This stunning feat has been achieved - it could not be otherwise - using a Paramotor!
Let's follow this brave Pilot on his adventurous trip.
It's May 22nd, at 4:30 in the morning.
Pierre wears his double flying suit and sits on his specially designed Paramotor trike. He needs to take off on wheels, or the weight of the fuel alone could crush him: he is in fact carrying some 90 litres of petrol. That's what it takes - in Pierre's plans - to run his JPX D320 two-stroke engine throughout the Mediterranean sea. That brings his total flying weight - including his Trekking Odyssey, a 42-sq. meter Paraglider - to a stunning 208 Kg on take off!
At 6 a.m. all's ready, he applies full power and lifts off with a roar, climbing to 150 meters and giving one last look at the coast before venturing over the deep, blue sea. He's heading West first, in order to catch the good Mistral channelled in by the Rhode valley - a precious help in his long crossing!
His GPS in fact soon reports a ground speed of 57 Km/h, increasing later to 70, 80, 90 and up to a stunning 100 Km/h in the end! All is well however and the excited Pilot zooms bravely past the Sardinian coast, in radio contact with a support aeroplane flying above him.
However, like in any long flight, problems are lurking ahead. At 12 noon, the sky starts filling up with little cumulus clouds, which slowly grow bigger and bigger. When the clouds start joining together, the wind drops and his ground speed reduces dramatically. He's trapped in the cloud, in a severe turbulence throwing him around in circles and with a lost radio contact with the plane. He must absolutely come out of it, before it degenerates into a treacherous thunderstorm.
This is not the time to spare fuel. He applies full power and climbs to 1100 meters, towards a patch of blue sky. That's no good either. He still can't get out of the cloud, it's cold and raining, with water running profusely down the lines and flooding himself and his instruments, which can't be read anymore. Something else has to be tried, quickly.
"Well, if crossing above the clouds doesn't help, let's try going through them!", the poor pilot comments and goes down again, flying through 800 m. of rain and clouds while trying to keep his heading. It's already 2 p.m. when - all soaked and shivering - he manages to get out of the cloud and regain sight of the sea, at 450 metres above it.
The tension eases and a good stretch of blue sky is now ahead of him. A strange vibration however is now shaking the Paramotor frame. He reduces power, checks the engine and finally finds out that... it was just himself, badly shivering!!
A warm sun, some fruit juice and a piece of chocolate helps him regaining control of the situation. He manages also to contact his friend in the support plane, who reports a thunderstorm over Tunis, suggesting instead a landing near Biserta, by the coast.
His long flight is made even longer by frequent detours he has to make in order to avoid the numerous thunderstorms on his path. Suddenly, to his excitement, the Tunisian coast is on sight!
There's only one last problem. The wind, which had been pushing him so well during the crossing, is still very strong and, as he turns back into it, he sees himself flying backward at a stunning speed of 72 Km/h!!
"Gee, how to land in such conditions?" the poor Pilot is thinking in despair. During his past planning and training, he had envisaged a possible crash landing in strong conditions, but touching down backward at 70 Km/h is another thing altogether!
Two solutions are worth considering: landing on the trees or in the water. Small and soft trees however are in short supply around there, so he gets low and drifts over a lake, still moving backward at 40 Km/h. A mussel farming patch reveals the shallower portion of the lake and that's where it's best to touch down. At 2 m. over the water he switches off the engine and prepares for the worst.
A while later, he's safely down in 30 cm of water!
No, no not quite!! A gust of wind picks him up, before he can collapse the canopy, and sends him 5 m. up in the air! The end of the gust drops him back into the water, but that's not the end either. He manages to grab some lines, collapsing one side of the canopy. The other side however is still catching the wind and that's enough to drag him for another 200 meters - his head under the water and his nose and mouth filling up with mud!
Finally, everything comes to a halt: the canopy falls completely into the water and he's left sitting - out of breath - in a foot of water and at a mere 10 meters from shore!
Here are the details of this epic flight:
Duration : 10 Hrs 56 min.
Max rate of climb : +12.1 m/s.
Max sink : -7.1 m/s.
Max altitude : 1175 meters.
Max ground speed : 104 Km/h.
Total distance covered: 785 Km.