Balloon
It was like a scene from a movie, a man floating thousands of feet above the ground on a lawn chair.
The British man flew over Johannesburg using a chair attached to 100 helium balloons.
Tom Morgan flew 15.5 miles across South Africa last week, reaching heights of up to 8,000 feet. An adventure he had been planning for months.
The group called the Adventurists, flew some 24 kilometres for two hours.
Morgan said “It was a fairly indescribable feeling, wafting across Africa on a cheap camping chair dangling from a load of balloons,”
He says he had to run some tests before the attempt. African nation of Botswana was the perfect location.
“It’s going to be a three-day, long distance, floating adventure under party balloons on a chair… probably the silliest air race,” he added.
Morgan spent two days inflating 100 balloons ahead of the “magical” flight.
He admitted feeling “somewhere between terrifying and elated” as he slowly rose in the air.
“The flight accelerated very quickly as the balloons drifted towards the inversion layer of the atmosphere — where the temperature drops” he said.
After several failed attempts over the course of a few weeks, Morgan and his team decided to relocate to Johannesburg, South Africa.
Having floated for two hours, Morgan lowered himself back down where his teammate greeted him safely on the ground.
UP & AWAY: British thrill-seeker Tom Morgan soars 2500m above S Africa in camping chair tied to helium balloons.
— TEN Eyewitness News (channeltennews) October 26, 2017TheAdventurists
#TenNews pic.twitter.com/JoKFjc3c0B
After the attempt, the adventure company plans to organise a helium balloon race in Africa.
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