CNN: The quest for fear

[cpoxon 0]

I've uploaded the relevant part of this programme to Skydivingmovies.com

CNN Journalist Richard Quest faces up to his fear of heights by doing a tandem skydive. First he goes in the Airkix wind tunnel in Milton Keynes in preparation. Then he does a tandem from a balloon over Austria accompanied by Felix Baumgartner.

From http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/11/18/quest/

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The quest for fear
By Producer Neil Curry


Friday, November 18, 2005 Posted: 1820 GMT (0220 HKT)

This month Richard is on a Quest for Fear.

There's not much which scares Quest, but he's uncomfortable around bees and wasps and, perhaps surprisingly for someone who spends so much of his time on board planes, he's far from happy with heights.

The producers have challenged him to face up to his own fears, with the ultimate goal of jumping from a hot air balloon high over Austria.

Before that though, he'll have his nerve tested by a series of scary encounters to overcome.

Along the way he'll meet a fascinating collection of characters all connected by the common thread of fear.

Richard starts his Quest in the dark. He's in Madame Tussaud's famous waxworks and he's not alone.

He's sharing the darkness with a group of knife-wielding maniacs lurking behind every corner.

Night vision cameras vividly capture Richard's expression as he comes face to face with these frightening freaks.

This is the starting point for the first aspect of his Quest for fear: Fear for Fun.

In the century since Stoker and Shelley created Dracula and Frankenstein, horror has become a multi-million dollar business.

Richard travels to Dublin to meet "Dracula's heir" -- in the form of Stoker's great grandson. He also talks to present day horror writer Brett Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho and Lunar Park, who believes our appetite for horror is all about releasing our fears.

Widespread panic
"I think it's about confronting the things we're most afraid, and experiencing them through another medium, such as novels, or films. And then having it be a cathartic experience."

Japanese director Hideo Nakata's horror movie "Ringu" led to widespread panic in Japan while Tim Burton corners the cheery end of the creepy market with Corpse Bride and the Nightmare Before Christmas. They'll help to answer the question "why do we like to be frightened?"

Can you think of anything more terrifying than entering a boxing ring with the ferocious Mike Tyson? Former World Heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield did so -- not once but twice -- and emerged victorious on both occasions, despite having his ear chewed for his trouble.

Quest goes eyeball-to-eyeball with the "Real Deal" in the ring at his home in Atlanta and discovers how boxers control fear and use intimidation to instill it into others.

"It's up to you to be intimidating. No one can act to intimidate you, you have to choose to be intimidating. So, in general, you know you, you can look mean and not be mean. You can't go by look, you have to go by action when you get in the ring."

Terrorists intimidated British envoy Terry Waite when they abducted him in Beirut and held him captive for five years. In an intimate conversation about an ordeal which left him a changed man, Terry tells Richard about the ultimate fear -- fear of death -- and what sustained him in his darkest hours.

"I was afraid but I wasn't afraid of death because death will come to all of us. I didn't want to die. I was afraid of the way in which I would die. Would it hurt when the bullet when through my head? That is what made me afraid."

Conquering his own fears, Terry Waite still has a fondness for the Middle East and looks to the future with hope for an end to fear in the region.

Death-defying
The next part of Richard's Quest finds him recruiting expert help as he tackles fears and phobias. London University's Professor Joanna Bourke has studied how fears and understanding of fear have changed through the centuries.

"Lots of people have severe phobias," she says. "Some thing like five percent of our population has severe phobias. In other words, ones that actually stop them from doing something. That is a bad terror. And they are the most intractable thing to cure."

As you might expect, Sigmund Freud put it all down to sex, but there are other reasons why people develop phobias.


Closed spaces, open spaces, spiders and snakes, needles and pins, cows to clowns -- and even peanut butter -- are among the everyday phenomena which cause people to shudder and break out in a sweat.

We meet some of the sufferers and Richard confronts his concerns over bees and wasps in the company of a master beekeeper who longs to make the world's biggest bee beard -- that's right a beard of bees!

Meanwhile, Richard's preparations for his personal challenge are not going well. He climbs the high-diving board, only to find fear ready to meet him at the top. He experiences skydiving - in the relative safety of a wind tunnel.

Finally he's bundled into a basket strapped beneath a hot air balloon and hauled 4,000 meters into the air above the Austrian Alps.

After words of advice from Felix Baumgartner -- a seemingly fearless professional BASE jumper who made a death-defying skydive across the English Channel -- Richard surveys the heavens with only a parachute and pluck to support him. Oh, yes and the burly free fall instructor strapped to his back.

But when it's time to look down will Richard have a head for heights - or simply lose his head? Find out by watching the next edition of Quest.

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[artistcalledian 0]

i don't like heights, but when i jump out of a plane i don't look down in the door, so its almost an unreal situation... i'm not aware of how high i am, i'm just leaping out into air, that air could be only 20 foot off the ground for all i'm aware of (obviously is not, or it would be an incredibly short sky dive)

i really don't think i could jump from a balloon, you've got no relative wind either to jump into, the initial drop must be 10x's worse than that from a plane

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[FrancoR 0]

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.... the initial drop must be 10x's worse than that from a plane....

actually it is 10x better. Don't see anything bad dropping form a plane
Franco

If it does not cost anything you are the product.

[piisfish 135]

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After words of advice from Felix Baumgartner -- a seemingly fearless professional BASE jumper who made a death-defying skydive across the English Channel

was it a death defying BASE jump from the Dover cliffs ????

sorry for site naming

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[Andy_Copland 0]

I thought i was the only freak who didnt like looking at the ground

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[artistcalledian 0]

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.... the initial drop must be 10x's worse than that from a plane....

actually it is 10x better. Don't see anything bad dropping form a plane
Franco

is a balloon jump really that much different from a plane jump? the time taken to get to terminal must feel amazing?

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[Orange1 0]

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the initial drop must be 10x's worse than that from a plane

?????? you're implying there's something bad about dropping from a plane? i love the jumping out!

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[FrancoR 0]

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.... the initial drop must be 10x's worse than that from a plane....

actually it is 10x better. Don't see anything bad dropping form a plane
Franco

is a balloon jump really that much different from a plane jump? the time taken to get to terminal must feel amazing?

No, it't not that much different, it't that much better! Most skydivers will probably agree, but i do know a skydiver that refuses to do another, but i have no idea why.

If it does not cost anything you are the product.

[MarkM 0]

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is a balloon jump really that much different from a plane jump? the time taken to get to terminal must feel amazing?

I've done a chopper, but not a balloon. But it was friggen awesome. The falling sensation caught me off guard the first time I did it, but it was really fun.

[Scoop 0]

I too am scared of heights. Get me on a wobbly ladder, rooftop or cliff edge and id be shaking like a leaf. Jump out of a plane... no problem. Its like stepping into a beautiful (but loud) painting.
Might explain why I have problems with my landings though!

[daniel_owen_uk 0]

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i don't like heights, but when i jump out of a plane i don't look down in the door, so its almost an unreal situation... i'm not aware of how high i am, i'm just leaping out into air, that air could be only 20 foot off the ground for all i'm aware of (obviously is not, or it would be an incredibly short sky dive)

I just hope I don't get out before you, might want to look down and check its clear before you jump.

__________________

BOOM Headshot

[artistcalledian 0]

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i don't like heights, but when i jump out of a plane i don't look down in the door, so its almost an unreal situation... i'm not aware of how high i am, i'm just leaping out into air, that air could be only 20 foot off the ground for all i'm aware of (obviously is not, or it would be an incredibly short sky dive)

I just hope I don't get out before you, might want to look down and check its clear before you jump.

why? do you have the ability to travel horizontal at 13,000 feet for 10 seconds, before i get out?

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[Andy9o8 0]

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i don't like heights, but when i jump out of a plane i don't look down in the door, so its almost an unreal situation... i'm not aware of how high i am, i'm just leaping out into air, that air could be only 20 foot off the ground for all i'm aware of (obviously is not, or it would be an incredibly short sky dive)

I just hope I don't get out before you, might want to look down and check its clear before you jump.

why? do you have the ability to travel horizontal at 13,000 feet for 10 seconds, before i get out?

I urge you to talk to your instructor about this before your next jump. If you don't look down before you exit, I hope your instructor or JM does it for you, and I hope you get into the habit of doing so for yourself once you're cleared to self-supervise. This is crucial for these reasons:

1. Ensuring adequate exit separation between you & the jumper(s) exiting before you. If the jumper before you tracks/backslides up the jump run, and you track/backslide down the jump run, 8 or 9,000 feet of freefall is enough to find yourself directly above him when he deploys, risking a freefall-into-canopy collision that could easily turn into a double fatality.

2. You should also check the airspace under the plane, and along your planned trajectory, before exit to make sure there are no other aircraft flying in or near the same airspace.

[mdrejhon 8]

Seeing your jump numbers.... When training under AFF, sometimes one gets so wound up at looking at the instructor that they don't look down. That's OK -- for now, on early jumps you are typically under instructor responsibility. So don't worry, it's normal not to look down if the instructor is trying to teach you other important things before that rule, to avoid sensory overload (hopefully he did not forget to teach you about looking, at least at some later point during AFF)

But it is always a rule to at least quickly spot before leaping out -- ensure adequate separation and clear airspace -- and if possible, proper spot too. Your instructor should be teaching you to that... You notice that other experienced jumpers at least briefly glance down to clear their airspace, especially if they are leaping out with a shorter separation.

Some of us can track approximately two miles horizontally before pull time (or more -- if tracking downwind). My personal best tracking is only something well over a mile of horizontal movement after exit, but this needs to be kept in mind.

Several months ago, I was told by an instructor I pulled too close (probably 100 feet horizontally) once and got a scolding about that. Tracking can cause you to do that. So look before you leap. And before you pull too.

Now, I am not an instructor. I am saying what I have been taught as a newbie. Go talk to your instructor.

[skyblu3 0]

In this video, why is Felix wearing a base rig? Is it just to prove he's a base jumper. I mean with a jump from 10 grand what's the point? Wouldn't it be better and safer just to wear a regular skydiving rig. I think he is trying to be too much of a showman.

[cpoxon 0]

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In this video, why is Felix wearing a base rig?

I was wondering the same thing myself. The only reason I could think of is, "because he can".

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I think he is trying to be too much of a showman.

Not so sure of that. I don't know whether he "showed off" with a low pull but nothing was shown on video so can he be accused of grandstanding? Only BASE jumpers (and some skydivers) are going to know it was a BASE rig.

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[jsaxton 0]

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when i jump out of a plane i don't look down in the door....

You might want to consider checking your spot sometimes

[artistcalledian 0]

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when i jump out of a plane i don't look down in the door....

You might want to consider checking your spot sometimes

nah, i'll let the spotter do that for me

________________________________________
drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police