Gideon Yampolsky

I own ATC2, pretty happy with it and intend to keep it for any-style flights. But I’m considering to buy additional, larger wingsuit for single purpose – to stay longer in air. No acrobatics, no base and no flocking with it, just cloud surfing as long as possible. Which one will be better for this purpose – Freak or Colugo ? Or there are other brands which are better matching my purposes ?

Indeed my intention is to stay high above terrain. I booked Eiger WS flights, which is considered skydiving rather than BASE. Obviously there are still several dangerous situations which can develop, such as quick loss of altitude due to bad exit, or flying in wrong direction. Are there other dangers which I should be aware of ?

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for.

Can somebody recommend skydiving clubs in Alps area (Switzerland / France / Italy) which offer wingsuit jumps from helicopter and have well established flight lines over terrain at safe altitude ? By “safe altitude” I mean that terrain has slope similar or steeper than WS descent angle so if I will exit at 3000 feet above and will fly in the right direction, I will continue to stay at the same altitude above terrain all the way down until deployment.

Photos of helmet with Vufine HUD installed and connected to smartphone. The display of application running on phone is mirrored to Vufine. A lot of work to properly install it in helmet.

Great, thanks ! I will post update as soon as I will have chance to test it in flight.

Maybe I will end-up with RPi, but meanwhile seems that smartphone applications are working pretty well. Their accuracy is better than mine ability to exploit accuracy advantage :-) But presently all tests I did were by car running up/down the hill, not sure it represents well enough wingsuit flight conditions. I’m awaiting for HUD arrival to test these applications in real flight.

Nice to meet you. BASEline is cool application and porting it to Google Glass creates excellent instrument for wingsuit. I decided to take somewhat different implementation path, which allows me more flexibility in selection of proper application. Application will run on smartphone while smart glasses will be used only for display. There are several available displays, for example Vufine+ and Epson Moverio. I think Vufine is the best match, because it less obscuring peripheral vision. With this hardware setup I can try several available applications to find the best match. I ordered Vufine display yesterday, $200 new on Amazon. In recent days I played with several applications (still without Vufine). I tried Aircraft Cockpit, GoFly and BASEline. For first impression I simply drive the car up and down the hill, which was sufficient to create vertical and horizontal displacement for GPS of my Galaxy S8. Here are my findings: All 3 applications provided reliable real-time data. Aircraft Cockpit Pros: very aesthetic dashboard, clear readings, easy to understand during the flight. Cons: Out of 6 displayed instruments, only 3 are relevant (HS, VS and ALT). Altimeter is absolute, not relatively to ground and cannot be preset. No glide ratio. Maximum of VS scale is 10 m/s, insufficient for wingsuit, unless you are flying CR+ :-). VS scale limitation is major drawback, rendering this app useless for wingsuit. GoFly Dedicated for paragliding. Pros: displays all relevant information: HS, VS, Glide, ALT. Can be configured (through Android display settings) in the manner that relevant information will be dominant on the display screen. Cons: readings are ugly, not arranged well on the screen, require focused concentration to grasp. Overall a good candidate for wingsuit flight. BASEline Pros: dedicated for wingsuit. Displays all relevant information. Also displays additional information which (for me) may be relevant in future. Cons: readings are not clear. In NAV screen they occupy small rectangle. Attempt to increase font size through Android display settings make readings truncated. In ALTI screen readings are too small and cannot be resized. I’m planning to use this app first when Vufine display will arrive. Clarification about emphasis on readings clearness To avoid obscuring of peripheral vision, display should be located on eye’s edge, so it would be almost out of view when person is looking straight forward. Eyeball movement and refocus is required to check readings. In this case small, poorly arranged readings will require significant attention, affecting usability. It will work properly only if user can catch information in brief glance.

Smartphone GPS is limited to 1Hz rate. But accuracy also matters and in newer phones accuracy is better. Also it is possible to connect external GPS, which can sample at 10Hz rate. I would like to test some existing applications for a start. Are there any applications you recommend ?

Very impressive. Pity they abandoned it, I believe that with some additional effort it could be excellent WS gadget. Recon doesn't exist anymore, they closed 2-3 ago. Yet, it doesn't resolve my current need of functional WS HUD :-)

It was just a concept, they never implemented it.

I don't find any information about it. Can you share a link ?

I’m planning to make HUD dashboard for wingsuit flight. IMO, most important information to display is vertical and horizontal [ground] speed and airspeed. It will also be nice to know glide ratio and altitude. Flysight cannot read aloud so much information, so it should be displayed visually. There are several options for implementation, and I’m wondering if somebody already tried and have insights what the best option would be. The optimal solution IMO is to take smart glasses display (Vufine+ for example) and connect it to smartphone running one of paraglider’s or airplane dashboard applications. So GPS and barometer readings will be made by smartphone, converted to visual readings by application (Aircraft Cockpit Demo for example) and transmitted to smart glass display to be seen during wingsuit flight. There are other options, including Epson Moverio for display, Arduino for hardware, and developing application software from scratch. If somebody has experience or opinion, please share.

I think it is also matter of packing, especially how slider was packed. It can significantly change opening speed.

I asked Atair yesterday. They say ZP Winx packs 5% less than Storm of the same size. Ordered Winx today :-)

Sure, skills are most important factor. But assuming maximum skill I'm (or somebody) capable to achieve at present stage, the equipment still has its impact.

Thanks everybody for detailed and informative answers ! I now have much better understanding about relevant options. What about glide ratio – is there significant difference between mentioned canopies ? The glide ratio of Storm is truly bad. I recall several events when I followed other guy in formation, and in the middle of flight paid attention that he is not heading in right direction, taking us too far from dropzone. I then left formation and tried to reach dropzone, which turned out to be impossible. The funny thing is that there was no point to deploy at higher altitude – descend angle of ATC was more or least same as of Storm, so riding back on canopy would take me no closer to dropzone than riding there on wingsuit. Such events ended in long walking. But it is not just a matter of walking, it is a matter of safety. Terrain around certain dropzones (I usually jump in Spain, Russia, Israel) is not friendly for random landings. I would prefer canopy which, if deployed high enough, can take me back from distance. Is there any comparative information about glide ratio of canopies which are on WS short list ?

Seems that I have to change from Storm to something else earlier than I thought. I see recommendations for several models in this thread, but I’m not sure what should be the right one for me. Reading specs in canopy manufacturers web-sites doesn’t help either – according to them all their canopies are perfect. Can somebody please recommend specific canopy which will best suit my needs ? The things which are most important for me are soft, reliable openings (with wingsuit) and safe landings. Maybe also good glide ratio. I don’t care about canopy flight performance, I’m not sporting canopy flight, but rather just want to land safely.

I want to share some experience I had with Storm, which is relevant to this discussion. I bought Storm canopy 2 years ago, more or least the same time when I upgraded to ATC. I immediately fell in love in it, due to its flying performance and its robust stability during landings. But I also paid attention to two problems. One is its low glide ratio. If you deploy relatively far from landing spot, there is a chance that you would not be able to get there. You must be careful and alert about you opening location. The other problem was its response to line twists. Even with minor line twists it tended to turn aggressively. But usually after half turn it stabilized and I could take care for twists if any, which was not a big deal. I considered it as minor issue. In general my openings were fine and I did not found a reason to consider other canopies or different deployment procedures. Well, two weeks ago I got “surprise”. After very usually deployment I found significant (but not too bad) line twists. Canopy made one aggressive turn. I expected that it will stabilize. But it did not. Instead it made another aggressive turn, and then another and so on. Turns had significant vertical component, I found myself almost upside down on every turn. I tried to open line twists, but it did not work. Every time I managed to open one twist, the canopy made another turn and added one twist more. After 15 (!) turns and only 2000 feet to ground I eventually decided to cut. Landed in the middle of village. Outcome: I completely changed my deployment procedure, with intention to eliminate line twists at all. And most important - I’m no longer trusting Storm. Its tendency for aggressive turns is not a minor problem, it can develop into very serious situation. I will continue to use it for a while, with much more care. But my next canopy would not be Storm.