Russian balloonist wins FAI-Breitling Pilot of the Year

A new award, the FAI-Breitling Pilot of the Year, has been won by Russian balloonist Fedor Konyukhov for his record-breaking flight around the world in July 2016.

Fedor was presented with the award at a reception in Switzerland, and also received the official FAI diploma recognising his record flight time of 268 hours 20 minutes.

“I am extremely happy to have been given this award,” he said. “I’m really very proud. I thank all the people who helped make this happen.”

Two years of planning went into Fedor’s flight. He took off from Northam Airfield in Western Australia on 12 July 2016, then flew solo around the world for 11 days 4 hours and 20 minutes before landing back almost exactly where he started.

In a quirk of meteorology that Konyukhov’s team called a ‘billion-to-one chance’, after travelling 33,521.4km around the Earth Konyukhov literally flew over his original take-off field before landing safely back in Western Australia a few hours later.

Konyukohov survived freezing temperatures, faulty oxygen cylinders and thunderstorms during the flight, which was made in a specially built balloon that was 10-times bigger than a standard balloon. He slept little, in micro-sleeps of a mere minutes or even seconds, and lost 11kg during the voyage.

“It was an extremely dynamic experience,” he said. “Compared to my other expeditions, which have all been longer but slower, this was extremely intense.”

Konyukhov is no stranger to extreme challenges. The Russian adventurer has climbed Everest twice, rowed across the Atlantic and the Pacific, sailed around the world several times, and been to both Poles.

Fellow round-the-world balloonist Brian Jones was on hand at the Breitling headquarters in Switzerland to present Konyukhov with a special engraved Breitling watch. Jones said, “When Fedor took on the challenge of flying around the world in the Southern Hemisphere it was an incredibly serious challenge.

“It takes a special kind of person to make this flight because 75% of your flight is over what mountaineers on Everest would call the ‘Death Zone’. If there’s something wrong with the balloon you are going to die. So it’s an incredible feat to get around the world.”

The FAI-Breitling Pilot of the Year Award is a new award launched by the FAI and Breitling this year. It is designed to recognise outstanding achievements in the world of air sports.

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Fedor Konyukhov