Thank you for all your support

So, did we set a record? No, we just never got the conditions and 125km was the best distance achieved by any of us. Unusual rainfall lowered the cloud base and we never really had the opportunity but as a potential world record breaking area, this place has all of the ingredients. Our final two days, Wednesday and Thursday never really delivered with light winds on Wednesday and Thursday plagued with massive storm development. There were flights on both days but the flights were fairly unremarkable. Despite our bad luck with conditions we felt privileged to to have had the opportunity to experience this remarkable area and are still determined to give it another shot. We are planning a return visit in November for another attempt at breaking records and are looking for 2 new team members. If you have really solid flying skills, are prepared to put up with almost unbearable ground temperatures, unmentionable digestive problems (weall suffered), and lots of discomfort in exchange for a remarkable experience and a shot at a world record, we'd like to hear from you. Since leaving Quimili we've met up with the Flight Culture group and first headed to La Cumbre, about 60 miles from Cordoba in the Sierras de Cordoba. Although this is our 4th night here, yesterday is the onlyday that we've flown, but what a day! We rode horses for an hour and ahalf to take-off before some stunning thermic flying. Some of the group flew for more than 2 hours in quite testing conditions. Today it rained quite heavily and some of us went mountain biking down to the Cuchi landing field and for a swim in the river while the rest went to Los Torrones; a remarkable canyon where we scrambled along the river before climbing up to the canyon rim. Erosion has carved the rocksinto incredible shapes and this is reflected in it's name; Quebrada dela Luna or Canyon of the Moon.

28 Feb.
On our way to the town of Nono to fly the Altas Cumbres. The drive from La Cumbre is takes about 2 hrs and follows the mountains tothe SW. During the Flight Culture trip we will staying in 3 separate areas; La Cumbre, Nono and Merlo and our accommodation is in cottages.We are being hosted by our Argentinean friends Martin (Who was inQuimili) with us), Rodrigo, and Javier who have helped us with organisational logistics. Having locals with us has been great; it's given us a much better understanding of the country and people as well as providing invaluable local flying knowledge.

28 - 4 March.
There are 2 main take-offs above the town of Nono,Alfahores and Micky' and over the 5 days we flew them both. The scenery's very rugged and beautiful and flying conditions ranged from quite light to very strong thermic. Unfortunatly, we were plagued by south winds which made XC flights difficult. The landing field at Nono certainly deserves a mention as it's large, open, and has a terrific little bar, but the best part is the Baño Del Dios (or the "toilet of the gods"). It's a natural rock pool in a small river with a waterfall dropping into it. The rock walls surrounding it are great for jumping off of and the highest point is about 30 ft above the pool.

4 - 8 March.
We went on to Merlo which offered us the highesttake-off, 1100 m above the landing field. Our first 3 days were more south winds but we were in a better position for cross-country flying and we had distances of up to 77 km. The flying was often quite turbulant and we had climbs in excess of 6.5 m/s. Unfortunatly we also had huge cloud development at quite low levels. Friday, the final day, sould have been the best with winds swinging to the NW, but the cloudbase was at take-off height so the best achieved was just under 30Km...

....So, what now?
Well, in early April we'll be running an expedition toBaja where we'll be flying some existing sites as well as developing new ones. Because a lot of Baja is very wild, we'll be using 4 wheeldrives and much of the trip will be wild camping. If you like the idea of cooking our dinner over a campfire and waking in the morning to the sound of coyote's howling, drop us an e-mail as we have 1 place left to fill.We will be back to Argentina in November for another shot at some big flights as well as running a trip next March.We'll keep the blog while in Baja and try to get some photos up as well.

RAIN?!?

After the large high pressure that had limited our flights during the first part of the expedition passed the team were excited about the challenge we faced. We were getting better and better skys and again the team were in the air chasing kms

BUT.....

After 35kms Cat was again forced down due to over development with Niel landing at 27km, he was then picked up and taken back to our accomadation by the local police! very friendly. Both pilots had seen the potential for the day but were happy to have landed without incident, unfortunatly the same could not be said for John and Tom who were flying the tandem. After Cat and Neil got away the wind increased and after an "interesting" time on take off the pair ended up trying to run off the high groud speed they had which for a moment it looked like they might do but as the wind gusted they ended up on the road with bumps and grazes!

John worked extremly hard the next day in what was always going to be difficult conditions, in very technical conditions John and Tom managed to creep down wind adding more distance to the team total. John´s efforts during this flight were acknolaged by the entire team.

The weather again did not want to play as front after front passed though causing a mix of humid cloudy mornings with LARGE thunder storms in the afternoon. Tom flew today but was grounded after a short time due to several storm cells building near by.

As we near the end of our time here the entire team feel lucky to have had the chance to play a part in this expedition, the area has hinted at the potential it holds for cross country flying but it hasn´t come together for us yet. The people have been amazing, always stopping to chat and asking questions about our strange equipment.

Settling In

Friday 15th. Another difficult day, with the surface wind direction continually changing, making take-offs very difficult, as well as having 40-degree surface temperatures to contend with. Neil made an excellent decision and got away early to make 25km before being forced to land by a huge storm development in front of him. The rest of the group had experiences ranging from continual sink on release to some very small and aggressive thermals. The storm development ended the day early, but to be truthful, we were all glad to be out of the heat.
Our north Face clothing really showed its value today. Due to the natureof the terrain (lots of scrub) and the intense UV it is essential to fly in long trousers and sleeves, and in particular we found the North Face base layers exceptional; drawing sweat away from the skin and keeping cool on the ground but providing surprising warmth with the cooler temperatures at altitude. The light weight trousers with zip-off legs are also a big hit - very cool but providing a wind-proof barrier at cloudbase.
Saturday 16th. Today we woke up to a thick layer of stratus but with a forecast for it to clear. By 11am, the first holes began to appear in the clouds, and as we set of at noon, cumulus clouds were beginning to form. A light easterly wind offered us a 200km route following the available roads. Though none of us managed that distance, Martine pushed out 76km, Tom hit 66km, Cat touched down at 55km and Neiled chased hard but landed short of the 50Km mark! Each flight was curtailed by a combination of over-development and very few out-landing options (impenetrable forest as far as the eye could see).

First days

We met at the bus station in Carlos Paz with a mountain of bright yellow North Face kit bags and a correspondingly large heap of Sky glider bags. Somehow (????) we managed to get the whole lot plus all of us into a renault Scenic and headed into the Altas Cumbres mountains for a 3 day warm up.Although the conditions were quite light we were able to make several flights and fine tune our kit.
Tues 12 Feb. We left the mountains at 6 in the evening andf headed for Quimili in the far NE of the country. The drive was long....very, very long. We arrived at 4-30 in the morning but were up and ready to go by 9-30. Wednesday was a blue thermal day with strong, gusty surface conditions and only Neil and Martine got off for quick flights. Neils release was quite spectacular; just after release he fell out of a strong thermal, suffered a big deflation and while trying to recover put his glider into a spin. Neil put his experiance from the Flight Culture SIV trip to Lugano to good use, induced a full stall, recovered and continued to battle with thermals but no real distance was made.
Thurs 14 Feb. Again, the day started blue but we quickly had Cumulus developing and conditions rapidly improved. Although the sky looked good and we were getting 900 m off of the winch, the 1st climb was very difficult with averages of less than 1 m/s. Neil managed 35 km but Martin really excelled with 125 km.

The Team are ready

After all the preparation the Flight Culture Expedition Team will meet in Argentina this Sunday and the latest attempt on the Paragliding Open Distance World Record will begin.

The final team have faced various hurdles along the way including injuries and very tight training schedules but the most commited have come though and we all stand on the start line proud of the attempt we have put together.

The Flight Culture Expedition Team:



John Welch CFI

John is a chief flying instructor (CFI) registered with the British Hang gliding & Paragliding Association (BHPA) & founder of Flight Culture. John began paragliding in 1987 while living in the French Alps and it was in France that he began instructing. Returning to England in 1994 he went on to gain his UK instructor and tandem rating and worked for two schools in the south of England before setting up Flight Culture in 2000.
John is an instructor examiner, serves on the BHPA executive committee as well as being the safety officer for his local club.
In addition to his paragliding qualifications, John is a PADI diving instructor and a qualified First Aid trainer



Tom Hassall

Tom brings a colourful array of experience to the team. His sporting prowess includes representing Great Britain in Kayaking. Tom has flown cross-country at numerous sites throughout Europe, including the UK, Southern Alps, the Pyrenees and the Canaries. After competing in Greece in 2004, Tom quickly established himself as a competitor locally. Tom also instructs for Flight Culture. A professional paramedic, Tom ia also the Team Medic.



Neil McCain

When you've been paragliding, you know why birds sing. That's how I feel about this amazing sport, anyway! I took it up in 1995, after seeing a kids' programme that featured brave souls running off mountain tops under day-glo coloured wings. It seemed that the sport was for adrenaline junkies only then, and I had my fair share o f hair-raising adventures! These days, paragliding has matured into a thrilling sport for everyone, where the safety of the gliders and the quality of the teaching has improved immeasurably.




Cat Hassall

Cat has been a serious snowboarder for many years and recently turned her eyes to the sky. A dedicated and focused individual, Cat brings alot to the team not least her always usefull medical knowledge and ability to stay calm when things get "interesting?!?".


Along side this UK team we will fly with some of Argentinas top pilots.

The team will be keeping this page updated regularly so add us to your fav's page and wish us all luck...

Record attempt in Argentina

In February this year, an extraordinary adventure will take place in Argentina; a group of pilots led by John Welch from Dorset will be attempting a new world distance paragliding record. This type of carefully planned campaign, on this scale, is a new approach to setting a new world distance record.

We've put together a team with advanced para-medic qualifications, specialist electronic knowledge and sport psychology expertise. Of course, all members of the team are exceptional pilots even in world terms. We'll have a chance to take part in something so extraordinary and to change both the way we look at the world around us and how we view ourselves forever.

February is when it all happens. We head north to Quimili, a town situated in the Gran Chaco and one of the hottest areas of South America. This area is magical but in a subtle way. It has a beauty like Arctic wastes or equatorial deserts; the beauty is there but reveals itself slowly; it .... captivates is probably the best description. This amazing area is being systematically destroyed to grow Soya for the US market and a unique bio-culture is being lost yet it still is full of surprises. It is so remote that an entirely new species of mammal was discovered here as recently as the 1970's and I’m not talking about some tiny little nothing; this is big, the size of a dog and it's not even that uncommon, it’s just such a seldom visited area that it’s fauna have been overlooked.

While achieving the goal is so important to us, the journey is almost as big a part. At the end of this there will be 7 people whose lives will be changed forever. At the end we’ll look back at the journey and what we've managed to achieve. The idea of looking back on it is just mind blowing.

We'll put regular updates on this blog so that you’ll be able to follow us on this remarkable journey.