Wingsuit Pinchecks

[mccordia 73]

http://news.flylikebrick.com/2009/06/wingsuit-pinchecks.html

We placed a new article on our website, explaining a wingsuit pincheck for non-wingsuit flyers. Seeing as a wingsuit still gives many (non-ws) skydivers puzzled looks during pinchecks.

Sincerely

Alejandro, Costyn en Jarno
www.flylikebrick.com

p.s.
When we initialy wrote this article (in Dutch) FlockU released a similar document, which made us postpone the release of this one. So sorry for the wait (for the people that helped on writing and spellchecking this one).

JC
FlyLikeBrick
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[phoenixlpr 0]

Nice article! But the title is a bit misleading. Its more about gear check and other issues.

[mccordia 73]

The title 'pincheck' refers to the standard gearcheck everyone should do before boarding an airplane, and (in this case) aimed at the non-wingsuit flyers, who usually have some difficulty understanding what it is they are looking at.

JC
FlyLikeBrick
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[Titanium_Gecko 0]

Cheers Mccordia!

Useful to see it all written down clearly.

www.gathhelmets.co.uk
www.flyyourbody.com

[tr027 0]

If it is available with the software over there, it may be quite beneficial for the Europeans to use the spell check feature when authoring documents in English. Also the last point about WS always being last out is incorrect.

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957

[mccordia 73]

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If it is available with the software over there, it may be quite beneficial for the Europeans to use the spell check feature when authoring documents in English.

Im writing most stuff in wordpad, which doesnt have spellcheck.
But did miss doing a proper spellcheck before exporting. My appologies, Its been fixed. Instead of 'Europeans' its also fine just using 'jarno' as a name when you have comments..

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Also the last point about WS always being last out is incorrect.

Please do elaborate..

Putting CREW and/or high pullers out last puts them in the path of wingsuit groups exiting before them in case of (intentional or un-intentional) opening hesitations and/or canopy malfunctions.

Having people potentialy freefall through a group of wingsuit flyers.
Something Ive been 'priviledged' to witness firsthand 5 years ago. So definitely something that can happen (and will happen again if not carefull).

Where-as putting a wingsuit group out after all other type of jumps always means there is no danger of this happening if wingsuits stick to flying a normal left or right hand patern.

Granted, some experienced flyers may choose to exit before other groups/type of dives for specific reasons. But doing so is not standard procedure, and should not be advocated as the normal way of doing things.
Putting wingsuits out last is always the safest option.

But of course always interested in hearing how its handled elsewhere and for what exact reason its deemed safer to exit before normal freefallers/highpullers.

JC
FlyLikeBrick
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[tr027 0]

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Please do elaborate..

Putting wingsuits out last is always the safest option.

But of course always interested in hearing how its handled elsewhere and for what exact reason its deemed safer to exit before normal freefallers/highpullers.

Well that topic already has a couple thousand posts, here's a few:

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1596061;search_string=exit%20order%20wingsuit;#1596061

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=279080;search_string=exit%20order%20wingsuit;#279080

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957

[mccordia 73]

Adopting 'wingsuit is last' as the standard method of operations works (which was also the general line of thought in the threads you point to), but it DOESNT mean you should take all thought out of the paterns flown.

Exit badly in a wingsuit (steep flight) and you can trail a plane and get a next high-puller on top of you in case of opening issues or a cutaway he/she experienced.

Again, having seen one personaly, and heard several stories from others on freefallers exiting after wingsuit flyers, and having some nasty close calls...(and having not seen or heard any the other way around), for 99,9% of all dropzones, wingsuits out last will be a safe method of working (and looking around, is whats writen on the paper in the back of most planes already anyways as the prefered method of exiting).

But everyone (of course) is always free to shift and change the exit order on his/her load if it makes him or her feel more comfortable.


The biggest issue with most 'pre-wingsuit' exit orders (that squeeze wingsuits in somewhere) is that they only account for seperation under canopy. Staging traffic during landing. And in that case, it would make sense to have CREW exit last.

But thats completely ignoring potential collisions/dangers in freefall. Which (to be) have a higher priority. Seeing as wingsuits will still be landing before the crew guys, even when exiting directly after eachother.

Safety in freefall and avoiding potential collisions (again, multiple cases of this already!) is higher on the priority list than having a few more canopies to watch during landing.

Only on certain special CREW jumps with far, far exit points, a shift in exit order might be in place. But then you're talking outside of standard operations in terms of jumprun and spot.

JC
FlyLikeBrick
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[tr027 0]

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Adopting 'wingsuit is last' as the standard method of operations works (which was also the general line of thought in the threads you point to),

If by 'last' you mean before CF/hop n pops, then yes, those threads say that.

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Exit badly in a wingsuit (steep flight) and you can trail a plane and get a next high-puller on top of you in case of opening issues or a cutaway he/she experienced.

Exiting badly in WS can also cause you to unexpectedly join the CF formation that exited before you.

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But everyone (of course) is always free to shift and change the exit order on his/her load if it makes him or her feel more comfortable.

Very true, this is another topic that has been discussed for years with still no broad consensus.

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957

[mccordia 73]

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If by 'last' you mean before CF/hop n pops, then yes, those threads say that.

The first post I read all pointed towards wingsuits being last, and that being standard operations on dropzones such as Perris (and picking most EU DZ's where Ive jumped.....Empuria Brava, Spa etc etc. and even Russia) its all wingsuits after CF/CREW.

And usually when CREW does exit last, its for (stupid) reasons that have more to do with the number of canopies during landing. And less with the way more immidiate danger of freefallers/delayed openings meeting wingsuit flyers in freefall. Something thats happened more times that funny alreayd.

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Exiting badly in WS can also cause you to unexpectedly join the CF formation that exited before you.

Only if you dont take a decent time between their and your exit.
If they (CREW) do the proposed clear and pull that most CREW guys should be doing, its impossible to catch them.

But going that route, if you fuck up a wingsuit exit bad enough, you can potentialy catch up with ANYTHING that exited before you.

As you also mention, though no real, 100% definitive 'this is how it is' on exit order has been agreed uppon by everyone, you must also see that having wingsuits exit last (combined with a bit of normal common sense in exit delays and flight patern) will be a safe method of operating for all dropzones.

All the discussions and what-if scenarios everyone is not sure about can always be incoperated in a future revised version if needed..

JC
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