I’m Karen Skinner and I was 8 years old when I first tasted flight with my uncle in his
microlight and my destiny was sealed. Eight times World Record holder and member of the Spanish Paramotor team since 2006.
As you can imagine after 18 years of flying paramotor I have so many amazing flights in many unforgettable places.
As well as being an Eight times World record holder, I’ve taken part in many world and European competitions, being on the podium in many of them.
Distance record
My first attempt at any sort of a distance flight was crossing Catalunya non stop, 260 km from Fraga, to the coast of Roses in Girona, which I achieved in 5 hours and 30 minutes. For me this was a test flight to see if I was comfortable flying for long hours, all went well and so the planning started for an even bigger challenge, a non stop World distance record. I took of on foot with 75 kg of weight on my back, the engine, plus 40 litres of fuel and the flight recording instruments.
I flew 440 km from Sevilla to Zamora in 8 hours 25 minutes.
Height record
One of many flights that brings a huge smile to my face is my height record in Castejón de Sos, Huesca, Spain. The weather forecast was excellent for about a three day period. On my first attempt, I broke my previous record reaching 5600 metres when the oxygen supply stopped working. I knew that the conditions were prefect to get even higher, so I felt really disappointed but on the ground, the crew checked the Oxygen equipment and discovered that it was actually my fault for not closing the battery compartment door properly! So I decided to have another go the next morning. I took off around 11.30am, and headed up, it was magical watching the clouds develop beneath my feet, I could now see the Aneto Mountain range in the distance & headed towards it. As I reached 6250 metres my engine started to lose power due to the lack of oxygen, so I slowly headed down, taking my time to enjoy the moments of realising one of my biggest dreams to reach past 6000 metres in my paramotor. The views were incredible, the thermal activity was now working well at the paragliding site beneath me and I could see a lot of pilots flying, I was so much higher that they looked like tiny little objects hanging in the sky. I stayed there for a while just working my way down enjoying this unique moment of being the highest pilot on the mountain, I could see pilots heading over towards me, maybe thinking that I was paragliding and they too could find the lift to get higher, but I’m sure as soon as they got close enough they could see my engine and all hurried back towards the mountain.
I headed back to the landing field, the flight stayed in my mind for weeks afterwards, I was still up there, and so happy and lucky that I’d achieved another world record.
Guatemala
I’ve always had a fascination for Volcanos and Guatemala is a place I would love to go back to. I flew as close as I possible could to quite a few of the active volcanos in Guatemala, and visited them by foot too. The Volcano of Santa Maria, the Santiaguito erupted every twenty minutes, such intense moments as i could feel the ground shake beneath by feet. The owner of a sugarcane plantation kindly allow me to take off from one of his fields, once in the air, I stayed at a safe distance from any danger, but the flight was short, only 30 minutes as the wind changed very quickly and started to increase in speed.
Afterwards we headed inland to the mountains and one of the highest places that I’ve ever taking off in a paramotor, at 3000 metres high, near a town called Huehuetenango. The take off was interesting, as I was flying an engine which wasn’t really powerful enough at that height, so it’s a good job that my legs were strong! I climbed to almost 5000 metres, the clouds were developing very fast but I could see the ground through a small gap. I had a new GoPro that I was filming with on my helmet, it was such an amazing experience, but i didn’t know then that I had to pair the remote to the camera before using it! My big mistake as you can imagine, no video and just a few photos.
After a few hours of an amazing flight I landed back near to the village to the welcome of all the local children.
Awarded the FAI Anne Welch diploma for Record achievements in 2012 and 2020.
Female champion of Spain in Classic paramotor competitions from 2005 to 2015.
Female Champion of Spain in Slalom from 2013 to 2018.
World Classic - Bronze Medal and Silver team - 2012 - Marugan, Spain.
World Slalom - Bronze medal and bronze team - 2013 - France.
World Classic - Vice world champion, Silver medal - 2014 - Hungary.
World air games - Bronze medal - Dubai - 2015.
European Slalom - Silver medal & Bronze team - 2016 Bornos, Spain.
World cup Slalom - Bronze medal & Bronze team - 2017 - Egypt.
Current World records
Non stop distance of 440,9 km, taking off by foot with 75 kg of weight of equipment, flying 8 hours 30 minutes from Sevilla to Zamora. Spain.
Height record of 6250 metres, Castejon de Sos, Spain.
Speed to 3000 metres, 22 minutes. Sant Pere de Pescador, Spain.
Tandem Speed to 3000 metres, 41 minutes. Sant Pere de Pescador, Spain.
Distance over a closed circuit, 310 km. Taking off foot launch with 65 kg weight of equipment, flying 5 hours 25 minutes beating the previous record by 130% in Cervera, Spain.
My hobbies are paragliding, paramotor, skiing, mountain bike and photography.
