Storm whips paraglider to heights of 32,000 ft

[v2]

A champion paraglider described today her terror at being flung to a height greater than Mount Everest by a tornado-like thunderstorm in Australia.

Ewa Wisnerska, 35, was sucked so high that she blacked out and became encased in ice.

"You can't imagine the power. You feel like nothing, like a leaf from a tree going up," she told Australian radio.

Wisnerska, from Germany, was preparing for the 10th World Paragliding Championships above the town of Manilla in New South Wales when the storm struck on Wednesday.

With terrifying speed she was whisked from 2,500 ft to an estimated 32,000 ft in about 15 minutes

more: Storm whips paraglider to heights of 32,000 ft | International News | News | Telegraph

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Wow that had to suck. I love flying but I dont think I would enjoy paragliding for that reason right there.

 

[Glider]

I was once sucked into a storm cloud in a glider and admit to being past worried, and basically just sat there waiting for the glider to break up, going through the bail out routine.

What it must be like in a paraglider I have no idea.

 

[syscom3]

How would she know she went up to 32,000 feet? By her own admission she had blacked out.

Besides, she would have been frozen dead on the way up, if the hypoxia hadn't killed her first.

I say she didnt crack 20K, if that.

 

[mkloby]

How would she know she went up to 32,000 feet? By her own admission she had blacked out.

Besides, she would have been frozen dead on the way up, if the hypoxia hadn't killed her first.

I say she didnt crack 20K, if that.

Yeah, 32,000' is very high. There's no way to really gauge that. If it was a violent storm, I would think she had 0 reference w/ the ground past several thousand feet as well. Takes hypoxia a little time to set in, but it was estimated in 15 minutes. By then, she would be the equivalent of a raging drunk (after only about 2 minutes).

When they did the hypoxia tests on us in the pressure chamber, they set the alt to 25,000'. We took off our ox masks and played patty-cake. My God how difficult that game becomes after a minute! I lasted about 2 mins, and just sat there basically drooling on myself - instructor came helped get the ox mask back on.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I have felt hypoxia. We did some high alltitude training in the mountains and us guys in the back did not have oxygen. We had to right stuff on a paper and it was so hard to concentrate on just doing that and then we had to put shaped blocks in there respective shaped holes (like the baby toys) and that was pretty hard, I kept trying to put the square in the circle. My buddy was drooling all over the place. After a few minutes of that funny stuff (they video taped it as well) they took us back down to earth.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Pretty Wild stuff....

A few months ago I read a guy flying a Schmp Hirth motorglider got sucked up in some bad sh*t over Reno. His aircraft broke apart but he survived (he had a chute on). What was amazing ATC was actually watching him from the ground as they were amazed he was even up as high as reported....

I'll try to find the article...

 

[mkloby]

I have felt hypoxia. We did some high alltitude training in the mountains and us guys in the back did not have oxygen. We had to right stuff on a paper and it was so hard to concentrate on just doing that and then we had to put shaped blocks in there respective shaped holes (like the baby toys) and that was pretty hard, I kept trying to put the square in the circle. My buddy was drooling all over the place. After a few minutes of that funny stuff (they video taped it as well) they took us back down to earth.

Yeah - they videotaped ours as well. It's amazing that the pattycake seemed like you were trying to solve some astro physics equation. They gave one of my buddies the child's toys that you were talking about with the shapes and the holes. After about a minute he just kept trying to jam them in and couldn't fit any more in Another guy was laughing (know how you get giddy and "feel good") and smacking himself around

 

[syscom3]

In the skydiving years of my youth, I was under canopy and ventured into a thermal.

It was funny watching my altimeter wind upward (at a good clip, about 200-300 ft per minute).

I wasn't funny when I realized that I and my fellow jumpers were going to land miles from the drop zone.

 

[Gnomey]

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Paraglider survives 32,000ft fall

Apartly another competitor was killed in the same storm. Crazy stuff.

 

[Thorlifter]

Wow that had to suck.

Adler........never at a loss for words!!!!!!!!! ha ha ha ha