“Be there at 2:30 PM, Lior.” A Swiss pilot and captain at one of Europe’s low-cost airlines who also flies military-grade aerobatic planes (turboprops and jets) told me to meet him at the gate of the Lausanne Airport on the banks of Lake Geneva, and I planned to get there right on time.
In the past two weeks, I was in Grindelwald and Verbier. The sun was shining bright that morning on the magnificent Alps, and my wife and I were skiing the slopes. At noon, my nearly 8-year-old daughter and my wife were scheduled for two tandem paraglides next to each other from the mountain down to the valley, and I had decided to skip the activity and trade it for a high-maneuvering flight with high G-force on a PC-7, a beautifully designed Swiss plane.
Sipping one last gulp of water before hopping on the wing and into the rear cockpit, the lead pilot told me we couldn’t have anything loose during loops, rolls, and sharp banks, so I’d have to keep my phone in my pocket and any water bottles in the office – not on board.
Once in the air, we began with a 360-degree loop and sharp 360-degree left turns.
I had decided not to eat anything beforehand, and I am glad I didn’t.
20 minutes into it, he pulled a vertical climb. We reached 4.9 Gs and remained there for what seemed like forever to me, and I passed out for three seconds, immediately coming to and telling him, “I just fainted, I believe.” The GoPro camera that recorded me throughout the one-hour adventure became the highlight of the day when I showed it to my family and friends at the chalet after returning home.
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