XC News

Last year’s XC League expedition to Caico in Brazil was only an experiment. Andy Flühler was pretty sure that towing is the way to go very far, but there were still many unknown variables as no one else ever tried it in Brazil for record chasing. Finally it proved to be a very successful way to fly very far, as 8 out of 10 of the longest flights have been made from Caico. The Swiss record was increased from 420km to 482km, then to 515km and finally to 533km. Four Swiss are dominating the XContest this year because of their long flights in Brazil.
Because of the big success last year, we decided to go to Caico again! This year the interest of strong XC pilots to go there was much bigger than last year. The selection for the record chasing was done already in spring. Criteria were:
- Potential for a world record (experience, flight skills, mental strength, material)
- Motivation to give everything
- Enough time
- Teamplayer on the ground and in the air
- Mastering the glider launch and landing in strong windconditions!
Because of the limited time in the air of 11 hours maximum and the clear advantage of high performance gliders, only pilots with CCC and D gliders made it to the selection, which was also based on the Swiss Cross Country Cup 2017 ranking. The following pilots were selected:
Kleinman Peter
Steinger Philipp
Erne Christian
Daniel Rissi
Wälti Dominik
Von Känel Patrick
Sigel Michael
Schnider Andi

We are sure that those pilots have the skills and motivation to break the world record! Our next attempt starts on the 5. October and we will have two weeks to reach our goal. Once again we are supported by the team of Fly with Andy. A project like this would not be possible (or at least much harder) without the help of professionals in towing and retrieve. In order to be even more efficient on the take off, Andy bought an additional winch, which allows us to take off with three pilots in the same time.
Pilots will fly again with livetrackers and we will also do a frequent video blog.
Of course it is difficult to break the world record of 564km. We hope that the wind will be strong enough, thermals reliable from early morning until sunset and no overdevelopment. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
More information will be available as soon as we arrive in Brazil.