Okanagan_Jumper

Hello fellow wingsuit pilots. The Second WOWS Championship is this weekend at Skydive Perris. I have mostly completed the WingNut to a stage where I can use it in a race setting. I am not sure exactly what IAS I will use as a target during the distance rounds, but I am hoping to get a few practice jumps in tomorrow afternoon and Friday before the distance competition on Saturday. I'm not a skilled wingsuiter and WingNut isn't going to magically transform me into one. However, I am hoping it will prompt my best performance in the distance round. I might as well sit out the speed comp . Here is the latest poorly shot videohttps://youtu.be/NTHAwBbuy0U showing the airspeed guidance function in operation as I blow into the pitot tube. And a blog about WingNut by a techy writer: https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/01/10/why-this-guy-needs-a-helmet-full-of-tech/ Go Canada! Go John! Go WingNut! John Swallow Major WingNut "Design, Marketing, Testing...I do it all!" WingNut Industries Alliston, Ontario, Canada

More progress to report. I have the prototype successfully capable of entering the target airspeed on the helmet unit alone, without the need for connection to a PC. Previously I had to enter the speed on a PC and then load the firmware into the device. Now I can simply enter the target IAS with the aid of a couple of buttons and an LCD, and that becomes my target speed. The Flight Guidance/Flight Director function is mostly complete. I have the left and right vertical LED strips (15 individual LEDs each) on the visor indicating the pitch direction up or down to achieve the target IAS. The system will likely change several times before a final production version is in place, but one has to start somewhere. The flight testing program will involve successive flights at varying IAS. I hope to plot a CL/CD curve fairly quickly with the results. A line drawn tangential to the curve from the origin should give me my (zero wind) best L/D speed. (Subject to the usual caveat that it's not a rigid wing...) I secured the use of a grommet tool and for the C-RACE I installed two small grommets just inside of the gripper, and with the air of two nylon tie wraps, I secured the pitot tube assembly to the gripper. Lateral guidance capability towards a magnetic track or a magnetic heading is on the radar. I just need to squeeze a little bit more out of my code to free up some memory. That or leave the Arduino behind sooner than planned and graduate to a Teensy board. If flight testing phase goes as planned, I should soon have an electrical engineer and PCB designer working on getting something more robust for further testing. That's all for now. Short video showing the target IAS entry procedure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZuH4KAaRD8 Cheers, John Major WingNut Grand Poobah

So what do you target in order to achieve the most distance over the ground? A pitch attitude? How would you describe this technique to a student you were teching to fly for best L/D? With my WingNut, it will be quite simple, I would simply tell him/her to aim for a certain IAS.

Yes DHemer, I agree. I was in my Jedei 3TT at the time. Still ptltobsbly a stretch for my ability, but I think the assumptions seem valid. I just got my January schedule and I'm free the whole month so I'm going to to a training camp with Noah B and Chris G at Perris on the 6/7 of Jsnuary and spend the rest of the month training for the WOWS championship. I really hope I get some good solid data back for the C-RACE. John

Ok, given what you've said, can you tell me what the best L/D airspeed (SAS) is for the wingsuit(s) you wear?

Another photo of the ghetto max distance indicator (see attachment):

The first attempt I made at a best L/D instrument was in the July/August at CSC and Kapowsin. Here was my reasoning: The best, sustainable, and zero wind L/D (glide ratio) in top wingsuits/wingsuit pilots seems to be around 3.0 to 3.5 to 1. I chose 3.25:1 for me. Probably unrealistic at the time, but that's what I chose. This means for every 1 foot of altitude loss, the wingsuiter glides 3.25 feet. If you consider the above as part of a right angled triangle, where the hypotenuse is the glide path, the horizontal is the adjacent side (3.25) glide distance, and the vertical descent distance is the opposite side (1 foot), then the glide angle (not ratio) we are looking for is: tangent (glide angle) = opp/adj = 1/3.25 = 0.307 Using trig tables, the glide angle is 17.10 degrees This mean that if my body was aligned parallel to my flight path, I would have abody angle tilted down from the horizon of 17 degrees, at a glide ratio of 3.25:1. But I have a wing attached to my body. In an airplane or glider, the wing is attached at some angle to the longitudinal axis (specifically angle between wing chord line and longitudinal axis). This angle we call the angle of incidence. It is typically not zero. In a wingsuit we are constrained by anatomy. The wing looks to be more or less in line with body. The designers know the answer precisely. I assumed zero: the wing appears to be in line with my body, so an angle of incidence of zero. So, the wing and my body are both tilted to 17 degrees down, if they are in line with my flight path of 3.25 glide ratio. But is that likely? Well, for an average airfoil, the best L/D angle of attack is around 3 to 5 degrees, according to what I can generally find. What is the angle of attack? It is the angle between the wing chord line and the relative airflow. The relative airflow is defined as being equal and opposite to the flight path. Since we stated that the flight path is angled down at 17 degrees from the horizon, then the relative airflow is angled up from the horizon at this same 17 degrees. I assumed (big assumption) that the best L/D Angle of Attack was 4 degrees. Since my flight path is angled down 17 degrees, and my wing is tilted up 4 degrees (the Angle of Attack), this means that my body angle is in fact 17 - 4 = 13 degrees down. I tried using an app for the iPhone, a clinometer. This isn't the exact one, but it's similar: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiltmeter-advanced-level-and-inclinometer-free/id391287447?mt=8. It gives a voice readout of the angle of the phone to the horizon. I place it along my back and ran the ear buds from the phone up to my ears and listened to it out put my body angle as I flew. It was a challenge to get right so I scrapped that and went old school with a curved plastic tune and a ball bearing, see attached photo. I calibrated my body for 13 degrees down, and marker where the ball was in the tube and then used electrical tape to mark this target. I went cross eyed on those jumps. Anyhow, me, an admittedly crappy wingsuiter made the final round at CSC WOWS and the semi final at Kapowsin WOWS. Why? Because science bitch! The above techniques weren't perfect, but they got me into the ball park of best L/D performance. I am hoping that WingNut (which has the capability to measure body tilt angle, BTW) will help me even more. Sorry for the verbosity. John

Meh, I was grumpy in my reply. No offense at all. I thnk it is entirely possible, that linking IAS/TAS to GPS outputs will do just as you say. Currently, from what I understand, the competitors in PPC style competitions use altitude triggers generated by the FlySight to begin their"flare" into the competition box. I'm curious as to what airspeed or other type of target they are aiming for when they begin that flare. If you have an airspeed indicator, it's simple. Once you know (through experimentation, or establishment of a true drag polar curve) your best L/D airspeed for the suit you are wearing, you begin your flare and transition smoothly to that speed. Every time. Obvioulsy the consistent top podium perfomers in the PPC competitions have their techniques for transitioning to max distance and time speeds, what is it they are aiming for? The same will likely be true for the time competition in PPC comps. You enter the window and then smoothly transition to the the "minimum sink" speed (and configuration). Obviously, a change in body configuration will mean a change in the IAS/CAS relationship, as the pitot tube will be in a different orientation to the relative airflow. That said, different styles of pitot tubes are more forgiving than others in being slightly off of the relative airflow (thin walled open faced tubes are better than bullet shaped tubes). Interestingly, for a fixed wing glider, aerodynamics theory states that the minimum sink speed is 76 percent of the (still air) best lift/drag (max glide) speed. Obviously, this relationship won't hold due to the changeable wing shape and configuration of a wingsuit pilot, but it may serve as a starting point to gather data.

Well, that sounds sort of good in theory, but what (airs)peed are you having outputted by FlySight? Ground Speed (GS), True Airspeed (TAS), Indicated Airspeed (IAS), Calibrated Airspeed (CAS), or Equivalent Airspeed (EAS)? Not to be rude, but to a pilot, the above terms means something. And each (air)speed has its place in performance/operational consideration. For my immediate purposes, I am only interested in IAS, because I want to be able to glide the furthest. WingNut will also have the ability to instantaneously determine spot wind velocity, much like modern aircraft do, because it reoords magnetic heading, IAS/TAS, in addition to the GPS track and groundspeed. The attached photo is from a flight last night to Las Vegas. IAS is shown on the left (263/264 knots) and on right at top is shown Ground Speed 308 knots, TAS 463 knots, and wind speed 154 knots. At this altitude we fly with reference to mach speed, but once we are below about 25,000 feet it's all done with reference to IAS. GPS's are great navigational tools, but a GPS is not what we would call a primary flight instrument. To tweak the absolute best performance (distance) from a wingsuit, some means of knowing IAS is the way to go. All assuming of course that one is an expert wingsuiter (I'm not one). John

I have the same idea, only I went with Epson Moverio. I haven't done anything with them yet but hope to one day. They require an Android app to be written and then the sensor data would be uploaded via a Bluetooth transceiver. Once I get the system further along, perhaps we could see how Google Glass would work. The first version of the airspeed system used Bluetooth to transmit the data from wingtip to helmet.

All good points from both posts. And an IAS indicator wouldn't be the best idea for flicking. The same for when I'm doing close in formation with my dad and my uncle, dad is lead setting the pace and the rest of us are NOT on instruments, we are glued to watching the lead aircraft. The WingNut may not be the most suitable for all things wingsuiting, but it will definitely have its utility. Regarding changing body configuration, IAS will still be helpful if you consistently maintain the same configuration for that regime. For instance, one might have a body configuration for minimum sink (time competition in PPC) that is always the same. In this case, the IAS would be the same for that config, which is where the benefit will come from, the repeatability of the speed. Same for best lift/drag speed (distance in PPC). I bought a grommet tool today and hope to install grommets inboard of the gripper baton through which I will loop tie wraps to secure the WingNut body. This should be less destructive to the suit than removing the baton and replacing it with the WingNut. I hope to have the updated system ready for testing in early January. Ideally I would like to have the best L/D IAS determined by the time of WOWS late January. Back to the lab! John

"...even if the usefulness is not way up there." Why would you say that? I have 19,200 hours in the air flying things from gliders up to my present gig as skipper of a B737NG. I find airspeed indicators to be of great usefulness. How much experience do you have with airspeed indicators? Here is what topgunBASE has to say: http://topgunbase.ws/speed-and-aoa-faq/ "Low Angle of Attack = Safety and Options in BASE. Low AOA just happens to deliver different speeds for different suits and pilot combinations, so don’t get caught up in absolute speed numbers to compare arbitrary safety between pilots and suits. If wingsuits came with calibrated AOA sensors for each model of suit, we would all be locking onto tested AOA numbers for Best Glide and Best Endurance. We don’t have that just yet, so training by GPS and ‘feel’ are pretty much all we have for now." Since IAS(CAS) is a proxy for AoA, I should think that an ASI for wingsuit pilots would be quite handy. If you agree with the author at TopgunBASE... Cheers John

Hi Leeroy. WOWS competitions are great. At least the qualifying rounds are, I have not competed in the final round yet. It is an evolving format, but the enthusiastic promoter behind the idea, and the main sponsor are both committed to achieving an excellent product. As I may have mentioned above, the PPC style competition favors those who can dive very steeply and round out to decrease their vertical profile depending on the category (speed/distance/time) upon or just before entering the competition window. WOWS doesn't have the dive down component. Therefore, upon being given the signal to start the race (lead wingsuit rabbit kicking his feet up and down or something like that), all competitors have to go immediately to the speed for best distance or the speed that will get them across the finish line first. Th start of the race is not based on GPS coordinate. The aim of the lead wingsuit rabbit is to be headed in the direction of the target, preferably a road or runway perpendicular (90 degrees) to the race lane. This makes it an easy finish line. The judges analyze the FlySight GPS later to determine an arbitrary starting point (it's not critical where that is) and then compute a point on the road/runway that is 90 degrees to that starting point. The 250 metre race lane is based on a line drawn between these two points. To answer your question about the value of airspeed over groundspeed (which is what all GPS units output) I would say that an aircraft wing doesn't care how fast it is moving over the ground. That has as much relevance to lift production as does its speed in relation to the moon. The only thing that a wing cares about is its speed through the air. If the atmosphere was stationary, meaning no wind, we could use GPS to get absolute best performance. But that is not the case. What we need is actually an angle of attack indicator. But that is a technical challenge. Most modern jets have a means of calculating angle of attack, but it actually IAS, or indicated airspeed, that pilots use (if not at higher altitue using Mach Number). It turns out that every angle of attack (AofA) has one and only one unique IAS associated with it for a given weight and aircraft configuration. Additionally, there is one and only one AofA at which an aircraft (wingsuiter) will glide the farthest, in zero wind conditions. It doesn't change. Therefore, assuming a wingsuiter has a consistent good body configuration (as TopGun Base and Matt G are calling it) when in perfomance mode, there should be one and only one IAS to achieve this best performance, in zero wind. So, how to get this IAS? That is why I have been working to make the WingNut.

Until I can get a Heads Up Display (HUD) working for a skydiving environment, I am searching for ideas on how to output speed. One such idea is to use an LED strip light system on the helmet where the pixel represents where the vertical path/target is in relation to the skydiver. If the pixel is above the center mark, that means the wingsuiter has to increase his pitch attitude (raise the "nose") to slow down. If the pixel is below the center mark, that means the wingsuiter must decrease pitch attitude (lower the "nose") to increase speed to achieve the target. Two minute video to illustrate the idea here: https://youtu.be/ER0fJwR7g1M With this method, the wingsuit pilot would have to input the speed target prior to exit. It would not supply absolute units, only pitch guidance towards achieving the target. John

My photos were too big to upload. Here is a poorly shot 2 minute video showing main components. I am working on visor display so it is not shown. If I didn't mention earlier, I use separate GPS from FlySight to get a time stamp that matches FlySight so I can analyze data easily for things I am not recording. https://youtu.be/0BHYYTsouj0

Hello. Since entering my first wingsuit competition this past summer, the Wide Open Wingsuit Series (WOWS: www.wingsuitrace.org), I realized that, in addition to an obvious need for coaching, I also needed an airspeed indicator (ASI). I'm a sucker for instrumentation, but also I recognized that if I wanted to achieve the most performance out of my flying, I needed an ASI. I've read the various articles coming out the last few years from people like Matt G., (and the other manufacturers/experienced wingsuiters and the info on TopGunBASE, and I fully understood their focus on angle of attack. When I started wingsuiting a few years ago, I too though that staying aloft for as long as possible was the name of the game. But that was wrong. Most especially for wingsuiters in the BASE arena, low angle of attack (high speed) is where the safety lies. As a former glider pilot and light aircraft instructor, I know that over-reliance on instruments is a bad thing. We actually start flight training with concentration on the aircraft attitude: the relationship between the nose of the aircraft, and the horizon. Eventually, when mastery of that concept has been achieved, we introduce an instrument scan. After the final 2017 qualifying round of the WOWS competition this past August, I left Kapowsin with a desire to design an airspeed indicator. I had read the posts YuriBASE had made over the years, and appreciated thingshis efforts (the AofA vane, among others). Matt G brings up AofA often in his thoughts about wingsuit performance. It may or may not be known widely in the wingsuit community, but IAS is a good proxy for AofA. There is one unique indicated airspeed for every AoFA, for a given weight. For instance, in unaccelerated flight, an aircraft will stall at the same IAS (and AofA) for a given weight. Every time. In the WOWS competitions, I had no chance at the speed round. I simply do not have the training to compete at a high level. In PPC comps, which I have not done, it is a given that I could not be competitive: I simply do not have the ability of sustained high speed/high angle flying necessary to increase kinetic energy prior to entering the competition window. In the WOWS distance competition however, I made the final round once and the semi final once. This I attribute to a lack of understanding on the speed necessary to fly for max distance. PPC comps rely to a large degree on flying steep then efficiently rounding out upon/prior to entering the window. WOWS has no such prologue: the signal is given, then everyone must go immediately to that IAS that will give the desired maximum performance. But how determine that performance? I suppose if we always flew in zero wind aloft conditions, we could, to a degree, use a GPS like FlySight. Which all brings me to the WingNut. After 14 weeks of solid work, I finally took to the skies yesterday in a prototype airspeed indicator. It is a work in progress. I did two jumps yesterday, and the first one proved that a helmet mounted pitot tube was a bad choice. That was almost a given. The second jump however, brought encouraging results. For that jump, I used a pitot tube mounted inside a turkey baster chassis, that I placed inside the space where the gripper goes on my left wing, this on my Freak 2. The Freak 2's gripper is very nearly aligned with the longitudinal axis of the jumper, allowing as accurate a meaure of stagnation (total) pressure as possible. The total and static pressures were routed via tubes to the differential air pressure sensor inside the body of the turkey baster, and then that electrical signal was routed via wires in the arm wing to the helmet mounted processing MCU. The means of displaying airspeed is yet to be finalized. I have a few options. Stand by for further. I believe what I have designed is very similar to what was suggested somewhere in this forum in the last year or two. It is not revolutionary, but at least for me, it provides, or will provide, what I need: a means to improve my performance in the coming WOWS competitions. I see no reason why the same device would not also be helpful for those competing in PPC style competitions. So far I have the WingNut recording airspeed and other data at a rate of once per second, based on the time signal from the GPS unit. This allows marriage of the data from WingNut to that of FlySight, allowing a true portrait of aerodynamic performance. Some have asked if WingNut is necessary, given all the data FlySight supplies. I think yes. My day time job (and sometimes night-time) is that of a commercial airline pilot. We make use extensively of GPS for enroute navigation and for stand alone RNP and GPS overlay approaches. But to keep the aircraft flying at its highest and most economical and efficient performance, we need IAS. We certainly have TAS at our grasp, but when Air Traffic Control asks us what our speed in descent (or the climb) is, we most always reply with "xxx knots indicated". Anyhow, lots of words. I'm just happy that I have a valid proof of concept, and will work even harder now to work out the kinks. I'd like to throw down the challenge to anyone else who has an interest in such pursuits to see what they can come up with. It's not rocket science, although I'd appreciate the assistance of any rocket scientists out there. The following data is the IAS readings taken at 1 second intervals during my 2 minute 20 second flight overhead Eloy yesterday. I wasn't consciously trying to maintain any speed or attitude. I was trying to incorporate the advice Matt G gave me prior to the first WOWS competition back in May in Georgia. There was stuff about legs and torso and, well, stuff. In any case, the data seems to me, to accelerate and decelrate faily smoothely, with no completely wacky outliers. Wish me luck in moving forward. Who knows, maybe the product reaches fine skydiving retail providers in the future. Or not. Cheers, John Swallow Head WingNut and Lead Program Designer The WingNut Company Alliston, Ontario, Canada [Two 5 Zero] Two Zero 8 - Seven Four 6 Two [email protected] WingNut test flight #2. Dec 15/2017 Eloy, AZ. Freak2 wingsuit. WingTip mounted pitot tube. Knots Indicated Airspeed (KIAS): 74 74 73 72 74 73 74 75 78 81 83 84 84, 85 85 85 86 87 87 88 90 90, 89 89 90 91 92 92 93 94 95 96 97 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 100 100 100 99 99 99 100 98 98 96 98 98 98 99 97 97 97 98 98 98 99 98 97 96 94 94 92 92 92 91 90 89 90 90 90 91 92 92 95 96 96 96 96 94 92 92 91 89 89 89 91 92 92 92 91 90 90 90 92 92 92 92 91 89 89 89 88 89 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 86 84 84 84 83 85 85 87 87 86 85 85 85 85 84 84 81 78 78 74 73 72 72 74 75 73 73 70 63

I have only a few flights on my ATC but I would echo the comments above. It is a very nimble yet powerful wingsuit. And very fun. My Strix allows me to roll over and backfly without a thought as to what I am doing. The ATC, however, is forcing me to learn how to backfly properly.

I have 2 Horizons. The 190 replaced a Pulse 150 (which packs small) in my RI Curv VC3, and I have a 170 which replaced the Pilot 132 that was in my Curv VC1.

I saw this Jedei 3 suit yesterday with just the handles showing and I am wondering what the safety/regulatory issues are, if any. Is it allowed to jump it at all USPA dropzones? Not trying to start a flame war. Here is a dropbox link to a photo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gwjblfx3oky3rl3/Screenshot_20170317-144608.png?dl=0

I broke my Tibia Plateau into several fragments 17 days ago while jumping tired and hungry and performing a manoeuvre I hadn't received instruction on (270 to final). I wish there was a shoe that would soften the impact of landing as well, but I'm looking ato upsizing my canopy and sticking to plain Jane vanilla approach and landings. Nothing beats instruction and the ability to remain teachable. Good luck with your recovery. John

Hello. First forum post here ("Beer!"). I just purchased a complete brand new (0 jumps) rig from a friend. Unfortunately the collapsible slider (canopy: Pulse 150) flaps excessively and noisily when I collapse it. I am worried about the wear this is causing. The risers have caps which I believe prevent me from bringing the slider down and behind my neck, which I haven't done before (I'm at 570 jumps). The portions of the slider outboard of the slider ties inflate and this is what is flapping. Question: is this normal? And will it go away as the slider gets more use? I have 15 jumps on the setup. Thank you John

Your info seems the same as what I've since found. Thanks for the reply.

Hello. I am flying to Lihue, on the island of Kauai, tomorrow, for a very short stay. Does anyone know if fun jumping takes place anywhere on the island? Thank you