Wingsuit Flying - Anyone interested?

Rane

So I've decided to dedicate a good amount of my time and resources to learning Skydiving and Wingsuit flying over the next year or so...

I have a few friends who are gonna do some of this with me. Some are just gonna come for the Tandem jump, others are gonna get licensed up a few levels aswell, but I havn't found anyone willing/interested in eventually learning wingsuit after I've completed 150 jumps.

I'm starting from scratch, so anyone who's interested in joining us to get licensed, or possibly eventually learn wingsuit (Which will be training for atleast 2+ weeks in France since they don't teach wingsuit here in Ireland), let me know

Our Tandem jump will most likely be the 28th of April, and then I'll be started level 1 - 7 AFF training in late May/early June.

I would hope to be trained and complete my 150+ jumps by Mid August and then continue onto wingsuit training after that.

So if your interested in joining us, send me an email for more information

Email: JackCreane@hotmail.com

PS. This isn't going to be a short process, or a cheap one. But if you have time and are willing to spend some money, this could be a good time to do something you've always wanted to do

Chevolution

If only I had the money to do something as awesome as this

Rane

Here's a good graph to show the steps that we'll be taking in order to complete all the training

http://wingsuitschool.com/learn_wingsuit.gif

We'll be taking the Quick route with Accelerated Freefall training

Here's a different video I found with some highly experienced Wingsuit flyers from Phoenix Fly and AdrenalinBase, amazing stuff:

http://vimeo.com/35368665

celtic-chick

I'm starting from scratch, so anyone who's interested in joining us to get licensed, or possibly eventually learn wingsuit (Which will be training for atleast 2+ weeks in France since they don't teach wingsuit here in Ireland), let me know


They do teach wingsuiting in Ireland.There are a few Phoenix-Fly Wingsuit Coaches (PFC's) up at the IPC.Here is a link to their facebook page.http://www.facebook.com/?sk=welcome#!/pages/Wingsuit-Ireland/234590703282982
It might save you some money:)

ted1

That's a lot of jumps to get in. Think you may have to change your timeline.

Rane

That's awesome celtic-chick thanks for the heads up, I wasn't aware of this!
And since I'm planning on doing mostly all my training with IPC it's good to hear they have people experienced in Wingsuit

And yeah Ted my timeline may be a bit off, but we've decided to do the Tandem sooner hopefully so that I can have AFF completed sooner, then dedicate most of the summer to getting my solo dive count up to the requirements. I'll be putting alot of time into this so hopefully the timeline should be doable.
But I'm in no rush, I'd rather have it done right than quick

Thanks for all the comments so far

celtic-chick

If you have your heart set on doing AFF.I would skip doing the tandem & go straight to doing the level 1 of the AFF.That way you will know if you like it or not & you would have your first level completed:)

Rane

I dunno ha, level 1 AFF is a dive with 2 instructors guiding you in air about stuff yeah??

Think I'd rather do my first one tandem just to get used to the general feeling of it all before I'm required to release the parachute and stuff myself.

Would be cool during the tandem if I could get used to controlling/guiding the parachute for a little while after release aswell. I think that would make it more likely for me to complete level 1 with ease.

Besides already got a few friends wanting to come for the tandem with me to be there for the start of the journey, and if they enjoy it possibly continue with me through AFF

Are you a member of IPC??

celtic-chick

No i'm not a member of the IPC my husband is.He is also one of the wingsuit coaches:)

Good luck with your tandem & AFF.They are all a nice bunch of people up at the club.

declanmoffit

You'll find plenty of people on the same wavelength as you once you get jumping after your AFF. Good to have lofty goals Dude! Definitely one of the best and most refreshing hobbies out there - nothing like the first jump after a few months, blows the cobwebs away nicely

Keep in mind there are lots of other busier DZs around Europe where you can make lots of jumps over shorter amounts of time than are logistically possible in Ireland. But you'll come across all that yourself............

Just enjoy

Blue skies

xflyer

Seriously man, get yourself very experienced in skydiving before you look to do the wingsuit stuff. You've set yourself a very high standard. It's tough to do that in Ireland if only for the weather.

Tandem is nothing, most wingsuiters are at the high end of the experience levels.

You will have to go to France or Spain or the US to get your experience level up to standard.

If you seriously want to do this you need to forget the rest of your life. I know a lot of skydivers. They have no life outside their obsession.

I've watched a wingsuiter leave my aircraft. it's amazing to watch. You can wave to them as they formate with you for a moment.

Rane

Hey Xflyer
Yeah I'm very aware of the intensity that it's going to require to get to wingsuit level. But I'm only 20 years old, I've got plenty of time to go through all the necessary steps to get there, and once I'm there to get even better. Also with the career I'm in I have a lot of spare time to dedicate to put towards learning a time intensive skill such as this one. So I don't think I'll have any issues getting this done. I've done my research and I know everything I need to do and how long/difficult it will be, and I'm still certain of doing it all.

And yeah declanmoffit, I think I'll definitely head off on some 1 or 2 week holidays to various other DZ's to get more jumps quicker and experience some jumps in different climates and stuff as well before learning Wingsuit

justin_lucas

Hey, I would agree with Celtic-Chick, and not go with the tandum. With the tandum you wont be controlling anything.. just sitting there. Its grand if you just want to get used to the feel of free-fall but after that.. it wont do anything for your planned learning curve.

Just finished my Level 1 over the weekend and was a blast.. 1 days training then you get to jump. Weather will be your biggest problem. (if you have the funds)

Am interested in doing something like what you are planning but ill be taking a bit longer to do it.

Best of luck with it.. might see you out in the DZ

jimmurt

Hi Rane,

I jump at the IPC and there are experienced wingsuit coaches there who are running the first fly course (FFC) at the moment.

I could be wrong (someone correct me if I am), but I think the requirement to start the course is 500 jump min or 200 in a 1.5 year period. It could vary depending on the course/coach (think the lads in the IPC are Phoenix fly).

Getting to 200 jumps living in Ireland is very difficult and you'll need more than 2/3 weeks away to help achieve this. You'll need ideal weather to get through you're AFF course alone as you'll be on student status.

All going well I might do the course in September if I can get plenty of jumps in over the Summer.

Good luck with your AFF.

PS there are plenty of other things you can do on route to 200 jumps (relative work for example). You might get into that instead.

declanmoffit

*tracking - skydiving that's going places

Danny.B

If its wingsuits your into then check this out, it has to be the best flight ever filmed by a mile

gigino

Danny.B wrote: »

If its wingsuits your into then check this out, it has to be the best flight ever filmed by a mile

great youtube. looks great fun but not for the faint hearted.

Danny.B

the fella that made that crashed in janunary at the same jump site and got multipe fractures

lucky to be alive

RedFly

Declan, the requirement is 200 jumps.

Celtic-Chick, who is your husband? Can I assume it's Liam?

Rane, I am a skydiver, wingsuiter and a member of the IPC. I am not a FFC or PF coach.
I did my first wingsuit jump 9 months after my first skydive and have done quite a few since. ( Here's my first wingsuit jump, a little boring to look at, just doing exercises to pass the course https://vimeo.com/29118931 )

My advice.

1) Become a very competent skydiver and canopy pilot. I spent a LOT of money doing canopy courses and learning everything I could about actually flying.

2) Learn as much as you can about your gear. I have a wingsuit modification to my rig and wore my wingsuit around the DZ for a while. I also had my first cutaway on jump 73 which scared me enough to want to learn more about my gear and emergency procedures. Wingsuiting is a different animal and is subject to different malfunctions.

3) Go somewhere that's not Ireland. I travel around the world going to different DZs. Chasing the weather Most of my jumps were done in Florida.

4) Get wingsuiting out of your mind for now. There's a LOT to learn about skydiving before you are going to be ready. It's going to take time. If you do it in Ireland, it's going to take a LOT of time. I've dropped wingsuiting for a bit while I learn more about different styles of flying. All of which will help my wingsuiting.

5) Join the IPC and speak to the coaches there. They know everything there is to know about wingsuiting and can give you better advice on a progression path than you'll get here on the internet.

6) If you have a wife or kids, forget it. If you PLAN on having a wife or kids with someone outside of the skydiving world, forget it. The biggest surprise to me when I started was how close the skydiving community is around the world. LITERALLY, everyone knows everyone. It's very easy to get COMPLETELY sucked in.

7) Most skydivers try wingsuiting when they are ready. MANY realize that it's not for them. MANY find it boring (I can SOMEWHAT relate).


Finally, those videos are wingsuit proximty flying. A variation of base jumping. Don't mean to burst your bubble but you will NOT be proxiimity flying after anywhere NEAR 200 jumps!

xflyer

6) If you have a wife or kids, forget it. If you PLAN on having a wife or kids with someone outside of the skydiving world, forget it. The biggest surprise to me when I started was how close the skydiving community is around the world. LITERALLY, everyone knows everyone. It's very easy to get COMPLETELY sucked in.

Never a truer word spoken.

In fact most of the above.

bog_savage

I love your attitude Rane , you will fit in well in the IPC . Im an AFF instructor so im sure ill bump into you down there .

My advice for you when you have such definite goals is skip the tandem and go straight to AFF . I think the next AFF course is April 14th .If you call the IPC they can hook you up . Once you have done the 7 levels you can jump solo , then learn to do formation dives with friends . Dont get too caught up in clocking up jump numbers fast , rather learn everything you can . There are a lot of world class coaches in the IPC who are willing to pass on their knowledge to anyone who wants it .

There are lots of different disciplines in skydiving , if you dont get distracted by them and still want to fly wingsuits , I would recommend a tracking suit after 100 jumps or so . They feel like and perform like early wingsuits but dont restrict your arms and legs so dont compromise your safety , and they are a BLAST to fly .

As others have mentioned , Ireland is cursed by weather so its difficult to jump as much as you want , however you can visit dropzones in sunnier countries and do 50 - 100 jumps in a week . Members of the IPC regularly organise such trips so im sure you will hear about em once you make a load of friends there .

also FYI there is a bunk house on the dropzone so you can stay for the weekend , from now on we jump from sun up to sun down so all the adrenalin addicts stay there rather than loose precious minutes driving home and back ;p

Rane

Thanks for all the comments so far everyone!

I did the tandem over the weekend at the IPC with one of my mates.
Everything went fine and I loved it...

Next stop AFF:D

skydivedemon

@ Rane:
Welcome to our world. Speaking as a Wingsuiter (& Irish Wingsuit Coach), it's definitely worth aspiring to. As Bob has already stated, don't get hung up on jump numbers, just enjoy the ride! Each & every jump will be a learning experience as well as the thrill of your life! Eventually (after minimum 200 jumps in a period of 1.5 years, or 500 jumps total) you'll get to the point when you'll be eligible to fly a Wingsuit & experience yet another skydiving discipline & I guarantee that you'll be amazed!

FYI: BASE jumping & Skydiving are completely different sports. If you liked the Wingsuit BASE jump footage of Jeb Corlis then check out this fantastic footage from Phoenix-Fly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac0miuyXV4Q&list=FL9sCH3FuJqK3-t09GV-mUPg&index=15&feature=plpp_video

See ya in the sky ;-)

Blue Skies...

Rane

Yeah those guys are amazing.
This is easily my favorite video of Wingsuit flying ever...
http://vimeo.com/35368665

mac 21

Hi Rane, just checking how you got on? You've the same interest as myself (never did any jumps though) regarding this and wing-suit jumping...but for now for many reasons i can't pursue it but interested in how you're doing?

Rane

Hey everyone! Sorry for taking so long to give updates! Due to money constraints I had to hold off on the training in 2012, but I've been saving and we're going ahead with it all soon Me and 1 of my friends who has been doing the Tandem's with me are going to start and complete AFF in June. Anyone who's interested in joining us for AFF training send me on a private message and I'll get back to you with an update on when we're starting.

It would be amazing if we could get a small group of 5 or 6 people who were interested in completing AFF for a solo license; And possibly continuing on to come to France or Italy to fast track solo dives to start wing suit training with us.

Anyone interested give me a shout and we can talk about it more

soul_jd

hey man, read your post about looking to learn wingsuit flying, well what im doing at the moment is for charity, And I've set up a project called project 25 and its for the share a dream foundation here in ireland, and one thing im doing is 25 skydives in one week, its all for charity too so its for a good cause, but afterwards I'll be looking to get into wingsuit flying.

miker1983

soul_jd wrote: »

hey man, read your post about looking to learn wingsuit flying, well what im doing at the moment is for charity, And I've set up a project called project 25 and its for the share a dream foundation here in ireland, and one thing im doing is 25 skydives in one week, its all for charity too so its for a good cause, but afterwards I'll be looking to get into wingsuit flying.

Are you doing 25 tandems or solos? How much is it costing?

soul_jd

miker1983 wrote: »

Are you doing 25 tandems or solos? How much is it costing?

Hey man, Because its all for charity and im trying to prove the point that I can put myself through an activity that wil be quite demanding, same as the families that im raising the money for, im doing my first practice jump in about 2 weeks which will be a tandem, then when the challenge starts ill be doing them all solo, your talking 5 jumps a day over five days, first 2 out of this challenge will be tandem, about 4 of em will be static line and the rest all solo.

if you wanna know more about it, facebook it, project 25, 25 skydives.

also my contact details are on it if you would like to talk with me personally on the matter.

take it easy bud.

jimmurt

I've decided to take the plunge and do a Wingsuit FFC. I live in the US so hoping to do it at a DZ in South Carolina over the next 2/3 months.

The place I'm doing it at has a 200 jump minumum policy. They also rent suits long term so you can get a few jumps until your belt at your own DZ before you invest in a higher end suit.

I keep you updated with progress once I start.
:):D:D:D:) :pac:

Rane

soul_jd wrote: »

Hey man, Because its all for charity and im trying to prove the point that I can put myself through an activity that wil be quite demanding, same as the families that im raising the money for, im doing my first practice jump in about 2 weeks which will be a tandem, then when the challenge starts ill be doing them all solo, your talking 5 jumps a day over five days, first 2 out of this challenge will be tandem, about 4 of em will be static line and the rest all solo.

if you wanna know more about it, facebook it, project 25, 25 skydives.

also my contact details are on it if you would like to talk with me personally on the matter.

take it easy bud.

Sounds great man! You'll definitely have a good few more dives racked up than me by the time I start AFF ha... But if your planning on continuing on for Wingsuit then I'll probably see ya around the air field and might catch up with ya!

jimmurt wrote: »

I've decided to take the plunge and do a Wingsuit FFC. I live in the US so hoping to do it at a DZ in South Carolina over the next 2/3 months.

The place I'm doing it at has a 200 jump minumum policy. They also rent suits long term so you can get a few jumps until your belt at your own DZ before you invest in a higher end suit.

I keep you updated with progress once I start.
:):D:D:D:) :pac:

Good luck man! Definitely let us know how ya get on! Would love to follow someones progress through their training... Once I properly get started on this I'm gonna try and document as much of it as I can from the start all the way until I reach Wingsuit level.

stoneruile

I was searching for wingsuit Ireland and found this thread.

I went to spain in 2009 with a friend to complete my AFF. Having never skydived before it was something that terrified me. That was why I went. To concur my fear. I though that once I got the first jump done I would absolutely love it. I got the first jump done after being grey in the face and sweating all the way up in the plane. I was certain I would die.

I got out of the door and loved it. I went up three times that day. On day two I had a bad level 4. Not really terrible but my body position made me unstable and I needed to redo the level. Something in my brain went and the fear set in. I did no more jumps. I came home without the AFF. It was gutting for me. I was extremely disappointed in myself.

However, since then I could not stop thinking about skydiving / wing suiting. Literally every day I think about it and watch youtube videos. Last year work were organizing tandems for charity and I went down and did one. I have the bug again and plan on doing my AFF this year. Not out of fear but because I know that skydiving is something that I need to get into or I will regret it. My circumstances have changed. Kids, job etc. but I will be doing it this year.

I would be interested in going down with you man. It would be good to have a couple of people to do the course with.

PeakOutput

Dont be in such a rush to get a wingsuit on. Rushing as fast as you can to get to 150 or 200 jumps so you can do a singsuit jump is such a waste of 150 jumps.

Jump as much as you can, jump with people who are better then you as much as you can and keep your mouth shut and listen. Forget about exactly how many jumps you are on and one day you will be filling in your log book and you will notice you will have hit your target and can do a wingsuit jump that day or the next. you will be a much better all round skydiver and less likely to kill yourself on any type of jump not to mind a wingsuit jump.

When I started all I wanted to do was wingsuit as well, all the videos I watched were wingsuit videos and I thought it was the coolist **** ever. 1000 jumps and a few ratings later and I still havnt done more than 1 wingsuit jump because everything else is so much fun, so much harder and so much more exciting. I am sure I will do more wingsuits in the future and probably own my own but there is so much fun to be had without one.

Dont pidgeon hole yourself so early. Find out if your a skydiver first, then get some experience and learn to fly your body do some hop and pops and learn to fly your canopy. You will be far far better off in the long run

edited to add some videos of people showing what you can do when you dont limit yourself to wingsuiting from the start.

http://vimeo.com/47990336

http://vimeo.com/50068318

http://vimeo.com/31140586

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfTex1HCib4

and also any video by jokke sommer with dreamlines in the name is worth checking out

jimmurt

stoneruile wrote: »

I was searching for wingsuit Ireland and found this thread.

I went to spain in 2009 with a friend to complete my AFF. Having never skydived before it was something that terrified me. That was why I went. To concur my fear. I though that once I got the first jump done I would absolutely love it. I got the first jump done after being grey in the face and sweating all the way up in the plane. I was certain I would die.

I got out of the door and loved it. I went up three times that day. On day two I had a bad level 4. Not really terrible but my body position made me unstable and I needed to redo the level. Something in my brain went and the fear set in. I did no more jumps. I came home without the AFF. It was gutting for me. I was extremely disappointed in myself.

However, since then I could not stop thinking about skydiving / wing suiting. Literally every day I think about it and watch youtube videos. Last year work were organizing tandems for charity and I went down and did one. I have the bug again and plan on doing my AFF this year. Not out of fear but because I know that skydiving is something that I need to get into or I will regret it. My circumstances have changed. Kids, job etc. but I will be doing it this year.

I would be interested in going down with you man. It would be good to have a couple of people to do the course with.

You should definitly give it another go man. I was in a similar position. I failed L3 twice and stopped jumping for a while.

About 9 months later, I decided to give it another go (as much cos I hate giving up as anything else).

I did some wind tunnel and went to Spain to finish the AFF. Flew through the rest of the AFF. The tunnel is a great tool for jumpers of all experiences. Instructors from the IPC run regular tunnel camps over in England. Check out the IPC facebook page as well as the 'Project 4way' facebook page. Five Irish teams will be competing in the largest indoor comp in the world this weekend.

If you fancy a return to Spain, Empuria Brava now have a wind tunnel on site so you can do time in the morning and jump in the afternoon. What more could ya want :pac:

DipStick McSwindler

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justin_lucas

When you say "get into" do you mean just trying it out.. or to actually learn to jump on your own?

If you just want to give it a go, try a tandem jump. They are easily organised can be done through a charity.

If you want to learn now to jump your self. It would cost about €1100 (discounts available if you book the whole course) and then a little more to have a licence.

Check out http://www.skydive.ie/packages/learn-to-skydive/accelerated-free-fall-aff/ for more information, other courses are available in different places though.

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.