28/4/2007

Final update before leaving

Article - Daily Telegraph Saturday 28th April 2007

This past month has been a blur of frostbite, sore backs and oxygen deprivation…and that’s before we have even left the UK. We are pretty bushed, but hopefully, finally, we are ready. We leave this week, and if I am brutally honest, I am a little scared.

Only two weeks ago did we get our first flights ever on the new machine. Bear in mind that taking off with our normal 20hp machines strapped to our backs can be quite committing, imagine what it is like with a 100hp engine. I needed two other people to help me to my feet and support me. The wing was laid out carefully on the ground behind, and it is huge. It is a vast tandem style wing which requires twice the effort and running speed to get it inflated. Three aborted attempts later, I was pouring with sweat and exhausted. Fourth go, the paraglider wing came up solidly above my head, I opened the throttle, a noise like a racing car leapt from my back and the Parajet literally blew my off the ground. I was airborne. I had to hold the engine back to about a quarter throttle, but still I was climbing at over double the rate I had ever climbed before. Over 800ft a minute. Under parachute, going up, that is fast.

Gilo then took off and broke the world altitude record with it, reaching over 20,000ft, whilst on only half throttle, and he was still climbing at over 500ft a minute. He was warm and the oxygen worked. This is good news!

Since that flight our confidence has grown. We have each taken off many, many times with ever increasing amount of fuel, kit and weight. Now all that remains is to be able to do it at 15,000ft five miles south of Everest and probably at dawn, when the winds are lowest. Time will tell.

Last week we also went to MIRA, a car testing facility in the Midlands of England, where we strung ourselves, and our Parajets, up in a wind chamber. It is effectively a giant deep freeze with huge fans. For two hours we were blasted by winds up to 80mph with temperatures reaching -75o. I have never experienced such penetrating, heart stopping cold. Even with two balaclavas, helmets, three sets of gloves, four sets of thermals, the wind and cold sneaked in everywhere. Discomfort was order of the day, even to the extent of having anal probes inserted to make sure our core temperature didn’t ever become life threateningly low! Finally at the end, we had to be helped out of our harnesses, blue and numb. Colder but wiser. We have since upgraded boots, gloves…everything.

We have also now packed up all the kit and shipped it off to Nepal. The Parajet factory became a heaving mass of boxes, oxygen cylinders, parachutes, radios, helmets, down suits, flares, lightweight ice axes, crampons, tents, sleeping bags, food, oxygenated fuel barrels, you name it…oh and two remote control airplanes just for fun! The only items held back by us were the actual Everest Parajet machines themselves which followed this week. We have needed them here until the final moments, to give us as much time to test them further in the hypobaric chambers, to tweak the fuel management systems and on board computers, as well as make sure all the wiring is insulated to be able to survive the sub zero temperatures. (In the wind tunnel the engine actually cracked with the cold…it has since been modified!)

This project is a more ambitious and dangerous one than I have ever undertaken before; in many ways more than I had ever planned. But despite the nerves I am confident in our preparations and our planning, and if we keep our cool, make good judgements with the weather, cover all our emergency plans, and then give it our everything, I believe we can achieve this. But whether we do or don’t, at least no-one can say we haven’t given this our everything. What I know is that I am so proud of my team, to have got us to this stage. This in itself is a momentous achievement by them all. Next report will be from our base camp, in the shadow of Everest. Pray for us, if you have time: for good luck, good weather and a safe home-coming.