On November 10, it took Ludwig Starkl less than seven hours to fly 1104 kilometers in his Antares 23E. Only 6:40 hours after his start in Kiripotib, Namibia, Starkl returned from the dream flight to the soaring center. During the fast ride, Ludwig Starkl and his D-KULS almost achieved a 1000 triangle. With the first turn east of Gobabis, almost on the border with Botswana, the second in the west, in the border mountains between the Kalahari and the Namib Desert, and the third far to the south near Helmering, the Antares 23E ultimately clocked up 978 triangular kilometers. Taking off from Kiripotib situated at an altitude of 1300 m (4265 ft), Ludwig Starkl was able to start gliding after only 5:20 minutes of motor time and then, despite an initially low working altitude in blue thermals, managed the flight with a grand total of just 21 thermals. Later on, much of the flight was literally straight forward flying. Ultimately, Starkl achieved an mean glide ratio of 88 for the entire flight with his Antares! Link to OLC-File http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-230920510 In the last three years 900 flights over 1000 km were flown in Namibia.
Based on average speeds over the 1000 km distance, the following flights by Ludwig Starkl occupy the first 3 positions:
1002.73 km (541.4 nm) with an average speed of 165.12 kph (89.2 kts) on 11.11.2013
1104.48 km (596.4 nm) with an average speed of 165.63 kph (89.4 kts) on 10.11.2015
1029.72 km (556 nm) with an average speed of 166.56 kph (89.9 kts) on 13.11.2013