Twin brothers Anthony and Tim Green broke the altitude world record for tandem paramotoring in April, flying up to 5,066m above the summit of Mont Blanc on their Parajet / Vittorazi paramotors, running on biofuel.
The record is for altitude not height gained, so they opted to start high but in order to meet the requirements for the official record they had to find a location with a perfectly flat take-off area with less than one degree of descent for the surrounding 100m. The Col du Midi, perched at 3,842m above the Vallée Blanche, fitted their requirements so was their chosen start point.
In order to gain an official record, you need a lot of planning and a lot of kit. The brothers estimated that between them they probably flew around 1,000kg of luggage up to the start point!
As well as the logistical side of things, they also had technical problems to resolve, such as how to adjust the engine’s fuel mix whilst in the air, in order to compensate for the air pressure reducing with altitude.
Find out how they overcame this problem, and read the rest of the story in issue 162, August 2015, out now.
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