4 ms·
Wingsuit pilot & programmer here. The reason Wingsuit BASE Jumpers keep dying is that you shouldn't jump your wingsuit off a @#$%ing mountain. Please stick to t
by crispytx 9y ago
Wingsuit pilot & programmer here. The reason Wingsuit BASE Jumpers keep dying is that you shouldn't jump your wingsuit off a @#$%ing mountain. Please stick to the planes and the helicopters that you're used to.
- altotrees 9y agoYeah. I remember reading about Dean Potter dying at Yosemite. For someone who had taken calculated risks his whole climbing career, it just seemed like such a reckless and dangerous way to go. Sad.
- King-Aaron 9y agoI also imagine - not that I know much about the sport - that the uptake in popularity has both increased the number of people attempting the sport (likely without adequate skill), as well as people performing more risky manoeuvres in order to garner attention to themselves?
- rhcom2 9y agoIsn't that not BASE jumping then?
- joelrunyon 9y agoBuildings Antennae Span Earth You can pilot a wingsuit from a plane or much higher, but most of the people that die wingsuit flying are proximity flying - which has way smaller margin for error and higher mortality rate.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y agoIts safer than regular base jumping provided you don't try to strafe tree and hilltops and cliffsides. These jumpers are trying to do ever riskier stunts all for the clicks.
- c0nducktr 9y agoI don't think it's all for the clicks, if it's like any other dangerous sport/hobby. It's for the rush you get doing it. The feel of being right on the edge. It's an addictive feeling, and it can trick you, because you know it's dangerous but you're always come out of it fine, great even, until you don't.
- benjaminRRR 9y agoThis is a very good point. Unlike other sports - when you push you can be hurt badly, but ultimately learn from your mistake, proximity wingsuit is one-mistake-one-kill.
- ehnto 9y agoThat's how motorcycle accidents were explained to me. It is perfectly fine until it isn't, because there is so little room for error that it can only be fine or a crash. That was for motorcycles where accidents are survivable and things are much more in your control. For low wingsuit flying those last two points are both questionable.
- kobeya 9y agoI will call bullshit. There is no way it is safer to hug terrain than to jump at altitude from an airplane.
- KGIII 9y agoThey said safer than BASE jumping, though they didn't capitalize it. BASE jumping is jumping off stuff, not out of stuff. It is an acronym. Building Antenna Span Earth, I think.
- kobeya 9y agoI'm aware of what BASE means. Grandparent post was comparing BASE jumping to wingsuit skydiving out of airplanes and helicopters. Parent said that BASE jumping off of mountains could be safer. I called bullshit.
- SomeStupidPoint 9y agoI know nothing about wingsuits -- how are they used from planes and helicopters? Do you just jump and then use a parachute when you get low enough?
- amenghra 9y agoCorrect. A few people have landed with their wingsuits, but that's pretty rare. Look up Gary Connery or Jeb Corliss for example. You are still going pretty fast, you need ideal terrain (angle, water or boxes), and a hundred things have to go perfectly fine. It's a pretty insane feast.
- joelrunyon 9y agoYup - instead of freefall, you "glide." Then pull your chute whenever. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VIbrVVQRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VIbrVVQRw
- avenoir 9y agoSo I think the article is about Wingsuit Proximity Flying, and what you're describing is Wingsuit BASE Jumping. Are these two considered 2 separate, albeit similar, sports? Can any pilot practicing BASE Jumping leap off a cliff or do you somehow train for this?
- manarth 9y agoCan any pilot practicing BASE Jumping leap off a cliff or do you somehow train for this? Technically, all that's needed is money to buy a wingsuit and a parachute, and a cliff. Without training, they might manage to get the wingsuit operating properly for some of the flight, but I wouldn't want to see the odds of a successful landing. The general training arc would be to learn wingsuiting from an aircraft (like a regular skydive), and build up hours/experience flying a wingsuit in clear air (and deploying a parachute several thousand feet above the ground), before going into wingsuit base jumping (and build up experience there before going into prox). There's some more detail in this Quora answer: https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-take-to-become-a-wingsuit-flyer-How-do-people-practice-something-that-could-so-easily-turn-deadly-How-do-people-pinpoint-the-right-terrain-What-kind-of-physical-strength-do-people-need-to-resist-the-wind-and-hold-themselves-even https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-take-to-become-a-wingsuit...
- DrScump 9y agoHere is a trailer for a great short film on the topic: https://youtu.be/X6zxtGyZFSE https://youtu.be/X6zxtGyZFSE What struck me about the profiled jumpers was their calm, sane demeanor -- not the showboat thrillseekers I expected. BUT, most seemed unsatisfied by the experience when minimizing risk. To me, being 100 or more feet from terrain would be the experience of a lifetime. But many leaders in the sport keep pushing the envelope to a fatal degree (and in each example it was terrain, not equipment failure or weather).