Wingsuit sports - are they gliding or just falling in style?

[cantdrv55]

I just saw a RedBull video where a guy wearing a wingsuit jumps off the cliff then spreads his arms and legs and the wind seems to take him for a ride. That takes huge nuts to do! Question: is he gliding or falling? Looks like he’s covering some distance which indicates he’s gliding but it also looks like he’s descending pretty fast. Regardless, it looks harrowing. You’ve got to be a Tom Cruise type adrenaline junkie to do something like that.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

I just saw a RedBull video where a guy wearing a wingsuit jumps off the cliff then spreads his arms and legs and the wind seems to take him for a ride. That takes huge nuts to do! Question: is he gliding or falling? Looks like he’s covering some distance which indicates he’s gliding but it also looks like he’s descending pretty fast. Regardless, it looks harrowing. You’ve got to be a Tom Cruise type adrenaline junkie to do something like that.

Yes. It's a freefall, but there's more lift than just a human body, so they get some lift and can travel a greater horizontal distance than a regular skydiver.

This is my absolute favorite video of someone in a wingsuit. This is so much better than the video for the song. I'd love to do the wingsuit thing. Obviously, I wouldn't be taking the crazy chances that Jeb Corliss does, but I'd love to do it.

[stomachmonkey]

Gliding.

Think Sugar Glider

[911_Dude]

Falling with style is a good way to put it. Doing some quick searches, it looks like the typical glide ratio of a wing suit is about 3:1. Three feet forward, one foot down. A Cessna 150 glide ratio is about 8:1. Not great. A high performance glider is about 37:1.

Cant imagine the road rash from a miss judged obstacle. I guess if you know your glide ratio and you know the altitude difference of your start and end points in these valley runs that are shown you could determine if you can make it. But until one of them lands on their own two feet, their just a bunch of pusses.

[Deschodt]

Wonder how they calculate suitability of the glide slope and test it... You'd think a little wind would change results dramatically,,, I mean that guy passes maybe 10ft above the ground at some point, did 5 guys splat before they thought it was doable ?

I like the helmet but why bother ? Either you live or die, probably there only to mount the gopro!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by 911_Dude

Falling with style is a good way to put it. Doing some quick searches, it looks like the typical glide ratio of a wing suit is about 3:1. Three feet forward, one foot down. A Cessna 150 glide ratio is about 8:1. Not great. A high performance glider is about 37:1.

Cant imagine the road rash from a miss judged obstacle. I guess if you know your glide ratio and you know the altitude difference of your start and end points in these valley runs that are shown you could determine if you can make it. But until one of them lands on their own two feet, their just a bunch of pusses.

There has been a guy that used a wingsuit and crashed into a huge stack of cardboard boxes floating on a lake or something like that, IIRC.

Originally Posted by Deschodt

Wonder how they calculate suitability of the glide slope and test it... You'd think a little wind would change results dramatically,,, I mean that guy passes maybe 10ft above the ground at some point, did 5 guys splat before they thought it was doable ?

I like the helmet but why bother ? Either you live or die, probably there only to mount the gopro!

Presumably, they started doing either regular jumps out of a plane at 14k feet. Then they gradually got closer and closer to objects to increase the adrenaline rush. There are multiple suits that have been developed presumably for greater performance.

THe guy in the video that I posted is Jeb Corliss. He's a fairly well known wingsuit daredevil. He did try to brush past a rock ledge once and was a little off. He hit just above his knees. humpty dumpty was put back together again and has been back at it. I watched a documentary on him once. He and a buddy (that was a wingsuit pioneer, and I think one of his mentors) made a jump. Jeb was going to pass just below a bridge and his buddy was going to pass just over a bridge. His buddy hit part of the bridge and exploded. Jeb got rained on by parts of his buddy.
Jeb's accident - not gory


I don't think this is gory, but I didn't watch the whole thing. I watched part that I think was the guy that I mentioned above. It looked like the video stopped a split second before the guy hit the bridge.

While Jeb is a major daredevil. If he's not doing death defying acts, he gets suicidal. But he stated that he has no desire to die, so when he's planning a jump, he says that he's meticulous, methodical, and super careful to minimize the possibility of an accident.

[sc_rufctr]

On "masraum's" video - Wow ... The speeds are just ridiculous!

Humane beings never cease to amaze me.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

On "masraum's" video - Wow ... The speeds are just ridiculous!

Humane beings never cease to amaze me.

Right, the generally quoted terminal velocity of a person is 125mph. But that's for a person in the usual skydive belly-flop position. The terminal velocity of someone that's streamlining themselves is quite a bit higher. I assume the wingsuit guys are probably quite a bit higher than 125mph.

https://www.fai.org/page/isc-speed-skydiving

Speed Skydiving is a new skydiving discipline with as simple a definition as it gets. Achieve the fastest speed possible over a given distance.

It has developed over the last few years and represents the fastest non-motorized sport on Earth. In essence, speed skydiving is the discipline where only one aspect of skydiving counts – freefall speed.

The speed achieved by a human body in free fall is conditioned of two factors, body weight and body orientation. In a stable, belly to earth position, terminal velocity of the human body is about 200 km/h (about 120 mph). A stable, freefly, head down position has a terminal speed of around 240-290 km/h (around 150-180 mph). Further minimizing body drag and streamlining the body position allows the skydiver to reach higher speeds in the vicinity of 480 km/h (300 mph).

[Eric Hahl]

I'm going with "falling in style". Can they ever gain any altitude like a glider can?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

Can they ever gain any altitude like a glider can?

Yes, but like a glider, conditionally.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Eric Hahl

I'm going with "falling in style". Can they ever gain any altitude like a glider can?

I want to say that one of the videos that I've watched they talking about being able to gain altitude, but it's SUPER limited. I think, IIRC, they have to really ramp up the speed, and then they can actually go up a bit.

[Crowbob]

This is similar to those bain dramaged yohooses what climb mountains without ropes and szhit.

Somebody blazes the trail of daredevilshness and predictably perishes but not before they inspire truly, truly mutated aliens to perform even more foolishness.

There’s a guy whose highlighted down at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky or wherever who eventually perished having gotten stuck spelunking. He went MILES squeezing himself (FEET FIRST, UPSIDE DOWN) in the cracks between walls of solid granite alone, in total darkness for fun.

[flatbutt]

I like carving up twisty roads on the Duc and sure I can go splat but day-um.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

This is similar to those bain dramaged yohooses what climb mountains without ropes and szhit.

Somebody blazes the trail of daredevilshness and predictably perishes but not before they inspire truly, truly mutated aliens to perform even more foolishness.

There’s a guy whose highlighted down at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky or wherever who eventually perished having gotten stuck spelunking. He went MILES squeezing himself (FEET FIRST, UPSIDE DOWN) in the cracks between walls of solid granite alone, in total darkness for fun.

I'd love to go spelunking. I'm not claustrophobic, but I've seen some videos of people squeezing through narrow cracks and small holes that I would definitely NOT have followed them through.

[zakthor]

I went skydiving once, solo. Letting go of the plane felt like suicide. Very very not fun. And then you open the chute, it catches and you're just sitting there waiting to land.

10 years ago I tried tandem hang gliding off the cliffs in san diego. That was awesome, I was a bird. The pilot let me steer for 30 minutes or so back and forth over the surf and the cliffs and the sunset. Was just crazy great. I went home intending to buy one and researched how dangerous it is and... ulp... super duper dangerous. Nope, but great to experience once.

5 years ago I was climbing a spire in utah at dawn. Someone had slept at the top and went soaring right out there just as the sun rose, parapent opened right away and he went whooping past in this pink light. That was fantastic to see. He soared miles back to the road. I want to do that but feel like I've got some responsible years left before I take a risk like that. Maybe I'll ahve some guides hoist me up when I'm in a wheelchair. But leaping off a desert spire at dawn is on my list. There a bunch of fun young people that made great youtube videos base jumping in the desert and now they're gone. Not good.

Wing suit?? Ehhh... isn't even on my radar. Remember dean potter?

[masraum]

I did the skydiving thing once, the one where you're a newb and have a dude strapped to your back. It was pretty awesome. I think it would be better with a helmet to help with the noise. The sound when you're in free fall is LOUD. But then if you stuck your head out of the sunroof of a car going 120, that would be loud too. Then you pull and you're floating in silence. I thought it was very cool. Absolutely no issue with feeling like letting go of the plane was crazy.

I'd love to do hang gliding and also just flying in a glider.

[Crowbob]

I jumped off the third step of a ladder once.

I felt like a Jedi.

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by zakthor

5 years ago I was climbing a spire in utah at dawn...

I'll never try a wingsuit, but... Even an easy, safe climb can become unsafe in an instant. Last summer I climbed a crag at Mammoth, an easy 4-pitch 5.6. The lead climber dislodged a large (~30 pounds) rock about 20 feet above me, but was able to push it back into place. If it fell on top of me, it would have been very bad. The very next day I got caught in a thunder storm at 13,000 feet on an otherwise easy descent off White Mountain. So you never know.

BTW, what spire were you climbing?

[flatbutt]

I did hang gliding at Kitty Hawk. Got air born and nearly shat myself.

[Eric Hahl]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

I jumped off the third step of a ladder once.

I felt like a Jedi.

Use the force Obi-Bob!