How do birds land?

[phatcat 0]

I’ve read a few times about the suggestion of landing a Bird Man suit. Just something to think/speculate about- is it theoretically possible, and if so, how do you think it could be done? I was just thinking about it today, but I don’t really know a lot about the suits. Can you “flare” them, as would be required when landing? I would imagine that the airspeed you would need to achieve horizontal flight would be several hundred miles an hour (I really have no idea, though, that’s why I’m asking) That would probably eat through the suit, your clothes, and a good deal of your flesh before you came to a stop. Maybe just strap a skateboard to your front or something ? What do you think? Could it be done? Or is the idea just plain suicide?
Josh
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar" - Helen Keller

[GeekStreak 0]

I too have wondered about this, even before I began jumping. When I saw the Bird Man suit I flipped! Then I thought how it sucked. All you can do is "glide". Then I thought about why it was made the way it is and realized that cloth is really the only safe thing to make it out of... as a suit, that is.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not downing it. It's definitely the pinnacle of human flight!
So I said to myself, "Self, what if you thought of it as something other than a suit?".
The surface area required to flare is much greater than a human, even a "webbed human" as is the case with the Bird Man suit. I suppose you would need about as much area as your current canopy. Since a rigid frame or "bones" would be required to extend your surface area (like a bird's wing), add even more surface area to compensate for the weight.
So here we are with this giant wing. You can't exit the plane with your wings sticking out so it must be retractible. You'll also need a way to flare, and having a way to chop it might be nice too.
It would be safer mounted on one's chest, but since a wing uses the top surface to create lift, your body would be in the way. What you wind up with is basically an articulated pair of hang-glider wings strapped to your back.
There are so many safety issues here and I don't have the knowledge to cinsider all of them, but that's what I was thinking In the end I decided that I'd finish learning how to skydive first 1111,
GeekStreak