Funny how falling feels like flying...for a little while.

- song from Crazy Heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-66AcTo9TU

what a ******. simple aerodynamics would show that he'd still have a Vstall high enough to do some serious damage upon landing unless he's the bubble boy with a much higher wing area

Water slide obviously.

think of it like when a person on a halfpipe lands in transition and keeps going. Thats kinda what he wanted, personally I think some sort of circus net with with some sort of system so it slows you down from 100mph at a slow enough rate to survive the G's

would be even cooler with decepticons chasing you

^

believe it or not there is no crash after those huge adrenaline highs because it is immediately followed by a rush of dopamine after you land and the bigger the rush the more dopamine you get after
the only kind of crash you get is physical exhaustion from all the adrenaline

You sure? I would have guessed more like 1:1.

Depends on the suit, but it is about 3:1 on almost every one.

What's the airspeed/rate of descent? Could you fly level for a bit, and if so, for how long until stalling? What airspeed would you stall at?

The rate of descent is about 60mph. The forward airspeed is around 80mph. Obviously these speeds can change with the glider's body position, but if the person in the wingsuit is gliding at the standard angle it will be about those speeds.

When I previously stated that you cannot gain altitude I was wrong in a technical sense. You can gain altitude, but it would be for a very short time and your distance traveled would be shortened incredibly and your forward airspeed would decrease dramatically, ldo. If you are BASE jumping this would be a death sentence. If you want to gain altitude while jumping from a plane or helicopter go right on ahead. You could fly level and if you swoop and fly straight and level instead of trying to gain altitude it would be for a longer time, but again I would not suggest it if you are BASE jumping.

When you fly you can fly for distance traveled or for time in free fall. If you want to fly for a long time you would angle your body in an almost flare like motion. If you want to fly fast and a long distance then you would angle your body at a 30-45 degree angle towards the ground.

Stalling is a reduction of lift. This happens when a wing/blade/airfoil exceeds a critical angle of attack (The angle of the chord line to the relative wind) or you reach a certain speed. When you are gliding in a wingsuit there is no lift. If you decide to "swoop" then I would not know the exact speed where you stop ascending. Go on google and research it or go on a skydiving forum.

How can it have a 3:1 glide ratio if forward airspeed is 80mph and descent is 60mph?

There is lift on any airfoil, especially one that is not accelerating downward. I think you mean that there is no thrust on a gliding windsuit.

I have never flown with a wingsuit and have never taken any courses. I just know what my wingsuit friends tell me. The forward or descent airspeed may be wrong, but the ratio is definitely 3:1 for BASE jumping.

When you fly in a wingsuit you are controlling the speed of descent and forward motion... You are not ascending. That is what I meant by lift. Most people think that you have thrust and can fly like a plane or hangglider. My friends and most average people think that you do not need a parachute with a wingsuit.

so sick

somewhere online Jeb has posted his gps for his flights, has glide ration speed ect. I think is falling airspeed is closer to 30mph but 3 to 1 is about right

please stop doing that. you aren't even doing it most of the time, so the times you are it has to be conscious. i know it's an acronym, but please just stop it.

According to that 60 minutes piece linked earlier in the thread, it's 2:1.

2:1 is most common from a plane jump. 3:1 is going to be, for the most part, BASE jumping.

I was googling for one of these trajectory plots and found this wingsuit landing ramp concept: http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...sans-parachute

not really correct about anything
the glide ratio depends on a bunch of factors ranging from the type of suit they are wearing to their height and weight and it is not uncommon to see glide ratios above 4:1 in competitions these days with some of the best pilots
also it does not matter whether or not it is a base jump or a jump from a plane it has almost no bearing on the flight.
the vertical speed is usually somewhere between 30-50 mph and the horizontal speed is usually about 100mph on most jumps but those numbers arent set in stone and can go much lower and higher

http://www.flylikebrick.com/articles...glideratio.pdf

http://www.phoenix-fly.com/userfiles...dynamics_1.pdf

http://www.phoenix-fly.com/userfiles...dynamics_2.pdf

This is some of the best literature on the subject online.

fack i want to do this so bad, even though i know its almost impossible.

whats the general consensus on amount of time/$$ it would take to go from not skydiving once to full on wing suit base jumping?

$50k and maybe 2-3 years. Depends on how many times you get arrested and your rig taken by the police. Lawyers add up fast

read the thread.

Edit... great read with some sick vids, I am now interested in this topic.