Map / XC |
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| #1
Skyline, Kingston
XC from Skyline (#1) In February 2001, 'flat-land' XC expert Claus Vischer from Germany took off for a casual afternoon flight from Skyline (#1) only to set a first record for X-country flying in Jamaica (approx. 10 km out and back). He flew along the Liguanea Ridge over to Red Hills, soared in front of Plantation Heights and made it back from there to Kingston. An hour later he landed safely on the wide open construction site (next to Barbican Square) where now is the Loshusan shopping center. In March 2002, accomplished paraglider pilot Roger Barber from UK visited Jamaica and flew east-bound from Skyline to Mavis Bank. A year later, in March 2003, Roger set a new XC distance record: 20.5 km! This time he flew north in strong south-easterly breeze via Peter's Rock to Broadgate, 8 km short of the north coast. On other occasions Roger also flew via Hardware Gap to Wakefield/Cedar Valley in the Blue Mountains. In May 2004, Jurgen von Dueszeln, was the first local pilot to fly the 6 km along the Liguanea Ridge to Constant Spring golf course. Since then other pilots (Anna Kay von Dueszeln, Eladio Walker, Pedro Tirado) have made this little XC flight over difficult terrain along the city border.
XC from Malvern (#2) In Jan. 2010, Malvern Hill (aka John Crow Hill) (#2), a new site near Treasure Beach was 'discovered'. This site promises easier XC flights than Skyline. In May 2010, Steve Young, a pilot from San Francisco reportedly flew from this site and had two exceptional flights SE along the Santa Cruz mountains (unfortunately we have not received any details from Steve). In September 2010, Jurgen von Dueszeln, flew 6km SE to Munro College and back to launch along the ridge. Unfortunately, cloudbase was too low to reach all the way to the spectacular Lovers Leap on the south coast. Half a year later, Jurgen also flew 13 km NW to Burnt Savanah. Since then several local pilots have visited the site, but none of them has been able to make it to Lovers Leap again.
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