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Up, Up and Away with Icom Radios

Up, Up and Away with Icom Radios In May 2010, in a scene reminiscent of the Disney film ‘Up’, American adventurer Jonathan Trappe strapped himself to an office chair tied to 55 helium balloons and floated 62 miles from Ashford in Kent to Dunkirk in France. There was of course no way of steering so he had to rely solely on the vagaries of the wind. His strategy for landing? When you are over France snip one balloon off at a time. So what does an adventurer do to maintain his safety…he uses Icom radios.

Jonathan’s chair was packed with communication gear including an Icom IC-F15S VHF transceiver to coordinate the flight with the 12 strong support team. Jonathan said,’ I realised I needed an air-to-ground chase radio system. Icom has an excellent reputation in the avionics world, and I was comfortable going with Icom Private Business radios based on my experience with Icom Airband radios.’

Jonathan said,’ Safety is the most important aspect of this type of flying. That takes meticulous strategic and tactical planning and equipment. That’s why in addition to my aircraft radio, we used Icom IC-F15S VHF transceivers to coordinate the flight with the crew on the surface.

‘When I’m high in the air, the range of the Icom radio is a hundred miles’ said Trappe. ‘It’s a good thing too. Coordinating with the ground crew is extremely important. They nee to be right there when I come down…it’s not like landing in an airport.’

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