Jonas Blanton, 86, Passes

Jonas Blanton came to Lookout to continue his Guinness Book World Record of being the oldest hang glider pilot at age 86. I went up to the shop to pay my rent check yesterday and noticed him there talking to Jen. He had on a jacket that had a Guiness World Record emblem on the front is how I recognized him. Later that day he took a tandem, even though he didn't have to since he is a rated pilot, and then took a solo flight in the towing trainer Falcon, that has a fin and big wheels on it too. He crashed into the pine tree in the parking lot on his approach. The conditions in the lz were as good as I've seen them in a while, quite calm and consistent. He apparently was on a normal approach and from a long way out veered towards the tree and never turned away. I wasn't witness to any of these events, but watched from a distance as there was a crowd and flashing lights in the parking lot with people trading off doing chest compressions on him under the wing of the crooked hang glider. Tough day for everyone here, especially for those who knew him. My condolences to his family, he must have been an incredible person to have been hang gliding at his age.