Flying like a bird

Weekdays he's grounded, weekends he's airborne

by Andy Poon staff writer

Over the past 25 years, Ivan Tomecek has been quietly tending to the electronic needs of the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy in his role as an engineering technician. But when the weekend arrives, the 58-year-old climbs up the mountains to jump off them.

Tomecek is an avid practitioner of what he calls para-hiking -- hiking one to two hours up a mountainside and then launching off strapped to a para-glider.

"I use to climb in Germany and my dream was to fly like a bird off the mountain and not have to climb down after I reached the top," he says.

Tomecek says he was attracted in part to Vancouver in 1974 because of the local mountaintops.

"I consider my home the mountains," he says. When he was considering immigrating to Canada in pursuit of a better future for his family, the clincher came when some Canadian friends showed him pictures of Whistler mountain.

Although he didn't immediately join UBC when he arrived in Canada, Tomecek says that he had always aimed to work here someday.

He had learned about the university in Germany and been impressed by its reputation.

Tomecek's work day can take him from making repairs on X-ray machines to building electronic circuit boards for researchers and students to experiment upon.

"It is ideal work," he says. "I like the wide variety of activities, knowledge and skills I use -- it's never boring."

UBC Reports | Vol. 47 | No. 08 | April 19, 2001

Flying like a bird

Weekdays he's grounded, weekends he's airborne

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