On the morning of first flight of the Perlan 2 glider, we had just a few people on the line for launch.
Einar Enevoldson, the visionary of The Perlan Project, shook the chief pilot, Jim Payne’s,
hand symbolizing the passing of the baton from the Perlan 1 to the Perlan 2 glider.
Jim has well over 1,500 wave hours. Many of those are with his brother
Tom Payne, who was there in support of Jim, along with Jim’s Wife, Jackie.
Jackie is a key organizer of the flight operations.
Dennis Tito has been a major Perlan sponsor and has become a wave pilot in his own right.
Jason Payne has also flow flown several wave flights with his dad in Argentina and the Sierra and grew up around gliderports.
Morgan Sandercock moved to Oregon from Australia 3 years ago to be the Project Manager for Perlan.
Stewart Tattersall has expertly run the wing for every rehearsal operation. Stewart has driven over 10,000 miles for Perlan operations.
Silvio Ricardi has been the tow pilot and plans to go back to Argentina with us.
These individuals comprised the extremely competent, professional volunteer first flight team.
And all this couldn’t happen without the rest of the Perlan Team, each of whom has contributed in their own way.
RDD had Eric Schmidlin was at the launch for any last minute adjustments. He has overseen the building of the Perlan 2 from parts to flying aircraft.
Our lead sponsor Airbus Group has been so supportive. They were represented by Allan McArtor, CEO of Airbus Group, Inc. and Jamie Darcy, Communications Director. All of our other sponsors have also contributed to the achievement of this milestone. We are grateful to each of them.
The Perlan2 carried First Flight patches with them on this maiden flight. This was a fabulous stepping stone on the way to 90,000 feet.
