Kitchener's Ken Kinzie's kite-like abilities helped him soar to a new record this weekend, for the farthest hang-glider flight in Ontario.

Kinzie, 60, flew 281 kilometres from Arthur to just north of Napanee in a little over seven hours. He broke a record that stood for 12 years. Armand Acione of King City previously held that record with a flight distance of 202 km.

"I almost fell over when I programmed my GPS to go to my launch point," said Kinzie, explaining his surprise on reviewing his GPS post flight and discovering

"I hadn't been keeping track of my distance, because on previous flights when I starting thinking it was looking like a record-breaking flight, it just didn't happen."

On Saturday afternoon, Kinzie was towed to 2000 ft by an ultralight plane and then released. He rode favourable air streams along to just north of Napanee.

"The view is awesome. From where we normally take off from, near Arthur, at a few thousand feet above the ground if you look south you can see Kitchener- Waterloo, south-east over to the Toronto skypline, if you look north you can see Georgian Bay," said Kinzie. "If you look west, especially later in the day, the sun's glistening off Lake Huron, it's just [an] incredible view."

A map showing where Ken Kinzie started his record-breaking hang-glider flight in Arthur (left) and ended in Napanee (right). (Google Maps)





