wing walking over Gloucestershire for Men's Health magazine with Jonathan Thompson on the wing

1. COREADVENTURE
A WING AND
A PRAYER
ONCE IN A LIFETIME
#20
What? April right up until the injuring anyone. The
Wing walking is the end of September. sensation of soaring,
TO DO original aerial extreme banking and diving
BEFORE sport. Banned in 1933 Where? through the air with
Bored of club class? Give the frequent flier card a rest, strap YOU DIE
after heavy fatalities,
it’s back, but thankfully
RFC Rendcomb, Gloucs.
The former First World
nothing around you
but huge blue skies
yourself onto a biplane and follow Jonathan Thompson on the WING WALKING
significantly safer. War airfield is home to
Team Guinot, Europe’s
is the ultimate white-
knuckle ride.
ride of his life. Welcome to the mad world of wing walking When? only formation wing
Tactfully avoiding most walking team. How?
football clashes, bird To arrange a session
migration and the least Why? and a chance to land
clement weather, the It’s the closest man a place on the team,
season runs from early can get to flight without visit teamguinot.co.uk.
T
he wings of the
biplane jerk manically
beneath me and
I steal a quick glance at the
patchwork quilt of fields and
country roads 1000ft (305m)
beneath my battered trainers.
The wings wiggle again: it’s the
pilot’s signal that he wants to
know if I’ve got the balls to do
this. He’s not the only one.
The nose dips, the engine’s
shriek becomes more urgent and
before my hands make it back to
my sides, we’re diving at 150mph.
The intense cold of the wind feels
like it’s pulverising the exposed
skin around my goggles, but no
sensation overrides the urgent
message from my eyes as the
Gloucestershire countryside
rushes closer. A split second
before that instinctive arms-
across-face moment, the pilot
pulls back and the full force of
four Gs – the equivalent of four
times my bodyweight – slams
into my chest as we go into a
Jonathan does his steep vertical climb. It feels like
best Dick Dastardly
impression
someone’s trying to rip the skin
up over my skull as if it were ᮣ
00 MEN’S HEALTH AUGUST 2007 www.menshealth.co.uk AUGUST 2007 MEN’S HEALTH 00

2. COREADVENTURE
ᮤ a mask in Ethan Hunt’s field there, it feels like somebody’s
Suit Windproof,
kit. A brief moment later the THE GEAR Goggles
Essential to lightweight Lycra one- trying to push your eyeballs
pressure eases, the plane inverts piece, close-fitting for into the back of your head.”
and I’m at the top of the loop.
Tools of the air-trade combat wind
minimum in-flight I’m thinking I should have flown
pressure and
allow in-flight flapping.
Forcing my eyes to stay open, Business class.
vision.
I see the whole world tipping The pilot elegantly twists and
upside down, the horizon banks while I survey the scene
spinning until blue sky becomes below, my fixed grin only partially
green fields, then blue sky once due to the force of the wind. It’s
more. If there was any breath left a phenomenal feeling up there
in my lungs, it would have been on the edge of the wing. On
well and truly taken away. this chilly Gloucestershire
morning it also feels a little like
AIR TO THE BONE Rig The swivelling being simultaneously plunged
It seems a lifetime ago now, but rig is a half-seat into a barrel of ice and shot out
rewind a few short hours and I’m attached to a vertical of a circus cannon. But, what
Aircraft The Boeing Stearman column. Wingwalkers
leaving London by rather more was originally used for training are locked in via a a ride. This is the granddaddy
prosaic transport. Safely pilots during the Second World five-point military of aerial sports and through its
War, then for crop-spraying harness, but can
attached to the ground via my sensation of swooping up as
before a final career change. move arms and legs.
four wheels, the realisation of much as down, combined with
what lies ahead is a long way your position on the very edge
from sinking in. That bile-inducing of the wing and the ability to
moment only arrives a few “Look Mum, manoeuvre arms and legs, it
no hands!”
seconds after I’ve been strapped gets closer than any other to
tightly, firing squad-style, to a true feeling of flight.
a vertical pole on the upper wing
of the Boeing Stearman by Sarah IN-FLIGHT
Tanner, a 25-year-old pro-wing ENTERTAINMENT
walker who looks a damn sight I can’t resist pulling a Superman
better in Lycra than I ever could. pose, then I run through a few
Secure in the rig, I’m given of the simple wingwalking
a bizarre winged leather helmet, manoeuvres Tanner taught me
which looks half Asterix, half back on terra firma. I can’t
Ann Summers. Next come the imagine I muster an ounce of
goggles, which I’m told are her gymnastic grace and every
particularly important when movement of every limb feels
travelling outside planes at like pushing through a deep
160mph. “Keep these on tight,” snowdrift. But this pales in
says Tanner, strangely unmoved “And you’re comparison to what comes next.
sure this will get
by my daredevil-fetishist attire. us airborne?”
The loop is simultaneously the
“Otherwise, when you’re up most invigorating, life-affirming ᮣ
FLYING CIRCUS LOOP-THE-LOOP AILERON ROLL THE MIRROR
(PART ONE) The incontinence-inducing staple
starts at 1000ft
This is a roll around the plane’s
longitudinal axis, (a loop-the-
Regarded as one of the most
daring of wing walking stunts
Aerial acrobatics from 1 The pilot points the nose down loop goes round the plane’s and only performed in perfect
pilot and plane and dives, picking up speed to carry lateral axis) weather conditions
through the loop. 1 Again, the pilot dives to gain 1 Two aircraft fly in formation,
2 When he hits the required speed, then he pitches the nose one slightly ahead and to the left.
airspeed, the pilot eases the stick up to around 40 degrees above 2 Both dive and on the pull up,
back, pulling the plane up into the horizon. the lead plane performs a left
a steep climb. 2 He shifts his stick extreme left half-aileron roll, inverting itself.
3 As the plane flies over the top, or right and the plane rolls 360 3 The lead plane keeps flying
inverted, he drops the nose, picks degrees in that direction before straight and upside down. Then
up speed down the back of the loop, he re-centres the stick and the lower plane comes in beneath,
then pulls into a climb to finish it. levels out. so the wingwalkers touch hands.
00 MEN’S HEALTH AUGUST 2007 www.menshealth.co.uk www.menshealth.co.uk AUGUST 2007 MEN’S HEALTH 00

3. COREADVENTURE
ᮤ and gut-wrenchingly terrifying
experience I’ve ever had. As the
blue sky spins back into focus
and the plane rights itself once
more, I find myself punching
the onrushing air in exultation, FLYING CIRCUS
shouting my victory into the wind. (PART TWO)
Then wings wiggle again – the
In-flight manoeuvres for
most efficient way for pilot to
would-be wingwalkers
communicate with wingwalker
over the bellow of the engine
and howl of the wind – and we
SPLIT HANDSTAND
1 Hold you arms aloft in an “L”.
begin our descent. We come in This is the signal to other team
fast, hitting the ground at the far members that you’re about to
end of the field and bouncing begin a manoeuvre.
a couple of times before we are, 2 Spin your body 180 degrees
once again, back in gravity’s in the rig.
embrace. As the engine dies, 3 Push your right leg forward so
it’s at right angles to the rest of
my personal fuel lines are still
your body, then spread your
pumping. My feet are on the arms to mirror the wings and
ground but my head is still complete the effect (above).
somewhere over Gloucestershire.
ICARUS FALLS BACK
TO EARTH
Not even the discovery that my
face is caked in frozen spittle
and the stitches from a fresh
wisdom tooth removal have been HORIZONTAL WAVE
torn out is enough to dampen my 1 Start with your arms in an “L”,
enthusiasm. “Nothing beats it, The new flat left leg bent and arm up.
right?” says team member Lucy beds received 2 Swivel 90 degrees to the
mixed reviews right, keeping your left leg bent
Foster as she helps me down
from the rig. “I’ve tried a lot of with your left foot resting on
your right knee. Your left knee
extreme sports, but nothing I’ve
done comes anywhere near this
MY FEET ARE ON should point straight up, so
– it’s the best feeling in the THE GROUND BUT you form a horizontal “P”.
3 Wave with your left arm at the
world.” Sadly for me, although
I squeezed under the accepted
MY HEAD IS STILL gaping mouths beneath, while
clinging desperately to the
height and weight limits to ride SOMEWHERE wire with your right.
on the wing (6ft and 13st OVER A FIELD
respectively), I’m too big to THE STAR
become a professional. Team 1 Get into position by
manager Vic Norman explains swivelling the rig to line
that the ideal build would be akin up with the
supporting wire. Your
to that of a jockey – small and
Jonathan makes left leg should be
PHOTOGRAPHY MARK CHILVERS. ILLUSTRATIONS
agile with as little wind
TOM FROST AT ARTMARKETILLUSTRATION.COM
Biggles look leaning
resistance as possible. positively sedentary straight
So it’s back to the day job. along the wire, with your right
But I’m not too disheartened. bent on top of it.
I might not be joining Tanner and 2 Grab the sole of your right foot
Foster in their skin-tight red jump with your right hand.
3 Stretch into position with your
suits, which is probably a good
right leg straight up, left arm
thing for all concerned, but for straight out and heart firmly in
one day I have been a bona mouth as you swoop low over
fide barnstormer – and it was the crowd.
the ultimate high. I MH
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