Oggy <<oggy>> writes:

Stefan Ivanov is a hang gliding and paragliding pilot from Varna.
Last year I sold him a Combat 13.5 GT, which brought him back to hang gliding
after years of paragliding. In 2017 he managed one 125 km out and return flight
from his 200 meter home site: Nevsha hill. He also got another 60 km triangle in
the area and a 180 km to south Bulgaria.

The other day he flew an unofficial Bulgarian hang gliding  record.

Wind at launch was a bit too strong for paraglider pilots, Stefan launched at
12.40 and made it up to cloud base before gliding over the Balkan mountain
ridge. Well over Tracia he assessed very good cumulus formation over the
Rhodopes mountains and on the way to Greece. Not having organized retrieval he
decided to glide west towards Sopot launch. He got close to controlled airspace
of Graf Ignatievo military air base and waited until 17.00 when activities there
stopped. He glided through and after 6 hours in the air landed close to mineral
water resort Hisaria.

He was “anchored” on the ground as he put it, without a pick up car. Once on the
phone he got hold of the other Varna Combat GT pilot Vesko. He was driving from
Sofia to Varna and managed to find Stefan for pick up. What a coincidence!

Vesko last year flew a 160 km cross country flight from Nevsha launch in only
two hours. Stefan achieved a straight line distance of 226.4 km and OLC 265.4
km. This flight is the longest flown in Bulgaria since Anton Antonov 152 km out
and return flight back in 1987. Congratulations for a fantastic achievement.

http://forum.skynomad.net/leonardo/flight/26449