Wednesday 22 December 2021

A Record Glider Flight on Monday 20-12-2021

A spectacular gliding flight took place over the country last Monday, 20 December, when the father and daughter team of Terry and Abbey Delore flew their Schleicher ASW 25 M motor glider ZK-GZF from Omarama to Bluff and then all the way North to eventually land at Drury just South of Auckland.  They lifted off from Omarama before 0530 hrs and landed at Drury more than 14 hours later at around 1900 hrs, a distance of about 1,500 kilometres.

Their flight was covered by the media and these spectacular photos were published in Stuff:


Just before landing at Drury. 

The media reported that they intended to fly on to Cape Reinga the next day - do any readers know if this happened?


6 comments:

  1. Apparently not ,according to their FB post WX not suitable following day, glider hangared at Drury ,crew returning to CHC , attempt at later date.

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  2. incredible feat. But is NZ 1500 km ,long?

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  3. Have you taken into account that the flight started in Omarama before heading south to Bluff?

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  4. I think it was done in 81. They went the other way and got as far down as Invercargil. Not sure of the reg but it was yellow.

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  5. I checked Google Maps and I reckon that the 1,500 km includes the distance from Omarama to Bluff plus Bluff to Drury which is about 1,300 km. Then I reckon the distance from Drury to Cape Reinga is another 350 km.

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  6. "unknown" what was done in 81? Please elaborate.

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