RAMON BREAKS WORLD RECORD
Ramon Morillas flew 1101km on a single PPG flight while attempting to
fly 1350km without landing. Though he fell a bit short of his target,
he still beat his previous world record by 150km.
What makes this flight most exciting is that almost all of it was over
open water, out of sight of land.
He flew for Fourteen and a half hours, from nearby Cadiz on the
Iberian Peninsula in Spain, out over the Atlantic and landed on
Lanzarote Island in the Canary Archipelego.
His original target was Tenerife Island but the tailwinds were not as
strong as expected and though he still had at least an hour of
daylight and fuel left, he could not guarantee making Tenerife Island,
so opted to head for the nearest land rather than spend the night in
the water. The rescue helicopters on standby operate only in daylight
hours, though he had sufficient survival gear to make it through the
night while afloat, he opted to make landfall.
Ramon launched at 06h40 in almost zero wind, with his motor and gear
weighing over 100kg due to the Six fuel tanks (71 Liters) and the
required survival and rescue kit he had to carry for such a flight. He
landed at 21h15 (20h15 local Canary Time)
He flew a PAP Paramotor powered by the ROS100 engine, Six fuel tanks
(2 x 13.5 Liters plus 2 x 22 Liters), carried satellite tracking
equipment, wearing a cold-water survival suit and lots of extra gear
to keep him comfortable and safe…
Report by Jaco Wolmarans