530 km fixed goal world record - Rafael Saladini

October 2020

Rafael SALADINI breaks a new world record with a fixed goal, flying 530kms solo. He tells us ...

Once again, my team and I are back in the sertão - that's what we call the Brazilian drylands in the north-east of our country. After more than two decades of returning to the same place every year to try for world records, our team has so far achieved 7 tandem records, 7 women's records, 3 distance records with a declared goal, 2 distance records with three roundabout points and 4 distance records in a straight line - a total of 23 world records. I can certainly call us specialists in the air marathon.

After so many achievements, the main question is: how can we stay motivated to keep trying to break new records?

The answer may seem a little simplistic. Our team meets every year in October in the sertão just to get together and have fun - the world record and the numbers are just the consequence - we just like to fly together as a team, and we have fun turning our joy into a military mission. We just like to wake up before dawn at 4 a.m. and take part in aerial marathons until dusk at around 6 p.m. Our pilots' careers are entirely devoted to this. We only participate in World Cups and World Championships to learn how to be faster and bolder pilots in order to be competitive in our pursuit of world records.

The 2020 season looked promising—we were really motivated, especially because we had been confined for the entire beginning of the year due to the pandemic. Our expedition began on September 26, and in the days that followed, we spent several days training and feeling frustrated as we waited patiently for the big day. Most of my teammates couldn't stay and wait. It took me 19 days for the first good cycle to arrive. On October 15, a day that didn't look too promising, I left around 6:40 a.m. to take some shots with a tracking camera attached to my wing. As we always do, I strictly followed all the world record procedures in the morning. Even though the wind wasn't strong enough, the day turned out better than I expected, and I was able to compensate by usingspeed bar taking the risk of landing too early. Around noon, I realized that I even had a chance to beat our previous world record of 582 km in a straight line. However, since my South American record in 2007, I had never flown solo for so long. Since then, our style and goal has always been team flying. I was really skeptical about my patience to fly solo for so long once again. To my surprise, not only did I have the patience, but at the end of the day, I felt completely comfortable and ready to fly even more. I had no surprises during the flight, but after 15 hours, the sky was not so easy to read, with many patches of blue sky. As my average speed began to drop dramatically, I decided to focus on the declared goal. I landed just after 5:43 p.m., having covered 555 km in a straight line and 530 km for the declared goal world record. I was really happy with my achievement and impressed with the patience I showed in flying completely alone all day. My equipment certainly made a huge difference. In addition to my incredible and comfortable Enzo 3, I also had a Kanibal Race 2 —I'm sure that the combination of the two allowed me to fly calmly for so many hours patiently without feeling exhausted or wanting to give up.

At the beginning of my career, I could easily fly for more than 10 hours with uncomfortable, harnesses , without urination tubes or food. With experience and age, my spine and body can no longer tolerate this kind of discomfort, as it directly affects my concentration and performance. Since the Pan American Championship in March, I have had the opportunity to start using the Kanibal Race 2. Before that, I had had some very bad experiences with my harness : too much weight on the top of my legs (and genitals) due to the reserve parachute, instruments, and ballast all together. I had a lot of trouble peeing and usingspeed bar.

My flying experience with the Kanibal Race 2 can be described in two words: comfort and freedom. My genitals were once again well cared for :), my legs were free again to focus solely onspeed bar my spine stopped screaming with every flight and could now easily withstand more than 11 hours in the air. Since my first flight with the Kanibal Race 2, I have won the Panamerican 2020 and flown 555 km in a straight line, breaking the world record for declared goals. I am really happy with my choice and can't wait to compete in major events with this harness. I would like to thank Kortel Design for creating such a perfect harness that helps me achieve my dreams. Kortel Design: You guys rock!!! 😉