SCPA & SBSA Discussion Board

former santa barbara resident and Eagle Instructor, Matt 'Farmer' Beechinor just set the new US PG Foot Launch Record a few days ago from his current backyard in Sun Valley, Idaho. 190 miles as the crow flies landing in Montana. He said it took him 7 hitch hikes with some wild characters to get home. Nicely done Farmer!

Tony Lang posted on Facebook: "Congratulations to my good friend Matt 'Farmer' Beechinor who flew his paraglider approximately 190 miles from Sun Valley, Idaho well into Montana for the new U.S. foot launch record along with the new Idaho state XC distance record. I just spoke with Farmer and he spent the night in Butte Montana and is hoping to find his way back home today. The car ride alone is over 7 hours. The flight was approximately 8.5 hours with altitudes close to 18,000 feet!!!! He will be smiling for a while"

here is his google earth tracklog

https://docs.google.com/a/cusd.net/file ... Zjblk/edit

Awesome!!! :-)

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Matt wasn't at the Rat Race this year, so now I see what has his attention was focussed on. Way cool and way far flight. The open distance meet has the bar set high now. With all the great pilots showing up for it, it might be in danger of being broken again for distance...looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

Thanks for the post!

Bravo, Matt.

Does anyone know where there is an actual article posted by Matt? I did a search and it seems like all the hits are linking to the same 2nd hand Facebook quote. I looked at the Google Earth file Aaron posted and it appears Matt navigated over some tiger country early the flight. The Google track measures about 187 plus a bit depending on what you are calling the start point. I trivial difference, but since we are calling it a record, we should strive to be accurate. When you zoom out to get a sense of scale it is impressive. Congratulations to Matt. I look forward to reading his recollection.