Soaring high and hitting new heights - a hang glider looks to have set a new British record after flying in the air for more than seven hours without landing and covering a distance of more than 300km.
Carl Wallbank has flown a straight-line open distance of 338km, in a hang glider, without landing, from Wales to Saxthorpe in north Norfolk.
It means he has beat the previous record set by himself in 2012 at 276km when he did a hang glide from Llangollen in Wales to Weymouth.
Mr Wallbank, 43, from Wirral in Liverpool, completed the challenge after setting off from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales yesterday morning.
He had hoped to make it through to Cromer for the open distance flight but the weather was against him with the sun blocked by clouds making for difficult hang gliding conditions.
During the flight he was travelling at an average height of 2,800ft - 4,000ft although at some points in north Norfolk he made it to 5,600ft.
Mr Wallbank, who is a UK importer of hang glider manufacturers, Moyes, and also works as a oil rig surveyor, said he had been keeping a close eye on the weather over the last two or three days before setting off on the challenge and seen that the conditions would be just right for attempting the hang glide, light winds with good lift.
He said: 'You have got to be in the right frame of mind, and have the winds going in the right direction, it is very difficult and rare for everything to come together. It can be only up to four times a year at best that everything combines and you can do this.'
Attached to the hang glider Mr Wallbank, 43, who was supported along the way by his driver Michelle Taylor, has a GPS system which enables him to track his route and identifies where airspace is so he stays away from it.
He also looks to have created a new British record for longest declared goal distance, whereby the hang glider declares where he will be going to rather than it being an open distance, yesterday when he reached March, near Ely, a distance of 255km.
The previous record was 218km set by Gordon Rigg and Ollie Chitty who flew from Bradwell in Derbryshire to Lavenham in Suffolk just three weeks ago on June 7.
The records are now being verified by the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, using Mr Wallbank's GPS tracker system.
Phil Chettleburgh from the association said although there were still some verification to be done they could see no problems with the new records.
Mr Wallbank, has travelled all over the world taking part in hang gliding challenges and events and is a member of the British Hang Gliding Team and recently flew with them in Mexico for the Hang Gliding World Championships where they came eighth overall.
He said: 'I have been hang gliding for a long time, since I was 21 years old. I have gone to lots of lovely places I would never usually have seen. I still smile like a little six-year-old kid, even when I do a small flight. When you are good at a sport then like any sports person, you drop everything for it'
Do you know someone taking part in a sporting challenge? Email tracey.gray@archant.co.uk
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