Wingsuit athletes fly among hot air balloons over Cappadocia

NEVŞEHİR

Austrian wingsuit athlete Marco Waltenspiel performs a high-speed stunt over Cappadocia’s iconic landscape.

Austrian wingsuit athlete Marco Waltenspiel performed a high-speed flight between hot air balloons over Türkiye’s Cappadocia region.

Waltenspiel, the head of the Red Bull Skydive Team, jumped from a hot air balloon at an altitude of 2,800 meters.

He transformed balloons flying at different altitudes into a slalom course, navigating between them at a speed of about 200 kilometers per hour.

The flight required Waltenspiel to repeatedly adjust his route because of changing wind conditions at different elevations. “In wingsuit flying, you always move together with nature. But during this project, we encountered different wind conditions at every altitude,” Waltenspiel said after the flight.

“Each time I approached a balloon, I had to recalculate my route and make the correct decision within seconds,” he said.

Waltenspiel described performing the flight against Cappadocia’s distinctive landscape as one of the most memorable experiences of his career.

Fellow athlete Marco Fürst accompanied him during the flight as aerial coordinator.

“This project required not only speed but also flawless coordination,” Fürst said.

“We had to follow each other while simultaneously adapting to constantly changing weather conditions,” he added.

Fürst said the preparations behind the flight were as impressive as the resulting images. In 2015, Waltenspiel flew directly over an active volcano in a wingsuit, and in 2024, he was joined by Fürst to become the first people to fly through London’s Tower Bridge.