Jonny Durand has set a new hang-gliding record, flying almost 800km in a hang glider across Texas at an average speed of 69km per hour.
After several false starts, Durand and Dustin Martin set out from Zapata overnight with a host of record-seekers as part of the annual World Record Encampment. In plain English, that's a heap of dudes who travel together to glide the famous winds and set records. And on Thursday morning, when most humans in Australia were fast asleep or ordering late-night kebabs, the pair set down some 761km away in Lubbock – the equivalent to flying from Wollongong to Melbourne.
It's an annual summer pilgrimage to Texas, where days are longer than Kim Kardashian’s marriage, and Durand set off to take advantage of powerful winds and emerged triumphant. Sort of...
Having smashed Manfred Ruhmer’s decade-long record of 700km, Jonny and Dusty were wing tip to wing tip in the final glide as the sun fell over Texas, Jonny landed in the dark at 9.02pm to set a new world record, only for Dusty to edge out a couple of extra miles after having managed to climb to some 10,000 feet in the air. Ruhmer congratulated the pair on Facebook before Jonny could even shake himself free of his glider.
The pair spent 11 hours in the air and one can only feel for the ground-dwellers who were unfortunate enough to be minding their own business walking beneath the duo throughout the day. You know what we mean...
Anywho, the big guy is yet to phone home. So stay tuned.
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