Meet the GTA 5 skydiver trying to replicate their most death-defying stunt in the GTA Trilogy

GTA 5
(Image credit: Rockstar)

GTA 5 stunt master Ash Sky Queen has thrown herself out of high-altitude aircraft countless times. She's torn through the skies of Los Santos like a bolt of lightning, and has thread herself through the tightest nooks and crannies dotted around San Andreas like some sort of aerial seamstress. Ash is, to my mind, the best stunt performer in modern day Grand Theft Auto. And if you need proof – just check out her Chiliad Pylon Challenge. 

Ash makes it all look so easy, but her unsuccessful attempts at that particular feat run into the thousands. By her own admission, she's a perfectionist when it comes to GTA 5 and GTA Online's stunt performance subculture – "on one Chiliad attempt, I'd bounced on a couple of pylons. I was like, do I put it out like that? No, it's got to be clean, I've got to do it again" – which makes nailing the most tiresome and challenging tricks with flawless precision all the more satisfying. Now, Ash is turning her attention to the GTA Trilogy.

Up, up and away

GTA: San Andreas

(Image credit: Rockstar)

Mount Chiliad, of course, first featured in GTA: San Andreas, which portrayed a much smaller take on the pseudo-California state than the one that features in GTA 5. Still, Chiliad, as it appears in the original 2004 sandbox, now reworked in the GTA Trilogy, is a towering icon of the map – one which, if throwing yourself out of virtual aeroplanes is your thing, is ripe for death-defying stunt work. 

"I've not long started the Trilogy, and I'm playing San Andreas," says Ash. "I'm hoping to get my parachute, get up Mount Chiliad, and get back off it again! It's so weird being back in the old map because there are parts which I've become so used to in GTA 5 that look so familiar. I was driving down a street at one point in the Trilogy thinking: 'Ah, this is where the Liquor Hole should be'. But it's not actually in the original San Andreas, it's only in GTA 5 and GTA Online's take on the San Andreas setting."

One of my own favourite things about the GTA Trilogy so far is exactly that false sense of familiarity. There are pockets of the reworked San Andreas that feel so recognisable against modern day GTA Online, but are of course distinctly different, to the point where I've gotten completely lost within a sandbox I once knew so well. The absence of the Liquor Hole which Ash alludes to is a standout example of this – the site of another of her renowned and jaw-dropping stunt maneuvers that you should also absolutely check out for yourself

Similar to her Chiliad feat, Ash makes the end result look straightforward. And yet, she tells me she stuck one million GTA dollars in her character's pocket before starting out on this one. In-game, you drop $500 every time you die. And by the time the Liquor Hole stunt was successfully completed, her character had lost somewhere in the vicinity of $800,000. And she didn't even die during each botched run. 

New heights

GTA Trilogy

(Image credit: Rockstar)

"But just for nostalgia purposes, I want to go up Mount Chiliad and jump off, because for me that was the birth of the Chiliad stunt obsession for me in GTA 5. Wish me luck!"

Ash Sky Queen

All of this speaks to the determination and persistence required to nail the most challenging stunts in GTA, no matter which game you're playing. One thing I love about this community is the way they view each game's sandbox differently from regular players – where every railing, ramp, stairwell and hillside is seen as an opportunity and, above all else, a challenge to be overcome. The Grand Theft Auto stunt scene dates all the way back to GTA 3's first release in 2001, but it took off proper in GTA 5 – underpinned by the rise of social media, and the nascent YouTube celebrity-ism that's boomed over the last decade or so. 

Now faced with a shiny, polished version of GTA's back catalogue, new challenges face stunters like Ash. And while she's certain some of her most sophisticated sky-bound tricks aren't possible in old school San Andreas, she's got her ever-inventive eye locked firmly on Chiliad and other spots around sunny SA.   

"Even with the new environments, San Andreas isn't currently capable of doing what I do in GTA 5. But there is one specific spot that I'm going to look at," says Ash. "There's a mission in San Andreas early on where you end up crashing your car through a billboard, and you leave a big gaping hole in it. So I want to get a hold of the jet later in the game, and see if it's merely possible to do something with that. I don't think it's going to work out that well, but you never know. I want to give it a try and see how it goes."

"But just for nostalgia purposes, I want to go up Mount Chiliad and jump off, because for me that was the birth of the Chiliad stunt obsession for me in GTA 5. Wish me luck!"  


If you like Ash's stunts, this is why they call her Sky Queen. In her top 50 video, she shows us what 6000 hours of stunting looks like in GTA 5.

GTA 3 cheats | GTA 3 hidden packages | GTA 3 Espresso 2 Go | GTA 3 Silence The Sneak | GTA Vice City cheats | GTA Vice City hidden packages | GTA Vice City rampages | GTA San Andreas cheats | GTA San Andreas girlfriends | GTA San Andreas oysters | GTA San Andreas tags | GTA San Andreas snapshots | GTA San Andreas horseshoes

Joe Donnelly
Contributor

Joe Donnelly is a sports editor from Glasgow and former features editor at GamesRadar+. A mental health advocate, Joe has written about video games and mental health for The Guardian, New Statesman, VICE, PC Gamer and many more, and believes the interactive nature of video games makes them uniquely placed to educate and inform. His book Checkpoint considers the complex intersections of video games and mental health, and was shortlisted for Scotland's National Book of the Year for non-fiction in 2021. As familiar with the streets of Los Santos as he is the west of Scotland, Joe can often be found living his best and worst lives in GTA Online and its PC role-playing scene.

Read more
Grand Theft Auto 3
A GTA streamer is trying to beat every single 3D entry without dying, and in 33 hours he's made it as far as San Andreas but keeps getting caught in Vice City purgatory
Players in GTA Online running businesses and playing missions
It sounds like GTA Online could have a life after GTA 6 – but after 400 hours in Los Santos, I'm ready to say goodbye
A player holding a gun in GTA Liberty City Stories
GTA 6 could learn a weird thing or two from Rockstar's most unloved PSP game
A Big In 2025 picture featuring screenshots of Grand Theft Auto 6
GTA 6 wishlist – everything we want from the next instalment of Grand Theft Auto
GTA 6: A man and a woman sitting on a car in the poster for Grand Theft Auto 6.
GTA 6: Everything we know so far
GTA 3
If these flying cars are anything to go by, development on the GTA 3 Dreamcast port is well on its way to becoming GTA Online
Latest in Action
Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector Naoe squatting next to butterfly on tree
How to complete the Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector quest
Batman: Arkham Knight
Rocksteady's rumored single-player Batman game is in development for PC, PS5, Xbox, and "the next generation of consoles"
The Last of Us Part 1
The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann wanted to make sure the first game "was complete" because "I wasn't sure they would ever let me direct a game again"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
Naoe looks over at a dense, lush, green forest in Assassin's Creed Shadows from a viewpoint
Getting Assassin's Creed Shadows on PS5 and Xbox Series X was all about adding "dynamism" to the open world, but the devs seem most proud about the trees
Naoe and Yasuke walk in the sunset in a screenshot from Assassin's Creed Shadows
Following Assassin's Creed Shadows controversy, Baldur's Gate 3 publishing director says "every big AAA game could be better," but players shouldn't be mad "just because some dude told you to"
Latest in Features
Chris Evans in Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Doomsday release date, cast, plot, and more news
Naoe kills a target with a black and white filter over the camera highlighting the red of blood spray in Assassin's Creed Shadows, with an On The Radar orange frame
Assassin's Creed Shadows "has a little bit of Tarantino flavor", but its real secret ingredient is intrigue: "It's almost like you're watching an episode of Shogun"
Helldivers 2 Borderline Justice Warbond helldiver using hoverpack to shoot down with hunting rifle
Talking points from the Game Developers Conference 2025 and how they could impact the future of gaming
Flexispot E7 Plus with plant, monitor, soundbar, and controller on top next to white wall lighting.
Gaming desks vs regular desks: which surface should you buy?
Google Pixel 9a smartphones on a beige background
One Google Pixel 9a feature could make it a better gaming phone than most budget mainstream models
Yasuke and Naoe ready to fight on the Assassin's Creed Shadows On The Radar thumbnail
On The Radar: Assassin's Creed Shadows coverage hub