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It's
time to find out how this incredibly daring stunt was actually pulled off. Years
of planning, a lot of creativity, and unimaginable permission from the cable car
company all helped make it possible. Now get the whole story. 43-year-old Arnaud
Longobardi flies into the open doors of a moving cable car... on purpose.
Successfully completing this unthinkable feat required an improbable convergence
of a tight-knit team, perfect weather conditions, unimaginable permission from
the cable car company, cutting-edge equipment, pinpoint accuracy, a bit of luck,
and above all, extraordinary courage. For this stunt to work, Longobardi had to
perfectly time his takeoff after the cable car left its dock in order to enter
its door at the precise point on its journey when it was briefly traveling
horizontally rather than at an angle up or down. In addition, an unexpected gust
of wind from any direction could blow either the pilot or the moving cable car
off their trajectory, causing them to, at best, abort the landing and at worst,
cause Longobardi to crash into the side of the cable car and go spinning towards
the ground. Longobardi described the challenge: “For this to be possible would
require the glider to actually stall as I entered the door. At 200 meters from
the cable car I was traveling at 80kph. From that point, I had to make a very
controlled deceleration to 35 kph - the precise speed where the glider would
stall and collapse - at one meter from the cable car and my momentum would carry
me in. If I stalled before reaching the door - disaster.” To add to the critical
nature of this stunt, the cable car was only 150 meters above the ground. If the
wing collapsed and Longobardi went into a spin before entering the door, he
would need to carry out emergency maneuvers and deploy his reserve parachute
which takes a minimum of 80 meters to open. This would leave him only 70 meters
- a matter of seconds - to carry out the emergency maneuvers. So how did he come
up with this extraordinary idea? Longobardi: “I had this project in mind for a
full year before I did it. I thought about it every day, thought through all the
challenges - speed, angle, height - all the different scenarios from the takeoff
to the approach to the landing. After 6 months, I finally decided OK, I’ve
thought through all the possibilities and there is nothing that can happen
during the flight that I haven’t imagined and mentally prepared for.
This is
do-able.”
Arnaud’s support team included:
Inside the cable car Rudy Cassan
(cameraman)
Patrick Emoniere (mountain guide)
Alain Coste (cable car
driver)
Guillaume Bocquet (cameraman)
On the cable car roof Jean René
Gayvallet (mountain guide)
On ground: Freddy Montigny (cameraman)
Gilbert
Genoud (cameraman)
Stephane Gautier (photographer)
Jean Pierre Veillard
(Head of Le Brévènt ski station)
Julien Millot (Coordinator)
In the
air: Marc Bourdelle (speed rider)
Sponsor: SENA Bluetooth System
To
find out more about Arnaud Longobardi, check out
www.longo-spots.com
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