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ANDY AEBI FLIES
PARAMOTOR WORLD RECORD
Swiss pilot Andy Aebi foot-launched his paramotor from Wildberg airport in Germany and flew a 883km FAI triangle on 15 July.
He has put in a claim with the FAI for a paramotor closed-circuit World distance record.
Andy launched at 5:46am and was in the air for 14 hours and five minutes. His sights were initially set on a 1,000km flight, but he experienced problems with the fuel system, losing some fuel, and had to shorten the second leg, making it a 911km tracklog distance and an 883km FAI triangle.
Phi’s Benni Hörburger commented, “He still had two hours – he had time, but it was rather difficult without petrol!”
Andy was flying a Phi Scala 2 13, the smaller-than-standard size made specially for the record. It was powered by a Miniplane paramotor with Vittorazi Atom 80 engine. He launched with 60 litres of fuel onboard, and a take-off weight of 150kg. It was some take-off run!
The Scala 2 is a high EN-C wing, the full-weight version of Phi’s X-Alps wing. Phi say it has an “extremely stable aerofoil”. Hannes Papesh answered a question on Facebook, “So does this mean Phi are coming in to paramotoring?” with a “Yes, we try to!”
See the flight on XContest.
View the Screenshots from the News Release.
View the news release from Cross Country Magazine.
Test Flight description from Facebook:
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Record Flight text from the Facebook page:
World record flight with a paramotor: an 883 km long FAI triangle
Finally, the long-awaited nice weather showed up. The year 2024 has been very modest weather technically for the north side of the Alps so far, barely a day passed without rain. On Monday the 15th tho July, it's time: the first day that wind, weather and my schedule allow me to start my long-planned paramotor project - a 1000 km FAI triangle.
The preparations for this took over two years until all the material was assembled and tested. The key to success was the equipment: an engine from miniplane and a parachute from PHI. The latest model of miniplane with the 140 cm propeller is so quiet and smooth that the flight with good headphones and running music almost felt like a comfortable car ride. It's the quietest engine I've ever flown and its run is genius. The fuel consumption was also decisive, and the engine exceeded my expectations.
When it comes to the parachute, I deliberately chose not a pure paramotor parachute, but a parachute designed for mountain aviation. In my opinion, these umbrellas are more focused on performance. My desire was to use a fast yet safe 2-liner, and so I chose the PHI Scala 2. It is the most powerful and at the same time the most stable model with high end speed. A two-liner with a top speed of 85 km/h, which is stable and very powerful at the same time.
The take-off was at 5:45 a.m., just three minutes after sunrise. Everything went perfectly according to plan. Immediately after the start at 400 m AGL I reached the forecasted southwest wind and was able to fly north-east between Nuremberg and Würzburg with good back wind, always keeping the different air spaces in view that had to be over, under or over flown. After 317 km I reached the first turn in Bad Rodach and continued my course towards Linz. This was the most difficult section as I had headwinds and the thermal daytime was fully utilized. Full concentration on active flying was required.
Everything continued to go according to plan, including the speed, until when refueling from the auxiliary tank to the main tank I experienced a setback: the gas line burst and I lost several liters of fuel. 89 km before the turning point in Linz, I had to calculate based on the rest of the gasoline how far I would get, and realized that unfortunately it would not be quite enough. With a heavy heart, I decided to shorten the route so that I could still reach the destination. Due to the airspace around Munich, I still had to navigate a large section towards the south.
On the last 250 km, I had at times little hope of reaching the goal, especially since the rules state that the triangle must be closed up to 800 m to be considered an FAI triangle. But it worked: I had less than 0.2 liters of gasoline left at the finish line, so the decision to shorten was absolutely right.
Only one small drop of worm: the 1000 km triangle would have worked as planned if the gas line hadn't burst. I lost significantly more fuel in the air than I would have needed to complete. Despite that, I managed an 883 km long FAI triangle, which still represents a significant world record.
Some more flight technical data:
The actual distance flown was 921 km, only 79 km were missing for a full 1000 km FAI triangle. The average speed was 65.8 km/h, including take off and a few turns for the photographer during landing. At the start I had about 56 liters of gasoline on board, but I certainly lost 6-7 liters on the way. So I consumed a maximum of 50 litres of gasoline for the 921 km, which corresponds to 5.4 liters per 100 km or 3.5 liters per hour - and at a speed of almost 66 km/h.
The take-off weight at the time of take-off was approximately 156 kg.
Also in the area of time management I could have easily flown the missing 79 km. Until sunset, I had over 1 hour and 20 minutes of flight time, and since I ended up running out of fuel, I deliberately flew slower and more economically. In terms of speed, I could have increased significantly, if necessary.
These data testify to the outstanding performance of the screen and engine. A big thank you to the constructors, helpers and everyone who cheered with me!
Especially in terms of the engine, it should be mentioned that it is a serial model and no modifications have been done by me. Thus, this engine is available to all paramotor pilots. What else does a pilot need? Economical, light, quiet and despite a departure weight of 156 kg and speeds of 65 km/h, it offers sufficient climbing power. No one needs more engine power.
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