The Athlete: VISA PARVIAINEN
Episode: Rocket Man | Premiere: April 9, 2007

Perry's Thoughts:
Little does the viewing audience know, this stunt took over a year to come to fruition — needless to say, it was worth the wait! What can you say about Visa? If you looked up "crazy Finn" in the dictionary, there would be our friend Visa ... This stunt was an amazing example of man's perpetual quest for flight and Visa stepped up to the challenge. Since the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903, to Visa Parviaien at Perris, Calif., in 2007, flight has gone from paper airplanes, to jumbo jets and back to single-man flight as demonstrated by our Finnish friend. The miniature turbine engines and Visa's ingenuity in combining them with a wing suit to achieve level flight fascinated me. As I stood on the ground watching Visa pass overhead, it was an amazing sight to watch a man fly like Superman. Although this is probably the first step in humankind's attempt for solo flight, I am sure it won't be long before we see something more amazing.

Eli's Thoughts:
Having skydivers on the show is always an extra bonus for me, and shooting at Perris Valley Skydiving is even better. When I heard Visa was going to fly a wing suit with jet engines attached to his feet, I thought, "Wow! What will we humans think of next?" Being completely consumed by skydiving for over 10 years, I know the feeling of pushing human flight to new levels; for years my skydiving team and I worked day in and day out, helping to refine and define the art of "free flying" in all body positions. Skydiving has many disciplines and, in 1999, I met with Yari Kuosma and he sponsored my team with the first commercial Birdman suits. I flew the suit in many parts of the world, and now, years later, the suits are more efficient and exciting. People like Visa are actually using miniature engines to push themselves through the air — totally cool. It's as close to becoming a superhero as I have ever seen. So when I met up with Visa and his crew, they were busy building a "jet bike" to start the show, i.e., they took one engine and mounted it on the back of a beach cruiser. They had done a lot of work modifying the suit with the throttle, kill switch and fuel bladders in the cells of the wing (not something you see every day). Most impressive were th miniature jet engines — I know every skydiver who saw them was like, " I got to get me a set of those!" I did some bird jumps with Visa and we had a good time. We even got to jump out of a jet ( DC-9) — now, that's fun in a wing suit! Visa, Ugga and Jussi, all from Finland, were a blast to work with, always having a good time and keeping things exciting. When Perry and I watched Visa's test jumps it was clear the engines were helping out. On test day I knew he could do it as long as the engines worked well and he wasn't too tired from the previous attempts. As he got out you could tell the adrenaline was kicking in and away he went, at almost two minutes from under 9,000 feet. I was truly impressed ... It was one small flight for birds, one big flight for human birds.