1992 Canadian Paragliding XC News

The end of June, 1992 brought the first good paragliding flights of the year. Peter MacLaren attempted 100km O & R on June 22. Unfortunately he was unable to gain enough altitude to take his finish photo and landed with 99km - a remarkable flight. Peter then flew 120.19km on June 25 to set a new Official Canadian Record (previous record 108.72km). Glen Derouin of Canmore flew 109km the same day.

In July, Kazuyuki Takahashi was back, this time with a group of 10 pilots who hoped to set records. Two women pilots were in this group. Despite several days of rain which made the road to launch impassable at times, they did get some memorable flights. On July 11, Chris Muller and Fumiya Matsunaga were able to get ahead of a storm and Fumiya flew 104.92km to Windermere. Chris completed his task, a Flight to a Declared Goal, the bridge at Canal Flats in five hours 40 minutes to set a new World and Canadian Flight to Goal Record and a new Canadian Open Distance Record of 146.22km.

On July 16, Yoko Tsuchiya filed for a flight to goal, Mt. Spillimacheen and then flew on to land at Kindersley Creek for 76.97, open distance. This flight would have give Yoko six records, World, Canadian and Japanese Feminine Open Distance (76.97km) and the same categories for Flight to a Declared Goal (57km). The flight took over six hours. However, despite having takeoff, landing and in fight documentation by a Japanese TV crew, the record applications were not acceptable as the electronic barograph used by Yoko failed to print out her flight path. Disappointing! Three other Japanese pilots including Yoko's father flew over 75km the same day. Chris Muller flew to Windermere for 108km.

The Western Canadian Paragliding Championships in early August brought 48 pilots including some US Team Members, to compete and almost as many free flyers. Meet Director, Stewart Midwinter planned an Out & Return Task, but was convinced that the pilots wanted open distance. It was a good call. Six pilots flew over 100km with Chris Muller winning the day with a 119km flight to Fairmont. Stewart was pleased that he had changed the task as he had a 93km flight to Radium.

Severe electrical storms were forecast for day 2 and the day was called, another good decision. Day three a race to Parson was the task. Ten pilots completed the task with Chris Muller winning the day and the meet.

In Alberta, Sean Dougherty flew 27km from tow near Wetaskiwin (the longest flight of the day) and Willi Muller (50 & 10km)and Chris Muller (40km) had XC flights from Cochrane.

Peter MacLaren had several flights at Pemberton, B.C, the last one 16km in September. Due to flying in New Zealand and Australia in the off-season, Peter had amazing statistics for 1992, 34 cross country flights, 1039.50km in Canada for a total of 1298km for the year. One the way, Peter also set Open Distance Records in New Zealand and Australia and placed in the top three in the Australian Nationals and second in the Western Canadians, not a bad year!

Sean Dougherty was not able to spend much time flying in '92 due to finishing his doctorate in astrophysics, but managed another +100km flight in Golden and then spent a week flying the Owens in California. In one flight he managed an Official World Altitude Gain Record plus Canadian Out-of-Country Records for Open Distance,Altitude Gain and Dogleg Open Distance.