http://records.fai.org/hang_gliding/current.asp?id1=o-1&id2=1

George Stebbins () writes:

On Thursday, July 5th, I flew 206.6 miles out-and-return from Walt's Point in the Owens Valley. (Turn points were 103.8 miles apart.) Task time 6:55. Flight time: 7:54. Launch at 10:25 am. This beats the old record set by Rohan Holtkamp in December, 1998 on the cliffs at the Australian bite (Ecula) by 1.8 kilometers (the minimum distance requirement is 1 km greater than the previous record).

Air time: 7:54
Task time: 6:55

Launch at: 10:25 am at Walt's Point
Task start: 11:10 am SE of Walt's Point over the edge of the Owens Lake
Turnpoint : 2:24 pm West of Janies and North of Boundary Peak
Task done: 6:05 pm Same location as start
Landed at : 6:19 a bit north of the start point. (The LZ was better there.)

I overlaid Rohan's record flight into the terrain in the Owens and saw that there was room to beat the record, but not too much room. The big problem is the strong south wind that happens almost every afternoon in the Owens. The final glide would be across ten miles of dry lake, into a crossing headwind of some strength.

To make the task longer, I would either have to do a longer final glide or at the north end of the task, go farther away from the White mountains. Usually getting back to the Whites from that far north is kind of iffy. So, rather than do the 210-215 miles that I thought might be possible, I took the "easy" way out and set the flight plan to the minimum necessary to break the record with a tiny bit to spare.

I assumed no lift north of the Whites and none after I left the Inyos on final glide into the (almost) certain headwind. I also wanted the turnpoint to be in Nevada, so I moved it a quarter mile. Silly of me, but it just seemed more fun that way.

I was surprised to find that I arrived with 3200 feet AGL at the goal. I expected to get there with about 1000'. I guess I could have made the flight a bit longer. Oh well. Maybe next time. Of course, landing a hundred feet short would have really sucked.

Bless Dr. Jack. I was able to cherry-pick the day and only made three trips to the Owens to get the record. And only three flights.

One report states:

You gotta hand it to him. He hung in there even after nearly being tumbled at Black.

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