Last official activity of the month of November 2023, and it was an EPIC one. In fact without previous precedents. And it turns out that a few days ago, pilot Darwin Hernández had the idea of doing a long-distance “Cross” flight, which no one in Puerto Rico had done to date. The pilots Edgardo Rivera and Samuel Travis joined his idea on this adventure.
The plans…
The idea was to make a “Cross” paramotor flight, leaving from “El Único” Beach in Dorado, and from there fly all the way to Villa Pesquera Isabela, 52 miles (83 Km) in a straight line path.
But, this is no different to the achieve of other pilots in the past, who had done it, even several times. BUT…, for this particular trip, the idea was not just to get to Isabela. They’ll return flying back to Dorado!!!
In other words, it would be a round trip of 104 mile (166 km). The conditions of the day didn’t look ideal for this type of adventure and Darwin decided to cancel it. BUT… Edgardo and Samuel had others plans and arrived early in the morning to Dorado… They would try to do it. They were both using ultra-fast paragliders. Edgardo with a 15 meter Flow RPM 2, and Samuel with a small Dudek Hadron paraglider as well.
The decision… could we make it?…
The sky was clear and the winds in the morning were acceptable to at least reach Isabela. So, Both pilots decided to keep on the adventure and took off from “El Único” Beach in Dorado around 9:30 AM. At already 11 AM they were arriving and landing in Villa Pesquera Isabela. It only took them an hour and a half to complete that journey. (with an average speed greater than 35 mph).
Crucial decision…
Now came the biggest decision…, the sky continued clear and cloudless, but the wind had increased in intensity. It was already at a constant 12 to 15 mph and the weather forecast indicated that it would continue to increase… Could they decide to flight back to Dorado? It seemed possible but complicated… And both pilots decided to do it. They refueled and began the return trip around 12:30 PM…
Samuel Travis was ahead the most part of the route, thanks to the use of an speed bar, which this time Edgardo did not have installed in his Paramotor. As they advanced, the wind became stronger by the minute. Samuel landed at Parque del Norte in Hatillo, to wait a bit for Edgardo and in turn save some gasoline. The winds were at 15 – 18 mph at the moment and still picking up… Once Edgardo passed, Hatillo, Samuel took off again and both continued towards Dorado.
Gasoline Reserve and Plans…
Due to the intensity of the headwinds, both were running out of gasoline and decided to stop to refuel near the Mar Chiquita beach in Manatí. Added to the strong wind at the moment, there was another challenge inconvenience.
The direction of the wind, as they approached Dorado, had begun to turn and now was coming from an ESE direction. This was bad, because that means that they are receiving winds coming from inland and that means a lot of turbulence. That situation caused that the pilots reroute their flight path and fly over open sea for a while. In fact, Edgardo‘s landing in Manatí for refuel was difficult and under turbulence.
The Final Path…
Once they managed to take off from Manatí, the winds continued to be strong. In order to pass the Vega Baja area, they had to gain altitude and fly for long minutes over the open sea. Finally, after some tense minutes, they managed to make the journey to Dorado just before sunset, safe and exhausted. This last section of the route from Manati to Dorado took them about 3 hours of flight to complete due to the heavy winds. The total time from Isabela to Dorado was over 5 hours+ of continuous flying. That means that they were flying in the day from 6 to 7 hours considering the flight duration in the morning from Dorado to Isabela. AMAZING!!!
Both pilots managed to achieve an unprecedented record in the history of Paramotoring in Puerto Rico. Congratulations and our respects to both of them!!!
