I am not sure if I got a message directly from Davis Straub or if I read it on one of his Oz Reports, the point is, that I heard about Davis, David Glover and Gary Osoba organizing this trip to Texas to try and break some world records after last year's successful attempt. The expedition was called (same as last year) "World Record Encampment (WRE)". David Glover provided us with all the necessary information regarding the local rules (i.e. CTR, areas with difficult access…) and Gary Osoba was very helpful especially because of his extensive knowledge of the weather in this area. I was immediately interested by the idea but was not very sure if I was going to take part in it or not. They scheduled 2 trips: the first one overlapped with the Worlds/WAG in Spain and the second one started about a week after that comp and lasted for 2 weeks. I was sure that if we were lucky enough to have good weather, we would have been able to make some excellent flights during the 2 weeks.

    Our group was not really big: we were around 15 pilots including paragliders, rigid and flex wings. Most of them were from the US, plus Andre Wolf and Betinho Schmitz from Brazil, and Kathleen Rigg and myself as the only Europeans. Apparently Davis' messages did not get many pilots from this side of the globe interested; but somehow I feel that, after the great flights we had, it is going to change. Kathleen rang me up in mid-May to ask if I was going and if other Austrians were going too. Since it was just the 2 of us we decided to go together; she organized the plane tickets and everything. During the Worlds we got the news of Mark Poustinchian breaking the Class II Open Distance Record. At the beginning we heard it was 630 km (391 miles); some days later they confirmed 590 km (367 miles). I recall talking with Andre Wolf about it about how it must be incredible to fly so far and for so long. We come to the conclusion that it was definitely something to try out. At that time I felt really glad that I had signed up for it.

    Right after the Worlds I did not go back home (Italy) but instead I drove to England with Kathleen. We departed from London on July 4^th with a direct flight to Houston. We picked up a rental car at the airport and drove for 7 hours to Zapata. During our drive we were able to see from the cloud formation - nice cumulus - that the place would be pretty good; it was not hard to imagine flying long distances in the area.

    When we got to Zapata we went to our hotel and thought it would be a good time to rest; but soon we heard from Davis that the next day could be good. I felt like I had no time to reassemble my glider (it was short packed) and get everything ready on time…I felt stressed at that point. Luckily the day, and the following ones, were not as good as we thought and we had some time to acclimatize; it took me some days to get over my jet lag (7 hours difference), to get used to the conditions there, to prepare all my equipment and to get to know all the rules and information regarding CTR, special roads, boarders... etc. It was definitely important that I had some time before we started flying really long.

    We had an excellent retrieve driver, Don from Canada. Even though he had practically never seen a hang glider in his life before, he ended up working for both 2001 WRE's doing an excellent job. He was not only very nice and enthusiastic but he already knew the roads, the little towns and the secrets of the area, which was just great for us!

THE AREA
    Why is Zapata an ideal place for such flights? Well, it is a small city located very close to the US-Mexican border, south from Laredo - the largest city in the area -. The wind direction is practically constant between S and SE and the strength varying from one day to another but being constant throughout the same day. This last characteristic is very important when flying long distances.

    It is close enough to the Gulf of Mexico, which provides sufficient humidity for early thermal development and cloud formation. This gives you the possibility to take off quite early, which is one of the greatest advantages of this area. Even though you do not have much height to play around with, this thermal activity allows you to stay up. Moreover, as the day goes by cloud base rises.

    The area around take-off is flat and lies between 150-250 m asl; 350 km north of take-off there is a hill area that runs across Texas and is approx. 100 km long, the area after the hills is flat again and lies at roughly at 700 m asl. You could say that there are places to land everywhere but the retrieve is the tricky thing there. If you land in the middle of nowhere, it can take you a long time to get out, which is a good reason to consider such places not suitable for landing. Some other fields have access to them but with lots of locked and unlocked gates to go through that make it a real hassle to get in/out of such places. Landing in a field some kilometers after take-off can mean a long-lasting retrieve. The first part of the flight is always the hardest because you have to use every meter of lift you encounter in order to stay high and make it past this initial area.

    The day I flew the record was not the best day Texas has to offer. I am sure that if you have the opportunity to stay there for 2 months you could encounter a terrific day. If you have more tailwind, an earlier take off and make no mistakes I think it is possible to fly further than I did - maybe even 800 km!

THE TRAINING DAYS
    The first days, I noticed that some pilots would tow as early as 8:30 or 9:00 am, up to 2000 m asl well over cloud base (around 1,000 m asl).

The forecast for the next day - July 16^th - was quite good with better thermals and slightly stronger wind. On this day I felt that I could go for it. The first part of the flight went fast and pretty well but after maybe 200 km the air became drier and the cumulus formation stopped so that at 15:00 I encountered my last cumulus of the day. I did not know what to do because I had flown quite far and I knew there were still plenty of time, thermal activity and sunlight left so it did look like a record day. I flew further into the blue gap, there were blue thermals here and there; this type of thermals are not really suited for distance record flying. When you are not able to 'see' the next thermal, actually imagine where it would be according to the cloud above it, you tend to fly less aggressively and not as fast. You are not able to have such a clear idea of the path you will follow. At least, this is how it works for me.

    I decided to land at 15:30, after 41 hours, close to the main road. Half an hour later, the clouds started forming again and I heard of a pilot flying past me. I thought "Scheisse, maybe today was THE day and I am stuck down here!".

    This ended up being the best decision because if I would have really flown fast, and maybe broken the record for some kilometers, I could have not been back at the hotel on time to be ready and 'fresh' for the next day, THE day.

JULY 17^TH 2001
    This day looked really good already at 8:30 am and the pilots were all ready to go. Mark Poustinchian and Davis Straub were the first ones to start on a double tow, Paris Williams and I were next, just before 10:00. Most of the other pilots, who on the previous days started early and generally landed early too, this time were smart to wait. To take off at towards 10 am was the first right decision of the day.

    We released at cloud base (1,000 m asl), not a high tow since according to the rules we could have towed up to 2,000 agl. There was a queue of pilots and the conditions were good so we released low. We encountered thermals of 1-1.5 m/s and were able to advance without having to circle that much hoping from one little cu' to the next. The first 30 km were effortless, we were thermalling quite nicely, constantly re-centering the thermals' core and therefore having the best climb possible. We then came to a blue gap (25-30 km long) and on the other side we could already see cloud formation. I told Paris that we should slow down and make sure we could go past it. The thermals in this gap were weaker and not as good as the ones we had before and the ones we came across during the rest of the flight.

    Later on I heard that Davis Straub had had a problem with his zipper, he was forced to land and tow up again later. Mark Poustinchian, who was on his way early and on his own, had not gotten too far; he landed shortly before Laredo. So Paris and I were in the 'leading gaggle'. We got to Laredo after 11 hours - approx. 60 km from take-off - with no problems and properly avoided the CTR. Cloud base was already at 1,200-1,300 m asl, the thermals around 2-3 m/s and 20-25 km/h tailwind.

    At some point I just told Paris that we had to forget about the roads and the possible landing fields below us and just fly towards the places with the best clouds and cloud street formation. So we flew a little towards the west and after a while we had to fly back towards the East because the best clouds where there.

    After a while - 100 km -, Paris made a little mistake or maybe was just unlucky. He flew to the west towards a cloud that seemed to be working pretty well but unfortunately it was not. I flew even more to the left looking for the lift and found it at roughly 100-200 m past Paris' unlucky cloud; it was a decent 2 m/s. He ended up having a very long glide while I was able to stay in a better course line. After this thermal I stayed on the right side because I saw him sinking a lot, and with my extra height I was able to get to the next thermal and climb faster. Paris came to the thermal much lower andhad to look for it for a while, he finally got it but after not too long he was one - strong - thermal behind me. It was a pity because we had planned to fly together and in this type of situation having someone to fly with is definitely helpful. Paris is an excellent pilot who makes very good decisions and whose flying style is similar to mine, I think he climbs fast and efficiently and glides very well. It was a real pity that he stayed behind.

    I thought to continue going because maybe I would make a mistake and he could catch up with me again. Unfortunately he had a problem with his VG. He had made some adjustments but the rope was not long enough so at the beginning of the flight, as he released it, it went into his downtube and he could not get it out. Actually, he flew most of the time with no VG at all! He thought of landing a thousand times but kept going, it was great because he still broke Larry Tudor's old record with no VG! This was a great performance because when you fly over 50 km/h with no VG you have so much bar pressure that it is unbearable, not to talk about the lower performance of the glider in the transition between thermals.

    I continued the flight on my own making sure of never getting low, sipping out of my Camelback here and there, munching on my müsli bars and properly concentrating. It was a very pleasant flight and I did not encounter many problems in the air. The biggest problem that day was coming in low to a thermal because it was often hard to locate its core and a constant lift due to the strong wind. I was able to stay concentrated throughout the flight and ensure taking the proper decisions. The conditions kept getting better and better with big, steady thermals of 3-4 m/s. I was flying between them at an airspeed of 60-70 km/h plus 25-30 km/h tailwind.

    I reached the hill country after 350 km and for quite a while I knew that if I were to land there retrieve would have been very, very tricky. Luckily it was not really a problem since I never got low enough to have to worry about it. At approx. 500 km I made a small mistake. Instead of flying to the nearest working cloud, which was a little to the left of my course line I decided to keep flying straight, through a blue gap, towards a cloud on the other side. When I got there it was not working anymore and I had to continue gliding until I reached the next thermal. This was the only time that I was really low (400 m agl).

    When I passed the 500 km mark, between 17:00 and 17:30, I knew I still had a couple of hours of daylight and thermal activity, until approx. 20:30. I also knew that if I would make the best out of them I could break the 400 mile barrier (640 km) that the US pilots, and especially Davis Straub, kept dreaming of. I had to maintain my concentration and make no mistakes.

    The conditions had improved even more with 4-5 m/s thermals (I had a 6 m/s integrated lift recorded on my vario as best climb) and 30-35 km/h tailwind so I was pretty much 'hanging in loose' there. When I passed the 400 miles barrier - at 19:50 - and switched my vario back to km (approx. 650 km) I immediately thought it could be possible to reach the 700 km mark. The GPS showed sunset time at 20:50 so there was still time. Even though the lift would not be very strong it would definitely be enough since around 19:00 I was still climbing at 4 m/s. I started flying faster and this is when I made the biggest mistake of the whole flight: I landed too early, I could have flown a little further.

THE EQUIPMENT
    The glider I flew for the WRE was the same I had in Spain for the Worlds/WAG. I only took the carbon insert out of the leading edge because it would give me a better handling. I knew it was important for me to fly on an 'energy-saving mode' because I had to make sure to be able to stay in the air for a long period of time. Since the insert only works at very high speeds and I knew I would not be flying that faster than 70 km/h, I just removed it. My glider could not have been better.

    I did not fly the same harness I had in Spain. I used my previous MR Tenax which had a parachute on one side and pockets on the other one (as most harnesses do). It was a bit more loose-fitting and I had more space for things like müsli bars and water.

    I flew with my IQ Bräuninger and a 12 Map GPS. It was never cold, not even at cloud base so I was flying with a t-shirt and my speedarms all the time.

10½ HOURS
    It seemed incredible that I was not tired after such a long flight. I thought it was just the excitement and that I would be practically knocked out the next day; but I still felt pretty o.k. the next morning.

    Previous to this day my longest flight had been of 6 hours; in a competition an average task is completed in 3-4 hours. The training flights and the first week flying were crucial given that I was able to progressively increase the duration of my flights.

    I also modified my flying style. In a competition I fly most of the time with the VG-on or 3 of it on. I regularly thermal with the VG partially on and this takes a lot more of energy and work. In Texas I did it the conventional way: VG on only for the transitions. In the past, I have been more tired after a hard competition flight of 4 hours than after these 10½ hours. I was pretty much relaxed throughout the entire flight.

    Lots of water. I made sure to drink enough throughout the flight. I also ate the 4 müsli bars in flight, it was the first time ever that I ate in the air; but I knew it was important to keep my energy levels high. Since it was important for me to be relaxed but at the same time concentrated at all times, I did not let anything perturb me and therefore, I 'went to the toilet' 3 or 4 times.

    Another very important thing was motivation; this is what really kept me going.

SOME VALUES
    Average climb throughout the flight was 3 m/s, strongest thermal 6 m/s. Highest altitude 2994 m asl. Total altitude gain 34879 m in about 60 thermals.

    I think it is interesting as well to see how I increased my speed with the day's development:

From 0-100 miles: 3 hours
From 100-200 miles: 21 hours
From 200-300 miles: 2 hours 15 minutes
From 300-400 miles: 2 hours 5 minutes

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