Altitude Record Bud Gish / Anchorage, Alaska, September 9, 2000

The Altitude Record that I set in April was broken on September 9, 2000. The new record is 17671 feet. Set using my Six Chuter SR-2 / PD Sunriser Canopy /with a Rotax 503 DCDI which I have modified with Shaved heads, Tuned Exhaust, In-flight Adjustable Ivo Prop, On Board Mixture Control (Arctic Sparrow Aircraft Inc.) and running a mixture of 50% Trick 114 racing fuel and 50% Super unleaded Gasoline. I also used a potenially dangerous experimental add - on that I invented: Oxygen Injection. I spent a considerable amount of time with the Gases specialists at Air Liquide to derive a safe method of using my O2 system without blowing myself up. Pure Oxygen is extremely unstable when mixed with hydrocarbon fuel's and should not be used by anyone without a through understanding of the element's involved. As it turned out the O2 system that I used did help some, but I can't say how much and I would not recommend it's use. The max climb recorded by my Electronic Barograph was 1083 feet per / minute early in the flight and diminished steadily with altitude. My final climb rate when the engine ran out of fuel was showing only 20 feet per / minute. The total flight time was 2 hr.s 20 min.s 1 second. The climbing portion of the flight lasted 1 hr. 48 min.s 44 second's, leaving an engine off glide time of 31 min.s, 17 second's. In this series of record attempt's I received help from many people ranging from technical assistance to sponsorships. 

I would like to thank the following Sponsors for making these flight's possible:

United Freight and Transport Inc. - My Day Job - Cash contributor for Engine Modifications, and the time off work to make these attempt's possible.

Six Chuter Inc. - Sanction and Recording Fee's -  Contact Six Chuter at: 1-800-440-8211 or http://www.sixchuter.com/

Flytec America - Flytec 4020 Professional Electronic Barograph and Technical Support in the use of the above mentioned Barograph. (For information about Flytec's line of products call Steve Kroop / Flytec America at: 1-800-662-2449 or http://www.flytec.com/

Performance Design's Inc. - Technical Support and the use of a new PD Barnstormer for used on the time to climb attempts, 0 to 3000 meter's made on 8/10/2000 Contact Performance Design's Inc. at: (904) 738-2224 or http://www.performancedesigns.com/ 

Air Liquide America Corporation - Technical Support with the Oxygen Injection System and Aviator's Breathing Oxygen 

Arctic Sparrow Aircraft - On Board Mixture Control, Part's, Pieces and a ton of Technical Support. Special Thanks to Mike Jacober for Serving as Official Observer for my record setting activities. For Information about Arctic Sparrow Aircraft Products contact Mike Jacober at: (907) 688-7001 or http://www.customcpu.com/asainc/

Anchorage Drag Bike and Performance Products - Technical Support, Engine Modification's, Trick Racing fuel and mixture recommendations

The official record claim was submitted to NAA on 9/11/2000. 
More photos here.

Freedom Road Xcountry (off site)

It’s... a bird...it’s a plane...it’s a Potato farmer

Fastest climb to 3000 meters.
Today, August 10, 2000 I broke the US National and World Record for time to climb to 3000 meters in the R-6 category. With an as yet unofficial time of 22 minutes and 29 seconds. Tomorrow I am planning on breaking the Altitude Record I set in April. I will let you know how it goes. Bud Gish / Anchorage, Alaska bgish@alaska.net

Most beef up in a PPC

Well I think we did it again. Me at 302lbs and Andy Nino at 298lbs. Kyle Campbell looking on is the old record holder. He is trying to decide if he is going to the buffet line to see about putting on more weight.

This one was done on the beach at Galveston. I am not sure if this was as big a deal as when we did it with Kyle's 503 HHF because this time we used the 65 hp Hirth and a 550 Apco chute. The winds were at 7 to 9 mph. Take off distance was only 50 feet. I was shocked how quick we got up. I thought we would take 10 times that in the sand. I guess hitting that kids sand castle worked like a jump jet. (just kidding)

So here's the stats;

Rate of climb an astonishing     400 fpm (I'm still amazed on this one)5800ish rpm for level flight.

Bottom Line...Most beef up in a PPC

My only cautions about carrying this much weight is that "its not how much 
a unit can lift but how soft it can put it down". 

Sincerely Tons of Fun,

Scott Hughes
Chute the Breeze
www.flyingchute.com

PS  I am starting my diet to get skinny for the National Competitions.

First fully water capable PPC flight. Steve Raklovits 6-00

On June 12, 2000 at 8:30am, in S.W. Michigan, a Paladin GE MK-IV equipped with Air-Tech floats and the ParaMast(tm) system, made a first flight off the water with a full stop and go landing.  The ParaMast(tm) held the chute off the water and the flight was uneventful. 
Pilot was Steve Raklovits, inventor of the ParaMast(tm). Safety crew and systems engineer was Matt Dautle of Paladin Industries. (see photo here)

Steve's Para Sports
200 S.Main St.
Three Rivers, Mi. 49093
SRaklovits@aol.com

Longest cross country flight in an "N" numbered PPC.
Jim MacLeay 7-94

In July 1994, Jim MacLeay flew his PPC from Morristown Tn. to Oshkosh Wi. and back, a total of 1,445.9 miles. Read Jim's story by clicking here.

Longest cross country flight for a legally configured PPC trainer without a chase crew. Steve Thomas 5-1-00

Here is my story of the cross country flight from Greenville,Illinois to Dexter, Kentucky and back to Greenville. 

The planning that I did before attempting the flights really paid off. My original plans to fly from home to Greenville didn't work out due to North winds and fierce storms. The day before I drove to Greenville we had a hail storm here that dumped about an inch thick blanket of marble sized hail all over the place. So, I loaded up Purple Haze and drove up there....

(Read the whole story by clicking here.)

Endurance Record

On Sunday, April 9, 2000  a team from Fort Worth Texas began the quest
for the PPC endurance record.

Gene Long   AFI  Team Leader 
Jack Arnold  BFI   Pilot
Chris Taylor   Student
Jerry Bailey   Student

Gene Long writes a monthly article for Aero Connections Magazine, and is
the Buckeye Dealer in Fort Worth Texas. 

We started before dawn at the Parker Airport in Weatherford Texas.
After the preflight was done, Jack Arnold took off in his Buckeye 582
Dream Machine with ten gallons of fuel.  For safety reasons, the first
hour would be around the airport.  Gene Long and Chris Taylor joined
Jack in the air in a 503 Dream Machine for about thirty minutes.  Jack
had a GPS problem so he passed closed to the ground and Chris ran along
side and handed him the small yellow Garmin.  Jack then climbed to about
2000 agl and headed north to Jacksboro, a distance of 50 miles.  Gene
and Chris followed in the truck pulling a trailer.  Radio contact and
telephone contact with Jack was maintained.  The upper winds were now
about 20 mph.  Jack arrived over Jacksboro and now turned East to
Bridgeport, a distance of about 25 miles cross wind.  Jack stopped over
Bridgeport, facing into the wind, no forward speed and waited for the
crew to catch up.  He then turned North again and took off at 50 mph
ground speed to Bowie.
Once over Bowie, he again hovered to await the arrival of the chase
truck.  Gene and Chris arrived.  By now Jack had used up both of the
portable radio batteries and found out that the cell phone only works
above 2000 ft agl. 
Approaching 5 hours in the air, Jack began the descent.  The ground
winds were gusting to 26 mph and it was a rough and slow process.
Finally 5 hours and 2 minutes after his departure from Parker Airport,
Jack Arnold touched mother earth.  The wind refused to let him go, so
even after cutting off the motor, he continued to lift off and finally
slid backwards to a stop. 
A world endurance record of 5 hours and 2 minutes with the Buckeye and
the new chute from Sycon.  A video is being prepared of the flight and
will be available.

Lowest Altitude Doyne (Hotwheels) Perry, 2-26-00 Death Valley California.

On Saturday Feb.26 2000, the Las Vegas Cloud Chuters, flew at the altitude of 211 feet below sealevel.  Our original goal was to fly down to BadWater for a flight at 280 feet below sealevel, but we were unable to obtain that goal due to the rigid rules of the Park Service of 2000 ft AGL.  We were able to fly at 211 feet below sealevel by doing low level flights across the runway  on aproach for landing at the Furnace Creek Airport.  Those making the flight at 211 feet below sealevel were:

Cheryl and Lance (Pappy) Atcheson AFI
Robert (VaporLock) Campbell BFI
Doyne (Hotwheels) Perry
Michael (Rockey) Reynolds
Fred (Lefty) Polaco
Joe (Giuseppe) Castiglia
Nattawal (Nat) Charoonsri
Jannette and Lonnie (Buckeye) Childers

Our weekend was marred by the attitude of the Park Rangers at Furnace Creek who stated that there had been several complaints from the people in the campground concerning the parachutes in the shy.  We explained to the Rangers that all of our flights were above the 2000 feet minimun altitude, but he really did not want to hear that.  While the Park Ranger was giving us a hard time, several of the Campers from the Campground spoke up for us and stated they had spoke with nearly all of the campers and no one had made complaints, and they were going to the office to put in written letters of praise for the Powered Parachutes.  This really upset the Park Rangers,
because they did not want us in their airspace, even though no other planes were flying there.

The Furnace Creek Park Rangers suggested that we trailer our PPC's down to StovePipe Wells, and use that airstrip for our flights.  We took their suggestion and went to StovePipe Wells.  We stopped and introduced ourselves to the Park Rangers there, who consequently was not a general aviation pilot, who told us to enjoy our flights and that it was OK to do touch and go's on the airstrip.  We were the only planes in the air and we had the ranger's blessings.  We ask the Rangers at StovePipe Wells about any complaints that may have been received at Furnace Creek and we were informed that there had been no complaints made.  It became very obvious that the
Rangers at Furnace Creek were general aviation pilots who did not think we had any rights to be in their airspace.  Despite the problems with the Rangers at Furnace Creek, we still had a great weekend.

Speed Bud Gish / Anchorage, Alaska July 31, 1999

On July 31, 1999 I was flying up the Knik River along the Chugach Mountians (about 35 miles north/east of Anchorage, Alaska)at about 200 hundred feet in relatively light wind, when I came around a corner facing the front of the Knik Glacier. I hit what we call the Knik wind head on! Besides getting bounced around something terrible, I was flying backwards at 45 mph clocked on my GPS! I immediately began a slow turn to get the heck out of there. As I got turned completely downwind I showed 84.6 mph on my Garmin GPS III!(Still shows as maximum speed) My SR-2 with a PD 500 Sunriser flys at 26 mph, meaning that I had ran into a 58.6 MPH blast from the Knik Glacier! Eventually I was able to fly crosswind back to the shelter of the Chugach Mountians and safely return to base. It might seem like fun now, but it scared the daylights out of me at the time. Normally you can see dust blowing from the Knik when the wind is really kicking, but it had rained that morning and the air looked as clear as can be. Personal Record Ground Speed in a Powered
Parachute: 84.6 MPH!  Bud Gish / Anchorage, Alaska

No Power Decent 12-99 DAVID CUNDIEFF, ATHENS, TEXAS hscr@tvec.net

THIS IS A SHORT STORY OF MY NO POWER DECENT. AFTER LIFTING OFF, I SET A GOAL TO SEE HOW HIGH I COULD CLIMB. WITH ONLY 25 HOURS ON MY NEW SR2, I CLIMBED TO A HEIGHT OF 11,000 MSL ON A PICTURE PERFECT SUNDAY MORNING JUST AFTER SUNRISE.  UPON REACHING THIS HEIGHT, AND ENJOYING THE SCENIC VIEW,  I CHECKED MY FUEL AND REALIZED THAT I HAD ONLY ABOUT 2 GALLONS LEFT.  SO, TO CONSERVE FUEL ON MY SLOW DECENT,  I TURNED THE MOTOR OFF AND FLOATED GRACEFULLY BACK TO EARTH.  THE PEACE AND QUIET WITH THE WIND IN MY HAIR,  GAVE ME THE TRUE FEELING OF FLYING.  AFTER 40 TO 50 MINUTES OF DECENT AND AT AN ALTITUDE OF 1,000 MSL ON FINAL TO MY LANDING STRIP, I TURNED THE IGNITION ON, GAVE MY 503, THREE PULLS ON THE STARTER ROPE, SHE FIRED RIGHT UP, AND I MADE A PERFECT LANDING. MY AIR STRIP IS AT 496 MSL.  SO, I CONSIDER MY RECORD IS 10, 500 FT. DECENT WITHOUT POWER.

Haim Rave's Incredible flight from Israel to Cyprus