Turbulent time for Jump4Heroes leader at World Championships
15 June 2010
Major Alastair Macartney, team leader of Jump4Heroes, The Royal British Legion's Extreme Human Flight Team, really pitted himself against the elements at the BASE jumping Extreme World Championships in Benidorm this weekend. Strong and turbulent winds made the competition even more challenging than "just" jumping from a tall building.
Many of the World's top BASE jumpers had travelled
from countries such as Brazil, Australia and the US to compete for
the prestigious title at the Gran Hotel Bali on Benidorm's
seafront. With constantly changing gusts, cross winds and then
a turbulent landing, the 25 competitors had to do everything they
could just to land safely, let alone post a solid score. A number
of highly experienced competitors ended up landing in the swimming
pools at the foot of the 600ft hotel, the tallest in Europe, and
there were a couple of broken legs too.
Army daredevil Maj Macartney, jumping to publicise the Legion's work, had to use all his skills and experience to avoid such mishaps - fortunately. Leaping from the 45th floor of the hotel with his Poppy-emblazoned canopy, he descended safely to land accurately in front of hundreds of spectators on a target positioned between the hotel's pools.
"The first jump was a real challenge, but I was determined to fly my Poppy canopy" said Maj Macartney. "If I went too far to the left I would fly straight into another building, if I came up short on the landing I would be in the trees, and if I overshot then I'd be landing in the huge crowd of spectators. The turbulent and thermal winds were trying to throw me off and I had to use all my skill and judgment to compensate. My aim was first to survive, second to remain injury free and third to score. This was seriously hardcore professional BASE jumping."
Opening his parachute slightly off target, the cross wind accelerated this error, forcing him towards another building. Quick reactions and experience meant he was able to steer clear, but with only a few seconds left to set up his landing. The turbulent conditions were also pushing him off target for this and he dropped heavily into the scoring zone. Safety had to come first and he adopted the military Parachute Landing Fall position, landing hard, rolling and then standing up - to cheers from the crowd. But rules are rules and the jump errors affected his first score, dropping him too far down the leader table to be able to bounce back, nevertheless he still finished a creditable tenth.
Maj Macartney, said, "This was far more than a BASE
jumping event, this really was big boys' rules- you had to go big
or go home. Flying the Legion flag at this competition, with
such a range of competitors and in front of the international
media, made it a humbling experience."
J4H's next event is the Canopy Piloting National Championships, 8-11 July in Bad Lippspringe, Germany - where they were recently mistaken for UFOs by local residents as they flew their Poppy-branded wingsuits (read the story here).
Major Macartney, 34, is team leader of Jump4Heroes, The Royal British Legion Extreme Human Flight Team. He is part of the Royal Logistic Corps and is currently learning to speak Pashto at the Defence School of Languages before deploying to Afghanistan next year. He was competing at the Extreme World Championships to raise awareness for The Royal British Legion and its work to support the Armed Forces.
BASE jumping is the sport of jumping from fixed objects before opening a parachute for landing. It is an acronym that stands for the four main types of objects that can jumped from: Buildings, Antennas, Spans (bridges) and Earth (cliffs).
