Balloon Intercept – the Real Story

[mike.smith]

I have always appreciated the skills of a great bullshit artist...Graeme, you are the genuine article!

Just a crazy thought, what is the highest anyone has flown their Sonex? The highest that I've gone is just over 8500 feet, naturally I'd left my warm jacket on the seat next to me and froze my arse off. Normally I'm flying under Class C airspace and to go higher means a bit of travel first. Legally I can't go over 10,000 feet here in Australia, but I was wondering if anyone has tried going higher just for the hell of it.

I went up to 10,000' MSL during phase 1, in the summer. I'm used to skydiving from 13,500', so I didn't find it particularly cold. I had enough power (Aerovee) to go a bit higher, but I decided to stop there. I got up to 9,000' on the way back from OSH a few years ago as clouds were building, but finally decided to go under, as with a fully loaded airplane I wasn't going to get much higher, and you know the clouds would have!