VIDEO SHOWS: MAN CLIMBS AROUND GLIDER AT 2500 METRES ALTITUDE / SOUNDBITES RESENDING WITH FULL SCRIPT SHOWS: AIGEN IM ENNSTAL, AUSTRIA (RECENT) (RED BULL CONTENT POOL – No resales, no new uses after six months from date content is downloaded from Reuters, no more than 70% of this video content may be used on YouTube) 1. BLANIK-L13 OF THE RED BULL BLANIX TEAM GLIDER LEAVING HANGER 2. VARIOUS OF CLIMBER DOMEN SKOFIC PREPARING PLANE 3. SKOFIC PUTS HELMET ON 4. SKOFIC GETS INTO PLANE 5. RED BULL BLANIX TEAM PILOT EWALD ROITHNER PREPARES FOR TAKE-OFF 6. AERIAL VIEW OF VALLEY 7. VARIOUS OF GLIDER BEING TOWED INTO THE AIR 8. SKOFIC LEAVES COCKPIT 9. SKOFIC ON ROOF OF GLIDER 10. VARIOUS OF SKOFIC CLIMBING AROUND GLIDER 11. SKOFIC ON WING OF GLIDER 12. ROITHNER CELEBRATES 13. SKOFIC JUMPS OFF AND PARACHUTES TO LAND 14. SKOFIC TOUCHES DOWN AND CELEBRATES 15. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOMEN SKOFIC, CLIMBER, SAYING: "There are no words that I would know that would completely describe what I experienced. It's for sure something like this has never been done before. And yeah, it's so much more than I, like I tried to visualize and stuff, but like the wobbles and the fluctuation of the G-forces and everything included like these things I could not imagine how they're going to actually feel. And it was incredible sensation, much harder than on the ground. I thought I'm prepared, but I wasn't. And that's one of the things which got me to doubt if I'm going to actually succeed or not. So in the end, I'm actually so lucky how I also like got with this two days of window that I had the opportunity to have just enough of a hard route to actually succeed on the end. I wanted something hard, but if I would make it just a little bit too hard, it would be off my limit." 16. (SOUNDBITE) (English) EWALD ROITHNER, PILOT, SAYING: "The big technical challenges in the plane climb project was one thing, the aerodynamics. When a person is sitting on the wing, it destroys lift and it's hard to steer the plane. I feel the plane shaking, I feel the plane flying in one direction, this one part and the other part is the weight of the person. When Domen is climbing out on the wing, I feel the weight and to steer the plane in this situation was quite challenging." 17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOMEN SKOFIC, CLIMBER, SAYING: "My biggest challenge, especially on the first day was not getting my fingers too cold. Then the second one was for sure like getting the perfect flow through the G-forces, like through the fluctuation that everything was done in the right moment. So when there was a positive one that I could hold with both hands and then take the next move when we were actually like at the neutral zone. So that was quite an important part, but it was also that was why it was everything that much more demanding because I had like basically at some points, not just the force of the parachute of me or the weight of the parachute, but also like positive forces of the additional G-forces." 18. VARIOUS OF FAILED ATTEMPTS STORY: Slovenian professional climber Domen Skofic made history when he became the first person to master a specially constructed climbing route under the wings of a Red Bull Blanix glider over Aigen im Ennstal in Austria. Equipped with only a 12 kilogram parachute, the 31-year-old climber out of the cockpit of the glider piloted by Ewald Roithner at a height of 2,500 metres and climbed in a figure-eight loop around both wings of the aircraft, passing over the underside. Skofic first climbed out onto the underside of the left wing, returned under the fuselage and switched to the right side. There, he moved to the centre of the wing and transferred to the top with a precise move. The route corresponded to a climbing difficulty of 8a but brought a completely new dynamic compared to a vertical climbing wall: in addition to gravity, the athlete had to balance the strong airflow of 80-100km/h that pushed him backwards from the front and sides. Added to this were perceived temperatures of -10 °C and changing G-forces. After completing the climb in around a minute, Skofic finished with a parachute jump from a height of 1,500 metres. "There are no words that I would know that would completely describe what I experienced," Skofic said. "It was incredible sensation, much harder than on the ground. I thought I'm prepared, but I wasn't." The Blanik is a comparatively large glider, which gives it excellent stability in the air. Its greatest advantage is the ability to fly very slowly while still remaining steady, although pilot Roithner admitted that Skofic's weight on the wings made flying the aircraft difficult. "When a person is sitting on the wing, it destroys lift and it's hard to steer the plane. I feel the plane shaking, I feel the plane flying in one direction, this one part and the other part is the weight of the person. When Domen is climbing out on the wing, I feel the weight and to steer the plane in this situation was quite challenging," he said. (Production: Andy Ragg)
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