Saturday, February 17, 2007

Beware of Thunderstorms

An amazing story today from New South Wales, Australia, where two paragliders unsuccessfully tried to skirt a thunderstorm, got caught in an updraft, and soared to in excess of 30,000 feet.

One died.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/02/16/1171405421626.html?from=top5

35yo Ewa Wisnierska, reached a height of 9947 meters (about 32,600 feet), had no oxygen supply, survived -40C temperatures, encountered hailstones the size of baseballs, and lived to talk about it.

According to her GPS unit, maximum climb rate was just under 4,000 feet per minute.

Ewa, buy a lottery ticket.

1 comment:

Tony Hunt said...

Hi - I just found your blog through Aluwings blog. We have probably crossed paths at CYRP - I keep my aircraft hangared there.

Something similar happened near Ottawa in 2002 - but the parachutist cut away his main chute and dropped out of the cloud before pulling his reserve chute. He had jumped over Gatineau, Quebec (CYND) and landed in Orleans, Ontario. He was in the cloud for about 5 minutes.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=170