11 April 2017
Some incredible glider flights were recorded in Scotland last week, the British Gliding Association has reported. On 5 April John Williams took off in his Antares self-launching glider from Portmoak en route to a remote start at Killin aiming to do a quick 500km before lunch.
With plenty of time left and having ‘only’ managed a speed of 134.6km/h, he decided to give the 516.3km task another go, with an average speed of 184.8km/h this time. As he came to the end of lap 2, conditions were still excellent so John felt compelled to go round for a third lap.
Conditions slowed down a bit third time round resulting in a speed just slightly slower than lap 2 at 174.4km/h. It’s almost certainly the longest flight ever recorded in the UK, but unfortunately no records.
Sant Cervantes did a double 500km, also from Portmoak. Unlike John, who was able to take an early start using his engine, Sant had to wait until 9am to take a winch launch, but was still able to complete his 504.8km task twice. What makes Sant’s flight more remarkable is that he did this in a Discus – probably the first UK 1,000km flight in a standard class glider.
Tony Spirling and Roy Wilson also did 500km flights from Portmoak and Aboyne respectively. There were also five 10,000ft+ climbs in Scotland as well, including one of 17,936ft by Pete Startup out of Portmoak. Full details are on the BGA Ladder which records flights.
