PPC Records last updated 7-16-01 Below are records set by www.powerchutes.com readers and emailing list subscribers. Many records are unofficial and are recorded on the honor system. If you have a record you would like to submit, email it to info@powerchutes.com with photo if possible. Please do not take unnecessary risks while pursuing a record. New PPC Powrachute Altitude Record is 20,287 No Power Decent 20,287 to 630
Ed had previously set the record with almost 16,000
ft. In 2001 Bud Gish broke the record in Alaska with a highly modified Six
Chuter. Ed talked with Eddie Johnson, the president of Powrachute, and
they agreed that we could probably do it with a stock Pegasus. Thursday
the 17th rolled around and Eric and Ed came over to get oxygen for the
long haul up. We didn’t know that you had to have a prescription for
oxygen. So I called my dad at the Hospital, he is a Nurse anesthetist and
asked if one of the doctors could write a prescription. As it turned out,
all the doctors had left surgery for the day. I ended up calling a friend
who was a pilot and a doctor to see what he could do. He wasn’t to keen on
writing us a prescription, but did call the Macomb airport to try and find
an oxygen tank. All they had was an old 20-pound tank without a regulator.
At this point we were starting to worry. Finally a paramedic called me and
said that he had a small tank in a kit at his house. Finally everything
was in place, and we were feeling pretty good! On Friday most of the
pilots showed up. It was windy and overcast so; we decided to go out to
eat at a pizzeria. After dinner the winds had calmed and we were able to
get about an hour flight in. Friday morning all the pilots showed up well
rested and ready to fly. I used Ed’s PC 2000 to lead the way on a cross
country to Argyle Lake state park while Ed stayed on the ground to get my
Pegasus ready for its record breaking flight. The flight was very smooth
that morning and the scenery west of Macomb was beautiful. To compensate
for the high altitude Ed put a carb compensation kit on each of the
carburetors. This allowed him to richen up the mixture the higher he went.
We also Put a Sky Bolt 430 on for max climb. At about ten we landed form
the cross-country. Buy 11:00 Ed was ready. After getting into several
layers of clothes and a hardy coverall Ed was sweating pretty bad. He
wedged the oxygen tank under the seat and set the altimeter to 630 msl and
was off by 11:17. The crowd cheered him on. Eddie Johnson and I tried to
follow him up in the 912 Pegasus, but he had too much of a head start on
us. We were able to see him most of the way up, but eventually he turned
into a white speck. After about an hour and a half we were starting to get
anxious. Walt Meziere had flown his Comanche up from Texas for the day so
he and Eddie went out looking for Ed. They got up to 17,800 and saw him
once and decided to come back down. We finally saw Ed getting closer while
doing one of his famous Spirals. He landed with out power, and I must say
it was one smooth landing. Everybody ran out to see if he made it. The
total flight time was 2 hours 33 minutes. He ran out of fuel at what the
EIS said was 17,870,MSL but was actually 20,287 MSL, and it was a good
thing that he did, because when he landed there had about an 1/8 of an
inch of oil in the oil bottle. The first thing Ed did when he landed was
to get his shoes and socks off and to go stand on the warm cement. The
temperature got down to –30 degrees, and at that temperature your camera
freezes up so, we weren’t able to get any high altitude pictures. Ed also
set the record for the longest engine out at? Ed was walking on cloud 9
that day He had finally got his record back!
80
PPC's in the air at the same time
Congratulations, Clyde Poser 2001 World Powered Parachute Champion Winner of Harley Davidson Ford F-150
Eddie Johnson 2000 World Powered Parachute Champion
Cross Country Distance Record by Steve Thomas On March 17th 2001, Steve Thomas completed a cross country flight
2,464 statute mile flight from Oceanside, California to Jekyll Island, Georgia. See
his web page for pictures and details. http://www.home.earthlink.net/~americanspirit/ Oldest Student to Solo a PPC from
Judy Johnson 9-9-2000 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. Freedom Road Xcountry (off site)
It’s... a bird...it’s a plane...it’s a Potato farmer
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 Sincerely Tons of Fun, Scott Hughes PS I am starting my diet to get skinny for the National Competitions.
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. Steve's Para Sports Longest cross country flight in an "N" numbered PPC. 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 Gene Long AFI Team Leader Gene Long writes a monthly article for Aero Connections Magazine, and is We started before dawn at the Parker Airport in Weatherford Texas.
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 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, 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 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 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. First flight of the millennium. Barry O'Carrol Well, the unofficial world's first powered parachute flight of the 21st century wasn't quite as memorable as I hoped it would be but for the record, I left the ground at 5.26am, 1/1/2000 NZ time. We're GMT +13 here so for you listers on the eastern USA it would have been 11.26am, 31/12/99 at your place, 8.26am for Q in Oregon and 6.26am for Earle in Hawaii! Conditions weren't great, low cloud and mist when I took off and had only been flying for a couple of minutes and it started to rain. :-( Had to head back to the paddock and land. Duration of flight...4 mins 30 secs. Still, I did fly!! I had hoped to buzz all the groups of people perched on hilltops around here waiting to witness the sunrise. Their disapointment would have been worse than mine because with the low cloud there was no sunrise to see, plus they got soaked. Conditons are improving outside now so are going to head out again to fly and dry the chute. I always had a feeling I'd be famous one-day. :-) Happy New Year! Barry (NZ) Fastest Climb Rate:
Oldest Student: I took up a woman who was 97 last summer,
believe it or not she wanted to learn to fly and loved it, unfortunately her health
deteriorated and training never got started she died last month. This was done in
Sept. 1998 and her name was Hattie Smith.... Heaviest Student 5-30-00 from Jim Leon I think I have beaten the heaviest student record. Longest Over Sea Flight from Ron.Gafni 's Incredible flight from Israel to Cyprus
Longest flights (miles) Make up your own! |
