WINGED MAN MAKES HISTORY - SOARS WITHIN TWO METERS OF CHRIST THE REDEEMER
Historic Flying Man Footage Captured as Brazilian Professional Athlete Luigi Cani Narrowly Escapes Tragedy over Corcovado Mountain
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (April 26, 2007) / PRNewswire / -
Earlier today, residents of and visitors to Rio de Janeiro witnessed something never seen before, when Brazilian native and Go Fast! Sports and Beverage Company-sponsored athlete Luigi Cani soared under his own wings within two meters of Christ the Redeemer, atop Corcovado Mountain. Further etching this amazing spectacle into the minds of onlookers, Cani freefell at terminal velocity, skimmed the earth, and continued flight, uninjured.
"This was the most exhilarating flight I've ever experienced," explained Cani, who skimmed the bushes after flying past Christ the Redeemer. In spite of skimming, Cani maintained flight long enough to get to a location high enough above the ground to open his parachute. "It was almost miraculous," Cani said, "I truly felt a greater power was watching over me."
"I am hoping that the imagery captured during this flight will convey the sense of freedom, emotion and awareness of everything around you; especially when you only have control over certain elements in life." Cani continued.
It was Cani's calm, clear-headed and fast response that allowed him to continue flying and avoid fatal disaster after scraping the mountain.
This momentous flight took place less than two weeks after Brazil launched a campaign for Rio de Janeiro's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue to be named one of seven new wonders of the world, Cani hopes with his legendary flight to embody his country's vision, which believes that the outstretched arms of the statue represent a feeling of national pride.
After more than a year of planning this event, and with the help of his frequent BASE Jumping friend, Jeb Corliss, Cani was able to freefall past the statue, which stands 38 meters (125 feet) atop the 710 meter (2,330-foot) tall Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city and its world renown beaches.
Edited to add copy in case it disappears in the future.
"Narrowly escapes tragedy"?! Got to love those sensational copy writers!
(This post was edited by cpoxon on Apr 27, 2007, 4:32 AM)
Apr 27, 2007, 7:53 AM
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Re: [notsane] Luigi flyby of Christ the Redeemer statue
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Anyone care to clip that video so that some of us "download-speed challenged" folks can see it?
There is also a .wmv or quicktime version on the page (upper right corner) that should play fine (for those people who are watching it at work, at a company that doesnt have broadband...chance jobs!!)
Apr 27, 2007, 8:19 AM
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Re: [SkymonkeyONE] Luigi flyby of Christ the Redeemer statue
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Luigi is not that proficient a wingsuit pilot. I like the guy, but I will bet you a hundred dollars he doesn't have more than fourty wingsuit jumps
Either way it was a close fly by. Also it looks that Jeb did a close flyby on one of the jumps as well. He seemed to go further after the flyby as well in the wingsuit..
Scott
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Apr 27, 2007, 8:23 AM
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haven't watched the video yet but the pictures are pretty cool. Did anyone else notice the guy falling down getting off of the escalator in this photo?
Apr 29, 2007, 7:36 PM
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I'm thinking you might want to take a shot at rewording that.
Chuck's only basing his opinion on thousands of jumps, over a thousand wingsuit dives and decades in the sport.
A stunt may not require a huge amount of expertise to be visually exciting. The same can't be said of some of the things Robi, James and others are doing when they fly nap of the earth for almost the entire flight. That requires a massive amount of skill, not to mention huge brass balls.
Apr 29, 2007, 8:58 PM
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Also, consider that Jeb flew a much riskier path (under the statue instead of over it) and didn't surprise himself by running into the bushes as he went over the edge of the mountain (as the hero in question did).
Apr 30, 2007, 5:48 AM
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Luigi is not that proficient a wingsuit pilot
Any idea how idiotic and stupid this sounds considering the topic of this thread???
I am sure he would greatly appreciate you showing him how it's done.
You are going to have to try alot harder than that to get under MY skin. Bro, you feel free to have your own feelings on how this stunt worked out because I definitely have mine, and they are very different. In my opinion, this is not unlike the Royal Gorge stunt-gone-wrong. In that instance, two supposed wingsuit "experts" zooed their proposed poised exits out of a Caravan and the one taking the "higher" path scrubbed off too much usable lift in his efforts to come closer to the bridge. He failed and it was a horrific spectacle. In THIS stunt, another relatively inexperienced wingsuit pilot tried basically the same thing with almost the exact same result! If you don't think scrubbing trees with your fucking belly is as close to death as you can possibly get then you are out of your mind. Particularly when the person who took the lower path (by a long shot) carried eough speed that he had no such clearance issue. I can promise you Luis Cani does not have a death wish and I am sure that scared the hell out of him. I get along with the guy; I'm glad he lived through it! Jeb and Luigi are bragging about this???
This is something these "stuntmen" ought to spend a little more time thinking about. Unless you have swooped objects over and over and over what makes you think you have the skillset to just go out and do something like this? By his own admition on Stunt Junkies, Luigi is a novice BASE jumper. By everything I have seen and what I have heard from locals, he is also still a novice wingsuit pilot. How many tandems did he swoop prior to this stunt? How flat did he pass them if he even DID practice like that? Did he do the same "sink it down to the object" route or did he practice diving from way above and behind and flaring out at full power so that he would have the maximum lift available as he approached the object? If he didn't practice that at some secret skydiving location, how many practice BASE jumps did he do where he swooped an object? Where exactly was that? I seriously want to know.
Again, my problem with all this is wingsuit proficiency. When Jeb was attempting to dock on Luigi a while back he had a very, very hard time closing the gap. The other wingsuit pilot on those loads, Loic Jean Albert, had no problem whatsoever flying himself right under Luigi's feet like a surfboard. Unfortunately, this was a GoFast! stunt, though, and you only got to see those two GF-sponsored atheletes on the cover of Parachutist. That was a stunt which had been accomplished in Deland, FL four years prior by Jari and Vladi Pesa.
I just wonder how this new stunt is going to play out on TV...... Luigi is a national celebrity in his country already.
Apr 30, 2007, 7:55 AM
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I'm with you, Chuck. Sponsorship and cameras cause people to do all sort of not-very-well-thought-out things, and this stunt looks slightly irresponsible.
I'm glad it worked out - and the photos look cool - but you're right to bring into question whether they should have been doing it. However, I'm neither trying to pass judgement nor presenting an answer; just supporting the question being asked.
Somehow, if you've got a bright jersey with a sponsor's logo on it, people think you're the best person for the job. As Chuck implied, there are many more experienced people out there that generally keep a much lower profile...
Got to love those sensational copy writers! 
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