“There I Was…” 02
“There I was, at 2500 feet, hanging upside down under a paraglider with a
bungee rope attached to my ankles. At this point, I suddenly realised the
landing was going to be rather more difficult than I thought. How on Earth
did I end up here?
The idea of doing a bungee jump from a paraglider came about when one of the
Turkish bungee jumping companies gave me a bungee cord. At the time my
commercial tandem flights off Olu Deniz, Turkey, had become a bit of a
routine and we were trying to spice things up a bit.
I discussed the idea with Murat Tuzer, who I´d decided was a good pilot for
the job. We mulled over all the things that might go wrong with a view to
ensuring they didn´t. We considered how the changing forces would affect the
glider´s airspeed and pitch, and also the likely effects of centrifugal
forces when the glider turned.
These would probably be quite considerable, as the stretched bungee would be
nearly 150 feet long. We worked out plans for every eventuality - I even had
a quick-release on my ankles so that I could undo them once I´d stopped
bouncing, as the plan was for me to land on my feet and run after the glider
till it landed safely.
I wondered what I would do if I landed facing backwards, but discounted
that, as there was only a 50% chance of it happening. Obviously, failing to
keep up with the wing during the landing would cause the glider to dive
forward in a downplane till the pilot slammed into the ground.
I told Murat that if I had a trouble with the quick release, he should land
me in the water. I also told him to avoid sharp turns so that I would not
pendulum and bounce on landing. The last thing I wanted was to crash into an
obstacle while swinging under a glider!
As soon as we were happy with the theory, we spent the next day setting up
the bungee cord, bridles and working out how it would all attach to the
carabiners.
We had enough wind for an easy launch. It was a little difficult to sit in
the harness with the bungee wrapped around my neck though. It took only five
minutes to arrive over the water where we planned to do the jump.
Up to this point I had full trust in my pilot and his capability and skills.
I undid my harness straps and let go, going into a headlong dive towards the
sea. I was weightless for a few seconds, then, aaaaarrgghh, I was coming
back up again. Great, the bungee line held, as did the bridles attached to
the carabiners.
We slowly made our way towards the beach, descending to 2000 feet. At this
point I tried to free my ankles using the quick release system, but it was
extremely difficult to reach them - not easy like when I had practised this
hanging under the tree!
When I realised the quick release was not functioning, I yelled to Murat to
land me in the sea. How difficult could this be? Our worst case scenario was
actually happening.
There was a crowd of hundreds on the beach, including Eurosport cameras
filming one of the early aerobatics shows. Andy Heidegger was cheering the
crowd along while I was approaching the beach - still upside down. What is
Murat trying to do, why doesn´t he land me in the water? Hasn´t he heard
what I shouted?
I suddenly realised during Murat´s final approach for landing that I was
going right into the middle of the crowd, still yo-yoing up and down. Murat
finally initiated a turn to make his final approach into the wind with lots
of speed and me still swinging. There was no way we could land like this and
nothing I could do but dangle and wait till it happened.
Meanwhile, some of the guys who knew what we were trying to do ran up and
down the beach trying to catch me before I hit the ground.
Just like my pilot, they misjudged things and missed me. The last thing I
saw was the ground rushing up at my face as I desperately tried to grab my
ankles again to avoid hitting the ground head first. I slammed in on my
back, had all the wind knocked out of me, was wonderfully still for a
second, then shot straight back up 10 feet in the air. Then slammed down
again.
I dimly recall this happening at least two more times and then getting
dragged along by the tandem which, to Murat´s horror, was starting to
downplane towards the beach. Murat was desperately hauling on the brakes to
kill the dive before he thudded into the beach, winded like me but otherwise
OK.
Meanwhile, Andy was shouting on the microphone, “Semmiii you craaazzzyyy
maan!”
I later asked Murat why he hadn´t landed me into the water. His response
was: “It wouldn´t look cool.”
