Just watched this again, bloody awesome Jonny. I am 80 next March, I learned to fly when I was 45. I was on Tambourine Mountain the day Jonny did his very first high glide, I think he was about 15 at the time. Also I was on the training hill at the same time as Jonny’s father, John snr. John was a bit more advanced than me, he was doing S turns down the training hill. I was very impressed at the time. Wonderful memories and fantastic flying for 23 years for me. John snr was a fantastic pilot and what Jonny has accomplished is simply amazing. Jonny and his father are both great blokes and giants of the hang gliding world. His mother Judy is also a beautiful person . Incidentally, Jonny once flew from Beachmont in the Gold Coast hinterland to outback Roma , and another time from Beachmont and landed on the beach in Byron Bay, a tough flight because thermals are few and far between on the coast . Best wishes, and thanks for the memories, Murray Charters 44766.
I just find it amazing how many people were wondering about pissing or shitting. I couldn't give a flying fuck if I was pissing and shitting in my suit if I am the new world record holder.
Congrats!!!! I used to live in Lubbock too. i always belived in thr air there. I thought Hanggliding mag did a real dis-service to Mike Barber and the sport by not publishing his pictures of his record whatever the quality. But you two did wonderful and it puts a big smile on this old timers face. I mean ...WOW!
Wow, what an amazing achievement! I have just quit hang-gliding after over 40 years and 3000+hrs flying without injury. Aerobatic gliding with a B4 is fun now.
Congratulations Jonny Great, super performance from you two pilots. Here in the Alps would not be possible. Greetings from the small country of Liechtenstein. Toni Mähr
Way to go Jonny, you truly are a modern day legend. Thank you so much for taking us all along on your journey. Finally the public can start to get an idea of the joy we get from free flying flying, using nothing but our brains and some Dacron and Aluminium. :-)
Generally not needed as many here have said, but the cocoon harness unzips down the middle for landing so it is possible to go in the air on the rare occasion needed (for men at least).
Dude, I love your positivity, your happiness, your joie de vivre, the pleasure you take in sharing such an awesome experience with your bro. I hope I get to share the air with you someday.
Flew 30 miles in Owens Valley with Jerry Katz the day he set the record in 1977. I was the first to fly Cerro Gordo Peak in the Owens Valley and never could have imaged what you have just accomplished would be possible in the eary days. I met you at the florida ridge this year and have gotten back into the sport after 34 years. Looking forward to breaking my own record soon on my U2. My hats off to the both of you. Scott Turner(#212 hang 4)
75% of Australia is desert. Populations are usually on coastal fringes. It's actually regarded as the biggest Island in the world, but we only have a population of about 24 million.
Great effort. But Red Bull has a tarnished name. Every time I see that logo I think back to the a case in Thailand where a policeman was dragged and killed by heir to Red Bull and never even prosecuted. A case of affluenza.
A fine accomplishment. I pained me to watch you fly below maximum efficiency for 30 snapshots of messing with the camcorder button, especially on that final glide when nearly all the lift was gone. You might've ercked out another 3 or 4 km needed to get the 'real' official new WR distance if you could've been hitting a toggle button, on & off, right where the bar mitt goes. Too bad red bull's too cheap to supply you with such a wire. Just as heroic here was the hangVan driver. Hats off to him.
I hope it is a serious question :p He is flying in circle because he want to lift. Thermal bubble or current are not very wide so if you want to go up you have to stay in the bubble, so you have to turn around the centre of the bubble till it is not lifting any more, then you do a transition to another bubble and so on.
That's called thermalling. To gain altitude or stay up, you find a rising column of air and circle in it. The lift takes you up, so you can go for distance. More altitude means more distance. Takes a lot of circling to go 760 kms!
Except the obvious, there is another way to pee. Divers do it, cliffhangers do it, etc. Its an external catheter connected with a tube to a plastic bag. Im not sure if its Ok to have it on you for 11 hours, though!
Hang gliders have a top speed over 50 mph. If winds are that strong it is likely from a storm nearby, and it is time too land quickly. Otherwise in distance flying the pilots fly downwind and use the tailwind to push them further distances.
All i can say is nice job...didnt come to youtube to watch this, but ended up here after watching fsx videos. cant believe I watched the whole video as well, cause this is not my thing, but still nice video and nice commentating it...
Outstanding! Well done to you both. There should have been champaign and scantly clad women to greet you, but never-mind. Break it again, and I'll make sure you get the bubbly!
WOW 11 hours... amazing! What was the Pilots name in the Video? I heard him call out Dustin Martin (I think) but no mention of the actual pilots name setting the record. Perhaps I just missed it.
750 kilometers, damn it. I'd like to ask the professionals who are here! That being so many kilometers it will take several hours. How do you do about physiological needs?
Amazing,everyone should learn how to do it & every town should have a natural or man made starting point , imagine being able to travel nearly 500 miles with no fuel , maybe hang-gliders could be mass produced & used in a way that could really benefit human-kind , i'm just a dumb bloke but if some of our best & brightest were tasked with finding ways that gliders could help us - i reckon some brilliant ideas would come up - maybe for distribution of food/meds or a legion of gliders looking out for forest fires or poachers , could even get a bit futuristic & have solar panel wings - guessing we haven't got the tech for making solar panels lite enough yet though but would be cool if a glider could be powered or charged by solar enough to take off like a microlight
How is the distance measured? Are they flying across country, and measuring the distance from their start point to their landing point" Or are they flying circles chasing thermals and letting a GPS figure their distance? If it's the second method, I'm not as impressed.
hans werner Thanks. I wish they had shown a map of their route. I'm happy to support a great achievement, but it's hard if you don't know what they did.
+knyammyknyockers No... Most people take off and land in fields. If you get tow launched the plane that tows you might, but you have to fly in low level airspace anyway as you don't have to have a pilots license to fly a hang-glider.
Without ridge riding in the early seventies, this flight would not have been possible. If you were there, and added to the knowledge base, this is your achievement too.
Jonny well done! The scenery is very similar to South Africa. As you probably know we currently hold the world distance record on a paraglider. Your video inspired me to create more XC videos. There are FAR too many accidents and crash videos on RU-vid! No, my flights are not as long as yours BUT I fly a lot and that is my trade off! Have a look at my FB page: "SA Paragliding Diary" and tell me what you think. Thanks
