133 mile MEGA flight across the Bahamas!!!

Oh welcome back to episode 5 I think our final episode of this bahama series so what's going on today I just woke up so if I look a little rundown because I legit woke up five minutes ago but the idea for today is in yesterday's episode we ended it at a abandoned island that I landed at got stranded and got picked up by the boat we're actually returning to that Island to launch from again I'll throw up maps so you guys get a good visual but we're going from that island all the way out to the west end of the Bahamas that's like the final stopping point then we have to load everything on the boat and cross over to Florida now the crazy thing is for me on the paramotor it's gonna be something like 127 miles which is really far so I'm gonna take a ton of fuel probably my 12 litre tank a six litre bladder and a 10 liter bladder the other thing that makes it a little more challenging is we're gonna have a strong crosswind now crosswind doesn't really help you get anywhere it actually hinders you so we're gonna have to be doing a lot of fuel calculations along the way to make sure that this works out right do you have some alternatives but once we kind of commit it's a project to bail out halfway so this is gonna be an interesting one I'm probably gonna be trimming out to get there faster so that I can make a landing at the west end before the winds ramp up too much but join us for the adventure is just getting started so hope you guys enjoy [Music] well they're just Canyon running to save the dinghy we just made it to this island if you miss yesterday's video or the last video go check it out this is where I kind of got stranded last time because of high winds and thunderstorms but this is where we're launching from today when conditions are pretty strong for an hour after sunrise but I've got Canyon here this time to assist me on the launch so it shouldn't be an issue and then we're gonna jet a hundred and thirty you got 120 something miles over to West End and yeah hopefully the wind over there isn't kicking too bad and I don't get drugged across the marina that I'm trying to land that but it's gonna be an adventure stay tuned we're gonna just load up the motor and get ready to go pretty soon [Music] yeah buddy one of those situations where I want to be one I'm super stoked for this opportunity cause who else gets to fly like over 100 miles just island hopping but two I'm actually kind of nervous about this there's definitely a good amount of risk involved the wind conditions are gonna be pretty strong when I get over to the West End so the boat actually takes way it's gonna take me to get over there they're gonna be like eight to ten hours I'm hopefully gonna be there in like five so I'm not gonna have anyone at the it's a healthy so he's fully self supported right now on board I have gasps to my tank I have a 10 meter bladder and then a sick the host fuel I've ever carried right now just gaining altitude over this island / - shredder key which is off to my right all right we're making the move over to treasure ki which is here these are going to be my possible about plating situations / the boat the winds up here are strong out of the south they're pushing that way so much so that a pretty much parked if I turn into the wind my whole flight is going across window so it's not at all an advantage the crow when actually flows you down a little bit I'm gonna go ahead and shut down the GoPro I want to conserve battery life as much as possible so I'll pick up with you guys and interesting area all right here's a little status update and we made it across this first little stretch to treasure key on Treasure Beach or whatever this is called essentially the direction I have to go is kind of like straight that way to link up with Grand Bahama but I can't even see Grand Bahama out there so what I have to do is follow this stretch of islands that way which is downwind this big open area a potion there the tough thing about that is I could get the downward push then across witnesseth then I have to go back up wid when I get on the other side the idea is that I just have to keep somewhere that I could land Within Reach the whole time aside from that my GP my phone is it so I don't really have good navigation aids my ad their app can tell me my ground speed and my estimated time to arrival which is really helpful for fuel stop or for fuel calculations but I don't have that so I just have a blank map so that means I'm just going to be matching what I see on the ground and flying there and trying to do the fuel calculation was somewhat in my head but we should have plenty of fuel so I'm basically gonna head in that direction and start cutting down and hopefully grand bahama will come into view and i'll be able to cut the quarter as much as I can all right we're making some good progress right now you can kind of make out this big massive open ocean in front of me and I have to follow this contour over here if you look at the clouds on the ground you can see that the winds being pushed that way so I'm kind of using that too and as an advantage right here it's kind of pushing me a little bit even though I'm crabbing into it sideways and I just have to follow these islands out into the distance where they disappear and then eventually they hook around somewhere over there the clouds are really developing and I've chosen to go under them because I am a little afraid of going above and it clouds out or something and it's just up there is really freakin high I'd rather have the visibility of the ground out here the only downside is that not in the smoothest air there's just little thermals it's still totally fine not really turbulent at all but if I was above it would be glassy smooth all right so here comes one of the more critical spots of this hole country dirty is broken off into smaller islands and then I can see I don't know if the GoPro Seva Grand Bahama starts way out there in the horizon it's pretty far away and the deal is that the width that is pushing this way so as I hook around with these islands I'm going to be facing more of a headwind so I'm gonna try to pick the best angle to get a quartering headwind and make it over to Grand Bahama as efficiently as possible once I make it to Grandma mom over there it's a straight West run to the very tip and that will just give me across with the whole way because the winds out of the south clouds are getting a little bit more thick we got some nice defined flat bottoms on these air is just a little bit rocky not too bad situation my 12 leader I still have my 10 in my 6 on my lap so I think I'm doing really well as far as fuel efficiency goes the only question is going to be how long this kind of upwind leg actually takes [Music] so stay tuned freakin beautiful out here all right we're part way through this past year and here's my strategy I'm trying to stay on the upward side of these islands because if I had a motor out I can turn downwind and spend jet to these guys pretty easily but by staying on this side it gives me a better angle to try to combat the headwind so I can see there's like a little bigger island over here and then there's a big open place open-water to cross before we get to grand bahama so by the time I get to the tip of this island I should be able to see Grand Bahama I should be able to make that pass I was considering going above these clouds but for now I'm if I went above I would have a longer gliding distance which would be really help but I'm not sure I like the idea of the visibility up top we might try it though because I did check went along before we got up here and they were actually reporting that at five and six thousand feet it got calmer so if I start to struggle with the headwind I can transition to a higher altitude and I can also trim out I've been at my neutral trim setting in this whole time so trimming out will help me push through a headwind if I need to but for now cool all right we're just entering without so that means push through the winds the headwind a little bit for I've heard for fuel but that absolutely becomes more efficient I don't know it's that butt a nation that running tripped-out it's better at this situation get a little foreground speed so basically I have to get to the other side [Music] to the West End got support cloud development going on it's getting a little more rocky once I get to the other side it'll be a lot more efficient with a crosswind instead of a at school all right I just made the call followed by trips and Wow whoa I'm just getting this knocked out of me Huah turbos my ground speed so I just want to get up off that I'm not really all that comfortable so I can essentially down the coast once we get up just coming up through this all here and hopefully we'll have some smoother sailing all the way across it already feels smoother here it's crazy Wow you can the air temperature changed our Colts back and forth this is get away better already only I've been shivering and like you don't get going up really really high here see how thick the vertical development of these I haven't checked the time but I took off at 8 a.m. I still have maybe two to three liters remaining in my bladder her advice fuel tank it's not quite time for a fuel transfer yet look at [Applause] much much smoother up here [Applause] now I can start to see grandma haha it looks like I need to go out that way I'm gonna double-check up my map to curb the post that's update check out my rainbow on the cloud down there just looking around check out back into my left how big that development is essentially what I was just flying on and I had to be tripped out pretty much to penetrate the wind and trimming out through turbulence gets extra sharp because you're going faster and that you're not really supposed to actively pilot when you're tripped out so I'm just sitting there hands-off hoping that my wing doesn't collapse as I bust through this turbulence but I like it up here way better a hundred percent I'm sure it back in because now we're kind of cutting our crosswind leg we've just made it past the most challenging part of this I hope aside from maybe the landing but I really that that's behind us checking my fuel situation I probably have two liters left so I'm doing really really well on fuel even after I use full throttle a couple times back there I'm gonna give it a little bit longer maybe wait till I get down to one liter and then I'm gonna throw this ten liters in my tank so stay tuned for that I'm gonna try to stop shivering it's getting a little warmer with the Sun down so yeah right down this coast and we'll be at West End in no time all right so I think it's time we do a fuel transfer probably around 1 to 2 liters left and it's 1036 now so that's a two and a half hours so that's about what I expect could probably push it to three which is exactly what I expect so I'm gonna go ahead and drop my ten liter in and we're still kind of fighting the weight but I'm trying to get a good angle all the way across here so we might actually trim out once we do this fuel transfer there we go one is out [Music] so this little line gets attached with our quick-connect like so and then I just turned this foul on and we should get fuel flowing pretty much immediately I may have to lift it or I might switch to my six but 6-litre kind of pushes it down by the way out on the horizon I don't know if you can see but there's a it looks like a big old ship to the left of those don't look at things and I was just floating along here and a cloud was covering that and then the cloud lifted and I saw that and I'll zoom in but I swear to you it looked exactly like an airplane coming directly at me so I grabbed my brakes and I start hooking turns left and then I'm like oh that's the wrong way right as I kind of took a second look I started to realize that maybe it wasn't a plane yeah freakin optical illusion nearly gave me a heart attack gonna keep transferring this fuel and we'll pick up somewhere down the coast all right status update pushing across the island into the wind for the longest time it's been a tough push tripped out here almost to the coast and then the coast I'll just follow straight to the West End I'm actually considering coming in for a landing on one of these beaches if I feel like it's safe because I have to pee so bad I've got plenty of time before the guys would catch up to me the only issue I foresee is if something happens that I can't get back out but I'm thinking about getting down low and just feeling up how the air is and if I feel like I can do it I might take a little pee break down there's a boardwalk that connects to the road so worst case scenario I can walk out but I think I'm gonna set it down on this beach right here winds are most definitely strong so it's gonna be a tough one landing and taking off if something doesn't feel right I'll just abort and go around and suck it up but so far everything seems okay I actually feel like this stuff might be soft down here like wet sand so I think I'm gonna have to abort on that and we'll just head down the coast if I see another spot maybe I'll try it but that looks a little too risky with how sloppy the sand is I'm currently in the process of dumping my last bladder four liters of gas and my but I'd rather land with it empty and have all the fuel the normal tank so that's what I'm doing just fall on the beach here I think as far as I can see out at the end there where there's some buildings I'm gonna kind of they're right at WestEd around this corner this big old shipyard cruise ship Steven right down to the wire just to the end of this island that's as far west as we can physically go and now I've got a little bit better of a situation so this little strip should be pretty quick all right here we are this is the moment we've been waiting for the very tip out here is the marina before the boat was headed so if I can land as close as possible on the marina that's best if not I can pick several other alternatives and then just walk to the marina this whole thing has gotten so smoothly I just got to make sure that the landing is dialed little private Airport here I'm gonna do a little turnaround maneuver and feel out how strong the weight is here before I get too close to the edge there this is definitely an option need it so there I am into the wind and I have just a little bit of forward speed so we're gonna be enter I see a nice spot it would be real good it's in the shadow of all the trees and everything so I think I'll do a pass and see how the air feels this spot on my left is the best although I'd have to walk a while not a big deal but feel it out feelin smooth so far I'm gonna give that slate a big old thumbs down and I'm gonna go up here just getting cheered up too much from those trees for me to feel comfortable coming in all the way down to the deck in making at its finest it might just take me a little while to get to the end here my ground speeds so slow now what will be banger is if I could beat a person with a pickup truck and get them to and I won't have to walk this half-mile with all the gear see the spot I'm looking to hit right across from this house and the grassy area start dropping her down winds are very strong out there much much smoother here that's how you freakin do it brother you ha ha I can breathe a sigh of relief so happy to have my feet safely on the ground best feeling ever oh yeah wait a freaking kill it I've just got all my stuff on my back right now I think I'm gonna start walking I've been sitting for so long as well so I'm gonna start walking down to the marina and there's a restaurant there and I am gonna freakin pig out on a nice burger some drinks but first they got to walk like half a mile apparently the homeless people are super friendly and they tend to pick people up so we'll see if we get lucky but dude let me give a shout out 15 you fly hallo as I have in all these videos they're the guys that have set up this whole adventure in the Bahamas the guys are probably going to be several hours before they get here because the boats so much slower than flying but we don't crush it guys oh yeah quick little half mile stroll with 7080 pounds on your back and look wider in the front in the hot Sun of the Bahamas never killed no one that I know of I made it to the dockside Grill I'm gonna go in and get some well-deserved food I think I'm a little underdressed but I'll see what they say [Music] so lunch was fantastic they had a really good buffet over there and all the workers in the restaurant had seen me walk past with the gear and they were loving it they were calling it they're like this guy has a helicopter on his back really nice guys so I got a message from Canyon he said that they should be here within about an hour so I'm just gonna chill here and wait for the guys to show up it's been a super good adventure [Music] check it out it's the next day and we are inbound to West Palm Beach Florida and just made the approximately 50 mile crossing from West End to West Palm and I want to be completely honest with you guys when I made that first video where I was testing the two new wings our idea behind that was actually to fly from West End to West Palm into the US I spent countless hours trying to figure out legality things get questions answered nobody knew how to answer if it was legal to fly our motor home to the US I finally got to the bottom of it and apparently it is not and the more I dug deeper into it it looked like there was no way to make it legal no permit no way to get approved and it just wasn't worth the risk of trying it and having a full legal issue on our hands but aside from that what we did in the last five episodes I think are what flying across this stretch would have been I mean it's a cool concept like entering the US on the paramotor but honestly sitting out here circling the boat with water everywhere wouldn't have been near as cool as what we accomplished in the last few days I don't even really mind that it's not legal because we did so much more on the Bahamas if you guys missed any of the previous episodes or this one go back and check them out it was really a great time and before we go I want to give another huge thank you to team fly halo putting on this ole mission special thanks to Dan and Griffin and special thanks to you guys for supporting the dream.com all those links will be down below we're about to get checked into customs and everything we arrived into the u.s. next time I see you guys we'll be in New Jersey so stay tuned for more epic new jersey flights now that the weather is getting perfect up there hope you guys enjoyed all these video nice one [Music]

Channel: Tucker Gott

Views: 392,174

Rating: 4.9583869 out of 5

Keywords: paramotor, tucker, gott, tucker gott, paramotor crash, paramotor accident, paramotor training, adventure, gopro, flying, airplane, paragliding, pilot, aviation, flying to mcdonald's, mcdonald's, flying to mcdonald's on my paramotor, bahamas, island, ocean, beach, cross country, icarus, clouds

Id: ta0VLqgdaIo

Length: 29min 56sec (1796 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/TjW0569]

Paraglider distance record without a motor at all is 365 miles.
Why would anyone think it couldn't be done with a motor?