{"id":131,"date":"2011-09-22T21:09:35","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T21:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelongjump.com\/?page_id=131"},"modified":"2011-09-28T21:24:13","modified_gmt":"2011-09-28T21:24:13","slug":"mark-dunstan-sewell-and-alastair-spurr","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thelongjump.com\/past-reports\/2008-2\/mark-dunstan-sewell-and-alastair-spurr\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Dunstan-Sewell and Alastair Spurr"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Great British Long Jump 2008<\/strong><\/span>
\nName of Pilot\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026Mark_Dunstan_Sewell\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026
\nName of Co-pilot\u2026\u2026\u2026Alastair_Spurr\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.
\nName of Balloon\u2026Rotork\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.
\nType and size of Balloon\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026Cameron_105\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.
\nDate of flight\u2026\u202625th\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..OCTOBER 2008
\nPropane at start\u2026\u2026\u20266X60=360\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026tanks\/litres
\nPropane at finish\u2026\u2026\u2026\u202610% + 15%\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..tanks\/litres
\nStarting place\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026Jacobstowe,_Devon\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.
\nLanding place\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026Sutton Bridge,_Cambridgeshire.
\nStart time\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u202610.05\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..
\nDuration of flight\u2026\u2026\u20266.00_ Hours\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..
\nStraight line distance claimed\u2026\u2026\u2026230 miles\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026
\nAverage speed\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u202638.3mph\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.
\nMaximum height flown\u2026\u2026\u2026\u20266250\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.feet
\nWind direction\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u202610 to 80 degrees\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..
\nWitnesses to take-off\u2026\u2026Elaine Locke\u2026\u202601837 851308..
\n(inc. tel. no. & email)
\nerjames@homecall.co.uk\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026
\nWitnesses to landing\u2026\u2026\u2026Nic Porters\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026
\n(inc. tel no. & email )
\n\u2026\u2026\u2026karenporters1@btinternet.com.
\nLength of landing drag\u2026\u2026>250\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.yards
\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Long Jump Report 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pilot: Mark Dunstan-Sewell
\nCo-pilot: Alastair Spurr
\nAs usual, Alastair and I were restricted mainly to weekends \u2013 and only to three of
\nthem. We left it to the last one, after weeks of looking at Avbrief. This showed the
\nsame weather pattern for the weekend for at least four consecutive days. Normally,
\npromising weather disappears as the day approaches. It showed isobars passing from
\nCornwall to East Anglia on the Saturday.
\nLast year we flew heavily laden across the Irish Sea, so with advice from Mike
\nScholes, we vowed to fly lighter, higher and hence faster. So we ditched three 60-litre
\ntanks, thermos flask, bag of apples, life-jackets, dropline, envelope bag, extra
\ncarabiners, crownline (used 3mm cord), flares, EPIRB, flightbag, spare GPS, big
\nbattery, big coats and full crash-helmets.
\nInstead, we took just six sixty-litre tanks, maps, radio, altimeter, GPS, vario, striker,
\ntransponder, chocolate, apple, water, a cycling helmet and a rock-climbing helmet.
\nWe loaded this lot into our VW bus and headed down to Okehampton, where my
\nwife\u2019s cousin has a farm. We drove down in the morning from Bristol and enjoyed a
\nleisurely cup of tea before heading out into a very wet and icy field.
\nIt was almost flat calm at about 9 o\u2019clock, when we started to assemble the balloon.
\nWe had a fairly normal inflation, but by the time I started the burner, it had begun to
\nget gusty. We got it half inflated when the mouth closed and we just managed to get it
\nback up without having to pull it down completely. We were launching without
\nshelter.
\nWe launched at 10.05, managing to drop the quick-release and strap, so there was less
\nto carry. Initially we went North, but quickly turned to the East with height. We
\nclimbed to 3000 feet and flew on for a while at 30mph. We then climbed to 6000 feet
\nto see if there was more speed. There wasn\u2019t much difference, but there was about 70
\ndegrees of steerage. I called up Yeovilton to see if the AIAA was busy, but got no
\nreply. We were at 6000 feet, ready to fly over it if they were busy. We were soon over
\nTaunton and our track was going to take us over Salisbury Plain and on to Heathrow,
\nso we came back down a bit to head North-East. This took us over the Somerset
\nLevels up to Axbridge and Cheddar. Here I called up Bristol Airport. They were busy
\nlanding Easyjets, but allowed us to pass through their Zone at 2000 feet. It really
\nhelped that we had a Transponder \u2013 and a co-pilot. While I flew and did the radio,
\nAlastair\u2019s job was to set the transponder. ATC were quite tense while Alastair
\nstumbled through setting the dials, which were recessed to avoid damage. We flew
\nover Blagdon Lake, past Dundry and over Bristol city-centre. Our retrieve made their
\nonly sighting of us here from Clevedon.
\nBristol passed us on to Filton, who fitted us into their circuit traffic. Filton passed us
\non the Gloucester, which we never really saw. We were passing it well to the East. I
\ngot a bit concerned here that we were heading for Birmingham \/ Coventry, so we
\nclimbed a bit to head more to the East. We picked up speed too, to about 40mph.
\nGloucester passed us on to Brize Norton, who asked for a position report. We were
\nworking in Lat and Long and quirkily thought we were near Shrivenham. When we
\nsquawked the required number for Brize, the ATC replied that we were, in fact, 15
\nmiles East of Gloucester. This was another good reason to carry the transponder.
\nSo we motored on past Stroud and Cheltenham, heading for Northampton. We saw
\nthe race-track at Santa Pod and Silverstone, where we could also hear and smell the
\nmotor-racing. We passed over Grafham Water, where we could see sailboats shooting
\nacross the breaking waves. Our speed now climbed above 50 mph and yet our flight
\nremained so smooth.
\nAround Wellingborough a small red plane came up and circled us a couple of times
\nbefore heading off with a parting barrel roll for fun.
\nWe were beginning to think about the end of the flight and we were now down to our
\nlast two full tanks. We were getting about an hour per tank. I knew there was a lot of
\nleft on the ground and that we were heading for the Wash. I wanted to be North of it,
\nso that on landing, we would be heading inland. We came down a bit to change course
\nand were now over bigger and bigger flat fields.
\nIn the end we went over Wisbech and were headed straight for the middle of the
\ncoast, near Sutton Bridge. Now we had slowed up to 35-40 mph. The fields were
\nhuge, but there was a gas-fired power-station, with its cobweb of power-lines. We
\nkept going, with the thought that the wires would thin out near the coast. But even
\nthough we landed in the last field, there were wires on the way in. Beyond lay
\nmarshes, then mud, then the sea.
\nAlastair\u2019s job on landing was to keep us straight with the turning vents. I had to
\ndecide when to stop burning, pilot lights out and grab the red line. Alastair noted 28
\nmph on the GPS as we entered the last, ploughed field. We landed reasonably gently
\nand bounced back up. Next came a hard landing, followed by the longest, wildest drag
\nover bumpy, hard ground, that I have ever endured. We were both facing backwards,
\nsqueezed among the tanks. At one stage I started to leave the basket, but Alastair
\nmanaged to pull me back in by my trouser belt. At length, the ordeal was over, and as
\nthe fabric finally settled, we were drenched by a sharp shower of rain. The wind
\nripped the water back up off the flattened fabric into waves of spray. We hadn\u2019t
\nnoticed any rain up to that point.
\nA car pulled up along the edge of the field next to us and a farmer and his two boys
\ncame out to see if we were ok. I was beaming from ear-to-ear, glad to be alive. We
\npaced out the landing drag of over 250 yards, while picking up various bits of kit from
\nour furrow. The farmer kindly helped us roll up the balloon and took us back to the
\nfarmhouse, where we settled our aching, bruised bodies into comfy sofas. There we
\nspent the next couple of hours drinking tea and watching television until our trusty
\nretrieve turned up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"