Wingsuit Flying

SonniLombardi · 11 Jul 2015 at 14:41

Anyone here ever done this? been looking into recently and I would love to experience the feeling of flight, like a bird through the sky, seeing the earth below you must be such an exhilarating feeling immensely special.

I understand there is a fair bit of training and it quite expensive..

I've never done a skydive or anything like that in particular, but a wingsuit flight is on the top of my lists to do..

So.. anyone ever done it? what was your experience of it?

Incredible views...

dowie · 11 Jul 2015 at 14:46

not done it...

have done some paragliding, thought that is rather different

with sky diving there is rather a lot to get through before you get to the stage where you'd be looking at wing suits

tis like looking at doing some extreme mountain biking when you've not even ridden a bike... you'll need to learn to ride the bike first... ditch the stabilisers, learn to use gears, get used to going off road... then progress to going up hills etc..etc..

still if you want to do it then don't let the pessimists put you off, tis going to require a lot of time and commitment though I'd imagine before you even get to the stage where you can put on a wingsuit and jump out of a plane or off a mountain, its is probably going to cost you a few grand and a lot of holiday time or weeknds just to learn to skydive

Mariusz · 11 Jul 2015 at 16:19

To fly a wingsuit you need 200 jumps in the last 18 months or 500 total. I've been in the sport 2 years got nearly 300 jumps but due to weather have never flown a wingsuit, flown a tracking suit though.

currantloaf · 11 Jul 2015 at 16:34

Something im really interested in, as mentioned need to do around 200 jumps so i have been saving for a while now . Some really great videos out there

V F · 11 Jul 2015 at 16:48

Mariusz said:
To fly a wingsuit you need 200 jumps in the last 18 months or 500 total. I've been in the sport 2 years got nearly 300 jumps but due to weather have never flown a wingsuit, flown a tracking suit though.

It'll be a while for him then if he's never sky dived before.

Minstadave · 11 Jul 2015 at 16:48

Has a pretty high mortality rate too:

http://www.wingsuitfly.com/risk/4572000812

V F · 11 Jul 2015 at 16:54

Just a shame about the sudden stop.

Glaucus · 11 Jul 2015 at 17:27

how much does 200 jumps cost.
Planes aren't cheap. Even if you own your own kit, the flights up must cost a fair bit?

Minstadave said:
Has a pretty high mortality rate too:

http://www.wingsuitfly.com/risk/4572000812

That's base jumping, and it will also depend what your doing. Many wing suitors push the birdies and see how close they can get to the ground or go between structures, so will be high. If you are just doing it normally out of a plane, then the risks will be much less.

Kronos · 11 Jul 2015 at 17:38

Does this count?

me messing about on Far Cry 4

Minstadave · 11 Jul 2015 at 17:39

Glaucus said:
That's base jumping, and it will also depend what your doing. Many wing suitors push the birdies and see how close they can get to the ground or go between structures, so will be high. If you are just doing it normally out of a plane, then the risks will be much less.

The article says 50 of the 200 base jumping deaths were wingsuit related, given that wingsuit jumps are a minority of all base jumps but make up for 25% of the mortality that's pretty high.

Death rate for basejumps is said to be 1:500 to 1:1000 jumps, it's going to be significantly worse for wing-suiting.

V F · 11 Jul 2015 at 18:39

From the first post, can see some of them making it into the movie industry for stunt men?

Mariusz · 11 Jul 2015 at 18:45

Glaucus said:
how much does 200 jumps cost.
Planes aren't cheap. Even if you own your own kit, the flights up must cost a fair bit?

That's base jumping, and it will also depend what your doing. Many wing suitors push the birdies and see how close they can get to the ground or go between structures, so will be high. If you are just doing it normally out of a plane, then the risks will be much less.

Paid £2500 second hand for my parachute, to do AFF estimate around £1800, that will get you an A licence so you can jump solo. Then approx. £22 a jump for a seat on a plane

Glaucus · 11 Jul 2015 at 18:51

That's actually relay cheap. Would have thought it be much more than £22 a jump.

dowie · 11 Jul 2015 at 19:11

you'll have a fair few in the back of a plane though, rather short flight too.... jump

and then do another one

and another...

Mariusz · 11 Jul 2015 at 19:16

Glaucus said:
That's actually relay cheap. Would have thought it be much more than £22 a jump.

It all adds up though, petrol, food, beer fines, pack jobs, getting parachute reserve repacked, etc

Then there is tunnel time at £12 a minute :eek:

of which I have not spent 10 hours in learning to freefly

Snookums · 11 Jul 2015 at 19:21

You've forgotten to add the go pro to the list of equipment. Wants the point in doing it all if you can't share it with the world. Nothing looks more amazing than a wing suit go pro video.

SonniLombardi · 11 Jul 2015 at 19:24

Snookums said:
You've forgotten to add the go pro to the list of equipment. Wants the point in doing it all if you can't share it with the world. Nothing looks more amazing than a wing suit go pro video.

Spectacular... Switzerland is beautiful too.. I am in awe.