Wingsuit base jumping - Page 4 - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

KPowers · 10-09-2011, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shelldonahue

Normal wingsuit jumps, out of an airplane/heli, are almost as safe as skydiving. There is a slight increase of risk, but not by much.

The comparison between regular wingsuiting and base wingsuiting is incredible. It can be highly dangerous and those doing proximity jumping have the highest rate of death then almost any action sports that I can think of.

Since you know a lot, how good/bad is my idea to wingsuit off a bridge over a wideass river.

brendoh · 10-10-2011, 12:13 AM

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...n5374843.shtml

60 minutes did a story on this a couple years ago with some insane footage

ntanygd760 · 10-10-2011, 06:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carpediem200

In theory yea i'd love to learn abit more about it and do one, but reality is im probably too much of a pussy to actually jump. I don't know any base jumpers hence why i've asked in a poker forum if anyone has any experiences to share and no I don't have my own rig.

I've just seen a vid on youtube where one of the worlds best at the time goes 120mph into a bridge, along with the reported deaths, the danger is obviously very real. I think i'd be more inclined to do it out of a plane or in a very open space to avoid crashing into any objects. One thing is for sure though, if you did have the balls to jump and landed safe there is probably very little that could compare with that rush....

the dude who went into the bridge was one of the worlds best base jumpers but he way more of a wingsuit noob. Although the under the bridge stunt is fairly easy compared to some of the flight paths in the op vid

ntanygd760 · 10-10-2011, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KPowers

Since you know a lot, how good/bad is my idea to wingsuit off a bridge over a wideass river.

jumping off a bridge with a wingsuit would be pretty pointless. It takes them like 400-600 vertical feet just to get enough speed so the wingsuit will glide. I suppose if the bridge was over 1000 feet (don't even know what the tallest bridge is) then you might get a few seconds of flying.

ntanygd760 · 10-10-2011, 06:12 AM

If someone is serious about base jumping check out bridge day. Also the potato bridge is where you can make an easy first jump and the local police let you jump as long as you let them know first.

fredericksburg · 10-10-2011, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IcyHotMonkey

wonder how many years until the redbull wingsuit race course.

This won't come as much of a surprise but they already sponsor some events and competitors.

scotchnrocks · 10-10-2011, 10:51 AM

What is the glide ratio on these suits? How much control do these guys have over gaining a little bit of altitude when they need it?

Shelldonahue · 10-10-2011, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KPowers

Since you know a lot, how good/bad is my idea to wingsuit off a bridge over a wideass river.

Bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scotchnrocks

What is the glide ratio on these suits? How much control do these guys have over gaining a little bit of altitude when they need it?

The ratio is about 3:1. 3 feet of forward flight for every 1 foot of descent.

You cannot gain any altitude while in one of these suits... Unless you happen to have a rocket strapped on your back.

benza13 · 10-10-2011, 03:11 PM

yesterday's xkcd is topical:

sledghammer · 10-10-2011, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shelldonahue

Bad.

The ratio is about 3:1. 3 feet of forward flight for every 1 foot of descent.

You cannot gain any altitude while in one of these suits... Unless you happen to have a rocket strapped on your back.

It seems like they'd have a lot of induced drag; is there a pronounced ground effect?

Shelldonahue · 10-10-2011, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sledghammer

It seems like they'd have a lot of induced drag; is there a pronounced ground effect?

Ground effect would only happen about 3 feet from the ground. Unless you are trying to land without pulling your chute there is no ground effect.

Ground effect is an increase of lift and a decrease of drag... Or an increase of lift without an increase of power. This happens about a wingspan away from the ground in a fixed-wing airframe or about 1.5x the blade length of a rotor airframe.

atakdog · 10-10-2011, 04:57 PM

I'm surprised they seem to have no ability to stall them, or even temporarily alter their glide ratio much in exchange for speed. They're more in controlled falls than flight; seems a bit more surface area would give them a much bigger set of possibilities (but less speed, and probably huge control issues).

gusmahler · 10-10-2011, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atakdog

I'm surprised they seem to have no ability to stall them, or even temporarily alter their glide ratio much in exchange for speed. They're more in controlled falls than flight; seems a bit more surface area would give them a much bigger set of possibilities (but less speed, and probably huge control issues).

brendoh · 10-10-2011, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sledghammer

It seems like they'd have a lot of induced drag; is there a pronounced ground effect?

Not really a ton of induced drag, since it's a function of lift^2 and you aren't even lifting your body weight. Although i guess you have a stubby aspect ratio.

sledghammer · 10-10-2011, 08:16 PM

The stubby aspect ratio plus the high angle of attack makes it seem like it'd have a lot. Maybe not enough to use ground effect practically, but maybe with some smoke devices on the feet they could get some cool vortex pics.