Launching out of airplanes is second nature to Richmond’s 17,000 jump veteran Stu Bean, but to do so in front of a crowd of 250,000 at what is largely regarded as the world’s most famous airshow, was nothing short of “spectacular”.
Oshkosh is a premier aviation event and a fantasy world come-true for aviation geeks, many of the world’s best airshow performers can be seen in action at the annual event in the United States’ Wisconsin that began in 1953.
“It was an awesome event, thousands of people there and thousands of planes. There’s just a massive amount of static displays, everything from home-builts to the latest military aircraft including a B-52 bomber,” says Stu.
The highly-experienced skydiver together with his fellow kiwi skydiving mate, Anthony Oakly, has a 15-year track record of being involved in big-way skydives on an international level, so when one of the Oshkosh organisers of a proposed 65-person skydive got in touch, naturally they leapt at the opportunity.
“We have gone out and found the most talented teams and individuals that represent their facet of skydiving and have gathered them in Oshkosh to put on a once in a lifetime opportunity to see what skydiving has to offer,” says Dennis Dunbar, director of AirVenture show operations.
Stu and Anthony joined participants from Europe, USA and Thailand for the International Skydiving Museum Eagles team, tasked with performing massive and intricately patterned formations on July 25, designed to awe the crowds as they reached vertical speeds of 120mph before opening their parachutes.
Assisted by oxygen for the plane ride, the 65 skydivers, plus camera flyers, exited from 18,000 feet out of two twin otter and one skyvan aircrafts.
“I actually snuck a look down while in formation and as far as you could see was the airfield just full of airplanes, it was pretty impressive.”
With weather closing in they performed a second skydive from 6,000 feet, leaping out one after the other and soon after deploying their parachutes.
“The crowd loved it as much as the big formation.”
With an average age of 60-years, team members averaged 12,000 skydives and five world records each.
“It was a highly-skilled bunch of guys, I felt very privileged to be a part of it.”