On a day with less wind than the world distance record day two
weeks ago, Jonny Durand, flying on his own, set the new world record for a
distance to goal flight. The current record is 517 km (321 miles) set in 2002 by
Pete Lehmann (who was flying at Zapata yesterday) and Mike Barber.

Jonny flew from Zapata launching behind Bobby Bailey at 9:42 AM and was towed
east to help him get around the Laredo airspace. Conditions just to the east of
him were not great, but the sky became filled with cu's up our normal corridor
north west of Uvalde, then west of San Angelo to Sterling City, 40 miles
southeast of Big Spring.

GPS distance back to Zapata is 565 kilometers (350 miles). He was towed a bit
downwind so he might lose 4 kilometers of that.

He landed as he was afraid that his batteries on his instruments were giving
out. You've got to be ready for eleven hour days in Zapata. Radio wasn't working
either, but his two SPOTs were. Timothy was right behind him.