UK pilot, Richard Carter, has just completed an amazing flight and a new UK Open Distance record on his Mantra M3, with a total distance of 253.4km. John Stevenson Reports: This breaks John Sylvester's 194km in 2007 and is the 8th time Richard has held this record. It also qualifies as the first 200k flight in the UK, so he wins the UK XC League's special prize of £200 cash, and a trophy. Having only fairly recently returned to paragliding, after a 10-year plus break for climbing, motor-bike racing and fishing, Richard cuts a striking figure on the hill as he still uses all his old gear and sees no reason to change it. He flew his old Airwave XMX for some time, before getting a much-used Omega 6, now replaced by a Mantra M3. And he always looks dapper in his luminous turquoise and pink flying suit. Apart from the wing, a pair of gloves and a GPS, he was using exactly the same set-up (Sky Systems Probe harness, helmet, vario, flying suit etc) as he did when he last got the record in 1994 (163.9km).

The UK is a notoriously difficult place to fly XC not only because of the weather, but because of a very complicated and high amount of restricted airspace. Richard did an excellent job of avoiding it in order to comply with aviation law. To see his tracklog through the airspace, click here.

To see his tracklog: http://www.xcleague.com/xc/flights/20112107.html