Priest Lost in attempt to break Guinness Air Record

[john9001]

he mocked the gods, and they are angry.

[indy007]

Is there a rule against being tethered?

Probably. In cluster-ballooning (I've always wanted to try it), they use water for ballast and drain it off to climb. The BB gun is for descent, and steering is exactly like a hot air balloon... pick an altitude with the wind pointing the way you want, and off you go.

Looks fun as hell.

[deSelys]

Apparently, God wants the truckers to drink booze and watch strippers... If I was the Priest, I would be pretty ****** off when facing my Creator and I would ask Him if He really knows what he wants.

Seriously, Blue Skies to the guy...

[AWMac]

Did anyone seriously think he was gonna pull this off?

 

Mac

[LTARGlok]

Looks fun as hell.

Unless, of course, you die..........

.

[LTARGlok]

He did this without a GPS unit? 

No, he had both a GPS unit with him, and also a Satellite phone.

.

[LTARGlok]

Did anyone seriously think he was gonna pull this off?

 

Mac

Well, yes, he had actually tried this once before, last January 13th.   He only used 600 balloons then, and only stayed aloft for a little over 4 hours, no where near the record.   So he added more balloons this time.   It is said that he used just over 1,000 balloons in this attempt.

In his previous attempt, he went to 17,390 feet.   So this time, who knows how high he may have soared?   It is doubtful that he did any calculations to figure this out in advance.  He simply added 400 more balloons.

Doesn't it get difficult to breath at those higher altitudes?  I have never been higher than 8,400 ft myself, so I don't have any experience with that.  He did wear a thermal suit to help keep him warm.

This will no doubt remain a mystery, since any physical evidence now rests in the Atlantic Ocean.

.

[AWMac]

No, he had both a GPS unit with him, and also a Satellite phone.

.

His last call was:

  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhh.......

*splash*

*Operator:  "If you wish to place a call please hang up and dial again...."  beep, beep, beeep*

[Gh0stFT]

Search is now suspended for balloon priest, tells CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/24/priest.balloons.ap/index.html

Marcio Andre Lichtnow (his former Paragliding Instructor) said the priest phoned him days before liftoff.

"I told him that the winds would carry him all the way to South Africa," Lichtnow said. "
He said he had studied everything very carefully and that he would go ahead.
I honestly thought he was joking."

strange, how can you prepaire your flight plan so carefully but ending up flying
to the opposite direction?

[Yknurd]

vaya con dios