Jun 2, 2026 · 16 min · 11 segments
For **Alexey Galda**, performance flying is more than speed, distance, or time, it’s a quest to understand what’s truly possible. In this episode of Leading Edge, Alexey shares how physics, data, and…
Alexey GaldaGuest
Jack PeplowHost
I've been competing since 2013, and I'm also a quantum computing scientist as my day job.
Alexey, really great to have you on, on and, and sort of what a mixture of a background you've got.
Um, can I sort of start by asking, like, what first pulled you into wingsuiting and sort of when did the performance flying bit come in? Um, you know, what sort of captured your mind with that side of things?
So back when I lived in the UK actually during grad school, e- every year I used to spend several months in the French Alps mostly doing cross-country paragliding flights, uh, during physics conferences and summer schools in Chamonix.
Um, and then I moved to Chicago in twen- in 2012 and found myself looking for a new hobby, um, and landed on skydiving.
the goal was to fly rather than fall, and first it was crew up until I got to 200 jump, jumps.
I was doing a lot of canopy relative work, and then I realized I want to fly my body rather than a, a, a parafoil.
And then the funny coincidence was that that was in 2013, no, actually 2015, sorry, and I happened to be, um, just at the right place at the right time because that was the first year of FAI, uh, Wingsuit Performance World Cup in Nethers.
And also I happened to be at the drop zone where some of the best pilots were training, like Travis Meyco, Anthony Zerbonia, Joe Ridler, uh, Simon Repton, and others.
And so, and also our drop zone was the f- first, the host of the first U- US Wingsuit Nationals, and so I started training with them and learning as much as I could.
I've been competing since 2013, and I'm also a quantum computing scientist as my day job.
Alexey, really great to have you on, on and, and sort of what a mixture of a background you've got.
Um, can I sort of start by asking, like, what first pulled you into wingsuiting and sort of when did the performance flying bit come in? Um, you know, what sort of captured your mind with that side of things?
So back when I lived in the UK actually during grad school, e- every year I used to spend several months in the French Alps mostly doing cross-country paragliding flights, uh, during physics conferences and summer schools in Chamonix.
Um, and then I moved to Chicago in twen- in 2012 and found myself looking for a new hobby, um, and landed on skydiving.
the goal was to fly rather than fall, and first it was crew up until I got to 200 jump, jumps.
I was doing a lot of canopy relative work, and then I realized I want to fly my body rather than a, a, a parafoil.
And then the funny coincidence was that that was in 2013, no, actually 2015, sorry, and I happened to be, um, just at the right place at the right time because that was the first year of FAI, uh, Wingsuit Performance World Cup in Nethers.
And also I happened to be at the drop zone where some of the best pilots were training, like Travis Meyco, Anthony Zerbonia, Joe Ridler, uh, Simon Repton, and others.
And so, and also our drop zone was the f- first, the host of the first U- US Wingsuit Nationals, and so I started training with them and learning as much as I could.
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