Mon, Jun 06, 2016
Flew Nearly 19 Miles Over Yolo County, CA
A wingsuit flier may have set a new world record over the Memorial Day weekend with an 18.8-mile flight over Yolo County in north-central California.
The flier, Kyle Lobpries, wrote on his facebook page that he "exited from a Cessna Caravan flying at 36,215 feet (11,038 meters) over Yolo County, CA to see how far I could soar in my wingsuit. Holding a distance profile body position, I glided 30.3 kilometers (18.8 miles) on a flight that lasted 8 minutes and 27 seconds before deploying my parachute at 3,003’ (915 meters).
"The ground speed of the aircraft on exit was over 260 mph and the air temperature was -52 degrees Celsius (notice the contrail from the aircraft in the background of the video immediately after exit). Jump run and the wingsuit flight were downwind due south, with average winds aloft of around 20 knots giving me the slight push I needed to maintain an average 3.0 glide ratio for the 10 kilometers of vertical drop."
The flight has been submitted to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world records for wingsuit distance of flight and time of fall, which will review the preliminary claim.
"I feel honored to have contributed to the progression of this amazing, young sport," Lobpries wrote. "I look forward to watching these records continue to be broken as wingsuit and equipment technology evolves and greater numbers of talented pilots seek out opportunities to make record attempts. This is indeed a rad world we live in."
And of course, there is a video of the flight.
(Image from Lobpries video)
More News
Aero Linx: JAARS Nearly 1.5 billion people, using more than 5,500 languages, do not have a full Bible in their first language. Many of these people live in the most remote parts of>[...]
'Airplane Bounced Twice On The Grass Runway, Resulting In The Nose Wheel Separating From The Airplane...' Analysis: The pilot reported, “upon touchdown, the plane jumped back>[...]
"Burt is best known to the public for his historic designs of SpaceShipOne, Voyager, and GlobalFlyer, but for EAA members and aviation aficionados, his unique concepts began more t>[...]
"Polaris Dawn, the first of the program’s three human spaceflight missions, is targeted to launch to orbit no earlier than summer 2024. During the five-day mission, the crew >[...]
There Are SO Many Ways To Get YOUR Aero-News! It’s been a while since we have reminded everyone about all the ways we offer your daily dose of aviation news on-the-go...so he>[...]