German pilot Juergen Mueller has flown his way into the history books at the Manilla XC camp.
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For the first time in the 25 years of paragliding events at Mt Borah, a sports class intermediate-rated pilot has beaten the higher level XC and competition class pilots to take the overall honours.
Mueller flew a combined 696 kilometres to finish ahead of Victorian competition class pilots Airie Merlin (639km) and Dave Snowden (597km), Merlin taking second for the second consecutive year.
Tamworth local and sports class pilot Halina Kaufman, who two years ago created history herself in becoming the first female pilot to win the overall individual honours in the Paragliding State of Origin, was the best female, beating some hot competition from the Japanese pilots in attendance.
She was a credible 10th overall after flying 395km.
The event was marred by the tragic death of a pilot from Hong Kong after he was fatally injured when he lost control of his glider at 250m over Mt Borah and failed to deploy his reserve parachute.
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The flying conditions for this years camp were also hampered by rain and storms earlier in the week making the task harder for the 151 pilots from 16 nations that attended.
XC Camp event organiser Godfrey Wenness said many pilots still flew one or more personal bests.
The best distance for the week was 201kms to the north landing near Ashford on the Queensland border.
Other flights were mainly towards Bingara and Warialda, with a few venturing into the New England Tablelands to Armidale and Guyra.
