Yves Rossy - Fly High

Full transcript: Yves Rossy on London Real

4:00 This is London Real, I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Eve Rossy aka The Jet Man. You are a Swiss military trained fighter pilot and the inventor of a series of experimental turbine engine powered jet wings. You have famously flown these in a choreographed demonstration over Dubai and your flights have been broadcast live to over 165 countries and covered by the media worldwide including episodes on BBC’s Top Gear and Stan Lee’s Superhuman. Eve, welcome to London Real. Thank you. Hello. It’s great to have you here. You just flew in from Geneva.

5:41 This time you decided not to fly in your jetpack over the English Channel. You took a commercial plane instead. Which one do you prefer? To travel the airplane, it’s much more comfortable. I don’t imagine to stay a few hours below my wings. When did you fly over the English Channel for the first time? It was in 2008, 25th of September. And it was a bad wing that means not very stable shape and so it was a kind of an intense flight, short, less than 10 minutes but very intense. Were you concerned? Were you worried about the wing?

6:25 About the wing, about me because as I am the thing that flies. You know when you have an airplane or car you know that’s a machine so the machine is in good shape but when you are the shape you should be also mentally kind of cool because if you are on the tension you fly tense and it’s not good you should be loose. So yeah many things to deal with especially the control of myself because it was life over many many countries. Life video stream with an aircraft and relaying life the video, the pictures and with a big you know national geographic it’s not just a small regional TV that’s a big thing so it gives you pressure. So I was under pressure. And as we are talking about that I did learn something there. It’s to share. That means lucky me we had to cancel the first day because of the weather but we were already life when I had to cancel because a kind of storm came would come during my crossing so it stopped. It was still sunny in Calais but in the next half an hour it was kind of storm so it was good to stop but I was with my crew with my friends because it was a team of friends kind of angry because nervous you know. When you answer too fast why didn’t you do that and you know not just cool like that. Yeah so when you get nervous sometimes you take it out of on your staff. Exactly. Yeah me too. And it was not fun. Right. And the idea was to do that okay to do that but also with fun because especially with my friends. Right. And as

8:44 Your crowning achievement you’ve been working on this for so long. Yeah but these friends they told me in the evening hey okay it was not fun today with you okay feedback okay good yeah you were completely for you we are together take us with you and I could digest that during the night and it was really the best occasion to take a lot of people with me because it was life really to share to give back and when I came the day it was beautiful weather and I could really put myself in that mind okay I will not I will go to the other side we will come with me guys we will go to the other side and I was light okay light in my head light everything was okay good and we had fun and it did work and it was not just by chance that’s it’s very powerful because when you when you have a higher purpose that we’re all going to this adventure as opposed to just your own egoic purpose yeah it changes the game yeah completely and ego trip you okay that’s how are you that’s how people die right yeah trips yeah and also it’s when you have a guy that is just like that and he in his ego then yeah for for especially for the the close people around it’s really not fun not comfortable right and you are your team in this because it really is a team sport and there’s so much technology now just so people understand because I think when people still see some of that epic footage of you over Dubai both next to the commercial plane and then on your own or with your partner they don’t understand

11:04 That your body is is is controlling that flight and your every motion your hand your shoulder turn the way your head moves in your ears controls that and so when you say when you’re tense it literally can affect the flying and potentially be a life and death situation if you don’t clear your head because you’re not just putting inputs into a control anymore it really is you flying yeah that that’s the big difference compared to anything that flies up to now it it’s it’s you give a an order to a machine it could be a par glider you have handles a hang glider you have a trapeze an aircraft you have a stick and pedals so and and you give an order the machine follow that orders and you follow the machine with these wings you are the machine more or less or you have these small wings on your back but that’s the wing that follows you the machine follows you i just go there right yeah it’s literally how you do it you’re doing it right now it’s it’s i don’t know if you ski but many people know how is it to ski or in any sport right any sport where you move surfing wind surfing you go where you look yeah the head goes the body yeah so you do like that naturally the shoulders everything goes there and it’s as simple as that and that’s why it’s good now that it works it’s really really fun to to have that it becomes that’s you flying it’s not you let a machine fly that you follow so that’s the the first point and yeah you should be in

13:02 Good shape mentally and physically because you are the fuselage you do maintenance on a car on an airplane you should do maintenance on on the guy also here right right and even your feet make a difference yeah especially my partner vince who is coming with 16 000 jumps now so 16 times yeah he’s completely flexible and in the element air they they as an aviator i have thousand hours of uh in fight jet and aircrafts okay so i’m more below that wing i’m more kind of a robot i i work a lot with my upper body and he is working with really to the last foot finger right he’s out to to correct right and it’s beautiful perhaps you can see on the pictures a difference when we fly together right he’s everything is in movement i i move a lot less than him and that comes from his from his skydiving background yes and you had to teach yourself to skydive i had to learn and you learned when you were older like in your probably 30s 40s yeah right and he probably did it when he was a teenager he was born in the in the basket he’s from a family of uh skydivers okay so really he was yeah i want to talk more later about the two of you because you make this fascinating match you know the the older guy aviator and then the younger you know uh skydiver that you brought together in your duo flight so i want to talk about that um but i think most people still want to find out about you um you know you started off fascinated with planes right like many young boys do yeah right staring up at the sky you were 13

15:07 When you went to your first air show yeah and uh it was the good old time or uh uh the guys they could overfly the public okay you can’t do that anymore no because of you know you we had this catastrophe in uh in germany in an air show when uh some aerobatic team did crash in front of the public with dead people and so and since then it’s very it’s far away for safety reason which is good on the other hand you don’t have that emotion to have a machine that comes with a thousand kilometers per hour big noise and that’s a machine that is bigger jet it’s something it’s 10 tons coming like uh a bullet at the speed of a bullet just you don’t hear the the sound because he’s very close to the sound barrier right so it’s really something and it’s it’s a big emotion especially for a kid wow that performance that power so i want to go in one of these machine it’s yeah it was kind of flash for me i when i see planes here in britain they have the national air days and you see them flying over i just go back to yeah what what is it like you know during the war and seeing those planes and how intimidating they can be and just what you know just scary you know and they’re delivering potentially dangerous things and yeah that’s that mix of okay that’s at the beginning it has been made these fighter jets as a weapon yeah and here especially in in england you know better than than many other people and battle of britain

17:01 Yeah battle britain 1940 it was those planes thanks these pit fires and pilots yeah they are still english yeah exactly they are revered in this country so there is a very strong history here and that’s why also people here are so passionate about aviation i think i think such as a guy from the outside like that i feel that like this yeah very much so because we’re separated from continental europe by the english channel which you fly over and then that made the air power so important and like yeah it was the pilots and winston churchill has that famous phrase like never in history has so much been owed by so many to so few and he’s talking about how much we owe the pilots for the battle of britain yeah for keeping you know the germans at bay so i agree big people are passionate here so you must have a lot of british fans yeah yeah yeah so you go to the military uh you you sooner flying fighter jets at like age 21 is that 20 yeah that’s pretty early yeah and it was the greatest thing ever wow it’s really a wow feeling because uh that’s a dimension through that speed that power you have eight ten tons almost supersonic and that energy that you have especially in switzerland you have the alps so you have that reference i i did also hike in the alps you do a hike that takes you seven eight hours okay and you are in one of these jets and it’s seven eight seconds so suddenly you realize it wow that effort that i did by foot and like that

18:49 Typically i’ve been um on the mataron that’s a big rock i don’t know if you have been to the mat no i’ve been to the map but i mean matter all that’s uh really a big uh it’s not chocolate now it’s really yeah we have a big rock we have the matter horn at disneyland in los angeles it’s much smaller yeah that’s really a big thing yeah and and really you take eight hours to go up there with the jet it’s eight seconds and then you realize and and you pass the summit still in vertical like that and you see going like that you are in another dimension and it’s good that power i got the power and you yeah it’s it’s very good feeling okay uh sometimes it’s difficult to come back down because it’s it’s so um like uh yeah for a few moments it’s uh very arrogant what i say but you you take yourself for good you know god yeah that’s wow right go anywhere you want it’s very arrogant right but i understand you take yourself for god because you feel like him briefly yeah no limits yeah no limits in that machine it’s wow and the same like we were pointing at chris hadfield uh there across the astronaut from canada astronauts must feel the same way right yeah in a rocket going up or overlooking space in a in a space station you look um how do you say shooting stars from above uh yeah from above right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that’s crazy yeah these are um domain um spaces air the third dimension is something that we are not made for right we’re meant to climb we would have feathers

20:49 Right we’re not made for so it’s kind of a um x super ability to go in the air to stay in the air and that’s kind of inhuman nature i think to to discover new things why do we go deep also under the sea yeah to to explore to to be curious to understand it’s in our nature it’s in our nature but what about man’s fascination to fly i mean you understand this more than anyone but why as men or women are we fascinated you know with the right brothers and charles lynnberg and these french people that flew over the english channel for the first time and chuck yager and astronauts like why is it so carnal i think that’s that super ability to use one more dimension as a normal human you go like that 2d 2d pretty much and suddenly you can use instead of a circle you’re using a sphere you plane that sphere and it’s good you it’s so that third dimension gives you so much more possibilities to this as displacement you do that the same when you are jumping from you know at the swimming pool ten meters okay you go for some moments seconds you have that feeling of freedom of the third dimension unfortunately it’s always down yeah and the same ski jumpers yeah same okay wow that’s good that feeling okay why i don’t know but i’m not the the only one that loves that when you see you see skiers they love jump when the bumps yeah even for a few seconds it’s good let me ask you a question about there’s a movie called the right stuff yeah it’s based on a book monument right yeah it’s a monument and probably

22:56 For a pilot like yourself it seems to be fairly accurate and the flying sequences seem to be pretty pretty genuine but it’s for people that don’t know it’s the beginning of the movie is about this certain breed of man called a test pilot who existed i think in the 50s in the 60s in America in this case and they would test out planes that the scientists would kind of come up with originally to break the sound barrier and then to break it times two and times three and it eventually evolved into the space program in a way and this movie is about the type of man that it takes to go up into an untested plane to try to push something like the sound barrier which no one’s ever broken you must understand these men better than i understand these men what what is that all about and when you watch that movie what do you feel i’m very admirative i admire these guys because uh hey you need courage to to to go you know the scientist he comes he the scientist is creating the machine but he doesn’t test it so another guy comes and okay yeah i’m expanse pilot chuck kegger typically you see the guy coming and there were i don’t know four or five guys before him yeah they did kill themselves in these machines yeah because of the okay now we know afterwards so that’s an exploration but it’s a life exploration it’s uh learning by doing yeah and really i admire these guys and that’s also something that uh i i had some small feelings like this guy

24:49 During my development because i nobody knew how it should work so i had to explore that yeah but with the parachute on my back right so you have plan b plan b they they didn’t have any plan b yeah so it’s a big difference it’s a big difference it’s true and that’s why i’m i admire these guys they were ready from the right brothers all these pioneers of aviation they were ready to put their life on the balance to find that fantastic ability to fly yeah and so many did die searching and each one after the guy who died he did analyze you know what what he did and they passed on the knowledge to the next exactly you you learn from mistakes they did learn from mistake from others too and then you try not to repeat yeah and then step by step and in the movie it chronicles chuck jegger who was the guy that actually broke the sound barrier mock one and survived and there were guys before him that are blowing up these planes and they’re they’re they’re you know they’re they’re experiencing so much turbulence that the plane just gets shattered and gets pulled apart and you know chuck makes it through that first time and continues being a test pilot but those pilots remind me of you a little bit because they’re part part crazy adventurer going for it and yet they’re also they’re they’re not wildcats they’re smart they’re pilots they they take risks but they take controlled risks right they do try to minimize all the risks they’re not suicidal maybe they’re a little crazy

26:33 And and it’s very uh how do you say um attractive you know it’s very attractive for me it was very attractive to to think a perhaps instead to go just like that change the vector it’s really fly with with your body not anymore vertical but it’s it’s kind of an idea a challenge that did begin during the the only flying man at the beginning where skydivers before hang glider before paraglider the only flying man were skydivers and many did try these things so i think when you have something you feel it’s perhaps possible but it’s unknown it’s kind for me it’s exciting yeah it’s a challenge you feel almost like those guys at edwards air force base yeah because you’re pushing the limits of science and engineering you are an engineer really because you’re engineering this thing to try to work and working with the human body and yet you don’t have the united states military budget behind you no right so you’re doing this on your own your pockets right and i want to and i want to get there so you become the fighter pilot but but you transition from that you can only be a fighter pilot for so long i’m sure does the swiss military push you out and you no no we we stay very kind of old we are kind of a militia you stay for example i was i became a airline pilot but six weeks per year i did stay on mirage as a fighter pilot kind of reserve okay okay up to 40 years old okay so you did that up until you’re 40 and you still were able to fly the fighter

28:29 Jets yeah six weeks per nice okay now commercial flying is it still exciting does it become a job after a while i mean i know it’s exciting and having that many people on board i’ve heard commercial pilots say you know i’ve got 300 lives behind me and a 300 ton jet it’s exciting is it it was exciting the machine okay 747 i did fly 747 okay you have 100 tons again when you you know and 370 tons when you go that’s and it’s really kind of a again very gratifying to have the control on such a big machine right of a machine but it’s just to have to have people behind for me it was not exciting it was a pressure okay that responsibility is heavy i i had the how do you say not the as an experience i had my captain i was over siberia from switzerland to to beijing and he did the epileptic crisis okay okay i was co-pilot okay okay so as a co-pilot you don’t have the responsibility because that’s the captain that has that and at this occasion a very bad occasion the guy he did an epileptic crisis in the cockpit okay so it was down yeah suddenly as a co-pilot unconscious yeah okay okay really with really no bubble in his mouth okay that’s bad that’s bad and you over siberia with people behind and up to now i was never in charge as a co-pilot and i can tell you suddenly i did realize hey that’s me now who is responsible for these 300 pair of eyes looking at you in front and it’s heavy the seat does like that

30:48 Bing bing bing bing very big emotion suddenly to have that responsibility very direct and also uh and you’re a trained fighter with yeah we train this case it’s very rare it’s very rare it’s good that’s why also we don’t eat the same and so but i can remember that responsibility it was not something exciting it was more charge than an excitement for me okay perhaps there are guys they find it great because okay i’m in front with that responsibility but for me it was more charge okay all right so when did you decide that you wanted to pursue this idea of being the jet man and really flying your own wing when i did discover skydiving i was 30 30 okay kind of late i did the cvos of the adrenaline junkie even no no no i don’t think you are no okay no i enjoy to fly i surf yeah and to play with elements again you you play with the waves surf it’s fantastic okay you play with the snow you have a beautiful uh field of snow no trace nothing and okay that’s freedom now go snowboard i do so snowboard and and you are light like that you play with that just a board your body snow and it’s speed fresh okay so you need a fluid you need a fluid which could be snow water or air you need a wing which could be a surfboard a snowboard ski exactly or the wing on your back and the fun i can tell you the the surfers when you you listen what they have as emotion it’s exactly the same it’s spiritual yeah yeah surfers it’s not uh yeah i’m still alive it’s wow it was beautiful it’s

32:56 What it’s been one with nature is that what it is yeah yeah it’s something uh i love to play with nature yeah and to it’s um it’s really um a privilege a privilege to to be able to have that control to play with right right and that approach is also for me a kind of a balance uh you go in the traffic jam from the airport to here so many red lights so many rules everywhere and suddenly the only rule it’s a physical one it’s not a guy who did decide uh okay you will take here here here suddenly you have freedom and these moment of freedoms you find them in in nature playing with nature and especially when you have one more dimension right now tell me about having to respect nature because when you’re out there going at 200 miles an hour with this wing on your back you know there’s no laws written by humans but the natural laws can be your your friends and you can dance with them and then they can be your executioner exactly and that’s why uh it’s not only just coming with uh a wing that works engines that are working and things for me it’s a it’s an approach where first i say where i want to play i come and i say hello somehow uh i i come to the place and i say hello may i play here it’s it sounds kind of crazy i’m not a guru guy like that but for me it’s important that i came to the place and for example when uh we did prepare the channel on both side i went there and i went uh say hello to the sea okay touch the sea touch the white cliffs and over and yeah um okay i’m here

35:18 I’d like to play here okay let me play kind of uh you know you you it sounds even for me even for me telling this here kind of the guy’s uh uh you know mystical uh freak you know and not i’m much more i’m it it calms me to say first hello somehow okay don’t tell me why are you asking permission why are you asking permission of the space are you getting comfortable being in that space yeah because i i know i’m so small that’s relation that we have as human we want to control everything especially nature also we control nature we we are the only animal that is uh changing the environment like we want yeah uh we don’t adapt so as i want to play with that nature i i’d like to adapt to it and that’s the first step for me okay okay and so for the jet man that was probably when you first started skydiving is this you kind of getting familiar with the space with the air feeling learning uh what are the forces because uh the air like here all right it’s kind of empty huh yeah as soon as you have speed then it becomes a fluid and with that fluid you you play and um the more speed the more that fluid is reactive and becomes kind of hard it’s like water softer okay and um yeah it’s it’s beautiful to use it already with other skydivers you have the feeling to fly even you are vertical down when you take this position like the ski jumpers tracking you go a little bit forward right the vector is like that but the feeling you have 200 kilometers per hour of wind in your face

37:35 Okay you have that position like that and you have your colleague that is just beside you like that and you fly like in a fighter jet just with a little backpack press shoot on your back and that’s the purest form that i did uh experience to fly it was really the nearest thing to to the dream uh when i did uh dream to fly it was not in machines it was more like that naked yeah and um and soon you put soon i saw i’ve seen the history of you and your skydiving and i’ve seen your garage so first you’re skydiving then you put on the board on your feet yeah right and then you’re playing playing with the air then yeah because first was also something uh safety we had bindings very easily uh releasable okay so if you have a problem because you can be centrifugated okay you know with a board like that doing propeller and you are on the outside and suddenly you are centrifugated so it’s good to have a handle that you pull the board goes out okay and with a small rescue press shoot and then you are with your two pressure on your back right safe always thinking about safety aren’t you yeah yeah because again i i i had the chance to begin in the air to test the pioneers they had to begin on the ground from the ground and uh uh it’s uh also a basic in aviation the lower the lower you are the more dangerous it become right the lower the altitude the less margin of air exactly the less time you have to recover

39:35 So as i was high i could test many things without danger just respect the fact that you should open your pressure in an altitude of minimum around three thousand two thousand five hundred feet okay stable that was the only thing to rule to respect okay three thousand feet three thousand two hundred and be stable when you when that happens exactly anything else goes if you are completely uh i would say lost in a uncontrolled maneuver passing that altitude drop okay right pull the handle and then stabilized open the shoot okay and how did we get from the board on the feet to the board on your back uh what does your family say about this by the way yeah are you married or not yeah yeah that’s my wife is my best supporter really yeah because let me guess she knows that is that if eve doesn’t go out and jump three times a week or fly three times a week he gets very difficult to live with am i right i don’t understand if i’m guessing she understands that you need to fly oh yeah and if you don’t fly you’re you’re angry you’re upset you’re yeah i’m i i need that uh i i can live without for some hours hours weeks but uh yeah that’s something i i love that okay so it’s it’s part of my life of my person so and and she knew she knows that but when when we did uh become together she knew that i’m a guy loving that okay but she must get nervous no because she she knows also that i am not a crazy guy i’m the guy who loves his wife who loves life

41:42 And who won’t stay alive and i do really everything everything i can to to reduce that risk and again as we we are in the air if you it’s kind of simple really up to now respect that still here right 20 years regularly in the air and so no scratch nothing thanks right because you’re respecting the boundaries okay yeah all right so tell me about when did we decide to take it from your feet to stick the board on your back because that was a big they say aha moment right when you put it on your back that changed everything yeah because um again if we take the history of these flying men they did try to put piece of fabric around them and also wings on their back but they had not the parachute that we have now you know it was much bigger also on on belly one on the belly one on the back the harness that they had was not droppable okay and so many of these guys they did kill themselves so uh with the sky surfing and i did the step from a snowboard in the air i did adapt it to the to to air that means i did uh surf wings okay up to three feet uh six feet yeah it’s big okay but i did it’s like you are on a ball you know it’s it’s unstable you’re you are standing on something birds they are not flying on their uh on their feet right yeah it’s much more logical but it was kind of because of all that history of the flying man in the 50s they did kill themselves almost all doing their active in their activity it was safer to do it first with very good bindings on your feet okay that you can release

44:01 Right and then as it didn’t work very well parallel to that it was a development the development of the wing shoot by patrick de gallardo who unfortunately we had discussion he didn’t want to put anything rigid on his on his back because of that history okay because there was a history of people in europe putting things on their backs also in america in america and powered or unpowered unpowered empowered but there was a plot there was a history of catastrophic injuries spin outs yeah and because no no possibility to release okay what they have right okay okay so he said everything that is rigid it’s a killer okay so don’t go in that direction and i thought okay so i i did try first on my feet didn’t work patrick unfortunately he did uh uh passed away doing uh yeah again details on a parachute and so with his wing suit his wing suit because they were flying through mountains and very close to these sometimes they would base jump with the wing suits he did not base jump with the wing suit at this time now yes a lot but uh at this time it was from airplane he did exit an airplane and came back in the same airplane oh really the same airplane yeah and did you ever want to go the wing suit route yes did you after his death the few guys and i did try also also in wind tunnel try to to increase the performance because that’s fabric it’s not very good aerodynamically right uh you need something that is uh you need a rigid windfoil

45:43 Yeah to create lift exactly so um and wing suit is nice but it’s kind of a sleeping bag you are not uh really free of your movements so it was not really what i wanted so i went first it it took me about one to two years to develop a harness a droppable harness it sounds easy like that but something that is that’s the only very stable at the right place that you can still move do everything but is really attached and that you can fix a structure on you it’s uh yeah i did try from very small things to two big things too heavy to rigid not enough and so one and a half to two years to develop a droppable harness okay and then i did put the same wings that i did serve on my back and it was much better okay from the first flight even with a one meter 40 wing right it did fly already good 45 degrees really yeah 45 which is incredible for one meter you lose one man unheard of in skydiving it’s at this time it was for that small thing it was good already okay and is then about uh one year later that’s also aerodynamic i did try different shape so as i was safe to try things i did drop also many of these wings because uh the the profile was not so good and so so you’re doing all this experimentation on your own yeah where is the aerospace company where is the military why are these people not doing this no business okay because there is no business there is no business because you’re doing it for the purity of it you’re doing yeah it was you want the human

47:44 To actually fly yeah and this is the closest thing yes with your body but and again at the beginning i didn’t expect to come to the performance i have today it was really a step-by-step development first i’d like to be better than the wingsuit okay because i thought yeah okay it should be better because this profile should be better okay and then very soon i i had the same performance and then that’s aerodynamic if you want to have more lift you need span albatross okay yeah but once you take a large wing you cannot enter anymore your your dropping airplane so i did a foldable wing inflatable so inflatable structure with people who had the technology in Switzerland to develop that yeah so small in the airplane where do you get all the money to do this rnd yourself yeah military 13 years 13 years 13 years i was uh how much are you spending every year how much money are you spending every year a nice car a nice car like a nice lamborghini no no nice uh i would say about 50 000 euro of your own savings yeah okay okay no no kids uh comprehensive wife perfect and uh that was my passion so go and that was now i can say it was a good investment a good investment i’m the richest guy of the world by the way you’re the richest guy in the world yes i can tell you i believe you explain that yeah because i will take that in my uh how do you say my gram it’s uh you know it’s it’s here it’s here i i had that privilege that chance that’s

49:42 Richness to realize that to fly almost like a bird to go around clouds play like i was in a fighter jet just like that it’s better than any money than any lamborghini than any airplane that’s why i say i’m i’m and i think it’s valid for anyone who realize his dream you are the richest guy of your of the world of your world when you realize that well you’re rich first of all because you realized your dream but also you got to experience the realization of your dream so yes you’re flying like a bird in the clouds which is amazing but you also were able to manifest your dream and then you also were able to experience all the hard times all the problems how many people told you you were crazy many but these are good friends good friends and that’s also something you meet people doing something like that it’s very creative and it’s very uh something uh i tell you something a young guy he was 12 13 he did follow me regularly in a workshop and so and i was trying with my fuel tanks i you know when you have a rigid fuel tank you cannot take the last drop because you you have a pendulum in the thing but you cannot take the last drop and typically for the channel we had to do a complicated thing in that rigid tank and i thought yeah with kind of bladder you take you aspire like that and then you go without any air in the fuel line to the last drop but when you put a tube in that thing and in the bladder depending where is the fuel you aspire it or not the

51:53 The walls of the bladder stick like that and okay so you need help how do i do that you know you’re in front of this young kid looking at that and i did explain exactly like i did explain now how do i do so that i have still no air in the line but that the thing doesn’t collapse and block the fuel arriving okay okay it was the end of the day and went home and it was early 7 30 ring ring okay yeah um i thought that was the kid i thought perhaps if you do holes in the tube in the bladder then it circulate in any position logic afterwards yeah okay right it was because i did share right my problem so it’s even with a kid a kid okay but i did share for for example i was captain a airline captain i did share my problems with my co-pilot we did talk a lot in the cockpit no hey what do you think i wanted to do uh throttle how do you have access to your handle of the parachute without having the risk that you take something with a handle for example paragliders they have something like that right okay to to give full trust or idol this kind of problem and you you talk to people to to friends like that and it’s right but but a lot of people a lot of inventors would keep it a secret right it’s your technology you don’t want to tell people but that’s a mistake i think that’s a mistake because alone okay you go to a certain to a certain point but with all these inputs you go much further team team it’s logical again and uh okay perhaps it’s a killer if you do that when you’re in competition

54:22 Right but this is don’t share because the other will okay i was never in competition right never i was just in creation so hey i have a problem what do you think so that’s a good line i was never in competition i was always in creation yeah so 2008 you crossed the english channel yeah on the wing that was eight years ago what happened between then and now uh many things many things first up to this point it i had the chance when we did that inflatable wing i we we could pay it was end of cold war we could pay a study an aerodynamic study for that inflatable wing in ukraine and aerodynamicist in university of ukraine they did already something but it was not really adapted to something rigid it was something that was still now i fly that wing it works it adapts to the air very well and since i did put that profile rigid because of the addition of weight of fuel and engine and so on the wing to cross the channel it was kind of unstable it did fly but the result then the first change we did a thorough aerodynamic study of the existing wing the one that i did cross the channel and very interesting thing result of this unstable in role unstable in you just stable in pitch so the engineers of that’s reargue aerospace in uh in switzerland so i was you know hanging in the wind tunnel we did measure every seeing nnn result this thing shouldn’t fly okay adaptive structure so flexible structure it was your body that made it

56:36 Fly yeah okay so but it was just at the limit of the stability so following this study big step after the the english channel thanks sponsoring and a donor also because it’s very expensive 200 pounds 200 thousand thousand pounds just to do the channel because you had rescue boats and helicopters no technology aerodynamic study oh really 200 000 for the aerodynamic study yes it’s very expensive yeah you don’t realize they they have budget in formula one like crazy so i had sponsors it was okay and a donor so and since that study before i did something inflatable a glider and we did uh regi defy it plus put engine but it was a glider with engines and i did ask the engineers there now i’d like a fighter something that really is permanent fighter you’re making this analogy to like a fighter jet yeah so a glider is very um wing heavy right the wings do while they do the work it’s not powered in a fighter jet it’s all about the power and there’s very limited aerodynamics correct not it’s a different one okay it’s a different one okay a glider is much better aerodynamically as any fighter right okay but it’s a different one you want to go fast and you want to to descend slower than the rate of climb of an air of a hot air bubble right right right so you descend in a climbing whatever button so for your wing you wanted the fighter pilot version yes okay and you got it yeah the guys they say they said okay we should add up the shape yes this profile go okay and then

58:25 Try first without engine and from the first flight i had to adjust because that’s a question of a stability you know if it’s like an airplane you have a stabilizer that makes it stable right okay so as i don’t have that you don’t have a tail you have to have this thing uh in uh balanced and you have to find where is that point of balance and only one way you go you try so sometimes it was flying like that and i couldn’t really go where i wanted sometimes it was just like that i couldn’t really climb that means stop the the rate and then suddenly adapting the where is the harness you find the way it should be and then it’s dream okay and when did the best the current version come was it a couple years ago when when was the version you were happy with what year did it come 2009 and nine okay yeah so next year yeah okay the the guys they did work very great okay yeah and so that’s and is that the version you have now yeah okay it’s still the same profile so as it did work good i thought okay i go to the maximum of potential of that profile that shape and profile okay so two engines four engines right bigger engines now we have engines too and even we are preparing bigger engines so right now your engines have some pretty good thrusts yeah we have 40 kilos of trust per engine 40 that means you have 160 kilo guy pushing you near constantly and the weight of the person the parachute the wing the fuel

1:00:19 Everything is around 165 70 kilo so you put you have about the performance of a formula one okay and that’s very powerful very powerful and that’s what you’re flying around dubai yes i’m watching these videos you’re flying through dubai first of all why dubai and second of all um tell me about you flying through dubai i mean it looks beautiful it’s acrobatic you’re doing rolls you’re doing spins you’re doing everything how long did it take you to to figure that out because those are hand movements and and yeah head movements and shoulder movements so why dubai i was alone a long time i was a sponsor from 2009 2009 to 2013 i was alone more or less with one young guy that i did meet at this drop zone in ampella brava that was interested from far and i was also interested to know if someone else is able to fly this because i was alone and i did ask experienced friends experienced car drivers hey you you want to go no no i help no but i don’t know why why are they scared yeah because they they they you know they did see when it didn’t work okay so it’s it’s quite impressive when you were you see a guy in spin completely uh what happens when it doesn’t work what is that like completely out of control it’s a spin in every direction scary yeah okay it’s probably like that scene in the right stuff yeah it goes into a flat spin and you you are not anymore on on no dynamics there’s no control yeah you you are how do you say you uh should be you

1:02:12 You are just you follow what’s you are not the guy who is giving the control you are under the control of the wing that is nature nature and it’s it’s hard it’s uh you know that’s a big surface these speeds and so so it’s impressive it’s impressive again this experience as a fighter pilot we learn to first everybody you block it’s like you have something uh in front of you coming suddenly on uh you know kind of accident and then you react right but you react and uh we learn as fighter pilot to react even when it becomes kind of stressy and so so it did help a lot you’re a fighter for your your flying background helped yes to to to react right at the right time and to respect to have that discipline to respect uh this gate okay well what was your scariest experience with that that was because overconfidence okay that was by we are talking about that that was exactly the point where you feel i am under control it was still with the older wing okay uh it was uh testing before the channel about one year before the channel with that wing that somehow sometimes it it became unstable but with the experience i was able to come out of the spin of that uncontrolled situation many times i i was able to come out and then came one situation when i was not so far before to open and then spin and i did try to stop that rotation and okay and i i had audible altimeter telling me hey now it’s timer these 2 500 feet it’s now so it keeps in your area yeah and i was unstable so normally

1:04:21 You should drop the wing and as i had past experience i could regain control and every time you drop the wing you have to repair and and it’s kind of a you know pain yeah you think okay take the shot yeah and that did continue and you know it goes about 50 meter per second 2005 it’s about 16 seconds until 16 16 so it’s it’s yeah the seconds are going fast and suddenly i did realize and you have two step in these audible altimeter and then so it’s really a last thing and i have also it’s kind of complicated but i have also a safety device in the parachute that opens the reserve if you pass 250 meters ground with more than 35 meters per second of rate of descent okay that means if you do things wrong suddenly you are under two canopies because this automatic device open your reserve and the two canopies and you’re done so all this during that thing suddenly i thought too late to to drop okay you have to open but open in an unstable thing that means you are okay that means if you are unlucky you have lines around your feet around your head and your dad and you pull because you know i i i was overconfident you know pulling the handle that now it’s only luck it’s just luck luck because it’s a bad situation it’s a bad situation it’s the only situation you can go to yeah because it was too late to drop the wing plus uh just be stable and open the main because if i would have done that then i am under two canopies taking the risk so it was shit so yeah i did pull the handle

1:06:42 What happened it did open without any uh lines around anyway like normal but i was low still with running engine so i had to cut off the engine then you check the wind and so i did check wrong i was so uh loaded with adrenaline yeah fear does your brain work right when you’re no it was wrong i did land uh with uh tailwind okay then a half crash okay nothing broken come up my feet a little bit like in the right stuff after the ejection of it’s about the same kind of thing you know and certain smoke on no no okay i was still in one piece the wing on my back parachute everything but it was so peaceful where i did land it was just beside a pound uh mother it was in spain in pollam rava and that’s a reserve with birds and so and they have horses also beautiful a pound horse a mother horse and uh i don’t know in english the kid horse yeah colts looking at me yeah so two horses are there looking at you yeah and beautiful nature and with that weak parachute who is wrong here who is wrong i was wrong and like that that means yeah fear i had big uh big fear and so the horses are staring at you and you’re looking at the horses you’re looking at them looking at you and you’re saying what am i doing with a wing a rocket wing on my back yeah trying to tempt the forces of nature yeah i love life and uh nature and uh then i had to stop after that i did stop for about six months six months yeah no flights no fly i wanted to stop the project it was really close to i did

1:08:56 Realize i knew when i did pull that handle okay it’s luck so it’s so it’s like 10 percent chance five percent chance left 50 50 okay so you got scared yeah not not that once but uh after you rather hey it was close and then you share that with your friend and so and uh oops oops and i did a break and uh on the other hand okay time is healing these kind of feelings probably happened with test pilots as well yeah and passion it was so good when it did work you remember the good things you forget the bad ones and um okay little flame was still here and again with friend they told me hey you’re not so far sometimes it did work well so okay be more consequent don’t push too much but uh hey you are not far because the the goal for me it was really be able i i was able to climb straight with four engines so i was already very happy but i wanted to to push further to be able to do moves typically i did the first parallel roll with my inflatable wing in in gliding so i wanted to to experiment further right and then okay yeah okay again do you remember that first flight back yeah again with uh easy wing all the step from the this inflatable wing i did uh as i didn’t fly so regularly as i do now i did uh begin again with a glider without any engine just to take the feeling yeah one or two flights and then and i’m i’m guessing it’s because of the crash that you went ahead and spent the money with the Ukrainians to really look at that wing so there was a lot of positives that came out of

1:11:17 Out of that fall okay that’s the first study in Ukraine it was for the inflatable wing the second study to to have the the current rate we have was in Switzerland i was in Switzerland yeah later yeah guessing you wanted ultimately that that’s stable airfoil right you wanted something yeah yeah yeah because i thought as i am able to do already rolls in gliding i should be able to do that also with engines okay and so where are you now 2014 you did that flight in Dubai that right yeah um what are the kind of things you can do is there is there anything else you want to do you can do barrel rolls now you can do loops we do all aerobatics yeah we do back flight that’s something yeah i come back yeah that’s impossible on an airfoil as we have but the one who did the first do that is uh vince right so vince is this young man that you fly with yes how old is he he’s 33 32 okay and you are 57 57 so it could be my son so from from the age and you met him at the drop zone in Spain yeah we were talking before in the studio uh in the winters you train in Dubai in the summers you train in Spain because those are your two drop zones yeah now now but before i was training a little bit in Switzerland but a lot in Spain okay and he is a former competitor three times world champion in free fly that means skydiving and so very experienced skydiver and more importantly the only guy that wanted to fly with you yeah okay he was uh also my friends there the one i did ask

1:12:52 They told me yeah there is one who is really good one is a little bit crazy perhaps he he most probably he would be interested okay and yeah we did meet and at once we had good feeling together he did try the motorized wing just like that on ground and then he said uh wait not i don’t try this uh now perhaps a little bit later but he was fully in competition and then so in 2010 we did begin really with his instruction again with small wing rigid bigger wing inflatable no engine no engine and then all the steps okay and that’s when i did realize that uh i was a robot because he was a robot no i was a robot oh because he was so flexible in the air and after his third flight with the inflatable wing you exit an airplane now with that uh inflatable wing i was in the airplane his third flight the airplane went on an angle that we did decide it’s about yeah 30 degrees like that game information his third flight i did need 100 flights so i was completely they say they say they say youth is wasted on the young okay okay i should start i think it’s fascinating that you at 57 have this young partner at 32 i mean it’s not lost on you right and he’s a young guy with it from a different background than you and you fly together yeah over dubai i mean you could fly alone you created this technology you could be the jet man and yet you choose to share the spotlight with someone else yeah because i feel that it’s not becoming

1:14:51 The fuselage is uh yeah the rigidity uh it’s not the same and so you’re saying from him you learned about inverted flight and you’ve learned more things because he’s been able to do things with his body yeah and he has an approach kind of uh you know i have an approach as a pilot you know i did study a little bit of aerodynamic and then and you know auto stable profile doesn’t fly on his back because on an airplane it doesn’t work okay but with a flexible fuselage he didn’t know that he did ask me have you tried once to to go on your back i did try just to see but it does like that and right go down like you would expect a plane to do yeah right okay i did try once it was negative for me okay and when he did ask i told him yeah you can try when i did try i did uh finishing dive but uh try you don’t risk anything go high enough and try right okay he goes and it was first with a glider wing and uh come back and he after his landing yeah uh easy huh you are kidding me no no easy uh show me the video and he was on his back but like a turtle like that okay no you can look uh watch on the video like that right i did keep my my position normal but with the experience that he had as a skydive as a free flyer in all direction because it’s immediate it was kind of a feeling immediate feeling right feedback loop right yes so totally different approach and that’s what is good also it’s so different that it’s

1:16:44 Complementary okay so i learned a lot from him and he learns a lot from me these are these are lessons in innovation like you’re walking me through like look the people we have on this show are essence are in essence innovators you know they are you know uh the iceman they are mr olympia six-time mr olympia they are doing things for the first time when people said they can’t be done before so you’re doing things he’s doing things and all you had to do was push it a little more than you did and he became the turtle inverted and all you had to do was push your wing design to where you were comfortable it could be ejected took you two years and you found that so what can we learn from you when it comes to innovation try when you have an idea try because innovation it’s uh you need first a kind of drive what what okay you you i didn’t come here okay i want to innovate there is a kind of uh it would be great if it would be possible to do that like this would be great if i could glide like that or stay in here sustain flight or even climb it could be great too so you have kind of a goal idea uh crazy thing eventually in your head and uh i did try i did uh put in my hands and uh in my life conditions to be able to try i wanted to try and you had a passion for it because i could be general dynamics or you know an aerospace corporation and i could say i’ve got a hundred million dollars and we’re going to make a jet man suit that flies inverted and the engineers

1:18:48 Might try for five years and then give up it can’t be done because they’re not motivated the way you are yeah and now that’s a good point you say many of these big companies are not motivated by passion profit business and so many i i do talks and so so many questions are coming yeah what is your future with that wing and they are surprised that i’m not talking about business yeah but you will do a business with that perhaps we’ll see it’s not the goal yet it’s not ready i don’t want that someone kill himself with that it’s it’s not the trend the trend is to say yes in three years we put it on the market and uh at that price i’m looking for investors here that’s the trend but it’s a very dangerous one because you pushed yourself to success currently i’m pushing myself to fun to go even higher even better in the air you could are dangerous yeah we are talking about life not about uh a try that you do and uh stock market finance okay i’ve lost so many so much money okay i’ve lost my life i buy it’s a very different approach and i would argue that you’re going to get greater innovations motivated by passion and by money because the guys at general dynamics which is a big aerospace company or it used to be they would say no there’s no money let’s go find it here let’s go find it you’re trying to make a human being fly yeah and you might be rewarded by the greatest innovations ever because your motives are different yeah and again um

1:20:56 I have the impression that i i am at this point because also i didn’t have that approach of profit it’s not um i cannot explain that just with words it’s a feeling it’s a feeling if i go in that direction of something bad’s going to happen yes i think you’re right i think you’re right i cannot explain that it’s just a feeling you’ll probably get you on you are kind again you are not on the right place yeah well you get to that point where there’ll be a deadline because of a investor or a product launch and you’ll know it’s not ready and yet some other forces will force you and say eve we got a ship in this even though the wing isn’t tested and we think it’s good and something bad’s going to happen right could yeah and we are coming uh it’s soon the thing that we are missing now it’s the uh to be autonomous right we are we need a helicopter an airplane to put us in the air right okay so right now and the flight in jubai um amazing video by the way we’re going to have links to that and in the trailer here and all that stuff so it shows you and your partner’s name is vince vince you jump out of the helicopter it’s very dramatic um at what fourth that few thousand feet for that five as possible yeah for four thousand five hundred feet yeah and then you fly is it 10 minutes still the fuel there as we we were fast with that aircraft so less so yeah about eight minutes eight minutes and after that you pull parachutes for both the wing and yourself and they separately

1:22:43 Come down no we are landing with the wing on our one your back okay yes seeing that footage okay yeah you kind of have to land forward to protect the wing yeah depending if you have a good wind uh head wind then you you are on your on your feet if not you’re on your knees even hands head okay yeah well just protect the wing right um and so what’s the future the future is to be autonomous that means to to be able you know iron down the street like superman yeah superman iron man all these men they are flying from the ground we are not and it’s kind of expensive complicated but very safe to start in the air so it’s exactly the opposite when we will start from the ground it’s kind of simple okay uh cheaper but dangerous highly dangerous highly dangerous there are solutions and we are we are now exploring these solutions to uh be safe from the ground not like iron man like that but they are it’s kind of secret okay there are solutions but you have to have first safe safe yeah yeah right because currently so that you realize the problem we have if we are losing one engine on one side it gives an asymmetry even if the opposite one cuts in the tenth of a second in the next ten of a second that asymmetry yo that it gives give us an unwished roll okay that means currently you put me on the roof of a car 150 kilometers per hour all engines working nice okay let’s go I arch and I fly we we have a steady uh climb angle of 60 degrees with these big engines okay

1:24:49 You fly like that up so the car roof okay let go great but if here you have an engine failure you invert and it’s gone okay crash right so and we have now a reliability of about I would say 95 percent so five percent that means one every 20 flights you have a problem an engine goes out something something happened okay so that’s a lot my question to you would you take an airplane to new york knowing that every 20 flights you have a problem with that airplane no okay so that’s so I don’t so this is going to take you another 10 years it will take time until we find a safe solution or a much reliable system which is difficult you know now we have a hundred years of experience in aviation on engines more than 50 years and these model engines it’s only 12 15 years of experience so now we are coming slowly on a safer side but all this will take time and that’s why it’s dangerous to go and to say a date okay in three years we have something for 250 300 000 dollars on the market okay and you can fly around the clouds from the ground but people want to buy your we have demands like crazy really yeah for sure it will be a good business yeah do they come to your house and split fill in do they try to find you oh okay with uh on the web on uh on the site website and so they want you to sell them one do they want you to train them and teach them yeah do you teach anyone else or just you invent no currently we are as uh he’s very experienced right we have one more

1:26:59 In uh in training yeah in training okay secret top secret um that’s exciting that’s exciting are you at are you right now in 2016 do you feel like you’re at the top of your game do you feel like you feel the best you ever have the most confident in your technology and going forward uh no i am still in one of the step okay i still have a lot of fun to fly a lot of fun to to search and to pass also my knowledge huh it’s very gratifying and uh i hope that i will be able to continue for for a few years perhaps it’s physical huh so i feel that i’m not 30 okay you have a physical routine before you fly correct yeah and you’re in good shape i try to stay in good shape yeah you’re pretty ripped eve most 30-year-old guys would want to look like you okay thanks what do you drink it’s my trick but what is your fitness regime and do you have a process before you go up do you meditate do you i saw you doing push-ups one time what do you do yeah during the warm-up okay it’s a normal warm-up so from uh you know the arm the legs and so it’s no abs you do a normal warm-up it takes 20 25 minutes and also that’s the good opportunity to to come in in flight coming you yeah you say before you jump out of the helicopter you try to yeah push everything out of your brain and yeah you should be as fluid as air that must feel nice yeah it’s sometimes difficult to get it all out because you’re nervous and you have things spending and people watching and that new jet engine on the right and also

1:28:54 You are kind of concentrated typically when you go for a flight with an a380 you know you’re on ground you see an a380 coming we were on ground waiting because it can stay longer only eight minutes so it was logical that he comes first and it’s huge in a380 we went the day before just beside to see the reference and where where we can fly where we should avoid and so on Vince and I we came in the hangar and wow yeah it’s big you know impressed from that it’s really big whose idea was it is that Emirates idea to fly next to it was it was mine because no originally that’s also a good story that’s my photograph it’s a friend he did follow the project from the very beginning and he’s multi world champion in is a skydiver but there’s photographs you know when you do team things and aerial things you need someone that yeah for video yeah for video and very expensive guy Bruno really a very good friend and just by chance Thomas Sanders CEO of Airbus he’s a former skydiver came to Emporia Brava to jump with the German team he’s German okay and video man Bruno okay they did sympathized and so okay Thomas and so and then the guy is really photographs you know and he had that picture in his mind hey what do you think would be good to have the biggest and the smallest four engine flying thing together so I would like to do a picture with you on the wing of an a380 okay good yeah yeah I know Thomas and us and so I ask and he did ask

1:31:03 We did ask together and Thomas and us said yes even if you want to fly information with we could organize that and at this time it was in 2009 I was not ready with the performance right and but we did Thomas and us said okay you will have one day one Airbus in to lose to take pictures so elevator I went fully equipped on the wingtip to do you know and we have that poster okay and you’re standing on the wing yeah standing on the in your and also you I’m like that with my engine okay in front of an engine that is bigger than this room okay to show the the smallest with the biggest and then in total in Dubai I came in Dubai thanks Vince who did know his honest Prince Hamdan who is also an experienced car diver he did jump with him and so so he did the link hey there is a guy I’m flying with and so we could eventually do something in Dubai and I went there discuss okay go we Dubai support the project so very short how it came to Dubai and then I came with what can can you do we could fly information with an a380 okay so you did it so we we did organize that how came the idea from Bruno so it took five years yeah and and then also for the to finish the story Bruno was inside the a380 okay Bruno was taking pictures and doing film inside the a380 yes okay and that’s in the movie that’s in that short film okay and did you practice before you flew with that thing not with the a380 we did practice with

1:33:00 Another aircraft the filming aircraft at the same speed but that’s again speed for a big one a small one speed is master so at the same speed if if he’s able to fly that speed and we are able to fly that speed that means we can find information right just we had to avoid the turbulences created by that big mass yes and so the briefing was really complete and thorough about where should we fly yeah and how for example if we wanted to change side you don’t go just like that right go first like that backwards way back duck duck because there’s turbulence right over the tops of the wings yeah yeah and also below yeah yeah and there is a big suction on the wing it’s under pressure so if you come here suddenly you could suck down on top of the wing yeah dangerous I mean for us right for you for for him for him right well so when I when I used to fly helicopters the r-22 if any kind of a big plane had taken off on the runway the vortexes can be there for a minute yes or two so you don’t fly anywhere near it even though it looks fine if you fly a helicopter and they’re dangerous and and that’s why this vortex the airplane is going like that yeah create here and it’s kind of a conus right so and it’s big that means if you are here with your helicopter then bye bye yeah it’s small okay it’s very concentrated but it’s small so you fly here you don’t feel anything did you feel any turbulence out there zero because you because you were very careful

1:34:45 To be in the right place yeah and we did play a little bit when we did change because you have the vertical stabilizer right and that was a magic moment because with an airplane you cannot be here because you have the nose that hides you the plane you have a nose in front of you yeah you are sitting yeah we are laying down so for us it’s free so imagine the first flight we did we did three flights with the a380 the first flight we did respect everything and so the second flight okay it was really fine okay let’s go and play a little bit push it a little bit don’t you push it okay without any danger for the a380 only for us which is not a danger because if you have a turbulence yeah as the vertical stabilizer is like that yeah and you go play here even if you have turbulences it’s just out behind okay you have parachute you have control again or it was safe so you we came if this is the vertical stabilizer of the a380 we came from the wing tip okay like that and then here we did stop and descend and you have pictures you see yeah we are about five meters above really from this huge thing you have an a380 you are flying like that and you have an a380 in flight like that hey you pitch yourself it’s it’s unreal and when you get bored of that you can look over at the palms or of Dubai’s tallest building in the world a lot to see yeah yeah so that was we do that for these moments these i call the magic

1:36:34 Moments right where you say where you are completely here in that fantastic world of air a flight only beauty and uh yeah that’s magic you said you had a similar flight you flew in Rio de Janeiro yeah and that was a special moment for you uh if no one’s ever been to Rio de Janeiro i’ve been i was there my first time maybe eight year nine years ago and it from the ground it’s stunning and from Corcovado where the the Christ Redeemer it’s it’s it’s like i think Darwin visited there one time and he said it’s almost like god created this magical place it’s got yeah the lake it’s got these huge beautiful mountains the path yeah the it’s a three-dimensional place huh you are very high you have the mountains you have the sea the laguna the city that mix uh yeah and you fly again through that i was such in uh in that beauty i was crying in my helmet and shouting thank you thank you the big bird there thank you it’s such a privilege crying and shouting at the same time yeah emotion pure the wow and that’s why you do it i guess yeah yeah um even i took too much risk at this moments it’s it’s kind of you are like it’s perhaps dangerous i don’t know because if you look at the video or sometimes i did pass really close to close again engine failure then pam over too close to the rocks it’s kind of a moment you are no small this with all this nature uh the moment is perfect is you are part of it nothing can be wrong

1:38:40 Everything is right even the engines are right kind of it’s impossible that the engines goes wrong in that moment it’s too beautiful and you have to be careful that’s kind of dangerous right after but during it was normal no risk it was again kind of a mystical thing i don’t know i’m feeling it’s very difficult to explain just like that in a room yeah probably harmony just yeah osmosis yeah harmony is very very good word for for these moments it’s it’s like that it’s beautiful and what about yeah thank you yeah you said thank you what about your fuselage how much longer is this going to fly it feels like you’re going to be flying for a little while 65 70 well you see i again i don’t do uh it’s like uh selling the thing in on the market i don’t do diagnostics don’t have new predictions as long as i feel good and in shape i will continue okay and also there are signs when things are becoming wrong okay feedback signs about your body and you feel well okay how often do you fly uh when we are really in training and like that we try every day during the week five five days every day yeah okay so one or two flights one or two flights okay so get helicopter or airplane helicopter now okay yeah expensive yeah okay but you’ve got sponsors yeah okay do you have i mean do you have regular sponsors like hublo and these things i had hublo that’s the first guy who uh did believe okay he came when he did work for the first time

1:40:43 Okay the thing was working okay and uh i was uh two years with you glow after one year without anything but i did uh i had to sponsor wet 10 maybe to cross g bralter okay that i did finish in the water oh you finished in the water yeah okay yeah bad flight tough flight whether again it was kind of uh same challenge as uh the channel but longer 40 kilometers from africa no it was really intercontinental from africa to europe to spain 40 kilometers and the weather was not so good the weather was good in the morning we did wait on the satellite slot and the weather deteriorate and instead to concentrate on the change of the weather and so i was giving interviews so we did miss one important point with the wind to say short i did exit because of that went too low so i had to climb above clouds so i had no margin just on top of the clouds turbulence in clouds did lose uh orientation and the next thing was my audible ultimator in my ears and only blue vertical down 250 kilometers per hour like that so okay down to play long there pull the shoot drop yeah drop and then i did drop just to tell i did drop the wing and open just stabilized and did open my main and the reserve went out because of the automatic thing that means the opening of my main shoot was around 250 meters ground very very late and did you because you were in the cloud you didn’t realize how far you had fallen yeah i thought you were going

1:42:46 When i went in clouds okay unstable like that uh in clouds it’s really it’s gray you you lose very soon orientation but just with the feeling i thought okay i take speed again and then arch and climb again i will come out most probably i did something like this most probably okay without coming out of the cloud i cannot you have barely survived again is what you’re saying both shoots went out yeah it was again too late decision right and then when was this by the way it was in 2009 end of 2009 all right and then you hit the water then yeah we used to shoot two shoots okay but no wing on me i did drop the wing when it’s like that don’t touch anything right and i was on water did land in the water so i i didn’t have to steer the the danger when you steer one of the parachutes the other other one doesn’t follow so you you can steer that one and and then yeah so don’t touch anything but on water you don’t need right you don’t need to go so i did the sea survival as a fighter pilot and so so you know how to handle the sea you’re relaxed on the water relaxed how long did it take relax half an hour half hour yeah probably a long half hour yeah yeah especially it was windy i had to cut my parachute and then okay i was happy to have that experience as uh and you’re not going to do it again yes we will do it again you won’t do it again okay i hope and what’s next for eve in the next year and what do you spend a lot of your time doing do you travel a lot do you speak no not a lot are

1:44:38 You a celebrity no no no not at all you were on konin o’brien yeah i don’t think he asked very good questions though but he’s a funny guy he is a funny guy really really we had great time and uh uh yeah i don’t give so many talks before it was part of my revenue when i was just sponsored uh at the beginning but um now when we are in dubai we mostly train and develop new things new profile new wings we have really many things new to improve because there is a big potential and again we are exploring ways to becoming autonomous so it takes time it’s so easy to say okay i will fly like uh superman right okay it took me and i’m not like superman because i’m not from the ground okay it took me 20 years so step by step yeah 20 years to fly not from the ground so maybe another 10 or 20 years yeah i don’t know and we’ll see and do you enjoy being in dubai yeah okay yes and no that’s a big city i am a guy from the mountain from the mountain from landscape you know i i love to be in nature in the woods and so on so dubai it’s a big city even in london it’s nice i love to be in cities as a visitor to live in in a city it’s first time for me i don’t like it traffic jam noise too much too much stress action everywhere so but it would be the same in any city dubai uh is fantastic because of the multicultural it’s very uh multicultural yeah they say it’s uh it’s a city that is the same as an uh airport lounge you know a little bit of everyone because they’re all traveling yeah

1:46:55 And they let you fly your wings your wings wherever you want no no um typically no other city would let you do that no new york city would never let you do that even now as it’s the building are coming like mushrooms there it’s crazy the speed that they are building new skyscrapers and places when we did fly two years ago it was okay because many spaces where we could land even in case of an engine failure okay and we did prepare ourselves really uh you know taking uh where we went on top of the tower to see yeah if we have an engine failure here which terrain do we take and we did uh recall all the places where we could land and and and and these places now are taken already half by new constructions it’s crazy that’s uh uh yeah a growing city uh it’s speedy Gonzalez do you have another big high profile flight through a city or something else planned high profile yes yes no city though uh no city okay secret secret surprise i’m guessing you would see some landmarks that might want you to fly by them like the great wall of china yes that’s for sure one of the pyramids yeah the nyagra falls uh yeah there are so many beautiful places okay yeah now for sure and also uh yeah that’s a kind of mix between beautiful places technical development sharing things through also presentation like we we do today i appreciate that i can present what is the idea behind because the first image that we gave crazy guys yeah crazy guys and we are not crazy we’re just lovers of action in the air

1:49:06 But we are not crazy and it’s good opportunity and i thank you i have the opportunity also to speak a little bit deeper about what is the the engine of all these of this project yeah passion and yeah wonderment yeah and i think also when i saw the first video next to the airbus i didn’t understand that you were the airfoil you know that takes a little bit of learning because at first it looks like a machine you’re flying as opposed to you know the machine is flying you yeah this is that’s the kid playing the airplane it’s so simple and i’d like that it stay like that because i had also uh contacts with uh air forces for special forces you know yeah but it’s much uh okay they want 50 kilos of equipment first yeah and 100 kilometers so it’s difficult and also all this project for me it it’s really flying the dream like a bird stay with your body flying and if you want performance then you stick a guy below wing you put him a big wing and you stabilize it with computers and steering right and the guy is like a puppet that shouldn’t move right it’s easy to learn much easier to learn because you don’t have to train the fuselage you it’s just like that right so yeah that’s not what you want to build okay you we haven’t an airplane you just put the guy another place so it’s it was not my and it it is still not my goal to go in that direction okay but you must have had some people like some elon musk types that call you up and say eve we’re going to give you this huge hanger

1:51:14 And hundreds of millions of euros i thought it would be nice yes it didn’t uh it did never happen well i’m told that he watches this show so you might get the phone call okay yeah you never know space x space x jet man yeah oh yeah by the way fantastic and this rocket that came back yeah it’s good another dreamer right i mean you know elon is elon is just pursuing his dreams yeah right but again to start vertical from zero speed from the ground you take half of your energy just to go to 10 000 meters space shuttle take half of energy goes to 400 kilometers half of the energy is used for the first 20 kilometers half right it’s nonsense virgin galactic is much better on this point okay a launcher already in altitude energy wise right energy wise but still there are other aspects of that but you want to go from the ground too yeah that’s right richard branson watches this too so okay if he wants to get involved um can i ask you a couple personal questions just about you and just when you’ve had successful moments over the last 10 years or 20 years or 30 years was there something that you changed about yourself your your mindset or the way you approached flying where you noticed wow this made me improve massively in my in my success as a pilot or as a success as jet man was there some way of looking at the world or even a physical practice or a mental practice that helped you become the best these success secrets are only available on the London Real

1:53:09 Academy become a member and get access to live shows exclusive courses my webinars bonus content meetups live events an amazing community and much much more now back to the rest of the show um chris hadfield the astronaut who who was on the wall and we talked about he has a book called an astronaut’s guide to life on earth all right and it’s it’s lessons he learned in space and as a pilot like you in the in the canadian military that people can apply to their everyday lives and one of his his things he says is uh prepare for failure you know a very typical engineer thing plan b right and if you prepare for failure that’s how you can relax and be comfortable i’m sure you feel that way when you have prepared for all these failures you probably fly with ease and and those kinds of things and i feel like we need a book from you eve because you’re the jet man but that’s a very small part of who you are and flying in my opinion seems to be a small part of who you are and you seem like you’ve realized so many other things and lessons about life by doing what you do pursuing your passion innovating for the the sake of it for the pure excitement of innovation um and i think we can learn a lot from that so you need to write your book for us okay i’m gonna have the publishers call you noted okay good um eve i always finish with uh a question i ask all my guests so i’ll ask you the same question if you could take a phone and call up the 20 year old eve rossie um so maybe he’s probably in the

1:54:58 Swiss military maybe right about to get to fly the fighter pilot fighter jet um and give him a bit of advice you can give that young man some advice what would you tell him believe in you i was full of doubts especially at this time full of doubt powerful and yet you still made it yeah um okay somehow yeah education environment perseverance for sure but it comes also from at the beginning for sure some uh you know the people in the center of africa in a camp they don’t have the same priorities as we have on that side of the planet so we i i was born on the right side of the planet to do what i’ve done and that environment but beside of that uh i think that uh yeah if especially for younger people because when you are young you are discovering and you know you do you discover with all doubts with also success with uh failures personal failures you discover the world like that and uh to have someone that tells you like i tell now to young people believe in you because you you are the best you you are the best you don’t play anything follow here that’s how i i did i i was not a very confident person but i did always follow what i had inside that’s good advice and on that note what is what’s the best advice you ever received from someone whether it was a parent or someone in the military service or even someone in the last 10 years did anyone say something that stuck with you hmm fly high yeah fly high it’s it it’s a very these are two words but it’s uh

1:58:14 It contains the flight and it contains also well don’t don’t think small and that was by my mentor the one you talked about yes yes yeah fly high that’s a big one two words meaning a lot um the last part is you know there’s 20 year old young men and young women watching us now listening to us around the world from every country Ukraine you mentioned Russia China South America what advice do you give to them you know if they they see you they see what you’ve accomplished as as jet man what advice do you give them if they want to go and and pursue these dreams and try to make these innovations and you know try to manifest their dreams what do you tell them uh put put first the base to be able to follow what you have in your head that means uh first find find what you have in your head what you want because for example i was the lucky guy that was 13 i knew i want to become a pilot it was a strange like pam and it was also easy for my parents to guide they told me it was easy because okay he’s interested by this okay pam i had a friend he didn’t know up up he was 25 really what he has inside he had inside so he was doing uh i did an apprentice apprentice apprenticeship as a mechanic and he was doing a mechanic drawing but i did that because i wanted to become a pilot to know all the mechanic and so he was doing that because i don’t know what else and it’s difficult when you don’t know where where you go so find

2:00:19 What is interesting you really and then go try do small i did begin i was uh beginning to do airplanes models with nothing you don’t need a lot of money to to begin to work with your hand or do do yeah keep it simple do don’t stay in front of the tv hands up yeah get out there do some things make some mistakes yeah do do what you want to do yeah and we are so full of abilities it begins with you have a problem on your bike your bicycle many students they have bicycles because they don’t have the money to have a nice Harley David son and you have a problem on your bike okay repair it you learn something these kind of small things and and learning that it gives you also confidence that you are able afterwards when you i i was so proud when my first girlfriend we went together in the apartment she told me that she was so happy to have a man with her that was able to repair the light to repair everything to put the things on the walls and i was able to do that hey you mark a good point for the future couple so these kind of small things do learn Eve thank you so much for coming on uh it’s been a real pleasure getting to know you the last hour or two you remind me a lot of my grandfather rose and i don’t say that because you’re only 12 years older than me but when i was young maybe eight years old i remember my grandfather and he was a pilot i told you he used to fly Cessna he had a twin engine Cessna one in the front one in the back

2:02:34 And he used to wear a windbreaker like that probably because it’s a pilot’s windbreaker and um you know he was no nonsense he was straight to the point you know lived lived out in the in the country kind of like you and uh you know just a man of few words but wise words so it’s a great compliment thank you he’s a good compliment um so thank you for coming on um the reason uh we really wanted to have you on is because we knew you’re you’re not only the jet man and some amazing accomplishments but so much more as well so uh thanks for telling us about life and about what it’s like to go out there and do those things and i think it’s interesting that it’s your passion that got you here and um you know not not commerce and you know so many times in this world we’re looking for the salary and the IPO and we want to be the next billionaire when um you just said something there you said i’m rich i’m already rich and i agree you are rich you’re rich for all your experiences you’re rich because you get to fly as the jet man you’re rich because of all those failures that got you to be the jet man and all the people you share your life with so uh you know thank you you’ve given us some knowledge here so my thanks again to give me the opportunity to share that thanks our pleasure that’s what we do here at London Real um as we say it’s about the journey and uh i wish you well on yours eve i’d love to come see you in switzerland sometimes