The flight


Dara Hogan <>
writes:

Australian Team Advance pilot, Enda Murphy, has just broken the
Irish paragliding distance open record with a flight of 140km on his Advance
prototype on 27th July. My son, Eoin, held the previous record with a flight of
61km in 2004 on his Apco Allegra.





Click the picture for a higher resolution version


Enda had been planning to try some distance flying in Ireland with a two week
stay from 14th to 30th July visiting friends and relatives. The weather had been
quite warm and dry in comparison with normal Irish conditions. However, he had
no luck in the first week and a half as the conditions were either too blue and
stable or too windy with low cloud base to make any real attempt. Eoin was
quietly hoping that the weather wouldn’t change before Enda had to fly back to
Australia!


Luckily for Enda, conditions on Thursday at last allowed a great declared goal
flight of 138km from near Dungarvan, County Waterford to near Brittas, County
Dublin and an open distance record of 140km. Enda told me that he only landed
because he was at the edge of the Dublin CTA.


Enda’s flight more than doubled Eoin’s paragliding record and has also eclipsed
the existing hang gliding record of 132km which was set earlier this summer by
Geoff McMahon. Enda’s record is all the more creditable given the vagaries of
the Irish weather and the Atlantic influence which makes our neighbouring
island, the UK, much more amenable to distance flying.


Many congrats to Enda from all his friends in IHPA and commiserations to Eoin
(and Geoff)! Geoff’s record stands, of course, but it’s not nice being beaten by
a floppy – is it?