Wingsuit Games
I took a quick trip to Arizona last week, to visit my parents and also skydive.
We played a little game called (by me, anyway) Dock and Stack.
Our forward speed is about 80 to 90 mph in these wingsuits (both wearing Phoenix Fly Vampire 3’s).
The idea was to stack ourselves while flying….the reason this can be tricky is because there is a strong air force called a “burble” directly above and behind your legs while flying a wingsuit. So it’s easy to get caught in each other’s burbles and get tumbled down out of flight or boomeranged off across the sky. There’s nothing more annoying than getting burbled!
The trick to making a stack is to make sure the top person stays a little forward of the bottom person in the air, thus staying ahead of the burble. To do this, both people need to look at each other from above or below, and adjust speed and loft to stay stacked together without catching each other’s burbles. It seemed like a good idea to dock (grab hands) between each stack, just to keep organized, and also because that’s fun too. It’s always nice to hold someone’s hand while flying 🙂
On this flight we decided to dock, stack one of us on top, dock again, and then stack the other one on top, and then fly the dock, hand-in-hand, until it was time to break apart (about 4000 feet above the ground): Dock and Stack!
Whooooooaaaa! That is one of the most incredible videos I’ve ever seen. who were you flying with – is this a family affair? can getting burbled be dangerous or do you just get your bearings, stay upright, and fly out of it? I’m totally blown away (pun intended)! Way to be, Steph!!
It is a family affair, my brother flies the same suit as me!
In this clip I’m flying with my boyfriend, who happens to be using my brother’s wingsuit (we are both in V3s, that makes it nicer to fly together rather than trying to match different suits–think of motorcycles or cars).
Getting out of control can be dangerous but shouldn’t be– you have to learn to regain stability and get back into good flight even if you get tumbled out of control. However, people have spun in when they lost control of their suit 🙁
Birds of a feather..
Cute flock you have going there!