History
New Mexico’s history of Free Flight is like many other areas. New comers hear the stories. It started with a small crew of folks crazy enough to work with the equipment of the day and jump off the local mountains. As technology progressed so did the feats of courage. Many of these flights will go unnoticed. Hopefully these stories, besides taking New Mexico free flight out of the darkness, will give new folks a sense of the tenacity of those that came before them. There are some great pilots in New Mexico.
FIRSTS & NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
1972: Terry Fitzsimmons launched a hang glider from the Kiwanis Rock House area into the Tram canyon in 1972. Landed at Elena Gallegos.
1974-August: Mark Mocho (past SSA president) had his first Crest flight tandem hang glider with Randy Newbill on a 20 foot Standard Rogallo.
1970s: Hang Glider Company: Electra Flyer of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Larry Newman.
1990 (91?): Jc Brown, Karl Mayforth (a.k.a. “Boris”) and Doug Knowlton had the first official Paraglider flights off of the Sandias.
NEW MEXICO RECORDS
Many long flights have been done off Sandia Peak, and there are a bunch of unsung heros. Some flights will go unshared. But there have been flights towards Cuba, Las Vegas, Mountain Air, Clines Corners, Tucumcari, Colorado and other far off locations, some of which have not been repeated.
Here is Nick Wilder's site to see
all the XC lines flown in New Mexico and posted to XContest: New Mexico XC Paragliding
summary stats on: Sandia Peak XC Paragliding
And then there are the longest flights. Here is a short list of known flight record holders, and some significant distance flights:
From Sandias:
New Mexico State Record: Ben Abruzzo (see image below), 197.5 miles(317.9kms) in 7hrs 24mins, Sandia Peak Launch to near Bootleg Texas. –June, 4, 2020. Ben wrote,”Yesterday I set the New Mexico paragliding state record..197 miles! After 7 and a half hours of flying I landed just a mile or so over the border in Texas. The record has stood for over 20 years. I am very humbled considering the record had been held by the legendary Will Gadd. It was an amazing day, big winds, big sky and a bit luck. Couldn’t have done it without Allie and Max Montgomery.”
Previous State Record: Will Gadd, tow launch from near the Texas border and flying into Texas.
Previous Footlaunch Record: Patrick Harvey-Collard in Spring 2018 flew 187 miles (301kms) to near Logan, NM (east of Tucumcari) on a Class C paraglider. Patrick was accompanied by Max Montgomery for half that distance before Max dirted.
From Dry Canyon:
PG Record: Patrick Harvey-Collard in Spring 2018 flew 128.6 miles (207km) on a Class C paraglider
Other PG flights: Wyatt _______: 122 miles to Vaughn, NM. May 24, 2020
