YUMA, Ariz. – An acrobatic pilot completed 98 inverted spins in his airplane breaking his own record at Million Air airport.
Spencer Suderman took off in his Sunbird S1X aircraft and successfully landed in the terminal apron at Yuma International Airport after breaking his own record Sunday morning.
Back in March 17, 2014 Suderman broke his last record at El Centro Naval Air Facility with 81 Inverted spins. Suderman says that wasn’t good enough and he wanted to set the bar as high as he could to make it more of a challenge for anyone looking to beat the record.
Mike Kobylik of Electroair, a primary sponsor, says how they improved his ignition system.
Kobylik said, “We provided Spencer an electronic ignition system. Which helps the system maintain at a high altitude one of the most important parts of this maneuver is that Spencer has to get very high in order to complete the large number of flat spins as he descends down to the ground, our ignition system makes power at high altitude.”
The crew chief Karl Ott says, the biggest modification they made this time was the seating, “The aluminum race car seat, so there is literally nothing left of the original seat of this aircraft.”
Ott continues by saying the seating was the primary problem in Suderman having to abort early. Once Suderman landed he had a good feeling about breaking the record.
“Awesome, I have been working on this for a long time. When I broke this record for the first time I only did it by three turns. Yeah, it’s a new world record, but it wasn’t that satisfying I need to come back and smash it and smash this record and I wanted to make this so difficult for the next person that no one wants to catch up,” Suderman said.
Two official judges from Guinness Book of World Records have confirmed that 98 spins were completed and Spencer Suderman holds the world record for most inverted spins in the air.