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March 28, 2024 5:01 pm
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World Cup Athletes Fly High Above M.V.

By CATHERINE ELLERTON

Moapa Valley Progress

Competitors line up to enter the airplane in preparation for a jump while event organizer Sammy Vassilev talks to an online broadcast audience during the Wingsuit World Cup event held last week at Perkins Field Airport in Overton. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/Moapa Valley Progress.

Make sure the main and backup parachutes are packed correctly. Don the wingsuit which covers you from stem to stern. Make sure you have the GPS device hooked to your helmet. Enter the waiting plane. And a few minutes later take a step out of that plane into the wild blue yonder at approximately 12,500 feet above land!
Other than that, how’s your day going?

The 2017 World Cup of Wingsuit Flying competition was held at the Perkins Field Airport in Overton last week. The event drew 60 athletes from all over the world. The event was hosted by local skydive touring company Skydive Fyrosity.

Skydive Fyrosity owner Sammy Vassilev had said that there would not be a lot to watch at the airport because all the action takes place high in the sky. But I beg to differ. It was fascinating to watch these athletes challenge each other and the elements.

They came from 11 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, India, Italy, Norway, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States. I decided to find out what made these folks ‘tick’ and, hopefully, to learn a bit more about the sport.

World Cup competitor, Travis Mickle comes in for a soft landing at the end of the final jump of the day on Tuesday last week. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/Moapa Valley Progress.

I watched Todd Davis of San Francisco and a member of the USA Team prepare his Wingsuit. This bulky outfit covers your entire body. I wondered exactly how you get out of it to pull the chute and land. “Quite simple,” he explained. You can reach behind you to open the chute, then once you are stable, you unzip the sleeves so the arms can control the lines. As you approach the ground and your flight is, once again, stable, you unzip the leggings, tuck them in your waist and you are ready to land.
“And when it all comes together, there is nothing better,” said Davis, a 10 year flying veteran.

I caught Luke Rogers of Brisbane, Australia getting ready to board the airplane with his wingsuit on. He demonstrated the techniques used. After getting on board the flyer zips up the sleeves and leggings. Rogers is a Geo-Technician who has been flying for three years and has been in six competitions to date.

The top three Performance Flying Awards are from Team USA. They included Gold medalist– Chris Geiler (center); Silver – Alexey Galda (left) and Bronze – Travis Mickle (right). PHOTO BY CATHERINE ELLERTON/Moapa Valley Progress.

Team India members, Rameshwer Jangra (8 years jumping), Udit Thapar (14 years) and Satyendra Verma (25 years) all agreed that it was fun. It is the closest thing to being a human airplane, they said.
Sarah Chamberlain from Connecticut and a member of the USA Team said that she decided she wanted to try wingsuiting, fell in love with it and has been at it for 5 years. Sarah is involved in the aerobatics discipline.

Anthony Zerbonia from Erie, Pennsylvania and a member of the USA Team is also the Director of Skydive Spaceland in Florida. He is one of only a few that are full-time involved with this sport. There are scuba divers, engineers, machinists, carpenters, business owners, mechanical engineers, research scientists and peace officers to name a few of the careers of these skydivers.

The World Cup event is a team effort. There are judges like Australian Neil Fergie. He explained that the athlete must weigh in before and after each performance; the equipment must be tagged; and the computer tracking device must be catalogued.

Performance jumpers jump three times each – once for time, once for speed and once for distance. Then the wind speed and direction must be monitored.
For the acrobatic jumps the criteria are compulsory moves and free style routine. There are three jumpers in each team – a camera operator who records the entire jump and the two ‘actors.’
These competitions are very serious. While there is time for joking and laughter, the actual competition requires a lot of concentration and organization that goes on in the hangars.

The Opening Flag Ceremony was beautiful with the flags from each of the participating countries being carried on high. The Color Guard from Nellis Air Force Base was also present.

There were two ceremonies on the final day. The first was a “#Vegas Strong” sky jump and the last was the Medal Ceremony. In the Wingsuit Aerobatics: first place went to USA2 – ‘Wicked Wingsuits’; 2nd place – USA1 – ‘Flatspin’ and third place – Russia – ‘Sky Republic.’ In Performance the first three winners were all Americans: 1st – Chris Geiler; 2nd – Alexey Golda and 3rd Travis Mickle.
Nine candidates received their judges’ certification during the ceremony. An Inaugural Award for Wingmanship was made to ‘Tumbling Pigeons’ of the USA Team.

In this meet, 19 International Records were set: 16 Continental records in all categories and three World Records were made. Travis Mickle of the US Team recorded the speed record for male performer of 325.4 km per hour. Amber Forte of the Norway Team recorded the fastest time of 274.0 km/hr for a female performer. Then in another jump she promptly broke her own record at 283.7 km/hr.

In their free time, many of the participants visited nearby attractions. They hiked in the Valley of Fire State Park and visited Zion National Park. They took brief forays up to the top of the Mormon Mesa. Many competitors stated that, from on high, this area was breathtaking. Many planned to do a bit more of the tourist ‘thing’ before they left.
So next time you look up into that blue sky and see a brilliant color of a parachute magically appear, give the operator a salute to say thank you for a job well done.

I leave you with a greeting from Eirik Syversen from Norway, who is a competitor and a Wind Tunnel Instructor in his country – MAX PÁ ALT (full speed).

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