Wonder how many TCAS alerts were activated, also no charts, no IFR flight plan, and defo no transponder. Just up, and up, and up and away….
BeechBaby wrote:
Wonder how many TCAS alerts were activated, also no charts, no IFR flight plan, and defo no transponder. Just up, and up, and up and away….
Without transponder, zero TCAS alerts… As far as I can make out this was in the US. Doesn’t the US have general class E up to 18,000’ and no general transponder requirement for VFR? In that case he was mostly legal.
Last week one of our members got a bit of a surprise when returning in the DA40 as he was descending on base he suddenly noticed one of these circling just below him. Our member got the impression that this guy never knew that the DA 40 was in the circuit or how close they came. No one knew where he came from and of course no radio, despite the field being radio mandatory.
The problem is these guys just take off fro their garden and just bimble around totally unaware of other traffic.
As I watched I had this vision of him passing out due hypoxia, then staying up there until he ran out of fuel, and then falling out of the sky and landing in someones garden.
A kind of Johnny Darko moment…
BeechBaby wrote:
I had this vision of him passing out due hypoxia
Yup, exactly. I suppose the rule no flight over 10k ft without supplemental oxygen is also valid in the US? So possible pilot violation?
Parachuting is legal up to 18,000 ft. I have no experience with powered parachutes but I assume they will make a stable glide without pilot input, and the throttle is sprung loaded closed? That would be my interest once over 14,000 for any length of time. That and the video giving me weird fear of heights sensations, never mind the real thing… 
and the cold. I’m guessing this is in class E, seems to be in rural Ohio from his description, and radio/transponder etc contact would not generally be a factor. If it’s not considered a parachute he might have an issue over 10,000 ft. without Mode C, although Part 103 ultralights are explicitly allowed over that altitude, per the cloud clearance regs.
I wonder how the little two-stroke engine does at that altitude, it seems to keep running without issue, and that surprises me.
Looks like he’s having fun anyway. Obviously not enough people doing this, or for long enough at high altitude that it’s a real world issue for other aircraft in VMC.
Silvaire wrote:
That and the video giving me weird fear of heights sensations, never mind the real thing
Years ago before I took up powered flight I used to go to the local gliding club. Two things left a mark. First I took a trip with a work colleague on an early microlight. The one where you are perched almost atop the pilots shoulder. We went to 3500. I always remember the feeling of sitting in a chair, with thousands of feet to the ground. Quite eery. Second was a trip, after a standard gliding trip, in a motorised Falke. At 4k he cut the small engine. The nose dropped, violently I remember, we lost some altitude, then caught an upward thermal. However the feeling of going from power to glide certainly left a sensation with me.
In a paraglider at 17k, dangling on a small seat, frankly gives me the creeps…all without O2
The word is that people get married in the gliding club (because you spend most of the day waiting) and that is probably the most dangerous thing 😂
Perhaps not wise, but AFAICT legal. He seems to be aware of the regs, as he mentions that he’s ‘outside the ring’ (which I assume is the 30Nm transponder zone of some nearby airport, wherever that is) and also mentions the 18k ft. I doubt that the O2 or transponder regs are valid for unlicensed ops, as would be the case here., although I’m not sure. Is it wise? IMHO, no. Quite frankly, looking at these images gives me the creeps. Not for me….
The bare hand holding the phone surprised me. I wonder what the air temperature was.
