Icarus X Washington recce trip Photos

The Icarus Trophy is the mother of all aerial gauntlets as we know. But what of the Icarus X? These weekenders act not only as a taster for the real event, but the winner will win a free place on the main Icarus.

Our very own Mr Shane recently headed out with Youtube paramotoring golden-boy Tucker Gott to recce the course and by Jove it looks stunning, even if the weather for them could have been slightly less biblical.

“The flaw with the otherwise perfect plan is that it’s being done in the late spring, in one of the windiest regions of the state.”

— Mr Shane - Icarus Trophy Race Chief

Entering the gorge

"We dipped into a two-mile-long canyon that feeds into the Palouse River called Winn Lake Canyon"

Gorge-ous scenery (sorry)

"We were headed up-river now, toward the massive 190-foot waterfall in a 400-foot deep canyon"

He who dares

"Tucker really wanted to fly it low- so he flew over the waterfall at about 30 feet high"

Oil be damned

"On the Icarus, you carry what you can and buy the rest. This means you can find yourself having to source oil, gas, food, repair parts, tools, etc.

Electrifying

"He took off, narrowly avoiding a road sign on one side and power lines on the other with a burly crosswind pushing him toward the wires. Piece of cake"

Perfection

"we were pretty happy with what we considered to be the perfect Palouse-country flight"

Amazing work chaps. Looks like a major win. You can read Mr Shane's recce report in all its glory here, and see Tucker's video here.

Sign up for the Icarus X Washington is open now. Click this suitably garish button below to get your name into the hat of glory.