Earlier this year, two pilots Kester Haynes (Ozone Freeride) and Daniel Rodrigues (Ozone Roadster 3 26) planned 10 days cross country flight, with a goal to design a route for the 2019 Icarus Trophy Race. They flew total distance of 1600 km having a ground crew support of three 4×4 cars. Kester describes it shortly as “next level adventure”

Kester reports:

“Daniel and I set off on our mission with all the kit we would expect an Icarus Trophy pilot to carry, its heavy! Although we would be carrying everything as if unsupported – Race Class style – we had made pre arranged meeting points with our ground crew, more like Adventure Class.

The landscape, terrain and fuel availability for the first couple of days, was a gentle warm up. Then leaving the hills behind, comes the Pantanal – the World largest tropical wetland area. This is where you feel like you’re entering another world. I never could have imagined what it felt like to fly over this wild and difficult place! To try to put the remoteness of the landscape into perspective, we often flew for a couple of hours and then the support cars had to take a 14 hours route!  Apart from my brain continuously trying to figure out how we would run the Trophy here, the overriding fact I couldn’t get over was how the Paramotor is simply the best way the explore this stunning place.

Only a couple of hundred Kilometres in, you start to feel a huge sense of freedom and remoteness. Only passing the occasional farm, the wild stretches in-between are crowded with wildlife, most of which would not be friendly companions to be grounded alongside!

On a couple of legs crossing the Pantanal, we knew we would not have any support from our ground crew. I think I can speak for both pilots when I say these legs were the best. Being self-sufficient was a great feeling, carrying everything you need to survive with your own aircraft, as well as added pressure of knowing you can make very few mistakes in order to make it out of there alive!

Leaving the Pantanal behind and entering more familiar territory of farmland, we B-lined for Benito, were we will be hosting the finish line ceremonies. This was yet another complete shock to the senses, we ended up in the middle of a Lasso competition. Cowboys and cowgirls everywhere, banging music, and one mega party!…

The Pantanal is defiantly a next level adventure”

Cheers form all Ozone Team.