(When I push for specifics, he admits sheepishly that “everyone had enjoyed themselves” a bit too much the prior evening.) But “technical problems,” he says, delayed his departure until 11 a.m. The morning after he arrived in Moab, German had intended to be airborne by dawn. As the day progresses, heat from sunlight forms thermals-updrafts that can be violent and make it impossible to fly in a straight line. Paramotorers prefer to fly very early in the morning, while the air is still. Seven days later, German had covered more than 600 miles when he arrived in Moab, Utah, where he spent the night sleeping in the driver’s seat of his jeep, which his ground-support crew had been using as a chase vehicle. Last year he and six other pilots took flight on a cloudless, crisp October morning from a grassy median at the Polson Airport, on the southern shore of Montana’s Flathead Lake. This month, the Adventurists will host their third annual Icarus Trophy, charging entrants $2,200 to participate. He’d threaded the Rocky Mountains into Idaho and was midway through Utah’s desert badlands when what might be considered a piloting error forced him to descend.Ī U.K.-based outfit called the Adventurists organizes the Icarus Trophy, along with several other madcap exploits, including a 1,800-mile rickshaw run through India and a sidecar-motorcycle rally across Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal. From its start in Polson, Montana, near Glacier National Park, German had been following the race route south. His encounter with the cactus occurred while he was competing in the Icarus Trophy, a 1,000-mile air race that spans five Western states. German, 30, lives in Houston, Texas, and is a paramotor pilot. Trey German got a late start on the day he crash-landed into a cactus field and ended up with dozens of inch-long spines protruding from his butt. Saint Hillaire is around 25km from Grenoble and 150km from Lyon.After the race, former competitors meet to fly at the Pinal airplane boneyard in Arizona. To get to the festival, there will be special buses available from Lumbin and Saint Hillaire. There will also be a model aircraft trade fair, kite demonstrations, paragliding lessons and larger than life costumes on land. Another highlight is the Icarus Expo - a vast undercover arena filled with paragliding paraphernalia. There will also be workshops held during the day to give you the chance to make your own lantern. As the sun sets over the mountains, hundreds of colourful paper lanterns will be released into the night sky, each lit by a small flame. When they take off, you'll get to see all manner of weird creatures floating across the sky! Another unmissable event at the Icarus Cup is the congregation of dozens of hot air balloons that take off in unison. The Masquerade Flights will feature hang glider and paraglider pilots dressed up in colourful costumes. The main event features stunts and displays involving hang gliders, paragliders, parachutes, wing suits, sail planes, gyrocopters and more. The Icarus Cup promises to be a spectacular French Festival where jaw dropping aerial acrobatics will be mixed with colourful costumes. The wing suit is probably the closest that man will ever get to experiencing unaided flight. The event attracts a mix of dare devil free flyers that take to the skies in paragliders, hot air balloons and, in true Icarus style, wing suits! In Greek mythology, Icarus used wings constructed of wax and feathers to escape his prison in Crete. If you are planning a trip to France this September, then you might want to check out the Icarus Cup Free-Flying Festival, which is taking place on 16-19 September in Saint-Hillaire du Touvet.
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