Jeff Shapiro - Bushplanes, Wingsuits and Unity - a podcast by Ari in the Air

Jeff Shapiro has been obsessed with birds and flight for his entire life. This obsession has manifested itself in many ways in his life. He started hanggliding in late adolescence, traveling the world competing and putting thousands of flight hours under his glider. But that was only the beginning, since then he’s become a falconer, training birds to hunt with him, a wingsuit base jumper, flying from tall cliffs high in the mountains with just his body, a mountaineer and ice climber, a paraglide pilot and now a proud owner and jockey of a bush plane. He’s also a husband and father. He’s been a lot of places, done a lot of things and has seen some shit. He’s a friend of mine, we were both sponsored by KEEN Footwear for a number of years. I was lucky enough to be with him during a base jump off the Monkey Face at Smith Rock years ago. He’s a mentor to me, he has a deep knowledge of the weather and free flight, risk and mitigation. He lives in Missoula Montana.

In this episode we talk about bush planes and the road to piloting them, where they can take you and whats special about them. We talk about taking risks amidst a global pandemic, giving the best version of yourself to the world, we mention Will Gadd, the differences between free flight and powered aviation, the evolution of wingsuits, how they work and what flying them in the mountains is like. We talk about risk management and parenthood and a lot more.

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Thanks to everyone who has listened, shared, donated and encouraged me on this podcast. It means a lot to me, I’m so grateful. So much good stuff coming up. Stay tuned!

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