Aviation Wingsuit Thread

[garuda]

Wingsuit flying is the sport of flying through the air using a wingsuit which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift. A wingsuit pilot enters free fall wearing both a wingsuit and parachute equipment. A wingsuit flight ends by deploying a parachute. While the parachute flight is normal, the canopy pilot must unzip arm wings (after deployment) to be able to reach the steering parachute toggles and control the descent path.

Gliding terminal velocity is between 110 to 140mph. The glide ratio now is about 3:1 --- meaning for every 3,000 feet of forward gliding motion, 1,000 feet of altitude is lost. So theoretically, when typically dropped from an altitude of 14,000 feet, the wingsuit pilot can glide about 27,000 feet (~ 5 miles) depending on wind conditions aloft, before deploying the parachute at about 5,000 feet.
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Wingsuit pilots below are lined in staging area waiting to load up into aircraft. They all spread-eagle for the photo:

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS
• 70.0 mm
• ƒ/4.5
• 1/320 sec
• ISO 100

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Pretty interesting stuff. That suit really makes them look like the human equivalent of a flying squirrel