Certainly, it is cold these days in Nancy but a far cry from the temperature felt on June 19, 2017 at more than 5,500 meters above sea level by Julien Fournier…
That day, after several years of preparation, this resident of Goviller, instructor at the Nancy free flight club, took off into the Lorraine sky, in Pont-Saint-Vincent exactly, from the Sainte-Barbe plateau. He is equipped in particular with a suit “tested in Siberia”, reports L’Est Républicain in its article recounting the world record that the then 28-year-old pilot was trying to establish.
In his package, again, “cell phone, four altimeters, oxygen reserve, 23 liters of fuel”…
Julien Barbier broke the paramotor altitude record by reaching 5,700 meters. Until June 19, 2017, it was held by an American (5,386 m). It took the Lorraine three hours to reach this altitude, experiencing a few scares: “At 4,00 m, the engine started to ice and misfire. And then it’s gone again. With a very low rate of climb, 10 centimeters per second. I was fully focused,” says the man who crossed Chile on a paramotor in 2011.
-“I like challenges,” the engineer declared to L’Est Républicain. He accomplished this under the reassuring eye of his family and air traffic controllers from Nancy-Ochey air base 133.
It remained for the approval commission of the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI) to validate the record.
Swiss
