The STOL Collective

''Just when I convinced myself that this was basically a Super Cub with an overhead engine, the out of sync harmonics of the props winding down begin to create that distinct: ... THAT SOUND!" - Zane Jacobson in "THE PROTOTYPE"

Zane Jacobson is the founder/editor of Backcountry Pilot and currently flies a tailwheel Piper PA-22 Pacer around his newly adopted home area of Eveleth, Minnesota - USA. An Oregon native and former avid dirt bike rider, he has been a pilot for the better part of 25 years. Father of two young girls, he enjoys writing and producing articles and short films about anything to do with backcountry and bush flying, and makes baby steps on the build of his 4-place Bearhawk when time allows.

“Everywhere we are landing on water now [in Japan] is basically a first!” – Ben Kerr

‘’As a surfer or a snowboarder, we like to draw a line as an artist on a canvas’’ – Géraldine Fasnacht

Born in Lausanne - Switzerland, Géraldine Fasnacht is a world known freeride snowboarder, base jumper and wingsuit pilot. She is a pioneer who constantly draws new lines in the mountains with her snowboard and her wingsuit. Based in her favorite playground, Verbier, Switzerland, she gets inspired by the mountains and explores the most remote places on earth. Be it from the depths of Antarctica to the top of the Matterhorn, Switzerland.

In 2002 Géraldine Fasnacht won the most extreme freeride competition in the world; The Verbier Xtreme. That was when her snowboarding career took off. That same year, at the age of 21, five additional victories catapulted her to the top of the freeride world. Always ready to go beyond her limits, she took part in International Freeride Competition and the Freeride World Tour for eight years.

Géraldine loves discovering new horizons and experiencing new sensations. Since 2005 she has been carrying out groundbreaking expeditions to conquer the most beautiful summits. She has left traces with her snowboard on incredibly steep slopes, and has performed breath-taking wingsuit flights. Her high mountain knowledge gained with freeride snowboarding since the age of 15, combined with her experiences in parachuting since 1998, Géraldine performs world premieres in base jumping and wingsuit flying. Opening some of the most beautiful summits around the globe: Switzerland, France, Baffin Island, Greenland, Iran, Mali, China and Antarctica – from mythical peaks ranging from Les Drus in Chamonix - France, Holtanna - Antarctica, to the Matterhorn in Switzerland flying alongside great eagles.

Her life is about risk management, pushing  boundaries and team building. For about 10 years, Géraldine has given conferences worldwide, in French or in English, for individuals or companies. She shares her vision through the adventures and the experiences she has achieved. She keeps pushing the level of her passions higher perfectly managing the risks and she loves sharing her adventures through her conferences.

For more than 11 years, Géraldine has been flying UL/LSA airplanes. Four years ago, she had the opportunity to obtain her PPL, instantly followed by a mountain rating on skis and wheels. Constantly drawing lines in the mountains, either on her snowboard or in her wingsuit, an idea started to grow bigger after fulfilling her dream of owning her own mountain UL/LSA airplane, an ICP Savannah taildragger named "Roméo". This idea, first made visible through her series of videos "LinéAire", is to go on a constant quest to find and ride new lines, combining mountain flying and snowboarding deeper than ever.

In this episode, Géraldine shares with us her love for mountain flying and especially her constant quest to draw new lines with her beloved "Roméo" and on her snowboard, in the deep and immaculate powder snow of Swiss glaciers.

Arturo Polo Ena and his wife Elisa Fernández Esparza have backcountry aviation in their blood and you know how Spanish blood is!

Marius Jumolea is from Cluj-Napoca - Romania and although having been raised in an aviation family, he only found his own passion for aviation and especially bush flying at the age of 25.

Since then, Marius developed an avid need to fly and perfect his backcountry skills. This dedication pushed him to be one the few European owners of a Cub Crafters Carbon Cub EX2 back in late 2016. First pushing the limits on his own bush plane and exploring his amazing birth country, his passion saw him sharing a seat next to Philipp Sturm in his PT6 on his way from Switzerland to Alaska back in 2019. After spending two years in the birth country of bush flying, Marius came back to Romania with countless lessons learned and his passion still burning.

Today an UL/LSA and LAPL flight instructor, Marius shares with us his personal story about backcountry flying in Romania then Alaska, his thoughts about flying safely in the backcountry as well as carrying the appropriate safety gear but most of all, the joy of meeting awesome people around the world, sharing the same passion.

In today´s episode, It is our pleasure to welcome Sam Rutherford from the UK and Belgium.

René Petersen was born and raised in Greenland´s capital Nuuk. He has now been working for thirty years as a helicopter mechanic and logged almost three thousand hours on the left seat of different helicopters mostly in Greenland. He is also a private pilot for many years but most of all, he is the only owner of a bush plane (an experimental registered Just Aircraft Super STOL) in Greenland and one of the only two guys flying private GA in the entire country... which is the considered to be the biggest island in the world!

As you will discover, Greenland is really a true Last Frontier deeply connected to both European and North American continents.
René explains us how he came to aviation, what it means to fly his Super STOL in one of the most remote country on the planet (mostly alone) but  also simply living up north, dealing with the weather and the wild animals.