The stunt
Two rooftops, nine stories up, a gap between them, and Washington Avenue full of people underneath. One attempt. Everything in the season before this is practice for it.
The work
Every earlier episode is the training plan. Then the exact gap, rebuilt at ground level, landed until the speed at the lip is the same every time.
The night
A block party on Washington Avenue. The speed at the lip goes on the big screen while the wheel is still in the air.
Solve the Jump
There's no second try. What is the window?
Too slow and the wheel comes up short. Too fast and it overshoots the landing ramp. The whole stunt is a window of speeds, and the math says how wide it is. Then there's wind, which is why the number gets solved for that night, not in general.
Worked example: on the season's 20° ramp kit, 40 mph at the lip flies about 69 feet, about 6 feet above the lip, for about a second and a quarter. Every 1 mph moves the landing about three and a half feet. How long does the landing zone need to be?
The physicsGap = speed² × sin(2 × ramp angle) ÷ g, with both lips at the same height
What gets measured
- Speed at the lip, live
- Flight time and touchdown point
- Wind on both roofs
- Landing force
What has to be true first
- Every earlier episode has been landed
- An engineer signs both roofs and both ramps
- A catch system under the gap, designed by a stunt rigger
- The city permits it and the street below is closed
- If any one of those is a no, it doesn't happen