High Altitude jumps with wingsuits

[Waldschrat 0]

I think twice over a 6000m or 5000m wingsuit jump.
I have a lot of questions.
If there mans with experiences with this type of jumps in this forum?

If so:
Did you use oxygen in freefall?
Wich clothing did you wore?
In your subjektive temperature feeling: Nice jump or fucking cold?
When you wear a GPS and/or freefall logger: Speed between 4000-6000m horizont./vertic.?
Opening altitude and freefall time?
Wich suit did you jumped?

Thanks in advance!

[Professor 0]

I've done, I think, 3 HA jumps with wingsuits. One was a solo in a classic, from just over 20000 ft, and I think I got around 3:40 for freefall time. Your speeds will be higher at the top, but I don't have data saying how much higher. I've also done a couple flocks from 18500 ft or so.

It's always colder, but it'll depend on your location and ground temp. I think the rule of thumb is 1 degree (farenheit) per 1000 ft. Never have used oxygen in freefall, it's not really needed unless you're going up really high. All my altimeters (analog wrist mount and audible) were a bit off way up at the top, but came back to accuracy during the freefall.

Dress a bit warmer, wear your normal suit, breathe the in-aircraft oxygen, don't chatter like a bitch all the way to altitude, and pull at your normal altitude, and you'll be fine.

Have fun.

Ted
Like a giddy school girl.

[Buried 0]

from a jump at 22k ft in my firebird, no oxygen was used for the free fall. and i just wore a long sleeve shirt and cargo shorts with gloves, others bundled up more, but i was fine. it would really depend on gound temp tho. that jump was 80deg F on the ground.We were playing around so our FF times ranged from 190 sec - 240 and pulled at a higher alti (5k) (usually pull 2.5-3) due to distance from the airport and clouds

Lurch was trying for time on that jump and he got almost 4 mins on a gti

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[Tonto 1]

I did one in AZ from 20 000ft. It was mid winter.

Suit was an S3, clothing underneath normal stuff.

Freefall time was 3m 56s with an opening at 4000ft.

It was a lot of fun. Fortunately the spot was terrible cos the 3 dudes doing head down took their O2 off at about 13000 ft and started to mess with goggles and helmets and stuff, then argued about how to get a 3 way head down out the King Air. We had a straight flight back after that. They landed 7 miles out.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[lurch 0]

Yup, that was me, guilty as charged.... My Neptune missed the first few seconds, video told the truth. End result:
22,300 ft. FF time by video: 03:55.
Suggestions:
Gloves are a must....I didn't think it through, expected it to be at least tolerable, 80F on the ground, turned out to be about -20f at altitude. I had to ball up my fists to keep them from flash-freezing.
Suck your O2 till the very last second and DASH for the door.
And I'll tell you the same thing other birds told me... save your strength for the second half of the flight, you'll need it. Try to max out your min fallrate right out the door at that altitude and you'll exhaust all the oxygen stored in your bloodstream long before you reach breathable air. Just get out, gasp like a fish, get wide and relax for a while. If you're flying any of the bigwing suits the same holds true but much much more so. A GTI is relatively easy on the arms. I find flying anything bigger than a GTI is a hell of a lot more work, trying to stay maxed out in a V-1 or an SF3-6 for that long would be total hell.
And have fun! High altitude WSing gets you into the very, very, very small ranks of those who have freefalls of well over 3 minutes... for everyone else without wings, the only way they're getting a flight anywhere near that long is exiting from over 40,000 feet.

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[KrisFlyZ 0]

Definately wear gloves and dress for the cold.
If the airplane you are jumping out of has a simple hose running out of an O2 bottle ( and not a sophisticated system like Mullins airplane)...try to sit near the bottle .

If you are looking for the longest freefall time fly in a straight line faced into the wind the entire time if possible with a slightly headhigh position.

Kris.

[The111 1]

Quote

If you are looking for the longest freefall time fly in a straight line faced into the wind the entire time if possible with a slightly headhigh position.

Wind direction/magnitude has no correlation to your fallrate or airspeed - only your groundspeed.

Even if what you were suggesting would give you longer freefalls, there is another small problem with the idea - in order to fly in a straight line, into the wind, for the entire jump, you'd have to exit far downwind of the spot. Not a great idea.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[lurch 0]

Agreed...the other thing I'd disagree with is the slightly head-high tip. For "float" flying I'm lying down flat on my air with my head tucked down below my shoulders like a vulture. For "fast" flying I'm ever so slightly head down, verging on atmonauti flying attitudes. Aside from momentarily during openings or high speed exits, theres never a time while WSing that a head-high attitude does me any good. It is just like a tracking dive in that respect, Kris....the surest way to take yourself out of a tracking dive is arching and craning your neck to look up at the formation you're trying to get back up to. The more you go head-high the faster you drop away below. I could show you video of a guy in an SF3 trying and failing to stay with a couple guys in GTIs because he kept his frontend reared up, looking up at us as he dropped away below, even though he had his wings fully open. If you're trying for long fallrate with your head higher than your feet, you're flying a dynamic tailstall, going nowhere fairly rapidly, and sacrificing -easily- 25-35% of the suit's capacity.
My.02$

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[GeordieSkydiver 0]

I did a 23,000ft Wingsuit jump at WFFC last year, it was about my 6th WS jump. I did 3 minutes 20 something, and then my arms fell off.

We had O2 in the aircraft (Mike Mullins King Air) and it was a most enjoyable jump.

Lee _______________________________

In a world full of people, only some want to fly, is that not crazy?
http://www.ukskydiver.co.uk