Flight of the Dreamcicle

Aero-News Network congratulates Sonex builder Lou Toth, who set a National Aeronautics Association (NAA) speed over a recognized course record in Dreamcicle, his AeroVee powered, tricycle gear, orange-and-white-liveried Sonex The record was set in Class R for Microlights per European standards.

Mr. Toth set the record along with Ben Poffenberger on 31 March 2023, flying from Pensacola, Florida to Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The record-setting flight saw Dreamcicle maintain an average speed of 96.09-knots between Pensacola and Pascagoula, and an average speed of 93.09-knots on the return trip.

Mr. Toth stated: “We did fly the final descent into Pensacola at 147-knots so the controllers could squeeze us in-between the airliners and other traffic, great fun.”

Toth continued: “I know our record is only a National Record, and not a FAI recognized record, but it is interesting to note that the NAA website for speed over a recognized course starts in 1935 with Gaston Gentin and Andre Robert flying from Paris to Antananarivo [the capital of Madagascar] at a speed of 94.39-miles-per-hour in a Caudron C.635; the first continental U.S. flight in a B-52 in 1962 by Clyde Evely and crew from Seattle to Fort Worth at 552.5-miles-per-hour; and the first U.S. Microlight record in 1993 by Joseph Clinard from Centerville, Tennessee to Little Rock, Arkansas in a Quicksilver MX at 38.58-miles-per-hour.

“The records by Ben and I may be the first dual crew U.S. national records, only the second U.S. record in almost thirty-years, and if Mr. Clinard did not build his Quicksilver, the first crew-built Microlight to set a U.S. record. I know the Europeans and other countries have many more records in the microlight and paramotor classes, but our hope is that our Hundred Dollar Hamburger record inspires others in this class to stand out with the more than 4,600 [available] speed over a recognized course records!”

Mr. Toth will accept his record certificates during the opening ceremony at the 117th FAI General Conference, which will be held in Dayton, Ohio from 25 to 28 October 2023.

FMI: www.sonexaircraft.com