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cpoxon

1600 ft.

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On Monday I made my lowest wingsuit BASE jump from exit point 2 of the Rhino-esque object in the Swiss valley, which is approximately 1600 feet to the landing area. I can safely say it was the scariest thing I've ever done! I put myself under a lot of stress because of this jump. The main factors being the exit, the flight, the altitude and the deployment. So basically, pretty much everything!

The wingsuit jumps I've done before in Italy and Norway have had much nicer exit points. This particular exit point is not normally a problem in good conditions. However, slick wingsuit booties (note to self - put grips on soles of booties), a sloping, lightly scree-covered exit, my lack of finese and abundance of nerves conspired to prevent me from getting close to the edge! Even with miniscule steps, I felt like my feet would slip out from underneath me at any time. Bizarrely, I felt more comfortable taking a couple of full steps (as much as you can in a wingsuit) to get a good launch. I guess, once I was going I was committed and better to fall forwards than backwards!

I've done over a hundred wingsuit skydives, more than half of which on my Skyflyer, and apart from a few early flights I've never had any problems with deploying. However, deploying only a few hundred feet from the ground and having to get around a larger wing such as the Skyflyer is, to me, a large psychological factor!

The jumps I'd done before were from 4,000 and 3,000 feet. Plenty of time to sort any exit problems out. An exit from 1,600 feet would give me much less time. I wondered how quickly I'd be able to get the suit flying and how far I'd get from the cliff before deployment. If I had a bad exit, and bad deployment, would it be enough?

So, how did it go? Not bad. I had a good exit. The flight was reasonable, although it didn't really feel like it was starting to move until the last couple of seconds. I don't know if this is poor flying on my part (my natural flight seems to be slow descent rate rather than high forward speed with a steeper angle and I'm still working on rectifying that) or a factor of my exit weight (210 lbs) and the suit style - could I get a smaller suit flying faster? My delay was approximately 11 seconds with a reasonable opening height of a few hundred feet (10 seconds from this exit point without a wingsuit is a healthy delay). Pretty pathetic by Robi, Outrager, Little Aussie or Man In Black standards! My opening was "positive" (in fact, I can still feel it) so my forward speed must have been building. How can one safely flare out a suit at low altitude in order to get a reasonable opening? Maybe you can't and just need to toughen up!

When I landed, it was with an overwhelming sense of relief. At the time, I wasn't sure whether it was worth it. Did the gains outweigh the effort? Why do we do things like this? In reflection I'm chuffed that I faced up to a personal challenge. As with anything, it is a progressive stepping stone. I can see that there's a lot to work on and a great deal of room for improvement. I'm looking forward to improving on it. I'm even starting to realise that it was fun :-)

Thanks to JB for the moral support and the filming on what was only his third wingsuit BASE jump (but then, his second one had been a 45 second delay from the Mushroom a day before!)

Also thanks to BirdMan, Morpheus Technologies and Consolidated Rigging for the awesone tools.

Attached are some pictures and you can download a short video of the exit (requires QuickTime)
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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I was there also on that jump doing a wingsuit. I'm used to wingsuit base from Norway sized cliffs. This was also a personal low for me. I also jumped from The Mouse with a wingsuit (I think its also 1600ft) and caught my right wing on a branch as I was going over the edge. It sent me head-down and was somewhat scarey. Fortunately, it did not turn me.

Nice effort Craig.

Meeker

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Craig, I'm happy that you are okay.

Two things, why did you choose that exitpoint for your fist low wingsuit jump, there are better ones on the other side? And please do not flare a big wingsuit (I do not recommend it even on classics and GTI's either) prior to pulling. Especially not with singelshot rigs at low altitude.

Have fun!
PerFlare
Team Bautasten

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Two things, why did you choose that exitpoint for your fist low wingsuit jump, there are better ones on the other side?



Easier hike :-P. Seriously though, no real reason. It just worked out that way with the group I was with and the exit points we were jumping. The exit point may be better on the other side of the valley but is there any difference in altitude?

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And please do not flare a big wingsuit (I do not recommend it even on classics and GTI's either) prior to pulling. Especially not with singelshot rigs at low altitude.



Yes, I remember now :-( Guess I'll just have to toughen up or wear a neck brace!

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The exit point is better and it is a little bit higher, +400ft maybe even close to 500ft more. Never measured it my self but it is higher.

I'm not that tough ... but my team mates is use to me complaining about hard openings ;)

I will come over to UK again next year, hope that we can hook up and share a few exit points and for sure have a pint or three ...

Have fun playing!

PerFlare
Team Bautasten

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>Lower speed and more chances of pc getting caught in burble?

And greater amount of jumper rotation when you get stood up. There's something to be said for doing the opposite - collapse the wings and fall normally for a few seconds before deploying, thus allowing a more freefall-like opening.

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Hmm, maybe we're not talking about the same here. If I would want to flare a suit before opening I would do it like this: Go full speed through the entire flight, then flatten out the flight and thereby transform energy into lift until the point where you start to drop again. Once done this, go for a normal pull with collapsed wings.
While I think that you should be able to gain a little distance without loosing too much altitude, I see the problem of the weaker airflow maybe resulting in the pc not inflating properly and fast enough, that's why I've never tried it.
But that is actually my question: is it really a problem that you're moving slower? The airflow is weaker, but isn't therefore the burble smaller? If you flare a suit for 2 secs you loose both forward and downward speed (first you will loose more downward speed). If you then throw and collapse your wings, would the pc have more problems getting out of your (smaller) burble?

P.S. As we're talking about base here, collapsing the wings for a couple of secs is not an option. I'm talking about pulling out of full flight vs pulling after a 2 sec flare.

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I assumed that we where talking about basejumping with wingsuits. In that case collapsing the wings for a longer period of time prior to pulling makes no sence.

Flareing your suit increase the burble behind the suit and the risk that your PC ends up behind you goes up. Getting your PC in the burble are super scary at best and sometimes things do not work out for the best ...

PerFlare
Team Bautasten

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I get a 404 when trying to view the vid. :(

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I can safely say it was the scariest thing I've ever done!



You're looking pretty serious on the 1st picture, I imagine there was a fair amount of internal dialogue going on there.

Gus
OutpatientsOnline.com

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There's something to be said for doing the opposite - collapse the wings and fall normally for a few seconds before deploying, thus allowing a more freefall-like opening.



On a BASE flight, I tend to think that's a bad idea. A deployment during a forward flight will take place in significantly less vertical distance (because the deployment happens largely behind, rather than above, the jumper). I'm in favor of saving the altitude.

That said, if you watch videos of Loic, he tends to use the "ball up" deployment technique, and he's definitely one of the world's experts (the rest of them all use the Outrager/RobiBird full flight technique, to the best of my knowledge).
-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

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On a BASE flight, I tend to think that's a bad idea. A deployment during a forward flight will take place in significantly less vertical distance (because the deployment happens largely behind, rather than above, the jumper). I'm in favor of saving the altitude.

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Does this include base in the S3? On my classic I fly the deployment but on my S3 I ball it up to add the vertical component. These are not base jumps I'm talking about.
A base friend of mine stated that there are some amazing wingsuit deployments happening in the base world right now.

That said, if you watch videos of Loic, he tends to use the "ball up" deployment technique, and he's definitely one of the world's experts (the rest of them all use the Outrager/RobiBird full flight technique, to the best of my knowledge).

Loic flys a crossbow and this may require its own deployment technique. Lou diamond flew one maybe he can shed some light on what was recommended to him by its owner.

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Hi all,
How to perform the pull sequence:

Wingsuit BASE jump:

Because we usually flying as long as we can and as low we can we have not much altitude left for opening. Therefore, pull sequence has to be performed during full flight.

Advantages of doing this way:

Clean air flow around our body
Less chances for PC to be caught in turbulence
Clean, and usually onheading opening.
Relief of having canopy above your head after nice flight.

Disadvantages:

Fast opening, which can void in to the 180 degree line twist.
However fast opening can happen always and this should be prevented by correct packing anyway.

Wingsuit SKYDIVING jump ( from flying object were we need two canopies: :)

I recommend toall jumpers to slow down and pull at the moment when they are very close to stall position.
Basically , I call this period ''transition period''
Reason why we can do this is simply cause we have enough altitude to burn for deployment.
Also, jumping with very small canopies, opening could be really scary if pull sequence were performed during full flight.
Having vertical component higher than horizontal in skydiving pull sequence can also prevent linetwist , especially to those jumpers who has no ''dynamic corners'' or open corners on their rigs.

Kind regards
RobiBird
Robert Pecnik
[email protected]
www.phoenix-fly.com

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Loic flys a crossbow and this may require its own deployment technique. Lou diamond flew one maybe he can shed some light on what was recommended to him by its owner.



Actually, it has been brought to my attention that LOIC's suit is just that, his suit. It uses the same principals as it's predecessor, the crossbow , but is different from the Matter suit I jumped in Rantoul.

As for the opening I used the standard Birdman sequence with no problems. I have seen the "ball up" method in a video or a still. I am not positive that anyone other than loic uses that method or why he does it that way.
"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

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