Last of the great, truly daft, aviation challenges

[Pilotage]

A few hours ago, I've just heard, Richard Meredith-Hardy landed his Pegasus Quantum (flexwing) after succesfully aerotowing a hang-glider in an orbit around the summit of mount Everest.

Precisely why, Richard has done so has been something of a mystery to me, but you've got to admire his dogged determination to do something so impressive, if perhaps totally daft.

He did promise me a while ago that if there were any climbers at the summit when he flew past, he'd send me a photo of the expressions on their faces. If he comes up trumps, I'll see if he'll let me post it here.

P

[FNG]

Well done, insane chappie fellow! What a way we've come since the great days of Lady Houston:-

http://www.wingsovereverest.com/main.html

[Genghis the Engineer]

http://www.flymicro.com/everest/index.cfm?page=docs%2FLatest%5Fnews%2F24%5FMay%2C%5FSummited %21%2Ehtm

G

[dublinpilot]

........as long as he stayed 500ft away from any climbers;) ;) :rolleyes:

[FNG]

Good point. If you annoy the Nepalese CAA, they see to it that you are reincarnated as a dung beetle.

[Milt]

Well remember the first time I flew higher than Everest circa 1953.

It was in a Mustang P51 and the engine supercharger had changed to high speed.

Guy in the hang glider must have been well insulated considering an air temp down around -40 and he would have been breathing oxygen

[AerBabe]

are reincarnated as a dung beetle Or as the moderator of a computers/internet forum.

[Evo]

bloomin' 'eck, AerBabe's account has been hijacked by FNG... :hmm:

[FNG]

...or she's crashed her new aero-contraption already, and been reincarnated as a gobby git (which, according to Buddhist philosophy, is only a few pegs up from being a dung beetle, but well above being a moderator of a geek forum).

[rustle]

Bang out of order, Evo (:8 )

I'm going to complain to BRL.

[AerBabe]

bloomin' 'eck Hey, mind your language. You should be leading from the top, not the bottom. There are ladies present. :rolleyes:

[J.A.F.O.]

Last of the great, truly daft, aviation challenges

It's a fair point that most of the stupid, death-defying and totally futile challenges and records of the aviation world have already been completed. Do we really live in such dull, grey times that there isn't anything really stupid to do any more? Have all the exciting possibilities become mundane day-to-day experiences? Has anything even remotely interesting already been legislated against?

And now to my main point, can anyone think of anything really ridiculous to do in the air (remember, as AB points out, there are ladies present)? Is there still a truly daft aviation challenge to be conquered?

[AerBabe]

Oooh, I've got an idea! You could take a fairly slow-flying light a/c up, climb until you get a decent wind speed, then fly backwards round the world. :ok:

[Keef]

AerBabe, there's a problem with that, but I can't quite work out at this time of the morning what it might be.

Anyway, you should be working, or studying, or something - not inducing young pilots to foolhardy feats of derring-do.

[J.A.F.O.]

inducing young pilots to foolhardy feats of derring-do.

Keef - If the young refers to me then bless you, Chaplain.

AB - I've got just the thing, the first Evans VP-2 in geostationary orbit.

[LowNSlow]

Much too easy J.A.F.O. , how about making the next Pprune Fly-In at Heathrow, we could set up a barbie under the Concorde parked there. I'm sure nobody would mind :ooh: :ooh:

[Kolibear]

Anyone can fly over Everest, thats easy-peasy.

Now landing on the summit, hmmmm - more difficult :(

[Genghis the Engineer]

Much easier than taking off again I suspect.....

Actually, I'd have thought that the hang-glider pilot would have stood a fair chance - now there would be an interesting exercise !

G

[VP959]

Actually, I'd have thought that the hang-glider pilot would have stood a fair chance - now there would be an interesting exercise !

I see a small snagette with landing a hang glider in a small space at 29,000ft. Something to do with the landing/stall speed at that height being a tad greater than a human undercarriage would tolerate. Angelo seems to have been relying on the wheels on the bar to land prone, even at the recovery strip height of 12,500ft, from what I can see. I note that he used a discarding trolley for take off, because he couldn't run fast enough at 12.500ft up to reach flying speed.

Even parachuting down to the summit would prove interesting, as by my rough calculations you would need a canopy area 3 times larger than would be the case for a safe TV nearer sea level.

Flying/landing with an ambient pressure of somewhere around 300mB presents a few interesting challenges..........

[englishal]

Do we really live in such dull, grey times that there isn't anything really stupid to do any more?

I'm waiting for the X prize contenders to blast off...