KEY POINTS:
If John "Chuck" Berry gets his big moment wrong, the Queenstown daredevil will make Eddie the Eagle look like Charles Lindbergh.
As the Weekend Herald's front page story detailed last Saturday, the 41-year-old Berry is about to go where plenty have gone before him but in a completely unusual way.
Berry's self-prescribed mission is to leap out of a helicopter 1200m above the snow without using a parachute and land - alive - on the slopes below.
His resistance to gravity will be a so-called "squirrel suit", which for those who haven't seen it looks like a man-meets-short-armed-bat arrangement. His landing gear will consist of skis and a great dollop of luck, both handy items at 140km/h.
Berry will carry a parachute as back-up but still, this could be either a world first, or his famous last work.
The great thing about a squirrel suit is that rather than plummeting like a stone when you hop out of a helicopter, you plummet like a stone at a slight angle. What terrific fun.
He has yet to set a time and place for the feat, but Berry told the Herald that just about everyone - the exception being a few of his action mates - has tried to talk him out of the attempt.
But Berry has more form than the crazy old rock 'n' roll legend who provided his nickname. His flying tally is more than 4000 skydives, hundreds of parachute "base-jumps" from structures around the world, a load of hang gliding and parapente flights, and "unassisted" squirrel-suit descents using parachute landings.
As is often the case with such un-caped crazy caper addicts, Berry is dedicated to extreme preparation. He's actually a product of the Boyhood Be Prepared Brigade, although his escapades would have made Baden-Powell spin in his lemon squeezer before tying Chuck to a tent pole with his finest rolling hitch.
So for all of those who reckon Chuck Berry is more suited to a straitjacket, we tried to make sense of the madness by putting a few questions to Queenstown's human gondola without the wire.
Where did this action business start from?
I grew up in an outdoor family in Christchurch and went to a scout group in Shirley with an incredible leader - there was an enormous amount of outdoor adventure. I got in with an amazing group of action-sports people. When you become good at something, you start dreaming up new ideas.
Heroes? Ed Hillary, action adventure people, quite a few people from this neck of the woods, the pioneer aviators.
Who gave you the obvious but brilliant nickname?
A whole bunch of skydiving mates.
Go on, tell us you have a desk job shuffling paper clips ...
I was an aircraft engineer at Air New Zealand from the age of 18 to 27 but I've been a full-time skydiving instructor and freefall cameraman since then. My speciality is the camera work that other people find difficult. One of my jobs was for the BBC scuba diving under a frozen lake. I did the base jumping in the Lexus car advertisement that was on TV a few months ago.
I presume you didn't mention the flying-without-wings idea when you joined Air New Zealand. They tend to frown on that sort of thing. Moving on ... what was your first really big action moment?
I did my first base jump in Milwaukee in 1989 off a TV antenna. It was hush-hush, jumping in the dark from 265m which was pretty interesting. I did it with a mate who showed me what to do. It's hard to describe the sensations going on at the time except to say I couldn't wait. A police car turned up after we'd climbed about 50m but no one got out of the car. I think the policeman might have been having a sleep.
Worst moment?
When my girlfriend left me ... I also broke my neck on the West Coast in 1997 when I fell off my motorbike. It wasn't even a stunt. I fell asleep - I was going too slow.
Best moment?
The base jumping event in Kuala Lumpur last August. I did 36 base jumps in three days off the equivalent to the Sky Tower in Auckland. It was so nice to be part of a fully sanctioned event with 100 base jumpers from around the world.
Are you scared of dying dressed as a squirrel?
I've got to make sure I don't take on other people's fears which is something I think happens a lot in everyday life. Just because someone else is afraid doesn't make me afraid. A lot of it comes down to your state of mind. I look at life as in 'why can't I do something?'. A psychologist said I don't suffer from fear. A profile showed I had a harm avoidance score of zero which he said was extremely rare. I'm always confident because I don't front up if there is only a 50/50 chance of it working. If you are confident, there is no reason to be fearful.
Speaking of harm avoidance, are you married?
No.
Lucky woman. How do your parents feel about your career?
They've got a good understanding of it and I'd probably be a much lesser person if I didn't do these things.
This flying without really wide wings and parachute idea - is it taking your career to a whole new level? Real squirrels aren't known for flying all that well?
I've talked with other extreme action athletes around the world and they say it is possible. But this is a different level because it hasn't been done before. I've got a few more skills to get, mainly ski jumping-type skills. If you blend a whole lot of skills you end up with a set that will achieve the results.
Mmmm, skill sets. Sounds like the All Blacks. Rugby has become such a stressful business don't you think?
I don't get stressed about much. Some things in life get 100 per cent of my attention but if it's not life and death, it's not that important. People in everyday life get really stressed about things that aren't that important. I'm used to the ground rushing up to me at 200km/h and those are the times to be sharp.
Your great ambition in life?
I've really learned my trade which means more possibilities. I just want to fly through the sky having fun.
Thought you might say that. Make sure you do fly - and good luck, Chuck.
