51,849 feet by BobRodwell?

I've been looking through some old Soaring magazines and in the June, 1977
issue there's an article about a record flight by Bob Rodwell to 51,849 feet
on March 29th of that year. Can someone tell me why that isn't the current
altitude record? Sounds like he's lucky to be alive after having his
controls mostly frozen for most of the descent. In the article it says that
after finding his spoilers frozen shut, he put his Skylark 4 into a 38,000
foot spin that had an estimated 400 turns! Is Bob still around and is he
still soaring? He would be in his late 70's now.

--
Gary Boggs
3650 Airport Dr.
Hood River, Oregon, USA
97031-9613