Posted on 07/30/2016 2:50:28 PM PDT by granite
Picture of Luke Akins during a training run View Images Luke Aikins is training his body to be able to maneuver through the unpredictability of the wind. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDY FARRINGTON By Andrew Bisharat PUBLISHED JULY 29, 2016 Luke Aikins, 42, has deployed a parachute around 18,000 times over the last two and a half decades of his skydiving and BASE jumping career. But this Saturday, he’s going to find out if he can get away without one.
After two years of training, planning, and preparation, Aikins plans to jump out of a Cessna airplane at 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). With him will be a GPS, a communication device, and an oxygen tank. What he won’t have is a parachute, a wingsuit, or anything else that might help him stop or slow his descent.
“My whole life has been about air, aviation, flying, jumping, all that stuff,” said Aikins, a third-generation skydiver, during a television interview with Q13 FOX, the network broadcasting Aikins’ stunt, with a five-second delay, on July 30 at 8 p.m. ET (National Geographic Partners is a part of Fox Network Groups). “I’m out here to show that there are ways to do things that people think are insane and aren’t able to be done.”
As a TV audience tunes in to witness the spectacle—dubbed Heaven Sent and billed by the corporate sponsor and producer, Stride Gum, as the “most dangerous stunt ever shown live”—Aikins’ friends and family, including his wife, herself a skydiving instructor, and their four-year-old son will be on location..
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalgeographic.com ...
Anyone know when this will happen today?
If he hits the ground, he will have an instant burial.
Luke aikins. Huh.
He should have a flashier stage name.
The net being over concrete should soften the blow.
This idea needs to go into the pantheon of bad ideas right next to mesh condoms and the Pontiac Aztec.
I’ve seen some awesome compilations of wing suit videos. Each one ends with a long list of “will be missed”.
Funemployment.
No ‘job lock’ for this smart gentleman.............
Does his net have a back up safety net?
Oft told sorry:
Gurkha Courage
Topics: Courage, Commitment
Tim Bowden, in his book One Crowded Hour about cameraman Neil Davis, tells
about an incident that happened in Borneo during the confrontation between
Malaysia and Indonesia in 1964.
A group of Gurkhas from Nepal were asked if they would be willing to jump
from transport planes into combat against the Indonesians if the need arose.
The Gurkhas had the right to turn down the request because they had never
been trained as paratroopers. Bowden quotes Davis’s account of the story:
“Now the Gurkhas usually agreed to anything, but on this occasion the
provisionally rejected the plan. But the next day one of their NCOs sought
out the British officer who made the request and said they had discussed the
matter further and would be prepared to jump under certain conditions.
“What are they?” asked the British Officer.
“The Gurkhas Told him they would jump if the land was marshy or reasonably
soft with no rocky outcrops, Because they were inexperienced in falling.
The British officer considered this, and said that the dropping areas auld
almost certainly be over jungle, and there would not be rocky outcrops, so
that seemed all right. Was there anything else?
“Yes, said the Gurkhas. They wanted the plane to fly as slowly as possible
and no more than one hundred feet high. The British officer pointed out the
planes always did fly as slowly as possible when dropping troops, but to
jump from 100 feet was impossible, because the parachutes would not open in
time from that height.
“Oh,” said the Gurkhas, “that’s all right, then. We’ll jump with parachutes
anywhere. You didn’t mention parachutes before!”
Any church could use such Gurkha-like commitment and courage.
Craig Brian Larson, Illustrations For Preaching and Teaching, Grand Rapids:
Baker Books, 1993, p. 36
If the wife knew this "inclination" then she is part of the problem. I doubt she knew since they have only ONE child.
Pity that baby.
This has already been done, successfully.
Just not on purpose.
During WWII a guy either fell out, or jumped out, of a bomber at least 25,000 feet, IIRC.
He landed on a haystack, and lived to tell about it, though it took awhile before people believed him.
I read some. It seems like the real deal. There are some things in place to make it feasible, but why take the chance??
I used to jump out of planes, ride motorcycles, and I was very interested in para-gliding.
Now, I am just a father to my three kids. They come first over any desire I may have for something I would probably enjoy if I lacked the responsibility.
8:00 p.m. PDT on your local Fox station.
In the doctumentary that I saw, the participants had already lost multiple friends, and many had been injured themselves.
Would not be shocked to find he will have a mini-chute under his suit in case he sees he is being blown too far off target to make it square.
Thanks.
I don’t get it at all.
Pardon me being a dumbie, but I don’t see where they’ve said we can watch this? What channel? Thank you.
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