FA+
Shop
200
Views
Views
1
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Photography / Human
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 960 x 1280
File Size 209 kB
Report this content
More from EthylTheAardvark
Had a friend take another wingsuit pic, out in front of the airport office. This one has the wings stitched up correctly so my arms aren't showing. I also showed him how to attach my rig (parachute) to the suit. You can see the rig sitting on the bench to my left.
I'm trying to arrange to get the video of my first flight from my instructor. Turns out moving video files around on the internet is a huge pain. Apparently it's not great video -- he missed the exit and turned the camera on in mid-air, and was worried about the spot the whole time so he kept checking where we were relative to the airport. But I'd still like to post it.
I'm trying to arrange to get the video of my first flight from my instructor. Turns out moving video files around on the internet is a huge pain. Apparently it's not great video -- he missed the exit and turned the camera on in mid-air, and was worried about the spot the whole time so he kept checking where we were relative to the airport. But I'd still like to post it.
Category Photography / Human
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 960 x 1280px
File Size 209 kB
So far it's not a huge amount extra for me, but I'm pulling higher until I get the hang of the new deployment and unzipping the suit. So my 3-way belly today had an average fall rate of 131 mph and 48 seconds of freefall. My wingsuit jump from the king air yesterday had an average fall rate of 111 mph and 61 seconds of freefall. But I pulled at 5500 with the wingsuit and 3500 on the belly jump. If you add in another 2000 feet at 111 mph, that would bump my freefall time up significantly over a minute. As my proficiency with the suit improves, I should also be able to get more glide time out of it. I've only done two jumps with it so far, so I'll be a beginner with it for a while.
In a couple of weeks, once I've done a few more jumps to get a feel for how the suit flies, I'll do another coach jump to work on leveling out my flight a bit. The cool thing is it does feel very natural to fly -- whenever I feel myself getting unstable, I know what I need to do to fix my body position. I can definitely see why they make you wait 200 jumps before trying one of these things, though. Even throwing your pilot chute out is different in a wingsuit. You only have about a foot to flick your hand out before the wing stops your movement. That's not a lot of time to get your pilot chute out into clean air. You also need to be able to not panic when things go wrong. My first jump opened to 8-10 line twists. I just watched it as I was spinning, thinking "Hmm. I might have to cut this one away..." When I finally stopped spinning I just glanced at my altimeter, saw I was still at 3500 feet, calmly kicked the line twists out and unzipped the suit. By the time all that was done I was at 2000 feet and knew I wasn't going to make it back to the airport. So I flew my pattern in the field south of there (I've landed there a few times while tracking, too.)
Funny thing was, a large part of my out landing was trusting my instructor's spot. Every time I trust someone else's spot while tracking and now with wingsuiting, I get burned. My second flight was with my spot and I put it down dead center in the landing area.
In a couple of weeks, once I've done a few more jumps to get a feel for how the suit flies, I'll do another coach jump to work on leveling out my flight a bit. The cool thing is it does feel very natural to fly -- whenever I feel myself getting unstable, I know what I need to do to fix my body position. I can definitely see why they make you wait 200 jumps before trying one of these things, though. Even throwing your pilot chute out is different in a wingsuit. You only have about a foot to flick your hand out before the wing stops your movement. That's not a lot of time to get your pilot chute out into clean air. You also need to be able to not panic when things go wrong. My first jump opened to 8-10 line twists. I just watched it as I was spinning, thinking "Hmm. I might have to cut this one away..." When I finally stopped spinning I just glanced at my altimeter, saw I was still at 3500 feet, calmly kicked the line twists out and unzipped the suit. By the time all that was done I was at 2000 feet and knew I wasn't going to make it back to the airport. So I flew my pattern in the field south of there (I've landed there a few times while tracking, too.)
Funny thing was, a large part of my out landing was trusting my instructor's spot. Every time I trust someone else's spot while tracking and now with wingsuiting, I get burned. My second flight was with my spot and I put it down dead center in the landing area.
I started on July 7th of last year and have managed to do 200 jumps since then. It's strongly suggested by the USPA to have at least 200 jumps prior to starting the wingsuit discipline. I thought it'd be a chore to get there, but it's been a blast! I also have about 3 hours of flight time in a vertical wind tunnel.
I have youtube videos with a couple of my early skydives, tandem jumps my sister and niece did and most of my wind tunnel sessions on my youtube channel, at https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingRhenquest
It's not a cheap sport though. Between gear, training and jump tickets I probably spent $20000 over the last year. Now that I have all my stuff, a ride to altitude is $28, which is pretty reasonable.
I have youtube videos with a couple of my early skydives, tandem jumps my sister and niece did and most of my wind tunnel sessions on my youtube channel, at https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingRhenquest
It's not a cheap sport though. Between gear, training and jump tickets I probably spent $20000 over the last year. Now that I have all my stuff, a ride to altitude is $28, which is pretty reasonable.
Or maybe an addiction heh heh heh. Well definitely an addiction. The first one was terrifying, but I was hooked the moment I left the plane. The first skydive on my youtube channel was actually the first one where they let me climb out on my own and also the first one where I was not terrified to do so. I realized that the worst possible thing I could imagine was screwing up and losing my grip, and if that happened I had a parachute on so it was no big deal. I think at that point I was starting to accept, subconsciously, that the parachute actually was going to save my life.
The next 10 or 20 jumps after that were still kind of a big mental hurtle. I talked myself out of going to the dropzone a few times when I knew I should be going.
Around 50 or so, it was less scary and way more fun. By then I'd had some tunnel time and had way more control in the air. Around that time I got my B license which enabled me to do night jumps, and did 3 night jumps last summer. Sitting in the door of the king air with the door opened for air as we flew to altitude was by far the coolest thing I'd ever done. It even felt more awesome than my first wingsuit jump. That felt more like my first jump, with lots of practice touches to make sure I could deploy my canopy when the time came.
Now I can fearlessly sit at the door of the plane with it opened and take pictures on the way up to altitude (The "Jesus Beams" picture in my gallery is one I took at 5000 feet as we were flying up.) I can sit on one knee and stick my head out to check for air traffic and to see where I am relative to the landing area, and just dive out whenever I'm ready! You can see a very clear progression in my flying skills from my early tunnel video to my latest ones. I was starting to get some decent control when my sister came to visit last October, and a few months later I'm clearly very comfortable on my belly. I need to put some more time in my back and move on to sit flying, though the wingsuit is the advanced discipline I'm most interested in pursuing. There's plenty to keep me busy in this sport for years to come!
The next 10 or 20 jumps after that were still kind of a big mental hurtle. I talked myself out of going to the dropzone a few times when I knew I should be going.
Around 50 or so, it was less scary and way more fun. By then I'd had some tunnel time and had way more control in the air. Around that time I got my B license which enabled me to do night jumps, and did 3 night jumps last summer. Sitting in the door of the king air with the door opened for air as we flew to altitude was by far the coolest thing I'd ever done. It even felt more awesome than my first wingsuit jump. That felt more like my first jump, with lots of practice touches to make sure I could deploy my canopy when the time came.
Now I can fearlessly sit at the door of the plane with it opened and take pictures on the way up to altitude (The "Jesus Beams" picture in my gallery is one I took at 5000 feet as we were flying up.) I can sit on one knee and stick my head out to check for air traffic and to see where I am relative to the landing area, and just dive out whenever I'm ready! You can see a very clear progression in my flying skills from my early tunnel video to my latest ones. I was starting to get some decent control when my sister came to visit last October, and a few months later I'm clearly very comfortable on my belly. I need to put some more time in my back and move on to sit flying, though the wingsuit is the advanced discipline I'm most interested in pursuing. There's plenty to keep me busy in this sport for years to come!
Comments