Wingsuit Wannabe!

[wingsuitwannabe 0]

Hello all,

Matthew here from Houston, Texas. I have dreamed about wingsuit(ing?) all my life. I am currently 16 so that's not a very long time . I recently looked up some basic wingsuit info and was bogged down by the prerequisites. 200 drops? Certificates? Not to mention a whole lot of money. Surely, these things will clarify over time, but I was wondering: where is the best place to start? This place near my house offers a "A" license (I have no idea what that is). Should I start there?

Thanks in advance.

[bialicki 1]

Well when you are 18 and able to sign your life away to skydiving legally, then yes you should start there. I would suggest hang out around the DZ till then and learning how to pack and everything else about the sport.

When the time comes to do a tandem and or just start AFF program you will be more ready the the average person, plus you will know how to pack! A-license allows you to jump solo at other DZ and or with other skydivers. Depending on the DZ and the program you go through you could be jumping solo with out an instructor after 8 or so jumps but you still require an A-license to jump with other skydivers.

It does cost a lot of money! but once it's all said and done and paid for... you won't regret it! The first year is the most expensive because of training, gear rental, shelling out a large sum of cash for your own rig etc!

It's worth every penny even though I'm broke right now and wishing I had all the money I spent... I know that next time I get on that plane it's going to cost me $25! Every time I talk to my friends who are in their 40's who just got their license say to me "wished I got into their earlier in life" so the earlier the better if it is really something you end up enjoying as much as the rest of us!

[PixieUK 0]

Hi

Yes, you would need to start with your A licence - the licences are progressive rather than different types of licence.

In the UK, you would need your A, B and C licence to start wing-suiting and either 500 jumps total or 200 jumps within 18 months - not sure of the requirements in the US.

I would also love to do wing suiting - at altitude, not the crazy-dude proximity stuff, lol, but it is very much one small step at a time. And yes, it is very expensive.

Get down to the dropzone, hang out with people, learn to pack (maybe get signed off to pack for other people and start earning some money - you've got a couple of years to save up
Good luck!

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Pretty much everyone who stumbles across one of Jeb's videos I'm sure greets the requirements with the same degree of consternation. 200 skydives sounds like a lot and with them standing in the way of your goal it also sounds like a chore. I started skydiving last year with the same goal, and found that it wasn't a chore at all. At some point along that way I realized that even if I never actually got to make a wingsuit jump, I'd found something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I've done a couple of wingsuit jumps now and winter is starting to limit how many skydives I can do. It was freaking beautiful last weekend, but my home DZ didn't get a plane up due to the wind. They're only flying three days a week until the spring, and if this winter is anything like last winter all the nice days will fall on the days they're closed.

Despite having achieved my goal, my first night jump last summer still stands out as the single most amazing thing I've done in my life. I was the first one out and we opened the door at 2000 feet to cool the plane down. Looking out over the city lights next several thousand feet, I felt a joy unlike anything I'd ever experienced.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you really want it you'll find a way to get there. Just put one foot in front of the other along the path and there will be some pretty amazing sights to see along the way.

Not to be discouraging, but I also spent about $20,000 at the dropzone last year, in gear, training and jumps. It's not a cheap hobby. So I'd suggest pursuing a line of study and a lifestyle that allows you to fund your habit (IE: Not an art degree.) You can find places to cut costs, but there's no way around the first year being expensive as hell. I could have done this when I was younger if I'd thought to. I'd just would have had to drive the cheapest car I could find and done as much of my own maintenance on it as possible, never eaten out (Cooking at home I can feed myself for no more than $40 a week,) and never become addicted to caffeine (I probably spend a couple hundred bucks a month at a local coffee joint.) I'd suggest having about $6000 saved up before you start skydiving. You should be able to comfortably get to your A license with that.

You also should be in reasonably good shape, so if you're not, start eating right and exercising immediately. Every time you go to buy a soft drink or a coffee, put that money in your skydiving fund instead! Actually, think about every purchase you make and whether that money would be happier in your skydiving fund. Start a savings account and every time it runs over $120 or so buy a TIPS bond. That way you can accrue risk-free interest at a higher rate that any recent certificate of deposit I've seen. TIPS bonds are indexed on inflation, but you can't withdraw your assets for the term of ownership. Plan accordingly. You could buy stocks too, but those can lose value, just depends on how much risk you want to incur with your skydiving fund.

Since you have a couple of years before you can do a skydive, I suggest you apply for a job, ANY job, at the nearest indoor skydiving facility. You can learn to fly in one now, of course, and if you can get severely discounted or free tunnel minutes as a term of your employment, you can get a head start on your freefall skills. Perhaps that could even lead to employment as an instructor there down the road. You'd have to develop some amazing freefly skills, but you've got time.

You could also see if you could learn to pack parachutes now with an eye toward spending a summer packing at any nearby dropzone. That's hard work to be sure, but you'd be learning about the gear and hanging around planes, pilots and skydivers. And putting money in your skydiving fund, of course.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[roostnureye 2]

go out to skydive spaceland and find purple mike (guy in a purple wingsuit) and tell him your goal in life is to rodeo him. youll be wingsuiting in no time

Flock University FWC / ZFlock
B.A.S.E. 1580
Aussie BASE 121

[skymama 35]

Welcome to the forums!
The 200 jump minimum is not to be taken lightly. Once you get into skydiving, you'll understand all the things that can go wrong on a jump. Increase that by all the things that can go wrong while you're in a wingsuit and you'll understand why it is suggested that you have some experience before donning the suit. The same goes for adding a camera to your helmet, by the way.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[dthames 0]

FlyingRhenquest said a lot that I would agree with. Others also mentioned packing as a job. I know of several that are about your age that pack and make good money at it.

One thing you might have to face is the question, "Is skydiving going to be part of my life, or is skydiving going to BE my life?"

Like FlyingRhenquest, I started to jump so that I could fly a wingsuit. I am not a young man but I can remember wanting to fly most of my life. You might find that after college or after having a family would be better for you. It all depends on the person and the goals.

It is sort of funny but I started skydiving thinking that when I was good enough that I could fly a wingsuit. Only after I started did I learn that 200 was the "good enough" lower boundry. I respected the idea of that but it was really hard to have the belief that 200 was really needed. At 100 jumps I felt like that with some good and careful training I would be able to fly one. But 200 is the rule, so I kept jumping, working toward that magic number. After maybe 15 or 20 wingsuit jumps, on one jump I had a little problem with my parachute deployment. It was not a big problem, but it could have been. I reacted well, resolved the problem, and it was really nothing. Then the thought came to my mind...."That is what the 200 jumps are for". I don't think I managed any new specific skill between 100 and 200 jumps that would help me. But the way I approached resolving a small problem was most likely different because of my comfort level and attitude. So, when you don't agree with the requirements, just think, "They must be there for good reason" and agree to not understend just yet.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”