Peej 0
Some people has sense for orientation. Can you get lost in a foreign city or forest? If yes, that's not a surprise if you can get lost midair.
QuoteAnyone have any experience in jumping a wingsuit in the cold?
Hello my fellow Orange-ite. I used to jump my WS at Orange, even when it was cold when I lived up there. Invest in some long underwear
Congrats BTW on making your way into the realms of nylon crack. QuoteI've been trying to figure out what I should have done for days and cannot come up with a solution. Suggestions anyone?
Don't fret too much, flight plans can be confusing at first for some. One of the things you are going to have to work on is getting used to sticking your head out of the door and looking down for the DZ/landing area BEFORE leaving the aircraft. Your instructor should of covered it on the ground with you and you should of done it before you left the aircraft and that is once you were in the door, he should of pointed out the landing area/DZ and you should of shook your head that you saw what he was pointing at. This is one of those small but very important steps that I've seen even experienced WS pilots make. Getting used to looking first is going to be important for you since the jump run at Orange can have you getting out over the city of Orange if the winds are high at altitude. Conversly, you could also find yourself well North of the DZ and geting out over a nondescript looking piece of farm land that surrouds that area but you have the lake to look for
. Which leads me into the next subject of landmarks. No matter where you go, there are going to be significant landmarks that are dicernable from altitude that can quickly help orientate you to where the DZ is. They can be housing developments, major roads ,mountain ranges or even where the sun is in the sky in relation to the DZ at certain times of the day since we know it moves East to West. Idealy, WS should fly a series of 90 degree turns once they leave the aircraft. There are some variations to this but for now concentrate on flying 90's off of the line of flight and back to the DZ. Orange can be a bit tricky to find depending on the time of the year but again, look for landmarks like the lake or the baseball field and don't forget about the roads. I have an old GPS plot showing one of the jump runs from Orange and my flight back to the DZ, if I can find it I will post it for you.So don't beat yourself up, you'll get better at figuring out where you are at in the sky before you leave the aircraft,even while you're climbing to altitude, once you get a few more flights under your belt. Again, Congrats on getting your wings
"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
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Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING
kevin922 0
Oo another bird @ orange, good stuff! I don't jump much in the winter as I do have enough sense not to :) but look forward to flying with you. I jump the all silver S3 (typically) - not sure if I've met you or not.
LukeH 0
I really hope this is a troll, but just in case it's not...
I have to voice agreement with wildcard451.
If you cannot spot, cannot learn to spot and get freaked out by looking at the ground you really should reconsider wingsuit flying but also skydiving in general.
It is just a matter of time before you get yourself and other people into serious danger. The big blue sky will save your ass quite a bit but one day your luck will run out.
Sorry to be the bad guy, but people like you really scare me. If you don't look out the door you have no idea where you are, then you have no idea if you are flying along jump run or not. Go talk to an instructor at your DZ and get it figured out.
I have to voice agreement with wildcard451.
If you cannot spot, cannot learn to spot and get freaked out by looking at the ground you really should reconsider wingsuit flying but also skydiving in general.
It is just a matter of time before you get yourself and other people into serious danger. The big blue sky will save your ass quite a bit but one day your luck will run out.
Sorry to be the bad guy, but people like you really scare me. If you don't look out the door you have no idea where you are, then you have no idea if you are flying along jump run or not. Go talk to an instructor at your DZ and get it figured out.
QuoteOne of the hardest things for me was the flight plan. I didn't think I would ever get my 'A' license because I couldn't understand spotting ... excuse me while I breathe into a paper bag ... the mere mention of the word 'spotting' causes me to hyperventilate.
I'm a belly flyer and have made it a point not to be the one spotting on a load. In fact, I try to exit from inside the airplane so I don't have to look at the ground. When I'm doing my RW, I never look at the ground until I'm under canopy at about 2,300 feet.
You shouldn't get intimidated by spotting. Determining the proper spot is a ground skill. You need an aerial photo of the drop zone and surrounding area, and a winds aloft report. It is also a very good idea to know the scale of the photo. For example, if you know the runway is 1/2 mile long, then one "runway length" equals 1/2 mile anywhere in your aerial photo.
If you know what the winds aloft are, your freefall/wingsuit descent rate, and your descent rate under canopy, you can fairly easily estimate the freefall drift the winds will cause as you pass through the various altitudes.
You also need to have a general idea of what kind of glide ratio to expect from your canopy and/or wingsuit. These will have an effect on optimum deployment location.
Let's say I am doing a solo belly fly jump. I plan on deploying at 4K feet, expecting to be open by about 3500 feet. I want to enter the landing pattern at 1000 feet. That means I will be under canopy for about 2500 feet, or about 2.5 minutes.
I determine how much horizontal distance my canopy will cover in 2500 feet, with no winds. Then I determine how much wind drift I will experience in 2.5 minutes. I use either the 3000 ft. winds aloft, the ground winds, or a combination if they are significantly different. I add the "gliding distance" of my canopy to the drift from the winds, and that gives me the desirable distance upwind from the traffic pattern I would like to deploy at.
I make note of that location. Then I determine how much drift I am going to experience in freefall. The winds aloft report comes in 3000 ft increments. Let's assume a 12K ft exit. I multiply the wind speed at 12000 ft by 17 seconds, to which I add the wind speed at 9000 ft multiplied by 17, to which I add the wind speed at 6000 ft multiplied by 17 seconds. This tells me how far upwind of my optimum deployment location I want exit the plane.
If you were flying a wingsuit instead of belly flying, you would simply add the expected horizontal distance covered by your wingsuit (in zero winds) to the amount of distance you expect to cover do to freefall drift.
Once you know where the spot is, you just have to communicate this to the pilot, and wait for it at exit time. This is where GPS is handy. If you know where the spot is, you can program this point into the GPS unit. Unfortunately, without knowing where the spot is, GPS is next to worthless. It tells you where you are, and even where you are headed, but it doesn't know where you need to be unless you give it this information.
Please take the time to learn to spot, and practice this skill on the ground. It is not at all unheard of in this sport for a bad spot to set off a chain of events which ultimately results in injury or death.
Blue skies, and welcome to the wonderful world of Narcotic Nylon.
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