Tunnel Vision

There is a tunnel in the German Allgäu region which is 66m long and 7.5m wide and high. That’s barely enough to fit the smallest paraglider with only a few dozen centimetres to spare on each side. 

On 7 May last year, Swiss Advance test pilot Michi Maurer flew right through it with a Pi 3 hike-and-fly wing. He needed only three attempts on a single day to get it right and complete the first successful tunnel flight with a paraglider. How did he do that?

The entire stunt, which stars in an action-packed video clip also featuring a yellow Porsche and more tricks by Michi, sprang from the creative brain of Austrian photographer and pilot Adi Geisegger, who had had the project in mind for a long time. 

Adi recalled: “The idea came from seeing pilots like Jean-Baptiste Chandelier groundskimming. I started looking for tunnels all around Europe, but I couldn’t find anything.”

Not just any tunnel will do, of course, he explained. “A tunnel should have the right gradient, the right height and nothing hanging from the ceiling like lights. 

“It can’t have a corner in front or inside and there should not be a lot of traffic. Finally, I found a newly built tunnel which was perfect, right at my doorstep.”

The pair started to do their measurements and calculations: the tunnel was not high enough for the smallest serial Pi 3 but a 14m2 prototype would fit in. The wing span was also exactly small enough not to hit the sides. 

The slope of the tunnel is 13%, which amounts to a...