Wingwalking
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Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Joined: Jul 2000
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From: Peripatetic
Wingwalking
They don't make them like that any more.
The Times - August 21, 2002:
PROVING that old age is no barrier to adventure and outright lunacy, the octogenarian Dizzy Seales and his slightly younger wooden leg set a new world record for wingwalking yesterday.
Mr Seales, aged 88, smashed the record of an 87-year-old South African woman to become the oldest person in the history of the preposterous to stand on the wing of a flying aircraft.
The milestone, which seems tailor-made for The Guinness Book of Records, was achieved in the skies above Goodwood, West Sussex. Ten minutes would have been enough on the wing of the preserved wartime Boeing Stearman, but Mr Seales enjoyed it so much that he insisted on being airborne for an hour and 15 minutes “I plan to come back every year until I am 100,” he said once back on terra firma. “But I am very laid-back about the record. It’s just another cross in my diary.”.............
Mr Seales learnt his wingwalking at a harder school. As an air gunner during the Second World War, he left the gun turret of his crippled Boulton-Paul Defiant nightfighter and walked across the wing in mid-flight to rescue his trapped pilot. The episode earned him his nickname.
Later in the war he helped to rescue about 100 British and American airmen from the English Channel when he joined the RAF air-sea rescue squadron.
Mr Seales was a thrill-seeker even before the war. He was famous in the 1930s as a motorcycle sidecar racer, one of those helmeted loons who hung out sideways at breakneck speed to help his co-driver in cornering. He was, with his co-driver, British sidecar champion every year from 1935 until the outbreak of war.
The wooden leg is a different matter: he lost a leg 15 years ago in an accident involving nothing more threatening than a London bus.
Mr Seales has accomplished a number of wingwalking feats in recent years with the Utterly Butterlys, Europe’s only professional wingwalking team. He was watched yesterday by his goddaughter, Amber, and a group of friends. “He’s incredible. With the strength he’s got, Dizzy could have stayed up there all day,” his friend Ken Rimell said.
Given the poor service and lack of room currently offered by “budget” airlines, wingwalking could well take off with the travelling masses.
The Times - August 21, 2002:
PROVING that old age is no barrier to adventure and outright lunacy, the octogenarian Dizzy Seales and his slightly younger wooden leg set a new world record for wingwalking yesterday.
Mr Seales, aged 88, smashed the record of an 87-year-old South African woman to become the oldest person in the history of the preposterous to stand on the wing of a flying aircraft.
The milestone, which seems tailor-made for The Guinness Book of Records, was achieved in the skies above Goodwood, West Sussex. Ten minutes would have been enough on the wing of the preserved wartime Boeing Stearman, but Mr Seales enjoyed it so much that he insisted on being airborne for an hour and 15 minutes “I plan to come back every year until I am 100,” he said once back on terra firma. “But I am very laid-back about the record. It’s just another cross in my diary.”.............
Mr Seales learnt his wingwalking at a harder school. As an air gunner during the Second World War, he left the gun turret of his crippled Boulton-Paul Defiant nightfighter and walked across the wing in mid-flight to rescue his trapped pilot. The episode earned him his nickname.
Later in the war he helped to rescue about 100 British and American airmen from the English Channel when he joined the RAF air-sea rescue squadron.
Mr Seales was a thrill-seeker even before the war. He was famous in the 1930s as a motorcycle sidecar racer, one of those helmeted loons who hung out sideways at breakneck speed to help his co-driver in cornering. He was, with his co-driver, British sidecar champion every year from 1935 until the outbreak of war.
The wooden leg is a different matter: he lost a leg 15 years ago in an accident involving nothing more threatening than a London bus.
Mr Seales has accomplished a number of wingwalking feats in recent years with the Utterly Butterlys, Europe’s only professional wingwalking team. He was watched yesterday by his goddaughter, Amber, and a group of friends. “He’s incredible. With the strength he’s got, Dizzy could have stayed up there all day,” his friend Ken Rimell said.
Given the poor service and lack of room currently offered by “budget” airlines, wingwalking could well take off with the travelling masses.
Joined: Dec 1999
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From: UK
ORAC, 10/10 to Dizzy for balls, but as your signature says, think of the danger of real knowledge.
If the press think being immovably trussed to a rigid pole by 5 tonne webbing is wing walking then I'm an astronaut, and that slimy oleagenous filth they advertise really is butter and not some vile variety of margarine.
On the other hand the "wing standing" is just a simple safe stunt. A sack of potatoes could do it. The quote left out of your report related to some girl who wowed crowds in the '20s by doing the Charleston on the wing af an aerpolane (probably a Curtiss Jenny). From the film I've seen I very much doubt she was more than tied on with a lose rope, if even that. Now thats wing walking, thats bravery (or stupidity).
Even so, how wonderful to see an Octogenerian with such a zest for life. Whatever you call it Dizzy's stunt is dead impressive!
If the press think being immovably trussed to a rigid pole by 5 tonne webbing is wing walking then I'm an astronaut, and that slimy oleagenous filth they advertise really is butter and not some vile variety of margarine.
On the other hand the "wing standing" is just a simple safe stunt. A sack of potatoes could do it. The quote left out of your report related to some girl who wowed crowds in the '20s by doing the Charleston on the wing af an aerpolane (probably a Curtiss Jenny). From the film I've seen I very much doubt she was more than tied on with a lose rope, if even that. Now thats wing walking, thats bravery (or stupidity).
Even so, how wonderful to see an Octogenerian with such a zest for life. Whatever you call it Dizzy's stunt is dead impressive!
Thread Starter
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Joined: Jul 2000
Aviation Qualifications: Spotter
Posts: 24,631
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From: Peripatetic
"Mr Seales learnt his wingwalking at a harder school. As an air gunner during the Second World War, he left the gun turret of his crippled Boulton-Paul Defiant nightfighter and walked across the wing in mid-flight to rescue his trapped pilot"
I reckon that counts.
I reckon that counts.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 14
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From: No fixed abode...
Thank God for 'old farts' like Dizzy. Its nice to read some good old heart-warming news after all the awful stuff we usually get...
...and ORAC, thank you so much for the picture of that beautiful piece of Engineering. The Defiant may not have been the war's greatest fighter, but it sure looked the business.
...and ORAC, thank you so much for the picture of that beautiful piece of Engineering. The Defiant may not have been the war's greatest fighter, but it sure looked the business.
