100Hp powered paragliders over Everest

[rankamateur]

On SBS now

 

Bear Grills and his mate are trying to fly over Mt Everest

 

100 Hp super charged inter cooled engine weighing 125 pounds, who couldn't use one of those?

 

But why wouldn't you use anti-freeze if you had Everest in your sites?

 

 

[djpacro]

I was working for GKN back then - they sponsored the mission - part of a charity drive. One of my colleagues went with them - supposedly as an observer (the company selected a small number worldwide to go - just "ordinary" people, none of the bigwigs) but ended up being part of the support crew - something that he will never forget.

 

 

[terryc]

I watched and enjoyed it,but is it me or was the planning from start to finish a total balls up. I do more planning for a 30 minute joy flight. I'm surprised they made it off the ground at all. Human factors out the window. Maybe just playing to the camera.

 

 

[turboplanner]

A lot of spin for the cameras I think.

 

 

[Mick]

To actually arrive aot the base camp with a rig that had not flown seemed like a breakdown in carrying out any planning.

 

Seemed like a massive gamble to spend the $$$ and effort to get there without well tried and proven equipment. Gambling their life as if one had gone down on the upper half of the Mount they would have perished due oxygen starvation and/or freeze before help could arrive.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Did you like the segment where they tested the aircraft in the freezing wind tunnel to simulate the huge frozen winds they would be contending with during the flight, supposedly not realizing that an aircraft moves in the moving air mass and with a top speed of around 30 km/hr is going to have a lot less wind chill factor than a climber on the ground.......but Bear got his slight frostbite for the cameras.

 

 

[dazza 38]

Bugger I missed it.I watched a DVD Mission impossible Ghost Protocol.

 

 

[turboplanner]

It was a good watch. Very nice work on the engines.

 

 

[dazza 38]

WOW I just finished watching it on the internet at SBS/on demand. It was great.

 

 

[rankamateur]

To actually arrive aot the base camp with a rig that had not flown seemed like a breakdown in carrying out any planning.Seemed like a massive gamble to spend the $$$ and effort to get there without well tried and proven equipment. Gambling their life as if one had gone down on the upper half of the Mount they would have perished due oxygen starvation and/or freeze before help could arrive.

I couldn't believe the rig was untried and if it runs rough and stops, they had to take them off to put the starter on, no pull cord, guess that is all for weight saving. Wonder what a stripped down rotax 912s weighs? might not be a lot more than a 125 pound. They talked about 100Hp but the engine didn't really look deep enough to be a four cylinder.

 

 

[turboplanner]

I've driven 1 cylinder 100 hp engines, so that's no issue. They only needed a 3 hour life.

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Been thinking about the 100hp claimed power. Could have just been a theoretical figure if it achieved the same boost at sea level as it does at 30,000ft.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Been thinking about the 100hp claimed power. Could have just been a theoretical figure if it achieved the same boost at sea level as it does at 30,000ft.

100 to 150 hp from 500 cc is not too hard these days (that's at sea level)

 

 

[dazza 38]

I think they said the engine was a Turbo charged Rotary.

 

 

[facthunter]

You can get almost any power out of them Just up the boost. They'l keep running for a few hours. I would have thought at high altitudes you would want a fairly efficient wing for it to work. The indicated stall speed wouldn't vary much but the TAS would be pretty high and you'd want a little more rigidity in the wing etc in those circumstances. Nev