Here's the latest stunt that maybe shouldn't have happened in the first place: a skier being towed behind a plane on a large snowfield. From the description, the skier is Reese Hanneman, the winner of the classic sprint at the 2014 U.S. Cross Country Championships, and the towing took place somewhere on the Alaska Range. Hanneman later tweeted the video to his followers on Twitter.
In case you were wondering, the Federal Aviation Regulations do address towing specifically, under Part 91. There is a section (FAR 91.309) regulating the towing of gliders and unpowered ultralight vehicles. And there is a subsequent regulation (FAR 91.311) that states "No pilot or civil aircraft may tow anything with that aircraft (other than under 91.309) except in accordance with terms of a certificate waiver issued by the Administrator." There's also a regulation against "careless and reckless" operation, which would probably apply here as well.
So, either the pilot of this Aviat Husky holds special permission to pull Hanneman around the mountains, or he did well to make sure the videographer never captured his tail number in the video.
If you think this looks a little too chilly, you can check out the wakeboarding-behind-an-aircraft video that was posted over at Flying Magazine's website last fall. It also included a champion athlete -- wakeboarding world champion Bernhard Hinterberger -- though it was filmed in Italy. In this case, Hinterberger actually became airborne, along with the aircraft. Maybe Hanneman and his pilot friend will take this as a challenge -- unless the FAA catches them first.
Contact Colleen Mondor at colleen(at)alaskadispatch.com.