503 power!

4 hours 15 minutes in the end - with a Rotax 503!

Two to go

The Aeroprakt has just landed. Might be as much as 4h40!

Two left - guess which?

The Germans have landed.

3 hours 25 minutes for the BMW powered Eagle.

Three trikes in

Three trikes just landed in quick succession. I make that 3 hours 30 mins. Not bad!

Update 1600

3.5 hours later. Still a couple of trikes in the air, some of the 'Junior' 3 axis planes and, of course, the two Pipistrel aircraft.

The Norwegian lollipop man just landed deadstick; about 3 hours in an Ikarus C42 is very respectable.

Up and flying... carefully.

That's it. 15 minutes later and 36 are in the air, just two more getting ready. The flying area is a cylinder of radius 17km and up to 7000ft so spotting aeroplanes is not easy. We saw 5 in the same thermal, high up and looking good from where we were.

Writing this an hour after the start of the task and many are back already, especially the autogyros which aren't very suited to this task. No sign of the 'sexi' one, yet...

All about the stamina

It might be 'Sexi' but how long will it, ahem, stay up?

Seriously, this is the Pipistrel Virus. The pilot tells me he can fly for 2.5 hours without switching the engine off. The total task time is 6 hours and he expects to land a couple of minutes before the end.