02-16-2007, 07:38 PM
“You can’t imagine the power. You feel like nothing, like a leaf from a tree going up,” Wisnerska told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Friday.
Here's something to ponder on that point...
My father was a Navy fighter pilot (F-8 Crusaders, for those interested...), and was stationed in the Phillipines for a while.
He ran into some BAT (Big Ass Thunderstorms) like that..
Pilots REALLY did not like flying into those storms! He said they could take the multi ton combat aircraft, and slam it violently around.. and it HAD happened a few times that F-8 engines ingested enough water to snuff out the fires...
Not to mention lightning strikes...
My dad said that one time, an updraft (LIKE the one in the story) grabbed him and lifted him UP almost 10,000 feet nearly as fast as he could have climbed on afterburner....
He also said that watching these storms grow vertically from a distace from 50,000 to over 100,000 feet was amazing...
That story from my dad brings the idea of a Paraglider going anywhere NEAR one from "daredevil paraglider pilot" to "F-ing crazy fool with a death wish".
(in this case it seems like the storm brewed up on 'em... and they didn't intend to get anywhere near it).