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BASE Jumper Gary Connery is Plane Crazy!

Keeping helicopter pilot Gary Connery’s feet on the ground is a difficult task... literally. As a BASE jumper and professional stunt performer, he thinks nothing of jumping off the Eiffel Tower or riding over a cliff on a BMX bike. Is he a few sandwiches short of a picnic? LOOP finds out.

Q| What exactly is BASE jumping?
A| BASE is an acronym for Building, Antenna or a tall aerial, Span and Earth and you jump with a parachute. Jumpers tend to be earthy types, questioning their mortality.

Q| What do you get from it?
A| A huge buzz! There’s something very special about putting yourself into an extremely scary situation, overcoming your fears and the feeling of euphoria when you land on the ground. You really question why you are there – what am I achieving, what happens if my canopy doesn’t open? You’re seconds from death every time so you’re dealing with some deep-rooted fears.

Q| Why did you decide to leave the Army?
A| It all came to a head around the time I met my wife in 1995. I was on Christmas leave and I had jumped off the Hilton Hotel dressed as Father Christmas and it made the front page of the Daily Mail. I was about to be court marshalled for bringing the regiment into disrepute, along with two other guys who had beaten up a civilian to such an extent that he had to have his arm amputated. In their eyes it was the same thing but I thought this is b****** so I packed my bags and left!

Q| What’s been the most memorable jump so far?
A| That’s really tough. Probably the Paris one, when I jumped off the Eiffel Tower and then Beachy Head, where I jumped off a cliff on a BMX. Oh, and jumping off Nelson’s Column – when someone offers you that, you can’t turn it down. On the Eiffel Tower, I jumped when I really shouldn’t have, but I learned a lesson. We had to get it done but obviously we couldn’t control the wind. I landed with lateral speed rather than vertical. I rolled forward, but the canopy stayed inflated and dragged me across the road. I smashed into a kerb, and then a metal fence. I was in intensive care for seven days.

Q| What made you do the first jump?
A| I met this guy in the Army who had pictures of his jumps in his locker and I thought ‘this is for me’. I twisted his arm and he said to fly a square canopy first. I’d flown round ones in the Army but you can steer a square one and you fly them very differently.

Q| How did you get into TV and film stunt work?
A| To get on the stunt register, I had to qualify in six different sports – some of which I already had. You really have to punt yourself around to try to find work and I have done lots of TV work and I also doubled for the French guy in The Beach.

Q| Which stunt have you most enjoyed?
A| I was Gary Oldman’s double a few years ago and I jumped onto the back of a van and climbed onto the roof. On top, there was a caricature statue of a locksmith, with keys as arms. I’m trying to shoot through the roof and the driver is throwing me about so I’m hanging off the side, holding onto one of these keys. I end up flying off the side of Tower Bridge and landing on a boat below.

Q| What do your family think of your exploits?
A| Well, I met my wife with a parachute on my back, after doing a jump off a cliff ! My son Kali is absolutely mad for it too and does stunt work with me. He did his first stunt at six, on Monarch of The Glen. I dropped him out of the first floor window of a burning building into a haycart.

Q| When did you get your helicopter licence?
A| It actually took me quite a while, maybe a year, because my work is sporadic and you can’t really turn it down. I started learning in 2003 and I’ve probably done about 90 hours. I lived in mid-Wales and the nearest place was Shobdon so I learned with Tiger Helicopters.

Q| Have you made good use of your licence?
A| I take my wife up and we go for a buzz around when the kids are at school. My daughter isn’t interested but Kali loves it. Flying in the Welsh hills is beautiful so I go back for a jolly at Shobdon when I can.

Q| What’s next?
A| I’m going to Norway in the summer to do some big wall jumping. I’ve never done cliff s of that sort of size, around 3000ft. I’ll be flying a wing suit – like a flying squirrel, with webbing between the legs and arms. You’re not flying like a wing because you don’t get any lift but you’ve got a glide angle of 10:1. When you get below 800ft, it’s as though the earth is coming up above you and that feeling starts to grow very quickly. At 300ft it’s pretty extreme.