Speed Flyer Parachutes into Moving Cable Car 492 Feet Above the Ground

Arnaud Longobardi is a speed flyer, which is daredevil speak for "parachute-wielding crazy person."His pastimes include jumping off mountains and staring death in its good eye, and after watching his latest stunt, I'm convinced death is still balled up in a corner, shivering in impotence.Epic TV released footage on Thursday of the 43-year-old Frenchman parachuting into a moving cable car like a real-life James Bond 150 meters (492 feet) above the ground.Longobardi told Epic TV it took him six months to think through the stunt and convince himself it was possible:I had this project in mind for a full year before we did it,. I thought about it every day, thought through all the challenges - speed, angle, height - all the different scenarios from the takeoff to the approach to the landing. After six months, I finally decided OK, I've thought through all the possibilities and there is nothing that can happen during the flight that I haven't imagine and mentally prepared for. This is do-able.As Longobardi notes, a lot of things had to fall in place perfectly for this stunt to work:For this to be possible would require the glider to actually stall as I entered the door. At 200 meters from the cable car I was traveling at 80kph. From that point, I had to make a very controlled deceleration to 35 kph - the precise speed where the glider would stall and collapse - at one meter from the cable car and my momentum would carry me in. If I stalled before reaching the door - disaster.The conditions had to be pristine, the cable car had to be at a certain point in its descent andlest we forgetthe cable car company had to sign off on a stunt that could only end poorly for it (it did sign off, according to Epic TV).Another fun thing is this LinkedIn profile, which appears to belong to Arnaud Longobardi and lists him as a pilot with Air France.Unless there's another Arnaud Longobardi out there with experience as a "pro speed rider," this is our guy. Keep that in mind next time you're traveling commercial in Europe.Dan is on Twitter. His greatest stunt involved a Razor scooter and a parking block.
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