After completing a whirlwind adventure that was anything but a smooth ride, Peachland’s Mark Jennings-Bates is glad to be home.
Jennings-Bates arrived at YLW Thursday morning. He and Vernon’s Glenn Derouin worked together in Australia on Flight4Life: An attempt to break the world record for longest journey by powered paraglider while raising money for several charitable organizations.
“What a great experience; it was absolutely fantastic,” said Jennings-Bates.
“It didn’t all go (according) to plan, but the good news was we had a plan so that we could adapt when it didn’t work.”
He and Derouin began their journey on Feb. 8; however, Jennings-Bates was sidelined after an accident in Queensland broke his propeller.
“We didn’t have enough spares to carry on, so I said, ‘Let’s just try and get the Guinness world record and I’ll take a backseat on the flight.”
Derouin carried on but had to deal with “Australia’s worst weather in recorded history.”
“We sat down and (looked) over 30 years of meteorological data from Australia’s meteorological office. It all supported the route that we took, but I don’t think it was more than a week that we had the right winds.”
Despite the setbacks, Derouin completed nearly 8,500 km, beating the previous world record of 8,008 km set by Canadian Ben Jordan.
“If you look at the average recreational paraglider pilot, they might fly one or two hours per week. In less than two months, we probably put 10 years experience on the motors and wings.
“It puts into context what we did.”
Jennings-Bates isn’t hesitating before preparing for his next adventure.
“Right now I’m training for a 100 km run in Guatemala, and I really don’t like running. So that’s going to be a big mental challenge for me, as well as a physical challenge. The hope is that I can get organized physically for that before November.”
After that, Jennings-Bates will get gear up for the Dakar Rally, in January.
When asked what makes him such a thrill-seeker, Jennings-Bates joked, “There’s no point staying at home all day when it’s snowing.
“The reason that we do it is to save lives. I think it would be very self-centred if I just wanted to do this to have fun. At the end of the day, if we’re not raising the profile for the charity and raising money to save kids lives, there’s really not much point doing it.”
Flight4Life raised money for Rally4Life—a charity focused on relieving poverty through the provision of safe water, sanitation, education and shelter to families in need around the world—and Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service.
So far the amount of funds raised is lower than Jennings-Bates would like; however, there are several more initiatives that he hopes will help the cause.
“The plan is we keep working the social media, we look at doing a TV series or a DVD release—those sales will start to impact the money that comes in.”
wpaterson@kelownacapnews.com
