After flying 4.6 hours on August 15, 2017 the Airbus Perlan Mission II team celebrated the new high mark of 33,200 feet or 10,000 meters! The first photo is from 30,000 feet looking east over Lago Argentina. The second photo is from 33,000 feet looking west towards the Andes. The third photo is to give you a sense of the immense height of 33,000 feet from the video. The white tongue just below left wing on left edge of second photo is the wall of Perito Moreno Glacier.
Martin and I extracted the 2 minutes of film footage from the time of the high point. Martin could air drop to me, but then came the challenges. I had to snip down to 45 seconds since it is sometimes very difficult to work on the local internet. It took well over an hour to upload even 45 seconds and this was my fourth attempt……
The video begins with the glider over Cerro Buenos Aires pointed to the southsouthwest into the wind. The Perito Moreno Glacier is just below the right wing. It looks like a tiny tongue of white meeting the lake water. (That wall is actually 70+ meters or 240 feet high and 5 km across or 3 miles.) Jim makes a slow turn through a westerly heading. The glacier wall slides right under the fuselage just aft of the wings. The glacier wall ends below the left wing. Perlan 2 ends pointing northwest toward the Norte Brazo (North Arm) of Lago Argentino. Simply fabulous! If you know the lyrics to first stanza of the song “From a Distance” it is completely apropos.
Perlan Soars! Perlan Se Eleva! Jackie
