Parachute with Egoitz Elorz

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation: Hello, to Egoitz! How's it going, okay?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Hello there, Nagore! All right, yeah.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:You are a pilot, but not a pilot of any kind; in fact, you climb people, but when you land there are no passengers.

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Yeah, that's our job. They climb up there, and they jump for pleasure.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:In the parachute.

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Parachute, of course. To enjoy his free fall. Then I go down alone, as fast as I can, to meet others.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:Are they usually professionals who jump or do people jump?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Yeah, customers come here just for enjoyment, to jump in tandem. There are also students; and all the progression to the professional. For some it is their hobby and others become professionals.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation: Here in Empuriabrava many people jump. Do you have an account of how many people jump or how many jump?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have to make more than a hundred thousand jumps to move the business forward.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:That's a lot, right?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Yeah, pretty much. Most of Europe. Our competition has 50,000.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:You two are double.

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot:That’s it, and we have to get to that.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:I guess that means that there are very good conditions for parachute jumping.

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Yeah, we think there's a microclimate here in Ampurda. Sometimes in the city of Girona the Christ is throwing, the storm, and here we are jumping.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:Can you show me how you prepare to jump?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot:Of course, of course.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation: These are the instructors who just jumped out now, right? Now what do they do with the parachute?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Put them on the ground as best you can, straightened strips, not folded or knotted. And then they start plegging: taking off the wind and taking off the wind from this sheet, known as canopy.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation: I think this is going to be an important time. It will have to be folded well so that it doesn’t get stuck afterwards.

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: In order to be safe, you have to do things right. This is a critical moment, but it has to be said that it is quite mechanical. I mean, people work here fast. And knowing there's another one, there's another emergency parachute...

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:Then there's a second one, an emergency parachute.

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Yes, it calculates the pressure and opens in a height limit. If you have lost consciousness, this automatic emergency system is activated and the parachute is deployed.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:Is parachuting safe?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: Yeah, yeah, I have to say it's safe. What carries the risk is self-awareness and self-control: what happens when you gain confidence? Well, when I land, I want to do this, and it goes wrong.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:At least the parachute always works.

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: And if this doesn't work, the second, the emergency, yes. A qualified person folds for it.


NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:
I think you've convinced me. I think I'm gonna jump.

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot:I hope so.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:Now, when we take the plane, how high are we going to go?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot: We'll go up to four thousand meters. There are other modalities that require higher elevation, with oxygen, and others that require lower elevation, to perform these extreme landings.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation: That’s for professionals, right? And when you jump, what height does the parachute normally open?

EGOITZ ELORZ; pilot:In your case you will open a thousand meters: free fall from four thousand meters to a thousand meters, then open the parachute and fly two minutes with the vision of Christ.

NAGORE REMENTERIA; Elhuyar Foundation:Thank you very much!

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