Not a bird, or a plane
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E-mail China Daily, June 6, 2012
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Jeb Corliss flies above Tianmen Mountain in Hunnan province in September 2011.[China Daily] |
![Jeb Corliss flies above Tianmen Mountain in Hunnan province in September 2011.[China Daily]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20120606/001422373e1911393ab534.jpg "Jeb Corliss flies above Tianmen Mountain in Hunnan province in September 2011.[China Daily]")
Wingsuiter Jeb Corliss broke both ankles and a fibula when flying over Table Mountain in South Africa in January. But just Wingsuiter Jeb Corliss will take part in the first Wingsuit World Championship, on Tianmen Mountain, Hunan province, nine months after a crash. Liu Wei reports in Beijing.
Wingsuiter Jeb Corliss broke both ankles and a fibula when flying over Table Mountain in South Africa in January. But just nine months later, he will fly again in China.
In October, Corliss will take part in the first Wingsuit World Championship, to be held on Tianmen Mountain in Hunan province, competing with 15 other international wingsuiters.
The location is not new for Corliss, 36, who rocketed through a hole in a 1,300-meter-high cliff on the mountain in September 2011. He jumped from a helicopter 600 meters above the hole and flew toward it. The hole's opening is 131 meters high, 57 meters wide and 60 meters deep.
"It was one of my most fantastic flying experiences, in terms of both the scenic beauty and the unique location," he says.
In January, however, Corliss careered into a rocky outcrop at more than 193 kilometers per hour during a freefall from the 1,067-meter-high Table Mountain.
His target was a helium balloon, which moved from its original position because of the wind. Corliss crashed into a rock as he struggled to activate the emergency parachute. He then falls 61 meters and landed in some bracken.
He spent five weeks in hospital, the place he "fears the most". What he has learned from the incident is never to choose a moving target, but it will not stop him from flying again.
"My whole purpose in life is flying. That's why I eat, drink and wake up every morning."
The race in China, known as "Formula 1 in the air", will see Corliss and other competitors leap from a 300-meter-high cliff on Tianmen Mountain. They will fly to the right, before taking a sharp turn and flying toward the endpoint.
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