How dangerous is this wingsuit flying mountain swoop video?

[BravestDog 0]

I found this on www.flybirdman.com and would like to know how many wingsuit flyers would try this at these low altitudes?

How close does he come to the snow at the lowest point when he passes the people on skis? Looks like 50-100 feet or so.

How much control does the flyer have if he is off a few feet or so? Can he easily create more lift if he is low or is he doomed if he miscalculates or hits some cold/warm air pockets?

How much control does he have moving left or right, up or down?

Would somebody make a few comments on this type of swooping maneuver?

Here is the link to the video.

http://www.flybirdman.com/videos/loic.mov

Does anyone know of other free videos like this that show the limits that people are pushing?

[voodew1 0]

I don't have many flights yet but I would have to say that the limits were being pushed. It is hard to tell the exact angle of the slope but I think any kind of rotor or wind down draft would have been a disaster.

The pimp hand is powdered up ... say something stupid

[PhreeZone 15]

This type of flight IS the limit currently. This took the limit to a whole new level! There is only a handful of people in the world that even have the skills to think about doing something like this and only one or two of them would realistically do it and only one has done it.

Loic was an estimated 15-20 feet above the snow. Thats riding a knife edge of being in control and hitting hard.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[BravestDog 0]

How much control does the flyer have to gain or loose altitude?

How long would it take for him to change his flight path?

What are his approx forward and downward speeds?

Please add anything relative.

Thanks.

[voodew1 0]

I would assume that he was flying with the slowest vertical descent around 35mph which he could go faster vertical very easily which would cause death.

Flight path can be changed side to side very quickly but not losing any lift would be the problem

Forward speed approx 75mph
vertical spped approx 35mph

The pimp hand is powdered up ... say something stupid

[BravestDog 0]

I found this in one of the past posts and I think it answers some of the questions re flight.

"Wingsuit flight is a lot like making a Space Shuttle approach. You can go left and right and down more steeply, but you can't ever decrease (flatten)the angle of you approach beyond the optimum."

[The111 0]

I am not at all trying to say that Loic's stunt was nothing short of mindblowing, but I do not think it was the "limit".

IMO, the fact that he had to drop down in altitude to get close to the slope illustrates that he was not at his absolute minimum fall rate. It would be next to impossible to swoop a slope at your minimum fall rate, as your time from plane exit to flull glide would have to be right on the money to locate you just above the slope. I am pretty damn sure he left himself margin for error, and just as he dropped down into his slot he could have lifted up out of it by flattening his glide. Again, I am NOT downplaying this stunt at all, it is BADASS and took a lot of skill. But I doubt it was his limit. Flying a wingsuit over a slope which is parallel to your flattest glide angle would be EXTREMELY difficult (getting to the slot) and very foolish IMO. I think Loic's stunt was risky but not foolish.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[diveout 0]

I have watched this video many times on man-birds laptop and on the bigscreen at skydive oregon. To me it looks like he is in the 10 foot A.G.L. range, especially right when he passes the skiers. When you consider that he made flight adjustments to get closer to ground. I bet after he got closer to the mountain he was flying at his max, I know I would have been. Seems pretty much like the limit to me.

[The111 0]

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I bet after he got closer to the mountain he was flying at his max

Please elaborate... there are two directions of speed involved here, and by max I don't know if you mean high speed or low speed, since a wingsuit pilot who is able to fly very slow could say he is maxing out his suit.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[diveout 0]

flying at his max= butt cheeks clenched, teeth gritted, instinctively trying to stay off of the mountain. I doubt he was thinking "must find optimal downward/ forward fallrate combinaton for perfect fallrate and glide andgle." To me this would not have been a technical moment of thinking (thought I can't say for sure). I'd say he was trying to keep his chest strap off of the deck.

[The111 0]

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flying at his max= butt cheeks clenched, teeth gritted, instinctively trying to stay off of the mountain. I doubt he was thinking "must find optimal downward/ forward fallrate combinaton for perfect fallrate and glide andgle." To me this would not have been a technical moment of thinking (thought I can't say for sure). I'd say he was trying to keep his chest strap off of the deck.

You may think my technical analysis is out of place, but consider this. He is flying damn near parallel to the slope. I'm not suggesting he knew the exact angle of his flight or anything like that, but if that slope just happened to be exactly parallel to his max glide angle, he's pretty damn lucky.

I don't know the man at all, and I have no proof from the video that he could glide any flatter, but I'd imagine going into the stunt that he made sure the slope was at least a bit steeper than his flattest glide.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[VectorBoy 0]

Come on guys you know he was just " feeling it" like a real SOUL flyer would, put away yer slide rules.

[billvon 2,400]

>Flying a wingsuit over a slope which is parallel to your flattest glide
> angle would be EXTREMELY difficult (getting to the slot) and very
> foolish IMO.

I agree it would be extremely difficult, but keep in mind that at altitudes less than twice the wingspan you enter ground effect, and the result is to greatly increase your L/D. In this case the effect would be to flatten out the glide. (Needless to say, being that close to the ground at those speeds has a whole host of other problems.)

[VectorBoy 0]

(Needless to say, being that close to the ground at those speeds has a whole host of other problems.)

[The111 0]

Mmm... mogul pie.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[SuperWoman 0]

All I can say, it's the coolest video I have ever seen!

[crawford 0]

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All I can say, it's the coolest video I have ever seen!

Damn, Superwoman, you beat me to it. Still to this day, it is THE BEST video I have ever seen. Rock on man, you have bigger "mommy-Daddy buttons" than I will ever have!!!

"Sure, those Golf Carts may look all warm and fuzzy, but they WILL take a chunk out of your ass!"

[ernokaikkonen 0]

As cool as Loics video is, I still think that "The fastest motherfucker in the valley" is better.

It can be found on ftp://ftp.skydivingmovies.com.

[lazyfrog 0]

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You may think my technical analysis is out of place, but consider this. He is flying damn near parallel to the slope. I'm not suggesting he knew the exact angle of his flight or anything like that, but if that slope just happened to be exactly parallel to his max glide angle, he's pretty damn lucky.

I don't know the man at all, and I have no proof from the video that he could glide any flatter, but I'd imagine going into the stunt that he made sure the slope was at least a bit steeper than his flattest glide.
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according to what loic said, he had a good working margin, as he had to go more full speed than full glide.
if he had to go full glide, I don't think he would have done it.
there is no improvisation in what he did, they looked for the perfect slope, and there it was. I personnally don't think they want to die young. They think about what they do responsably, they are adults.
And on the video you see after he flies by the skiers, he gets into a flatter line of flight to get some altitude and then turn left over the cliff so he can open safely.
There is certainly a part of luck, like in anything in life. (miracles happen every day at dropzones ). But the knowledge of :
-how to fly
-where you fly
-your equipment
etc.etc etc
certainly requires a lower level of... luck

by the way, read things about winds etc in the forum... To all the guys who never flew in winter, have a try. Fly over snow, fly in mountains, fly with other things than parachutes, try paraglyding, hanggliding, glider etc... all this will help you understand many things.
Just don't forget that parachutes are "one of the worst" performing flying objects... Which is absolutely normal, considering it also has to deploy at high speed and that the skydiver is most likely wanting to survive each opening

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Fumer tue, péter pue
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ourson #10, Mosquito Uno, CBT 579

[The111 0]

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And on the video you see after he flies by the skiers, he gets into a flatter line of flight to get some altitude and then turn left over the cliff so he can open safely.

It appears to me that this is partly due to the slope getting steeper, but that could be an optical illusion, it's hard to tell from the video.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[skypuppy 1]

Keep in mind that according to what I heard Loic did a series of jumps here at ever decreasing altitudes - this was not a one-off flight...

One man's nightmare is another man's dream...

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[lazyfrog 0]

listen to the sound, you can hear he flies much slower

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Fumer tue, péter pue
-------------
ourson #10, Mosquito Uno, CBT 579

[andy2 0]

[QUOTE]but I do not think it was the "limit".
[/QUOTE]

OK, if that feat is not the max, tell me, what is? We're not talking theory here, dude. We're not saying what could be done now with wingsuit technology where it is. We're saying a man flew down a mountain slope maybe 7 meters off of smearing himself across the whole side of it. That sounds like the max to me in wingsuit flying. If it's not I urge whoever can beat it to post the video.

---------------------------------------------
let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

[lazyfrog 0]

landing the suit and being able to be on the next plane.
do you like the jumps where he goes with the french 8way CReW ??
apparently Loic's idea was to do a 16way diamond (open in the middle...) and then fly through it...

----------
Fumer tue, péter pue
-------------
ourson #10, Mosquito Uno, CBT 579

[The111 0]

Quote

We're not talking theory here, dude.

Actually, I am. And my limit, I mean flattest glide angle achievable. As it's been pointed out, he flattened his glide angle near the end of his flight to distance himself from the slope. Clearly, the slope was steeper than his flattest glide, a good thing.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com