Photo by Jarin Bontrager
Wingsuit flying is something between skydiving and hang gliding with a special suit that filling the space between hands and the body and legs, some call it Birdman suit or Bat suit. With wingsuit, the skydiver can reduce the vertical speed and move horizontally in freefall so the airtimes will increase and it will end by opening a parachute in the right time and attitude for landing. Flying with a wingsuit needs special skills, in the U.S. at a USPA Group Member dropzone, you’ll need to complete at least 200 jumps in 18months or 500 total jumps to fly a wingsuit for the first time.
The first guy who attempts to fly with a wingsuit was Franz Reichelt who jumped from Eifel tower in Paris and died hitting the ground in 1912 then Rex Finney did it during skydiving in 1930.
The speed record of flying a wingsuit is 396.86 Km/h and was made by British wingsuit pilot Fraser Corsan in 2017.
Wingsuit Base is to fly a wingsuit from a solid object like a cliff. Flying very close to the terrain is called proximity flying. Some people say it is the most extreme sport ever.
To fly a wingsuit you need both wingsuit and parachute. A parachute rig contains the main canopy, reserve canopy, lines, risers, container, pilot chute, ADD and the other Things you need for skydiving are Helmet, Goggles, jumpsuit, gloves, … but Parachute in base jumping is a little different, for example, skydiving rig has two parachutes and base rig have one, different packing, no D-Bag, no cutaway handles, no ADD, big pilot chute, two pin system, faster opening and …
Most popular companies to supply wingsuit are: TonySuits, Phoenix-fly, S-Fly, Squirrel, Birdman.
Most popular companies to supply parachutes rig are: Aerodyne, Mirage, UPT, Sun Path, Icarus, Parachute Systems, Precision Aerodynamics
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