Stupid questions about wide leg wings

[Hagen 0]

are you a flying squirrel or a falling squirrel?

[bdrake529 0]

Tristan must have had really bad head-winds and Luc almost none at all. Despite Yuri's contention of 0.5:1, most flocks I've taken GPS recordings of are in the 1-1.5:1 range. The glide ratio of a performance wingsuit flight vs. track (in the same conditions - wind) isn't even comparable.

There may be some really good trackers that could give some really crappy wingsuiters a run for their money, but that's a weak comparison. Take the best tracker vs a merely competent wingsuiter on the same jump and the wingsuiter won't break a sweat in getting much further than the tracker.

That is in comparing glide ratio. I've personally found that I can get faster ground speed tracking than I can in a wingsuit. But the slower fallrate in the wingsuit more than evens it out to a significantly better glide.

Back to the original thread derailment, the first two definitions of "fly" in my OSX dictionary widget are:
1. (of a bird or other winged creature) to move through the air under control

2. move or be hurled quickly through the air

Which as commented before, can apply to straight down freefall as well as wingsuiting.

So post AFF, we all fly. Some of us just glide a little better than others (straight down < tracking < wingsuit < everything else practically).

Brian Drake

[Butters 0]

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Back to the original thread derailment ...

I'm not sure if I should be ashamed or proud of how fast I derailed this thread ...

"That looks dangerous." Leopold Stotch

[Deniq 0]

Gravity is our only engine! Speed is our only friend!

Every jumper use potential energy given by altitude and the exit weight. How you use this energy is the second question, but the energy balance equation is the same for all jumpers

[aerogray 0]

The Main word is Drag! Drag brakes skydiver form continuously acceleration and takes away some energy (practically – very very big part) form aircraft or glider…
so..
-if you take away Drag from skydiver (or bomb, for example) – he will be falling faster and reach the earth earlier.. – so he is falling..
-if you take away Drag form glider or wingsuiter (good wingsuiter – he will be flying 2 or 3 or more hours (good wingsuiter – so he’s flying …it’s simple

[DSE 3]

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Gravity is our only engine!

Unless you're Scotty Burns. He's got a built-in afterburner. Hope (for your sake) he doesn't ignite it til he's out of the door.

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Speed is our only friend!

ESPECIALLY if you're behind Scotty....

Add length to a wide leg wing... how much instability does this create? When will we see a 24" extension of the legwing coupled with stiffeners and individually tuned vents?

[Tony-tonysuits 0]

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but on the other hand the wider leg wing kind of 'brakes' the speed - I mean, its horizontal speed, isn't it?

I can understand how it can help at landing in base jumping... but still feel not sure about the cross like body position a pilot should get while flying a ws with wide leg wing on it's full range.

but I must be just wrong, and I'd like to hear some other counterarguments to make sure that I really am

I think your right, Like a free flyer spreads there legs to slow down.
I've done some narrower legs wings, but they take a lot of getting used to, very hard to keep a heading with a big "long" narrow leg wing.
But guys who have em that hated them when they got them now think there the faster suits.

we need rudders

Life is a series of wonderful opportunities,
brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

tonysuits.com

[PapaSmurf 1]

we need rudders

Crap, I need another suit !!!

[Trae 1]

in reply to "By flying your wingsuit in these updrafts you can significantly improve your gliding performance. How do you find and stay in updrafts? One way would be to exploit cloud streets. Another would be to use the ridge lift formed on the upwind side of cliffs on windy days. "
........................................

Wide legged wingsuits probably have an advantage with doing this.
As to catching updraughts :-some wingsuiters in the BASE community do this flying back from the no.1 exit point on Smelly to Lysebotn. In good steady wind conditions there is an updraught in places from the cliffs along the flightpath. If the cliffs have warmed up in the sun more updraught from thermals .
Using these updraughts some wingsuiters make the trip to the camping ground with ease .
Of course others splash short in less favourable conditions.

There must be a place on this planet with the combination of steep (soft) slopes or cliffs and steady high winds where it may be feasible to one day soar a wingsuit or at least do an extended ridge run on the updraught.
Has any-one ever tried kiting a (wide-legged )wingsuit ?