Red Bull Aces Wingsuit Race 2014
/When I received the invited to compete in the first ever Red Bull Aces wingusit race I was beyond stoked to have to opportunity to jump out of a plane with 4 others and fly around pylons suspended by who knows what! We have been dreaming about an event like this for years, and here it is!!! But quickly my initial excitement was taken over by fear. My terror of wingsuit skydiving became palpable once I seriously started considering the competition.
I know it sounds funny to be afraid of wingsuit skydiving when I am a very active wingsuit BASE jumper. But I know wingsuit BASE, I understand it, and I am in control. When it comes to skydiving, I would be jumping out of a plane with potentially people I do not know or trust. And on top of that, I have Major gear-fear of skydiving equipment. The parachute system is not designed for wingsuit deployments. The parachutes are more sporty than base rigs, and they are pack tightly into a D-bag, and all the lines are strangled into perfect alignment. Yes, it looks pretty to have everything so neatly packed away, but it doesn’t provide for an optimal deployment when flying a wingusit.
I don’t like to have too many new variables at one time when jumping; so when considering the Red Bull Aces race the first variable I needed to eliminate was the fear of skydiving. I booked tickets to arrive a week before the race which would allow me to dust off the skydiving cobwebs. I also ordered a demo PD Storm 7 cell canopy which is more similar to my base jumping canopy and arranged for some simple modification on my gear to make it more wingsuit friendly.
When I arrived in the Lodi drop zone after months of anticipation I was relieved to see many of my friends there. Few. People whom I know and trust. I can do this. My first wingsuit jump was with a small group of 5 people who I knew. Now I didn’t have to worry about some random person colliding with me in the sky… now I just had to worry about how to get me and my big floppy wingsuit out the side door of the airplane as it travels way faster than what I’m used to. In my mind it is not natural to present my wingsuit more or less sideways to strong wind. I had in my mind that if I make a baby hop out the door and keep everything tight together I should present to the air equally. The first jump went great. I exited cleanly, flew my brand-new Squirrel prototype designed for speed (which flew like a dream from the start) and was able to flock with my friends. Then it was pull time… deep breath…. Sigh… stable on heading opening with no line twists.
The fallowing jumps were mixed with stressful variables. At least 2 or 3 times my exit ended with me clipping my foot on the door sending me into a spectacular tumble – which I learned to recover and it was actually great practice for the Red Bull Aces exits. I hand many openings with line twists, but the Storm canopy was always, in the end, flying flat and stable over my head. I completely trusted my gear. I also learned to trust the other skydivers, and at the end of the week I was jumping out of the plane with 20 other wingsuiters.
Now it was time for the race.
We showed up to a little airport in the middle on nowhere California. My skydiver eyes were pleased to see that I could land anywhere in any direction, no building or grape vines for miles and miles in any direction. That morning all the athletes lined up, checked in, prepared their gear and sat down for the safety briefing. We would have 1 day of practice jumps before the event started. Yeay!!!
We were organized into groups of 3 to jump out of a Skyvan and race around the course of 4 pylons suspended by helicopters. We exited at 8,000 ft. The first gate was at 6,500 ft then at 5,500 ft, 4,500 ft and the final gate at 3,500 ft giving the athletes plenty of time to separate for a safe deployment.
At first it was extremely difficult to spot the gates. They were difficult to see from the plane, and even more difficult to see when flying. But we quickly became accustomed to what to look for and by the end of the day spotting the gates (i.e. helicopters suspending a long line of flags J ) Because of the initial difficulty of spotting the gates, Luke Aikins, the event organizer, decided to move the gates into a straight line and make the course more similar to a slalom course. Any time there was any hint of a safety concern Luke quickly addressed it and all the athletes felt very comfortable with the race format.
The second day, after one quick morning warm up round, the race began. We were divided into new groups, given GPS devices, which would captures as we flew through the gate to ensure we were on course. The gates were 100 ft high and 1000 ft wide. So if we flew through anywhere in that invisible gate next to the flags the GPS would recognize it.
52 pilots competed in the first round, and then only 32 pilots advanced. 2 people out of each group advanced to the next round. Some people were eliminated because they tumbled on exit and didn’t have a chance to catch up to the group, others missed the gates by typically flying too low, and other were eliminated for simply flying slower. Unfortunately I was eliminated in the first go around by flying too low on a gate. I remember flying around and looking at the very bottom flag of the gate, biting my lip, hoping that I was still within the gate, but in the end I was out. Even though it was disappointing to go out like that I was still so psyched to be at the event –Flying around helis and pylons! (I still can’t get over how awesome that is.)
The next day there was 4 competition rounds. First with 32 pilots, then narrowed down to 16, then 8 and then the final 4. It was incredible to watch! The racers were wearing smoke for some of the rounds and it was incredible to see the different lines and techniques of each flier. The heats became tighter and tighter, truly narrowing it down to the fastest racers. In the end, the top 4 was between Jonathan Florez, Julian Boulle, Noah Bahnson, and Andy Farrington. What an amazing race.. the top athletes in our sport racing head to head around 4 pylons, and it was a tight race. Andy was clearly in the lead, but at the finish line it looked like Noah and Julian passed at the same moment. After reviewing the results, they DID pass the finish gate at the exact same moment! WOW! So the organizers went back and looked at previous results of them and placed the over all fastest times in second place. In the end Julian took 3rd, Noah took 2nd and Andy took 1st. Well done boys! I also want to give a shout out to Katie Hansen who kicked many guys asses in the race- she is a serious ninja when it comes to flying wingsuit.
Luke Aikins did an amazing job organizing a very complex event. Huge thanks to you and the Red Bull crew for putting on an incredible event!
