The crew of the ‘X-Sweden 1500’ expedition is now in the south of the country, at their base camp in Ales Stenar, completing the final preparations and waiting for the right conditions to fly 1500 km by foot-launched paramotor, to the north of Sweden.

The Spanish pilot and former European Champion Dani Martinez believes that he and his partner Paco Diaz –who will fly in a tandem trike with a cameraman-, will be able to launch this Saturday (June 30th), if the weather forecasts are right. The area is perfect for the take-off, with a wide grassy field that receives a gentle sea breeze -that will certainly help Dani in the inflation and start run with over 120 kg on his shoulders!

During the last 10 days, the Spanish pilot has been doing extensive testing of the gear he will use for the record attempt, a paramotor Fly Products “Special Edition” with Corsair engine and extra tanks to fit 116 litres of fuel and a Paramania Revolution glider of 36 square metres. After many take offs and touch-and-gos with the highest possible load, Dani is confident that he will have no problem starting with such a heavy load.

“When you run with the paramotor at full throttle and so many litres of fuel on your sides there are vibrations and movements that make it very strange, you really have to watch your steps! But I think that the breeze will be a good help for the inflation. It’s going to be a long journey and I need to be alert all the time, but this will not be more difficult than being awake for an entire night of work…” says Dani.

The record flight will be tracked online in real time through http://www.regattacontrol.com/x1500/ and CompeGPS: http://hal.compegps.com/broadcast/webmap/?channel=xsweden&

The X-Sweden 1500 team will be posting regular news in their blog (in Spanish) with many pictures to show what they are up to at the moment: www.xsweden1500.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 4:34 pm and is filed under News.