People flying!!

[Quisling]

The universal word "Dude!" applies here, in many of its contexts.

[Wendy]

The universal word "Dude!" applies here, in many of its contexts.

You don't use it all the time?   

[Regulator]

Base jumpers = organ donors (if you can scrape enough of the remains together).

It's just plain dangerous and stupid.

[clarion]

Don't stand in the way of natural selection.

[Wendy]

In fairness, that's what many people say about cyclists.

[LEE]

I had no idea that those flight -suit things were so controllable, I swear they could pick flowers from the cliff-side as they fly past.

They must scare the living crap out of the occasional hiker (possibly worth carrying a huge Butterfly Net)

Huge potential for a spectaular death though.

[gonzo]

I had no idea that those flight -suit things were so controllable, I swear they could pick flowers from the cliff-side as they fly past.

They must scare the living crap out of the occasional hiker (possibly worth carrying a huge Butterfly Net)

Yes officer, I was mugged. Yes, that's right; it was a man who flew past me and plucked the phone right out of my hand. No, flew. Like a bird. Oh, about 50miles an hour I should think. What do you mean; 'was I drinking'?

[andrewc]

That sequence is from a DVD called "Seven Sunny Days", which is apparently mostly Extreme Skiing.  I went to their website and one of the first things you see is an appeal for funds for one of their friends who had a spinal injury earlier this year 

A quick google shows that you are expected to have minimum 200 freefall jumps before going near one of those suits...

My local skydiving club charges £300 to get you up to your first short freefall, (un)fortunately I'm over the 15st maximum weight limit 

A few years back I was riding around North Wales and stopped for a 2nd breakfast in Tremadoc.  The guy who cooked and served my bacon & eggs was Eric Jones, the mountaineer & photographer who is now an enthusiastic base jumper. There was a sequence of headcam shots on the wall showing him diving off the 1000ft Nebo TV mast http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/259341  on his 50th birthday.  There is a short video of him here <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SlG0l9xT-Do&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/SlG0l9xT-Do&rel=1</a> with good music 
   

[Jacomus]

Wanna do it! wanna do it!

[TimO]

I just read the Wikipedia entry for Wingsuits, and it makes interesting reading.

A typical terminal velocity wearing one of these suits is around 60mph, and with a typical glide ratio of 2.5:1, you're going to be doing 150mph horizontally.  However strong the wish to touch the side of the rock face would be, I'd suggest that at 150mph even a slight touch would probably break your fingers, and possibly send you into a likely fatal and uncontrollable spin for a very brief time before you collided with whatever you had just touched.

They also say that "The United States Parachute Association (USPA) recommends in the Skydivers Information Manual that any jumper flying a wingsuit for the first time have at least 200 jumps and be accompanied by an instructor, or 500 jumps experience to go without an instructor. ..." As others said upthread, they would need 300 freefall jumps to become qualified to learn how to use a wingsuit in this country, which I guess is comparable to the US.  This does make a lot of sense, since I suspect there are a lot of ways which things can go wrong with a wingsuit, and probably little time to correct them, so you have to be really comfortable with freefall, and not likely to panic.

Even reading the Wikipedia entry, it's clear that jumping from a plane vs jumping from a stationary structure is quite different, and requires radically different approaches to the start.  I guess if you get things wrong at the start, you've got very little time to sort yourself out before "splat".

The Wikipedia entry also links to an article about a guy who is considering landing one of these without using a parachute.  Gods know how they are planning on making sure the vertical speed is survivable.

It looks fun, but I don't think I've got the dedication, nerve, enough money, or sheer care and determination to get to the point of trying this out.

[nuttycyclist]

...
The Wikipedia entry also links to an article about a guy who is considering landing one of these without using a parachute.  Gods know how they are planning on making sure the vertical speed is survivable.
...

I'd wonder primarily whether there is a possibility of going from a stable near horizontal flight to trying to fly back up, but without stalling it. 

If going across a hillside then surely as the speed slows and you approach a stall you'd fall teh 6 inches out of the air onto the ground.  Safely.



But loving this picture