On friday a beautiful moment in history was made as Yank adventurer croosed the sleave of sea suspended from a cluster of multi coloured helium filled balloons. His 4 hour flight saw a gentle landing in a Dunkirk cabbage patch as he snipped the ballons strings with scissors gently landing him as they floated away. At his peak he was 11000 feet above the sea and evaded a power line by dropping water balast to land safely near the village o Ghyvelde.
He described the crossing as 'Incredibly peaceful, tremendously beauiful'. As the Gendarmes checked him for his legal papers he asked, 'wasn't it everybodys dream?, I mean, didn't you have this dream- grabbing onto a bunch of toy balloons and floating off?'
Trape is a qualified pilot whos ballons were attached to an ordinary office chair,'That iconic rbbon of water seperating the UK from the continent has called to people for generations, tempting them to cross since long before you or I were born. Louis Bleriot crossed in 1909. Bryan Allen in 1979. Yves Rossy crossed in 2008. Yos and Piccard made it; John Jeffries and Blanchard floated through the air above that tiy arm of the Atlantic earlier than anyone. And here it is, the English Channel, continuing to call us. I don't know if it is a Sirens song, or if crossing that rbbon of water will be like breaking the ribbon atthe finishing line. With good luck I will find out today.'
Using his 'spirit cluster', as he calls his craft, he once travelled 109 miles in an overnight flight that qualified Trappe for Guiness world records.
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