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)

FMI: www.facebook.com/kyle.lobpries/videos/10108247627949354/