Taking Flight With The Birdmen

(CBS)  This story was first published Oct. 11, 2009. It was updated Dec. 16, 2009.

For hundreds of years, fully grown adults and very young children have dreamed about flying. People have made wings out of feathers and wood and jumped off buildings and cliffs in order to soar like a bird. And a lot of them have died trying.

Now, a small group of extreme sportsmen wearing specially made "wingsuits" have come about as close to flying as you can get outside the confines of an airplane, at least for a minute or two.

Some people call them "birdmen," and we first learned about them on the Internet.

The pictures we saw were so spectacular, 60 Minutes and correspondent Steve Kroft decided to assemble some of the sport's top athletes, and mount a small expedition with the latest high definition cameras to one of the most beautiful places on Earth to see what this is all about.

Photos: The Birdmen
Web Extra: "There He Goes"
Web Extra: "I'm Flying"

Going head first, one of the birdmen jumped off a cliff, soaring along the mountain's surface, and controlling his movements with the help of his wingsuit. When he whizzed by Kroft and the other jumpers - who were observing from halfway up the mountain - the sounds is not unlike that of a small jet airplane.

Kroft joined JT Holmes, an American professional skier from Lake Tahoe; Julian Boulle, a South African living in France and a skydiver and aerial photographer par excellence; and Tom Erik Heiman, one of our Norwegian hosts.

"I just love just feeling speed and watching that stuff go by," Holmes told Kroft.

During these fly-bys, Holmes said one can reach speeds of 140 to 150 miles an hour.

If you want to do this, there is no better time or place than the Romsdal valley of Norway during the summer solstice, a paradise of fjords and farms several hundred miles northwest of Oslo. Myth has it that Norway's trolls live there amidst the waterfalls and some of the tallest, sheerest cliffs in Europe.

Norwegians have been parachuting off of them for decades. Birdmen take the extreme sport to new extremes, dropping off a cliff and free falling until the air inflates the wings of their nylon suits and propels them forward.

"The dive creates the speed," Holmes explained. "And you use that speed to glide out, and, you know, fly flatter."

Gravity makes it impossible for them to go up, or even maintain altitude. For every two feet Holmes glides forward, he drops a foot. But the suit allows him to stay aloft three times longer than a skydiver.

"Within a few seconds of course, that suit, that wind is going to fill up that suit, it's going to pressurize and you're gonna have total control," Holmes said.

He told Kroft he's been flying with wingsuits for five years.

Asked what's special about the suit, Holmes said, "Mmm, you know, it's just like so many children dream. It's flying."

"You feel like you're flying?" Kroft asked.

"Well, I am flying," Holmes said, laughing. "So, yes, I do, very much, feel like I'm flying."

"Like a bird?" Kroft asked.

"Yeah. Just like a bird. A bird that can't flap his wings and go up," Holmes replied. "The birds probably laugh at us. They're probably just like, 'Look at these guys.'"

They have long grown bored of simply flying over the valleys. In order to maximize the sensation of speed, they need a visual reference point. So they fly just a few feet from the rock face.

"Sometimes you're flying so close to these cliffs, it looks like you could reach out and touch them and you are going 100 miles an hour, 140 miles an hour," Kroft noted. "There's not much margin for error there."

"It feels entirely in control. And the speed actually increases your stability and it increases your safety margin. Because with the speed that we're flying with, you can create lift. And you know you can pop up and fly away at any time. There's margin there," Holmes explained.

Asked how quickly he can turn, Holmes said, "I don't even know how to turn. You just do it. You just look where you wanna go and you just go there. And you just feel it and go."

"You're like, 'Yeah, let's go fast. This feels good. The faster I go, the more control I have.' And you just charge with it," he added.

To the extent that Holmes and the others ever get nervous, it usually comes at a time that many people might consider one of the most mundane legs of the trip, when the end is in sight.

Asked what the most dangerous part of the jump is, Holmes said, "The most important thing is to open that parachute, you know. Just that moment, when you reach back. And throw the pilot chute out there, which extracts your parachute. That's the most critical thing. I mean, if you don't do that, you're not gonna live through it."

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[pilky1]

I found this 60 minutes story shocking! It really made me want to re-evaluate the credibility of the programme in general.
I´m not at all opposed to people doing what they want with their lives, so this is not a moral denouncement of the birdmen. However, I live quite near the Romsdalsfjord in Norway and also have first-hand experience with what thrill-seekers cost the local community through my work with the Norwegian Red Cross. First of all, base jumping from the Romsdal Horn is Illegal!: A little fact that Steve Croft and 60 minutes either didn´t bother to investigate or don´t regard as important. Croft´s advice to other jumpers to flock to Romsdal to experience the dramatic environment there is therefore nothing less than an encouragement to break Norwegian law. His actions are at best irresponsible, at worst extremely arrogant. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of search and rescue operations executed by the Norwegian Red Cross and similar organisations. Selfless volunteers risk life and limb to locate, rescue and retrieve people (increasingly thrill- seeking tourists) from hazardous landscapes in Norway´s majestic nature. The local community pays the price. Not only are the rescue operations costly affairs with the utilisation of costly equipment and advanced technology, but the rescuers and the community often have to pay the emotional price of their beloved nature setting the stage for death and tragedy.

[k_rp]

These guys who push the boundaries of possibility, true to themselves, know and appreciate what they've got....I'm thankful they shared their story...

[VortexPuddle]

I just blogged about this recently here: http://www.vortexpuddle.com/ I think wingsuits are changing the way we can look at human flight in the future. The US military is also eyeing this technology as a possible option. I wish it will be used for fun only. 60 Minutes did a great piece, and I hope more people will share it with others.
VortexPuddle

[blongobardi]

As a mother of an Airman based in the Middle East, I found this piece very offensive. Take your risk taking mentality and put it to good use by serving your country. Strap on a parachute and drop yourself over the Hindu Kush Mountain Range in Afghanistan. 5,290 soldiers have sacrificed their lives in the Iraq/Aghanistan War. What have you done? Nothing but had a cheap thrill.

Mother of an Airman

[displeased]

Sorry you're so easily offended. Not everybody agrees with your war, particularity the Iraq fiasco.

[bluedenmant]

With all due (and great) respect to your brave son in the military in the Middle East, life is not all about you, your son, or these wars any more than it is about the rest of us or our issues. It takes a certain breen of man/woman to volunteer for the armed forces, and quite frankly, are you sure you would want some of these daredevils defending our country? I'm not. I do not begrudge them their risk-taking or thrill-seeking. You should not either.

[Beth37]

I thought this was a great story and I don't think these guys seem nuts at all. They prepare in advance and understand the risks. Stories like this always inspire me to seek more adventure in my own life. And the scenery was beautiful!

[SHEETPAN]

Google Anita Dunn. CBS refuses to tell the story

[skinnypixie]

This guy should have quit the moment his child was born. That's what's really troubling about all this. Doesn't he care about his family? Sad.

[SPORTING-SAILS]

Truly Inspiring! And to think it all started with Leonardo Da Vinci's simple sketch of a "maximum drag decelerator" back in 1485...with the imagination of sporting heros from the 1930s, such as Leo Gasperl, the sport has really "taken off" in so many directions...even downhill skateboarding!

Check it out here: www.sporting-sails.com

[orinfagel]

Hell, I'd try this in a second! I'll be 70 years young in a year. Looks like a hoot to me. You're a long time dead so you better get your kicks now!

[AttentionDeficit]

orin: i agree. i do extreme stuff (skydiving and i did my first ultramarathon last month) and i am amused by the stay-at-home-on-the-couch crowd's "you MIGHT die" warnings. i "might" die? what a relief....until they warned me of this, i thought that i was definitely going to die. how nice to know that it MAY NOT happen.

[SHEETPAN]

If these guys want to jump off mountains at thier own expense. Then so what. They are not infringing on the rights of anyone else. And under those circumstances, they can do whatever they want. Of course you are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to stop them. I personally think they're a little crazy. But you have to admit. They have some serious Big ****.