Adventure of Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Jurica Žitko Forempoher, pilot, paragliding teacher, test pilot and constructor, born 13.12.1969. in town of Split, Croatia (from island of Vis)
Raised in Croatian capitol Zagreb he is the very first Croatian paragliding pilot and teacher. Glider plane modler and constructor and competitor from the age of 6, all the way to the age of 19, when he went to se
rve the army in a paratrooper unit in 1988. In early 1989 he went to Czechoslovakia and bought a paraglider which was the first in his country of Croatia. He started to learn flying in Slovenia together with his Slovenian collegaues in the times when the sport itself was developing. In 1993 he founded the first Croatian paragliding club Jonathan Livingston. Even though he started teaching other people earlyer in 1992. The story of Jonathan Livingston is very special. Before and during the Croatian homeland war he was a member of counter terrorist and croatian special forces unit. He went trough many ugly war situations but he never stopped flying and teaching other people using every possible free moment, going to neighbouring Slovenia. In 1993 he sent a letter to Richard Bach, famous aviator and author of a book Jonathan Livingston Seagull. He asked him can he use the name Jonathan Livingston for his school and club. Soon they bacame a pen pals (and they are still today). Bach was amaized by the fact that trough all the distress of war Jurica was – quote – still able to spread love in the air with his wing. Not just that Jurica got the right to carry the name of Jonathan seagull (Bach geve it to him to carry it personally) but he also sent him his famous Wills wing rainbow colored paraglider, described in his book Running from safety and the right to publish his short story Under the Rainbow. In 1995, together with his Slovenian collegaues he went trough first Slovenian instructor course, SIV course etc. even though he opened the first Croatian paragliding school much before, in 1992. From the beginning all together 674 disciples went trough his school and majority of todays Croatian instructors, schools, clubs and pilots came from Jonathan Livingston paragliding school. In 1998 he founded Paragliding comission in Croatian aeronautical Union, became the first President of comission, trough which he wrote the first rule book / law for that sport. Trough his career he flew more than 2350 tandem flights, not just for schooling purpose but also because i was living from paragliding for more than 15 years as a full profession. During 2003 he moved from Zagreb back to his Island of origin Vis and he started the tourist agency Alternatura, which was specialised for outdoor tourism. From that time he stopped schooling full time professionaly (not completely, he opened a school in Sinj near Split but only for ocassional groups), and he was flying mostly tandem flights and personal flights. Due to a tourism his aproach to business changed to better, with a lot of new conecctions all around his and neighbouring countries. A year ago he moved back to Zagreb. Today he is teaching people about the real Spirit of flying trough a completely different methods, mostly in an academic manner and trough tandem flights.
