Heard about this from my old soaring club at Darling Downs in QLD, then found this confirmation:

February 20, 2007 03:35pm
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A CHINESE paraglider found dead after being sucked into a storm cell over northern NSW was struck by lightning.

Police say Beijing man Zhongpin He, 42, disappeared last Wednesday while paragliding near Manilla ahead of this week's Paragliding World Championships.

After an extensive air and ground search, his body was found the following day about 75km from his launch site.

Police revealed today that the preliminary results of a post-mortem examination showed Mr He had been struck by lightning.

Mr He was a member of the Chinese national paragliding team, with 10 years' experience.

Another competitor sucked into the same storm cell was lucky to survive after being pounded by hail in freezing temperatures.

German woman Ewa Wisnierska, 35, lost consciousness for more than 40 minutes after being catapulted by the storm cell to a height of about 9946m, before eventually dropping to a lower altitude.


That's about 33,000 feet!! First, it says a lot about the equipment and second, NEVER argue with one of those German ladies.

Tragic about the guy. Apparently they were sniffing around for strong lift and found more than they bargained for. The soaring club was using it as a warning to the members to be careful around towering Cu's that are in season right now.

YB

Book from the 60's or 70's, called "The Man Who Rode The Thunder". A fighter pilot (I seem to recall a Marine) punched out above a developing cell.

He landed, unconcious, some 40 odd minutes later, beat to heck but alive. He was concious most of the time, but hail and cold had him down bad by the time he landed.

Interesting story, and the longest recorded free fall. His wingman witnessed the bail out, and searchers saw him land, so there was verification of both.

MTV

The world record freefall was set by Capt. Joeseph W. Kittinger, Jr., USAF when he jumped from a balloon at 102,000 feet.

The woman was on the TV news a day or two ago. Wow- what a deal!
What's the deal with extended periods of oxygen deprivation. I would think that up there at FL330 it wouldn't take too long for permanent (brain) damage to be done. There's a novel about an airliner that suffers explosive decompression at altitude and for whatever reason doesn't descend in time to prevent almost everyone aboard from becoming drooling idiots. Good book, can't recall the name but I think Thomas Block (the aviation magazine writer) was the author.

Eric

Fletcher Andersen talked about "cloudsuck" in his book, said it almost happened to him a few times and it's why he stopped paragliding.

at or above 30,000ft you would lose consciousness from oxygen deficiency in one to two minutes... This very thing happened to Payne Stewert in Oct 1999, while leaving Gainesville Florida in his Lear 35 lost pressurization... everyone on the Lear passed out and the jet traveled over a thousand miles in a straight line until it ran out of fuel over north-central South Dakota.

zero.one.victor wrote:What's the deal with extended periods of oxygen deprivation. I would think that up there at FL330 it wouldn't take too long for permanent (brain) damage to be done. There's a novel about an airliner that suffers explosive decompression at altitude and for whatever reason doesn't descend in time to prevent almost everyone aboard from becoming drooling idiots. Good book, can't recall the name but I think Thomas Block (the aviation magazine writer) was the author.

Eric

Sector,

Oh, that's right--I forgot about the nutball who free fell for most of a week .

MTV

Not as crazy as Felix Baumgartner freefalling across the English Channel with a sleek, aerodynamic carbon fiber wing strapped to his back...

A plane dropped Felix into the sky at an altitude of more than 30,000 feet, letting gravity and the wind shoot the wing through the air and over the English Channel. He made the 21-mile trip in 14 minutes reaching up to 217 mph...

I watched his story on the discovery channel...

mtv wrote:Sector,

Oh, that's right--I forgot about the nutball who free fell for most of a week .

MTV