It´s been 31 days since we´ve gotten to Quixadá and the world record mark seems more distant every day that passes without it being achieved. Our confidence is shattered and the psychological pressure of having spent so much time in search of a goal is beginning to be felt. There are only a few days left and our motivation is at a low. The current situation is not the most comfortable either as many pilots are now copying our strategy of taking off very early and surviving during the morning hours. After all, it would be a disaster to have a foreign pilot breaking the record after we´ve spent so much time and effort on it. The most important thing now is to try and ignore all the pressure and focus on our own competence.

I´ve given up on my habit to open the curtains in the early morning to check the sky. I´d rather not have any opinion on the flying conditions until I reach the Tabosa plateau (km 120). On the way up to launch, there is a dense layer of moisture blocking the sunlight. Some pilots even laugh as we prepare the gear for take-off. The scenario indicates a probable landing after the first glide.

Our strategy is to fly together in order to raise our average speed. The question is whether we will manage it, as flying 10 hours in close formation is easier said than done. We take off at 7:20 with some other pilots. Many others who think it is not worth the try stay on the ground waiting for conditions to improve.

Right at the start of the flight, our strategy of flying together fails. I leave the take-off thermal in the company of Ceará and André Modelo, while Frank and Ceceú opt to wait a little longer before departing. My first glide is disastrous, my second thermal hardly kicks off, and I find myself alone, at a critical height (150 AGL) and in shade, at km 15. It´s 8:00 and one wrong decision would be enough to put me on the ground. Somehow I manage to survive and get back to the flight.

Cecéu and Frank have left the ramp in a complicated situation as well. They are forced to cross an extensive area shaded by the stratus. They manage to survive by flying over the rocks directly behind launch. Meanwhile, André and Ceará have chosen a route a little more to the right, which has paid off as they manage to reach a sunny area with nicely formed clouds. They are now already about 10 kms ahead of us. I feel anxious but try to keep the focus as there are still 9 hours of flying ahead of us.

Frank and Cecéu are about 5kms behind me and for a moment I think we are about to join forces. Wrong. As it´s early and cycles are too fast I´m unable to wait for them and I am forced to push ahead on my own and wait for a better opportunity to join them.

Before getting to Madalena, we almost manage to join the group but as my line is working better, I am forced yet again to push ahead on my own. Frank and Cecéu choose a complicated line, which has them with a rope around their necks all the way to the Tabosa plateau. This is the sum up of the first portion of the flight: a very complicated scenario, with stratified clouds (middle layers) filtering the already weak morning sun; a dismantled group, with Cecéu and Frank failing to reach me, and myself in turn unable to wait for them, flying alone and risking a premature landing; André and Ceará with a 10km advantage over us; and, finally, a certainty that if we managed to survive it would be a day for more than 400 kms. But we have a problem: a pair of extremely competent and capable pilots flying together ahead of us. That means we have been delayed.

For a moment I am confused as I strive to shorten my distance to André and Ceará and at the same time join forces with Cecéu and Frank. I try to control my anxiety and focus on my real situation: racing alone would be to great a risk and even if I manage to reach the leading pilots I doubt I´ll be able to influence their decisions on my own. My idea is to try to delay them in order to give more time to Cecéu and Frank, a conservative decision which will prove vital to our group.

As I reach the Tabosa plateau, I sense an opportunity to wait for Frank and Cecéu and hence I briefly slow down. I start turning in a weak bubble so as to delineate the line of disturbance and allow my partners to make the transition towards me faster and lower. At km 110 we are finally together. A world record is now in the process of being built.

Meanwhile, André and Ceará have already passed the mountains of Tabosa and quickly advance over the plains of Nova Russas with a considerable lead. We stroll along the plateau at 700m AGL. As we are leaving the Tabosa plateau, I find a strong core which places me about 400m above Cecéu and Frank. I decide to glide in the direction of André in order to pressure him to abandon his thermal before reaching base. The strategy works well: André leaves his thermal in order to maintain the lead. I manage to reach the same thermal and at the same time mark it for my partners.

The idea of flying together is key and we know it will benefit us if we manage to make it a reality. An indication of the difficulty of flying in group is the fact that André and Ceará are forced to separate right after the Tabosa plateau as Ceará takes a risky decision and gets low over the plains, allowing us to pass him. Ceará would then opt for a racing strategy to try and catch up with us. He ends up being over-confident about the flying conditions and takes excessive risks, which causes him to land at 11:00 near Nova Russas. Our trio is now managing to advance at record pace even though our timing of the cycles is not perfect.

André is flying really well and his timing of thermal cycles is almost perfect. We in turn lag about 10 kms behind without being able to reach him. Our pace is reasonably good in the leg Nova Russas (km 175) - PedroII (km 270). We search for the thermals efficiently and in a friendly and helpful manner. The group spirit about which we talked so often has finally become a reality. We are now one body, and a decision at Pedro II will confirm this.

As we reach Pedro II, we find ourselves in a difficult situation and under heavy pressure. It´s 14:20 and we´re only at 500m AGL, a critical height for this time of the day. We turn in weak lift but as we´re racing against the clock I feel we need to push ahead. After all the purpose of the group is neither to win the competition nor to log another 300km flight. I decide to make an aggressive move in order to try to help the group. As I announce over the radio my intention to try to reach a cloud in the distance, the response from my partners is sensational: “If one goes, everyone goes. It´s record or hitting the dirt!”.

Our destination is a large and well-formed cloud sitting over a small lake past Pedro II. As we head there, I think to myself that our skills of cloud analysis cannot fail at this very special moment for Brazil´s free flight, in which three local pilots have a unique opportunity to break the world record. It´s 14:30, we have almost 300 kms in our pockets, three hours to go and a little less than 150kms for the record.

Our greatest fear now is to reach the cloud after the cycle has died down. We cross the lake and find nothing. As it turns out we have made a mistake of navigation, which luckily can still be overcome. We use the so-called “angle of despair”, turning 90 degrees in relation to the main wind axis so as to try and find a different line of disturbance. The theory works. As we turn to the right we find a more active line and after struggling for a few moments we finally hit a core of 3m/s. Soon we have reached a comfortable height that allows us to move on.

We make a small transition to the next cloud and at last we manage to reach the cycle at its best. We are now at a privileged position. It´s 14:40, we´re at cloudbase and a few kilometres before Piripiri (315km). The record now seems perfectly achievable and we are anxious to break it.

While making the transition to Piripiri, we see André very low trying to survive just before the town. As it turns out, he has made a fatal mistake and ends up landing. Though we knew that flying in group we would catch up with him sooner or later, we were relieved as now everything would only depend on us.

The scenario ahead is not the best. Even though we are used to dealing with cirrus and other adversities towards the end of the flight, for a moment the sky looks awful, very humid and with stratified clouds in the lower and medium layers. The transition to Barras (km 375) is well studied and we get to the town a few minutes before 16:00. We still have 1h45 of flying before sunset, which according to the GPS is at 17:43. In order to get the record ratified, we must comply with local rules of aviation, and in Brazil all aircraft without adequate instruments for navigation at night must land at sunset.

From Barras onwards, we make an effort to take quick and strategic decisions to position us well in the final moments of the flight. The biggest challenge now is to control anxiety and to maintain the average speed, which is arguably the most important factor to achieve the goal in time. The biggest problem of flying the entire day is to be able to adapt to the different times. In the morning, there´s no need to hurry and take risks as you could easily end up hitting the dirt. From 11:00 onwards the flying conditions begin to improve and become more reliable, allowing for a more aggressive and constant displacement. In the late afternoon, usually the pilot has gotten used to a fast pace achieved during the strongest hours of the day and risks landing if he´s unable to realize the moments when changing gear is required. Aggressive pilots may even have the luck to be able to fit perfectly in the afternoon cycles, but I believe it is very difficult not to make any mistake under such circumstances.

This transition from the middle to the end of the afternoon can be compared with arriving home after a long car journey. The driver enters an urban area at road speed, while being relaxed because of the fact that he´s close to home and lacking concentration because of tiredness. Many accidents occur in these circumstances. So it is always important to keep the concentration and focus until the very end, because a small error can cost dearly. I learned that during two previous flights I had done in October, when I let my emotions take over causing me to land twice just short of the 400-km mark.

As we pass Barras, we make what is probably the wisest decision of the entire flight, gliding nearly 90 degrees to the right towards a line of disturbance directly above a sequence of fires. The cloud we aim at doesn´t work well and we are forced to circle in 1,5 m/s lift in order to reach the height necessary to glide safely to the next fire. At 16:30, with 1h25 left, we cross the 400km barrier. With only 23km to beat the record, a slight euphoria kicks in. Marcelo Prieto (Cecéu) congratulates me over the radio on making it to the exclusive group of pilots who have flown more than 400 kms. However, we still needed one final move to win the game. One more thermal.

The glide after km 400 is tense. While Frank is already celebrating the record, Cecéu and I try to stay cool and sceptical. The "go to" in our GPS has been the town of Miguel Alves - PI (km 455) since the beginning of the flight and after all that we´ve gone through we are only 40 kms away from our goal and 10kms short of the world record mark. It´s time to ensure that we achieve our end.

We choose to align with another sequence of fires as we think it´s almost impossible not to find anything there. Our instinct has worked very well during the whole flight and it won´t be different now. We find an excellent core that takes us back to 2000 m AGL. The world record has now fallen and we try to keep our emotions under control so as to fly the remaining 30 kms that separate us from Miguel Alves.

One of the highlights of the flight is undoubtedly the arrival at the Parnaíba river, the border between the states of Piauí and Maranhão. It´s an emotive moment as we make our final glide towards the river. We have been longing for this flight for so much time now and our dream has finally come true, as we glide to the river at km 445. We get to it at 200m AGL and find consistent bubbles above a fire. It´s definitely a moment of contemplation. After so many attempts, commitment and dedication, we are 100% satisfied.

After more than 10 hours of a heightened state of attention and adrenaline, it´s the first moment I´m able to relax and think about other stuff. As I look back to my trajectory in paragliding, I am deeply thankful to all those who have taught me. I think of André Fleury, who would certainly be with us now if he had fully recovered from last year´s accident. There is no doubt that a world record has been achieved in Brazil above all because of the efforts of André Fleury and Marcelo Prieto, who for many years devoted their time and energy to gather knowledge about the peculiarities of free flying in this region. This has certainly meant a breach of a paradigm, because no one ever thought it would be possible to take off so early in the Brazilian Northeast. The flying window has been stretched to more than ten hours. Add to that strong winds and perfect meteorological conditions.

While gliding, I look at Cecéu with deep admiration and give thanks for having been blessed to have him as a teacher and friend. I know this moment is as special for him as it is for me. Not simply because a world record has been broken but also for being rewarded in grand style after so much searching and perseverance. These have been long days away from home, taking criticism, jealousy and pressure. And to be able to think that it was not in vain… The strict “army” regime that we imposed on ourselves to keep our discipline has finally brought fruits.

At 17:25, we are still climbing at 2m/s towards base over the Paranaiba river and there remains little time for us to land. It´s against my principles not to observe certain rules of safety, but after sunset one has at least another 15 minutes to land safely before it gets dark. If I were not flying under these circumstances, I would certainly use every minute of daylight to fly further. But we decide to leave a last thermal which would have taken us to the 500km-mark so as to guarantee the ratification of the record. Fair enough.

The vegetation of Maranhão is humid and green, with tall coconut trees that greatly limit landing options. As we continue on final glide, we get a bit apprehensive because we encounter abundant bubbles that delay our landing. Ironically, we even start making calculations as to how long we will fly if we maintain our current glide ratio. As a matter of fact, we will probably land after sunset if we stay in the line we´re in, so we opt to pull ears and choose a sinking line to get to the ground quicker. We follow a dirt road that leads to a small village called Old Santana, where we land on a small football field. The locals are happy to have us and prepare rice and beans for the group. They certainly have never seen a paraglider before, nor has any similar aircraft passed here. We are asked if we jumped from an airplane and we reply that a strong wind has brought us from Quixadá, Ceará. In these moments, the best explanation is the simplest one.

Certainly, sports such as free flight seem very unpredictable, because we only see the scars left by the flows, but never the flows themselves. Perhaps for this reason the sport is not understood by many and seen as dangerous. “You have great courage…” was the phrase most used by the locals in the village. In fact for those who don´t practice the sport, it must seem a bit crazy. After all, we spend more than ten hours hanging from those lines, thousands of meters above the ground, making hundreds of decisions in a an airmass that we can barely see. I compare the beginning of the flight in Quixadá to a rafting adventure in which the only option is to go with the flow. It may all seem like pure madness, but there is a great deal of study and knowledge behind it.

We followed the plan. We took off in the heart of Ceará, overflew the entire state of Piauí and got very close to the Amazon region by landing in Maranhão. We crossed much of the Northeastern desert. The three of us together. This record is not just the breaking of a numerical barrier, but also a proof that free flight does not necessarily need to be an individual, egocentric sport. Our dream of working as a team has clearly worked. And the team is not only the pilots in the air. We must not forget to mention our great retrieve driver Dioclécio, Dió, and the whole team at SOL Paragliders, which developed these wonderful wings and greatly supported us in this achievement.

When we decided to fly together, we were aware of the difficulties. We are often programmed to compete, not to look at the pilot flying alongside us as our partner but as someone to outrace. Winning is for one man as there is no room for more than one pilot on the podium. When I started the search for the record in October, on many occasions I found myself competing with my partner Cecéu when I ought to be helping him and being helped. It is always much easier to fly in a group, but the difficulty is transforming the group into a team. Frank quickly came to understand our philosophy and became a part of it. It was a philosophy initiated by André Fleury and Marcelo Prieto, and we are all extremely happy to have had the opportunity to put it into practice in such perfect and harmonious form, culminating in an Open Distance World Record.

The Expedition XCNordeste 2007 finally comes to an end. We have now been for 31 days in Quixadá, Ceará, Brazil. We have set three major records, two South American marks and a World Record. There were four important flights (397 km, 414 km, 398 km and 461 km). Over 3.000 kms flown and more than 8.000 kms lodged by our retrieve driver. Without a doubt, a success. I´m sure that after years of investing heavily in the XCNordeste Expeditions, Ary Pradi of SOL must be very pleased, after all three SOL team pilots performed an unprecedented flight of 461 km, flying together aboard the new Tracer 11.

SOL, Ary and the pilots deserve it.

The SOL team would like to thank Claudio Henrique Landim of Fortaleza for all his support during the Expedition XCNordeste 2007.

Greetings to everyone and let the 500 come... See you in 2008 ...

Rafael Saladini