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MichaelVick

How Low Can You Fly a Wing Suit?

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is survival of the essence ? You could add a few secs if that isn't of any importance ... you're not planning any greenpeace or other stuff invasion anywhere ???? :S



LOLWUT?

http://www.benbunan.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/greenpeace.jpg

Edit: No, I'm with da blackpanthers and I'm planning an invasion of Connecticut. We're going to pull off a heist of tennis rackets and polo t-shirts. Fo real cracker.

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With regards to quick acceleration in a wingsuit, the main aspect of wingsuit choice is assuring they have fast colors. Reds mixed with oranges or yellow and always a bit of black typically allow for near instantaneous thrust.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk2wViKSh_M

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You could staticline it...



With that caveat allowed, then the lowest I've heard of in a wingsuit is 160 ft.



http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2568/154/43/672241601/n672241601_1466346_219934.jpg

Fastpete "flying" his prodigy2 from 33m (109ft) for a first ever wingsuit base jump in Finland. :) The height was lasered (somebody will ask anyway).
http://www.ufufreefly.com

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A long time ago I saw a documentary on wingsuits. I loved it and I knew I would fly one some day. It took a decade before I even started skydiving, and another 6 years before buying a wingsuit.



You saw a documentary on wingsuits over 16 years ago? :o
www.WingsuitPhotos.com

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A long time ago I saw a documentary on wingsuits. I loved it and I knew I would fly one some day. It took a decade before I even started skydiving, and another 6 years before buying a wingsuit.



You saw a documentary on wingsuits over 16 years ago? :o


There are some docu/tv-items, showing bits and bobs of the old pioneers.
With their tarp/wooden dowel constructions. The Eifel tower FAIL-blog entry being the most common one...

Though not sure that would be anything remotely interesting, in terms of showing actual flight and getting you exited about it...(suicidal tendacies aside)

I have some black and white 'air to air' (shot from another plane) and 'ground to air' footage on some flights by Clem Sohn that shows some nice (definging it as flying) forward movement. But nothing that would really want to make you go oooh and ahh, and rush into flying/making one yourself. Also havent seen the footage used anywhere for any type of video/movie/docu, so not entirely sure thats the thing either..

Most likely is the docu (called 'the skydivers') on the old movie 'Gypsy Moths' (1969), showing some crude wingsuit style flying.
Its on the DVD (available at Amazon etc).

Worth buying!
JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

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A long time ago I saw a documentary on wingsuits. I loved it and I knew I would fly one some day. It took a decade before I even started skydiving, and another 6 years before buying a wingsuit.



You saw a documentary on wingsuits over 16 years ago? :o


Rough guess on the decade part. I don't remember how old I was but it had to be before high school that I saw the documentery. I began skydiving at 20 and wingsuit flying at 26. So if I was (guessing) 14 when I saw it, then it would have been in 1996. So you are correct and the decade would be more like 5 - 6 years.

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Ok the first thing you got to do is forget about how intimidating, expensive and impossible it looks to become one of us. It is not necessarily a rich man's sport. Denny's probably isn't going to cut it but if you've got a skill you can use to get a job in the 16-20$/hr range it is possible to create a life in which you can skydive every day, at least for spans of a few weeks in the summer.

I did it on a low level industrial technician's pay. A combination of good circumstances, planning, and an insane amount of hard work made it possible for me.

Here's how.
I was living in a car, starting from nothing working in a carnival when I found what would become my home dropzone 5 years later. I wound up settling in the area. When I did move around I stayed within 10 miles or so of the DZ. All the jobs I've worked since I started jumping have also all been close by.

So.
Decide what you can do that pays best.
Find job doing it within nearby driving distance to a dropzone. This is crucial. If you can live within 10-15 miles of a dropzone it means you can be there all the time.
Find apartment within same range.
Settle down and work for 6 months to a year. Spending as little as you can. No toys. No movies. Cheap food.
Save. Thousands. Then, when you think you have enough, go out and just do it, spend the money recklessly at the dropzone every weekend for months during the summer, blast through all of jump school to your first license nonstop. It is important to commit totally to it, the more hardcore you are the greater your odds of success via fast learning curve. I made it to my first license within a couple months. I was out at the DZ constantly and was flying my first wingsuit by 18 months in the sport. I also knew people who stayed stuck as students forever, showing up to do one jump every two or three weeks, only get halfway to licensed by the end of the season, start over next season having forgotten most of what they learned last year, half the jumps they do make are repeats of last years lessons, in a season or two they give up and fade away.

Once you're in, and have your A license and have mastered basic skydiving survival, you're over the hump. Jump your ass off for the next 200 jumps. I did shitloads of overtime and established a habit of what I call "hit-n-run missions" on weekdays... Wake up, shower coffee grab gearbag, haul ass out to DZ, jump once, twice, gear in the car and go to work.
This got me wingsuit ready by late in my second season jumping. Its been another 1500 jumps almost all of them wingsuit, since then. The hit n run missions continue to the present day. Flying wingsuits became a lifestyle, a thing I did so constantly for so long that living like that actually became NORMAL. By 500 wingsuit jumps I was modifying suits for more performance and by 1000, designing and building my own completely from scratch. I attended every major wingsuit flying event I could afford.

I'm far from wealthy. I've made a shitload of money as an industrial tech and ain't got a damn thing to show for it except a jeep, a pile of obsolete wingsuits I flew to rags, a beat up camera helmet, a reputation as a bit off the edge even among wingsuit pilots, an army of friends all over the world of the highest quality, a head full of years of memories of the most glorious epic adventures imaginable, and a grin that'd scare the shit outta Satan himself.
I'm happy with that. Whats money for?
If you make it far enough to be a wingsuit pilot and make a lifestyle out of it, theres other side benefits. Getting comfortable with wingsuit flight does a lot for your confidence. You'll have ninja skills. You'll be able to handle anything and fear nothing. After the epic shit you will have gone through to get there, absolutely fucking nothing will intimidate you including things like the word "impossible". Impossible is for people who can't fly. And if you take care of the people who help get you there, you'll find you've got a whole lot of friends to party in the sky with.
Now go fly.
-B



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Lurch, you are one cool fuckin' dude. This is about the third or forth post of yours I have read and been totally inspired by.

Like this one...for the OP

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3596123;#3596123

I have 3 Grand saved up and by the time I have 4 or 5 it will be getting warm where I'm at...hope I have the chance to buy you a beer some day or share some sky with ya. Preach on! There's a lot of you ass monkeys on this site that ought to read Lurch's posts and learn a thing or two about content. Just sayin'...

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