Annecy Trip 2007 - Base Jump
Ok, so technically it's just a parachute jump from a tandem paraglider with three guys swinging around underneath, but it was fun to be a part of. A big thank you to Irwyn Jehu of 'Maison du Moulin' for agreeing to try to launch three people on his tandem wing and Simon Perriard the parachutist/paraglider/dbagger who would be the 'jumper'. Video coming soon I promise!
Before we had a chance to mess about filming Simon's parachute jump we all headed to Marlens for another nice morning flight. Alistair was keen to be wind dummy... again. Top bloke!
A couple of paragliding luvlies - Kat and 'Squash'. Squash presumably has a real name but we never found out exactly what it was.
Waiting for a bit of breeze before commiting to launch.
Me and my shadow
Conditions are light and small punchy thermals are making maintaining altitude tricky for those that take off early.
Jason clawing his way back up the mountain after some heavy sink
That would be a small asymetric collapse...
We met up with Simon at the Marlens landing field. He followed behind on his motorbike as we set off back to Forclaz for a quick flight prior to setting up for the hilarious 'three people on one wing launch' and then bailing out with his parachute.
Simon and Jason trudge back from the Doussard landing field. Simon is carrying his paragldiing and parachuting rigs and is probably wondering how far it is to 'Maison du Moulin'.
Having stowed his paragliding gear in our rental car Simon sets up for the jump. We have met up with Irwyn Jehu, who with very little persuasion agreed to the stunt.
Jason films as Simon and Irwyn run through some preflight checks.
You don't have to be special to parachute from a paraglider but it helps! Simon indicates that three of us will be launching together, or maybe that's some Swiss hand gesture I am unfamiliar with.
We launch successfully, Simon at the front on extended connections, I am in the middle with the video and stills cameras, Irwyn is the tandem pilot. He gives us a great little motivational speach before we take off:
'Now I can do this, but I need you boys to run like hell and keep running!'
It's a bit weird seeing Simon unbuckling his harness on the seat below me. I take a moment to reflect that this is, in fact, my first tandem paragliding flight. This is turning out to be a fun trip.
He's gone. Simon delivers the goods and performs a text book exit, freefalling briefly before deploying his chute and trying to SAT it into the SIV landing field. Simon Perriard, ladies and gentlemen, base jumper, paraglider and dbagger. Generous enough to lend us his dbag having never even met us. There are definitely some interesting people out there. Irwyn handles the whole flight perfectly with
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