Maaike & Paul

On Friday the 11th of August 2006, Paul Gibbs and Kiff Saunders succeeded in their attempt to break the Australian record for a flight to altitude in a hot-air-balloon.
Three Australian parachutists joined the effort in an attempt to break both the Australian record for a jump from altitude, as well as a distance record in their 'wingsuits', which allow them to fly horizontally rather than vertically before deploying their parachutes.
As it turned out, it was too cold for the jumpers to break their record, but they had a great wingsuit flight anyway after a jump from about 21000 feet.

Paul and Kiff kept ascending after the parachutists jumped, and made it to about 33500 feet before making the decision to return to terra firma.

These photos show the team getting ready and checking the equipment out the front of the house at Mildura the day before the practise flight on Thursday the 10th.
Here are Paul and Kiff pre-breathing oxygen on the launch field for an hour before the flight, in order to rid their blood of Nitrogen, to avoid getting the bends on the way up.

Note especially the cool tie-dye parachute packs!

As it was very cold at altitude on the day of the flight (-57 degrees!), the team had to wear the warmest gear, and ensure that there was no exposed skin. And the balloon at altitude even created its own cloud!

Congratulations to them both!