70kms
Des - 35kms
Ewa - Never got away
And the Swiss have left De Aar for Prieska. Not sure why I missed this, but the Swiss have Live Tracking on their website. You can watch the Swiss pilots progress whilst they are flying via Google. Positions are updated approximately every 10 mins. I am going to be sooo glued to the computer screen now! How great is that! To be able to watch them low save, climb high and go far all in the comfort of your home or office. That 10 mins interval is going to cause havoc with my nerves :-) 30 November 2007 Very wet lands - longest flight about 60kms from the Swiss Team. 30 November 2007 From 'Hostess' to 'Champion Pilot' :-) Ha ha ha..... I am sorry, I am being totally evil, but after being left out of the SA Swing team, Des was asked to join them last night.
Ja Pete - that should have happened a looong time ago. Like before the event not towards the end of it. I hope you all get more good flying in, but whatever the outcome at least this way you can claim one record for Swing and South Africa courtesy of Des Pansi. Nothing motivates a woman more than being excluded from a team that she earned the right to be a part of. Quote: Champion pilot joins the team!
| | Written by Greg | | Friday, 30 November 2007 | | Des Pansi has agreed to join our team! This is great news, since she is flying like an ace and has the most experience in this area. Here's a short press release. The new SA Ladies Record for Swing pilot. On 27th November 2007 Des Pansi flew from De Aar to Plooysburg, a distance of 186km. This is the new South African Ladies Distance Record, and breaks the previous record of 154km (also set by Des). She was flying Swing Astral5.22. It was a slow day with a light basewind, so she had to fly for almost 7 ½ hours. “It was slow, very difficult in the beginning with lots of low saves, nice big climbs later on when it warmed up, easy if you stayed high but hard work if you got low. It was nice to have other pilots in the area, the Swiss team and Leon, and my husband Arnold below in the retrieve vehicle.” | |
29 November 2007
Thunderstorms and rain. Bernie has gone home.
Here is an update by Greg Hamerton whilst we wish away the rains for them: It's kind of hard to keep all the relevant forums updated with news from the karoo, because we're getting back so late at night and there's a ton of photos to sort out / resize, things to recharge, things to fix, dust to get out of one's ears ...
The flying has been great, although we haven't yet had a record day.
On day three of the Anglorand X-SA World Record Attempt we all pinged off the winch and climbed away on the first try. That's such a relief for me, because last season I remember averaging four tows a day before getting going. Ewa on her first tow didn't get very high
because she'd asked Pete to please be gentle with her, so he drove`very slowly. Then she hit a small thermal and released at about 40m.
Needless to say she can fly like a bird .. she got away from 40m.
We didn't even realise that Dessie was flying out in front of us. She'd left the runway about 1 hour before us. Only on the way home did we hear that she had bust her own record and flown 186km! Brilliant.
It was a rare day of zero stress flying, and it got all mellow and beepy near sunset. Pete was still climbing at 3m/s just after sunset and had to fly full bar to land before the VFR cut-off.
Yesterday (day 4) we had a bouyant airmass with no clouds and a variable basewind. After spending about three hours making videos and taking photos, I bumbled about on an FAI triangle of 25km. My goal was to prepare for a speed record on 25k, but I see my speed was 14km/h and the world record is something around 41km. Ha ha ha. I need turbo-rockets on my ankles. | 28 November 2007 From FLYGIR: Lots of playing for hours on end over the De Aar Airfield for cameras. Wind was light so they decided get some footage of everyone at 3000m plus ASL. Some of the images are on the South African X-SA website. The gallery has hidden albums so click on 'Daily Galleries' and more Albums will appear. Very nice images so well worth a look. Greg has also written an account of his Personal Best distance flight of 168kms on X-SA. | | 27 November 2007 When Des Pansi was not considered for the South African Swing Team, we were ..... disappointed. Des is a Swing pilot after all and more importantly, the South African Ladies Record holder. She knows the De Aar flatlands better than most as she lives and teaches paragliding there www.flydeaar.co.za But Des is a fighter and so she went and flew her heart out, to, yes, prove a point. You don't leave our leading lady out of the record attempts on home soil. The results are simply perfect. Des broke her own record of 154km to set a new SA Ladies record of 186.5kms. This is how the day went: |  Time to go and get me some miles....
|  Des on tow with her new Swing Astral 5
| Des and visiting Czech pilot Martin Pacejka were the first to get away at 10h22. It was slow going with lots of low saves and the air was really cold and even colder at 3500m ASL. Martin and Des gaggle flew, working the lift together, helping each to fly further and further. They headed in the direction of Douglas near Kimberly. At 17h47 they landed close together, 186.5kms from De Aar. Des flew for 7hrs24mins.
The pilots in the two Swing Teams flew big distances as well today. Looking forward to viewing their tracklogs. The Swiss Team all crossed the 200km mark with one enjoying a Personal Best :-)
Swiss Team:
Alfredo Studer 260kms
Urs Nadler flew a personal best of 225kms - Well done Urs! :-)
Andre Bussmann 225kms All good flights - Well done to the Swiss Team and their warm up flights :-) South African Mixed Nations Team
Pete Wallenda 187kms (A Personal Best - nicely flow Sir! Good to see a South African Instructor showing us how it is done)
Greg Hamerton 168km (Also a PB for him. I can see it getting uncomfortably hot on the Overberg XC Log :-)
Ewa Wisnierska 110km (It turns out that this is a Personal Best Open Distance for Ewa. Welcome to De Aar Ewa!!)
Bernie Kellie +- 50kms (Not Bernies best result)
Nevil Hulett - Did not fly - arrived in De Aar too late to join in the hunt. Ag shame :-( | Des was flying her new Swing Astral 5
Says it is a really nice wing
It obviously suits her :-) |
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Takeoff | 10:22:49 | | | Landing | 17:47:00 | Kimberley - ZA [~60.9] |
Linear distance | 186.5 km (25.2 km/h) | | Duration | 7:24:11 | Max vario | 5.4 m/sec | Min vario | -4.8 m/sec | | Max alt (ASL) | 3533 m | | Min alt (ASL) | 1089 m | | Takeoff alt (ASL) | 1499 m | | Altitude gain | 2034 m | | Max speed | 65.9 km/h | | |  An unusual direction for record flights - Des Pansi's Tracklog
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| | THE TWO SWING TEAMS HAVE ARRIVED IN DE AAR, SOUTH AFRICA. THE FLYING IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!
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26 November 2007 Both teams have photos and short stories on their websites.
It is mostly about preparations but interesting to read. I can feel the excitement building as they ready themselves......
| - South Africa / Mixed Nations pilots - Pete Wallenda (SA) - best open distance 150km
- Greg Hamerton (SA) - best open distance 128km
- Nevil Hulett (SA) - best open distance 337 km
- Bernie Kelly (AUS) - best open distance not acknowledged
- Ewa Wisnierska (Poland) - best open distance not acknowledged | - The Swiss pilots
- Alfredo Studer (Swiss) - best open distance 314 kms
- Andre Bussmann (Swiss) - best open distance 255 kms
- Urs Nadler (Swiss) - best open distance 168 kms
- Support
Christian Vonow (Swiss) Christoph Zipperlen (Germany)
Walter Neser (SA) | | | | | | AND WHAT ARE THE RECORDS? |
The big one is the Open Distance World Record set this month by 3 Brazilian pilots - Frank Brown , Marcelo Prieto & Rafael Saladini - 462kms (Quixada, Brazil)
The Ladies Open Distance World Record was also set in Brazil by Czech pilot Petra Krausova - 302kms (Quixada, Brazil)
The Official Open Distance Record for a flight flown in South Africa is held by Austrian Martin Bacsak - 344kms (De Aar, South Africa)
The Unofficial record was set by the two Slovenian pilots Urban and Aljaz Valic - 426km (Vosburg, South Africa) SOME INTERSTING SITE RECORD INFORMATION FOR DE AAR AND VOSBURG
Best flights by South Africans in South Africa:
John Broderick - 334kms (overall) Glider -Gradient Aspen (De Aar, South Africa)
Desiree Pansi - 154km (ladies) Glider - Swing Mistral 4 (De Aar, South Africa) | The SA / Mixed Nations team has its work cut out for it. Nevil Hulett is the only pilot to fly very big distances on a regular basis. A 337km flight in Brazil and another 270 km flight in Australia makes him the man to watch in this team. I have no information on Ewa's distance flights. She is ranked Nbr2 in the world of traditional competition flying so it would be interesting to know what her best distance is. Ewa is most famous for her altitude flight in a thunder cloud in Manilla, Australia in February 2007.
FLYGIRL was there. Read more about it.
The X-SA Mixed nations team has a website where you can follow their progress: ww.x-sa.co.za
| The Swiss - Andre and Alfredo have flown credible distances of 314 kms and 255 km flights.
Alfredo's best flight from De Aar was 306km on a Swing Mistral. Intermediate gliders rule!!
You can read more about the Swiss team on their site www.x-sa.ch | | The Teams will be based in De Aar with places like Vosburg and Prieska being likely launch points. These two areas give them the much needed 100kms plus to give them the best chance of beating the records. The Valic brothers flew 426kms from Vosburg. |
20 November 2007
The International Gradient Team have left De Aar, South Africa after shooting their annual brochure and getting a bit of distance flying in at the same time. John Broderick, South Africa's Open Distance record holder and local Gradient pilot went for a quick 100km flight from De Aar to Noupoort flying the new Gradient Avax XC 2. See Leonardo for his tracklog info. Unfortunately the conditions were 'unseasonably' unfavourable and that was the best distance flight for their time in South Africa. Gradient were primarily out here to take photographs for next seasons Gradient brochure and we welcome their time in South Africa each year. Having South Africa as a preferred location on an international company's brochures is great publicity for our country. | |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 08 January 2010 )
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