Toy balloons take pilot to 11,000ft record

Electronic Telegraph ^ | October 29 2001 | Nicola Woolcock

[aculeus]

A PILOT who attached himself to 600 helium-filled toy balloons floated 11,000ft into the air yesterday, breaking his own world record.

Top of the pops: Ian Ashpole soared to a height of 11,000ft Ian Ashpole, 46, cut himself free with a knife after reaching the required height and parachuted back to earth. He set the previous record of 10,000ft five years ago, and eventually hopes to reach a height of 15,000ft.

Mr Ashpole, from Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, has also set records for bungee jumping, abseiling and tightrope walking between balloons.

He said: "It's a childhood dream. I saw a film called The Red Balloon, in which a boy floats off on balloons, when I was a child and ever since I've wanted to do it.

"The one worrying moment came when I released myself from the support balloon and began to spin quite dramatically. I thought for a while I might have a problem.

"It got to a point where a lot of balloons were starting to burst, it was like machine guns, and I cut myself free without any problem."

Supporters had spent 10 hours filling the 4ft balloons with helium for Mr Ashpole's flight, at Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.

He kept his knife tied around his neck and had a spare knife in a pocket. "The one thing you don't want to do is drop the knife. I gripped it for dear life," he said.

Mr Ashpole's record was verified by observers in a balloon and a helicopter. He landed about 10 miles from where he took off.

[tacticalogic]

A jetliner pilot reported seeing him. (thats not something you see everyday)

I wonder if anybody's got a recording of that conversattion with air traffice control. It would have to be a classic.

[noah]

Craziness comes in many forms. If there was a miscue and he got tangled in the ballons and crashed and died, Would'nt it be EMBARRASSING!

[Rebelbase]

Here is the audio file from the local CB radio group who monitored Larry's communication with his ground crew and local authorities.

[DouglasKC]

That was an awesome site! Made me want to do it!

[skeeter]

Luckily, seeing the Red Balloon as a child didn't have the same affect on me.

[BearCub]

Another cool site is ParaBounce - a 22' helium balloon that lets you jump abount 100' in the air and then come back down slowly. Sort of a reverse bungee jump. When I get sick of my job I think I'll buy one, take it to a beach and give $20 rides for a living. I've been kicking this around for about two years...

-bc

[BushMeister]

Looks to me like Lawn Chair Larry holds the record at 16,000 feet, not this Brit at 11,000.

[DouglasKC]

That is awesome! It would be great to strap that puppy on and bounce across a huge old field...

[BearCub]

Want to retire & start a ParaBounce business on some beach? You & Mrs. GopherIt could live in Florida in that Winnebago...

;-)

-bc

[Darth Sidious]

He sure sounded surprisingly calm. That guy had serious cajones.

[Calvin Locke]

...if anybody's got a recording...

You can get(buy) the recording of the Larry's conversation. Art Bell had the somebody on that was quite intimate with Larry's flight. Can try to look it up on Bell's site, but guests are arranged alphabetically per page, and I don't remember the guest's name. Kind of a pain when you want to find the name of a book that was being promoted 6 months ago...

[jws3sticks]

Ian Ashpole = Next Darwin Award Winner

[GopherIt]

When I get to my double-wide in Luchenbach, I'll think about it.

[GopherIt]

P.S. I think you ought to get to know Laurie Dhue.

[TheGoodDoc]

A true lunatic. Some people have entirely too much time on their hands.

[185JHP]

If you think Condit didn't like getting FReeped before, imagine a FReep using a few dozen of these things...

[BearCub]

Laurie Dhue

LOL - I'd love to get to know Laurie Dhue. I just don't know if I'd remember what to do with her once I knew her.