Flight By Australian Air Traffic Controller Raised Money For Medical Research

The Guinness World Records has officially recognized 987 rolls performed consecutively as the new world record. It was achieved by Kingsley Just, an air traffic controller from Australia who raises money for zinc absorption research to benefit his son Kaelan. Specifically, he needed to perform more than 408 consecutive rolls, so he set a new record successfully.

Snap-and-Roll reports that the event was held at Lethbridge Aerodrome in Lethbridge, Victoria, Australia, on March 1, 2014 and took just under one hour to complete. That works out to about an average of 16 rolls per minute. He explains, “I pulled a maximum of positive 4Gs and negative 2Gs during the rolls.” The average speed of his Pitts was about 100 knots. According to Just, “I'm still a bit confused emotionally about the whole thing.”

Funds raised, currently about $5,330, will support Associate Professor Paul Adlard's team at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Just's reason for being so interested in Adlard's work is his 6-year old son, Kaelan. Kaelan has been diagnosed with an extremely rare genetic condition that is a variant of Acrodermatitis Enteropathica (AE). The symptoms are unpleasant and affect his quality of life. AE is caused by an inability to metabolize zinc, leading to zinc deficiency. Just states, "I hope the scientists that work day in and day out feel the love that we send to them and realize that their work may have a profound impact on people's lives.” He adds, "At the moment, I'm just a bit overwhelmed and amazed with the generosity of everyone who I come into contact with. I'm stoked. Everyone who I have come across have been amazingly generous with their time, money and encouragement, and as I was doing more training than fundraising we have done quite well. My family is of course proud and Kaelan is doing really well at the moment but he still has his ups and downs".

The previous world record was set on January 29, 2007, during the Al Ain Aerobatic Show in Al Ain (UAE) by Zoltán Veres (Hungary).

Donations are being accepted until May 31.

(Image from YouTube Video)

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