Looking for trouble
By Geoff Strong | theage.com.au | 14 April
After we're cleared for take-off, I pull back on the jet's throttles and try to steer with the foot pedals as we hurtle along the runway. This is tricky but we gather enough speed for me to pull back on the control and get airborne. The islands off the coast are suddenly underneath us.
The touchdown at Hong Kong's new airport is very scary and I fail to stay on the runway. Later, I attempt a landing at the old airport called Kai Tak.
I approach at a right-angle because of some mountains and the city's high-rise buildings loom so close they could hit the landing gear, but I line up the plane, bring it down and then bounce all over the runway.
In the real world, the passengers would have complained to management, but this is a flight simulator, giving the sensation of flying a commercial jet airliner without leaving the Queen Victoria Building in Lonsdale Street (pictured right).
My instructor, co-pilot and hand-holder was Daryl Lyons, chief pilot for the Flight Experience simulator. He has flown real aircraft in Africa for the Red Cross, been a commercial pilot in the Solomon Islands and spent six years in Burma flying a 70-seat, twin-engined aircraft for Air Mandalay. Lyons said I did not crash, although a real plane would have needed some rather expensive maintenance work.
Danger - we face it the moment we are born and some spend the rest of their lives avoiding it. But in a world where some folks now sue the council for falling over on the footpath, there has been a backlash. A whole industry has evolved to help put risk back into people's lives.
Young men perform bucks party bonding by jumping out of an aircraft together before getting drunk. Corporate marketing departments push togetherness by tearing around dirt tracks in V8- powered trucks and couples take off together in tiny plastic kayaks to brave the seas around Wilsons Promontory.
Meanwhile, otherwise mild-mannered family men achieving the milestone age of a half-century, might find their birthday presents involve high-velocity aerobatics in a jet fighter.
Those who want a different view of the Great Ocean Road can do so while their pulse throbs in tempo with a chauffeured Harley- Davidson beneath their backsides.
A company that calls itself Adrenalin is one of a growing number of agents offering pulse-quickening activities to a thrill-starved public. As a measure of the amount of its namesake released, Adrenalin lists the intensity of each activity on a scale up to five.
The jet fighter flights and similar stunts hit five, the Harley ride rates four. A high-speed jet-boat ride achieves a three.
Linda White from Adrenalin says a lot of their adventures are sold as presents for older people to give them a chance to do something they might have always wanted to do. "They might have craved an aerobatic flight or a lesson flying a helicopter, so their family will buy them an experience for a birthday," White says. "Or they might just be young and wanting excitement."
Monash University clinical psychologist Dr Simon Crisp says people are attracted to risky adventure activities for various reasons. In some cases it's a reaction to our cotton-wool protected mainstream society. "Some people believe life is better when there is no risk, but they are deluding themselves," Crisp says. "Life is full of risk and we need to deal with it. Risk is part of living."
Some feel a need to prove themselves. With young people, risk can be a part of being accepted by a group or proof of their own abilities. For older people it might just be to feel they are capable of doing what they could do when young, postponing old age."
Tanks for the memory
Karl Sonntag
LAST Christmas my wife outdid herself in the present stakes when I received a booklet marked "Top Secret". To my delight, I read through the specifications and mission details of a Centurion Battle Tank ride. A sense of excitement and adventure swept through me as I imagined myself powering along in that great metal beast. Within a few days I was on the phone to book my much-anticipated ride.
Finally the day came, and my wife and I set off to find the International Armoured Military Vehicles Collection at Ace Hi Ranch in Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula.
As we parked the car, a 54-tonne battle tank appeared over the top of a hill. With its 27-litre Rolls- Royce engine, it rumbled past, leaving us in a cloud of dust.
I was ushered into tank headquarters - a caravan covered in camouflage netting - to be greeted by a man looking very commanding in full military uniform. After signing the liability-waiver documents, I was ready to start my mission.
Soon I was climbing aboard and into the tank commander's seat. Our driver (unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to drive the tank) explained where the gun loader sat and other workings inside the tight confines of the turret.
As I stood on the seat with my head protruding from the turret, the massive V12 engine roared into life. We were off.
Butterflies churned in my stomach as the imposing machine rolled forward along a dusty trail up and down hills. The smell of dust and petrol fumes along with the squeal of the tracks and the awesome roar of the engine filled my senses as the driver raced through the gears accelerating downhill at 35 km/h.
With a huge 105-mm gun and 54 tonnes of armour beneath me, I started to think that any enemy on the other side of the hill would be in big trouble. It screamed, "GET OUT OF MY WAY!".
As I came around the track on my final lap, saluting my onlooking wife, I wore the grin of a five-year-old with a new tricycle.
Centurion Battle Tank rides $145 for 20 minutes. Call 5973 4342 for information.
Rushing around
*Jet-boat rides at Geelong or Queenscliff - $55
*Great Ocean Road on the back of a Harley-Davidson- $560
*Extreme four-wheel-driving in Port Melbourne - from $165, for 30 minutes
*Wilsons Promontory three-day kayak expedition - $780
*Supercar advanced driving day (Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martins) - $1695
*Shark diving at Melbourne Aquarium - from $242
*Light aircraft TIF at Moorabbin - from $198
*Caving introduction at Yarra Junction or Labertouche - $185
*Hot-air ballooning (city flight) - $350
*Scenic helicopter flight - $260
*Off-road buggies at Werribee - $535
*Rally driving at Werribee - $555
The world is not enough
*Air Combat USA - $US1895
*Antarctic adventure - $US4995
*RMS Titanic dive expedition, Canada - $US40,000
*Sub-orbital space flight, Russia - $US102,000
*Orbital space flight, Russia - $US20 million
*Voyage to the moon, Russia - $US100 million
www.adrenalin.com.au
First published by TheAge.com.au on April 14 2008
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