Unfortunately, there was no record for us or nor for the Germans. Global warming has resulted in an increase in wavelengths (see my book page 100 et seq.) that are no longer in optimum phase with the reliefs, accompanied by a decrease in vertical velocities, also caused by an increase in wind velocity, and a reduction in the duration of the wind cycles.

The only record of the season belongs to Swiss Jean-Marc Perrin in the 15m class, on January 7th, O/R distance of 1,713km at 142.7km/h (3 world records). The previous records belonged to Diether Memmert with 1,559 km and 130,7 km/h respectively. To accomplish this performance, Jean-Marc chose to isolate himself for three months in the village of José de San Martin, a hamlet lost in the pampa 340 km South of Bariloche, while his direct competitor Diether Memmert was based with his comrades in Zapala, 250 km North of Bariloche. This record was the main purpose of his stay, which cost him a long isolation out of civilization and a lot of frights flying in the fronts, in the rain, low-level engine restarts with no landing possibility in case of failure. Another mystery was that he managed to get this record certified without the presence of an Official Observer either at take-off or landing, just one witness. The Official Observer who signed the paper file was the person responsible for the homologations at the Argentina Gliding Federation of Buenos Aires, whereas I had to train personally two local Official Observers to follow to the FAI rules and to have our European Official Observers approved by Argentina. Looks like everything is possible in this country.