Honza Rejmánek wants to make a career out of his enthusiasm for paragliding and his knowledge of atmospheric conditions—and who can blame the current champion of distance paragliding in Idaho?
Rejmánek, 33, set a new Gem State distance record of 139.5 miles on Monday, Aug. 4 by flying from Baldy's summit to a dirt road east of the tiny town of Spencer in eastern Idaho. His total time in the air was seven hours and 43 minutes.
"It was a personal-best distance for me and also a new Idaho distance record," said Rejmánek, who works as a professional tandem pilot for the Ketchum-based Fly Sun Valley.
Rejmánek, who has been spending his eighth summer in the Sun Valley area, broke the record of Hailey's Nate Scales, 36, the Cumulus Construction flyer who went 126 miles from Baldy to Dubois Aug. 22, 2006.
The two pilots have leapfrogged back-and-forth in friendly competition since Scales went 92 miles and Rejmánek upped the ante to 117 miles in 2005. Just seven years ago, in 2001, Rejmánek's 57-mile, three-and-a-half hour flight from Baldy to Challis was the state distance record.
Last Sunday, six days after setting the record, Rejmánek and his wife Barbora Janícková Rejmánek cut short their Ketchum stay and left for Whistler, B.C., Canada where he will attend an international meteorology conference Aug. 11-15.
Rejmánek plans study atmospheric science this fall at the University of California-Davis. He hopes to obtain a doctorate in the subject, which should take three years. His goal? To teach and conduct research at the university level.
His record flight Aug. 4 was hands-on research with the troposphere for the Czech Republic native who came to this country at the age of eight and starting flying at age 17.
Rejmánek lifted off from Baldy's 9,150-foot summit at 12:02 p.m. Crosswinds from the southwest made it difficult to "climb out of Baldy," he said, so he flew to the hills behind Warm Springs, got a good lift and followed a ridge above Corral Creek east of Sun Valley.
He said, "I got a good thermal and a good tailwind just south of the Pioneers. The tailwind was about 20 miles per hour, bringing ground speeds to over 60 miles per hour. At those levels I reached my highest point, 17,000 feet, between the Copper Basin and Mackay."
By 2:30 p.m., he had already arrived at the Lost River Range east of Mackay in the Borah Peak area. He said, "I knew I was making good time. I crossed the range south of Mackay, and then crossed the Lemhi and Beaverhead mountain ranges.
"I got fairly low just south of the Continental Divide, before I-15 and not quite to Dubois. There I worked a light thermal and climbed to 13,000 feet. I crossed I-15 and got low again, about the 126-mile mark. Then I spent about 30 minutes in a weak thermal that got me from 7,000 to 10,000 feet. I ended up on a dirt road about 15 miles east of Spencer."
On July 12, Rejmánek had flown 108.5 miles from Baldy to Lima, Mt. That was much closer to the wetter Tendoy Mountains in contrast to his record landing Aug. 4 in more of a dry, high desert area. He said air moisture affects thermals and may have shortened his July 12 flight.
He said, "Dry ground means more of the sun's energy goes directly into producing thermals. And the mountains near Lima have more moisture than where I landed near Spencer."
On his flights Rejmánek said he is prepared for most contingencies.
He said, "You go through great temperature variations, from below freezing to 75 to 80 degrees. I wear a shirt, fleece, down jacket and windbreaker. Everything has a zipper. I try to get airflow below my waist.
"To be able to concentrate for such long periods, I have to eat and drink. I bring three liters of water in a water pack, and lots of snacks like bars and gels that are easy to eat. I use a condom catheter. I also fly with a safety net—a satellite phone device called SPOT that transmits my positions via satellite."
Pilots need to get back home after point-to-point long distance flights. Rejmánek hitchhiked home from Lima to Ketchum July 13 after his 108.5-mile flight.
He needed more certainty about his return last Monday, because he was scheduled to work two tandem flights for Fly Sun Valley the next morning.
"I knew I had the tandem flights bright and early Tuesday morning so I had to be back," he said.
So, while airborne last Monday, Rejmánek telephoned Barbora and she started out from Ketchum on the three-hour drive to eastern Idaho at 5:30 p.m. She found her husband after he landed at 7:45 p.m. and Honza drove home, arriving in Ketchum just before 2 a.m. He was back at work a few hours later.
"There will always be the challenge of the open distance flights but the retrieves can be a problem," he said. In the future, he said he might attempt "some out-and-return and triangle flights. Sometimes they can be more challenging." But once Scales ups the ante again, Rejmánek acknowledges he will be tempted to return to the open distance tests.
Meanwhile, Scales knew about Honza's record flight and tried to make his own open distance challenge last Tuesday. But he didn't find the thermals he needed and landed deep in the Pioneers. That necessitated a three-hour walk out.
That's the downside of flying over the mountains. But the thrills are glorious, and Rejmánek will be following Scales' quest from a distance in the months ahead. Honza said, "I wish Nate lots of luck and hope he gets 150 miles."
Honza Rejmanek
