Unintentional water landing with wingsuit

[guest]

Has anyone given this much thought? According to the SIM's manual uppon hitting the water do a PLF roll out of the harness and swim clear of the canopy and lines. The wingsuit attaches to the harness at four points. Releasing the wings clears two of the these. That does not totally fix that part of the problem. The leg straps are inside the suit. Basically not only do you have to roll out of the harness, but you also have to get out of the suit. Releasing the wings just clears two points of attachment. You still have to get the suit off your shoulders. Any kind of baggy clothes including blue jeans could hinder getting out of the suit. Considering the flight characteristics of the wingsuit and the experience level of a person that would be jumping it, the chances of this happening are next to none. However it could happen and I think the result would probably be a drowning death. Just something to think about.

[guest]

The question about how big are your survival changes if you had a water landing wearing a wing suit is pretty important.

Levin has a point and yes, we have given it some thought. To put it very simply, we think it is extremely dangerous and propably leathal if one should experience a water landing, with no immediate outside help, wearing wing suit.

For the best performance BirdMan suit is ram-air design manufactured of wind proof and zero-p materials. Also for the best performance we desided to "hide" part of the harness (legstraps) to be weared inside of the suit. Although this design flies very well, it does not swim nor it is not too quick to get rid of in case of water landing. There is only one real advise for this situation; AVOID it!

Blue skies, long soars!
Jari Kuosma
BirdMan Int.

[guest]

With the forward speed possible with the suit, an intended point of landing should be possible. If not, make a 360 or landby a boat. At all costs I agree with Jari, avoid landing in the water without immediate support.

[guest]

Levin wanted me to add some comments to this, so here it goes.

I skydive regularly at a dropzone which is right next to a river and has a large fjord at the end of the runway. Because of this it is mandatory to jump with a life jacket at our dropzone, but that's besided the point. The point is that the Norwegian Skydiving Association, F/NLF, has a different way of dealing with waterlandings than does USPA's BSRs. From jumping at my dropzone for more than 4 years I believe that the actions recommended by the Norwegian Skydiving Association make more sense than does the ones in the BSRs.

When it is clear that one will land in water (which should be fairly obvious *very* early) one should release the RSL if there is one and remove the goggles. At the instant the feet hit the water the main should be cut away. The landing should, as usual, be performed into the wind and cutting away the main will make it blow behind and away from you. This will diminish the risk of being entangled with the lines it will leave you with only the harness and the reserve (which should *not* open if you remembered to release the RSL). With this on your back, swimming is possible although a bit exhausting, so make sure you also land as close to aid or land as possible. If you can't swim in the first place, you shouldn't be jumping that close to water in the first place.
Wearing the wingsuit makes it a lot more difficult to swim though, as your feet can not be extended properly. So unzipping the booties and clearing as much of your legs as possible before hitting the water is important. Releasing the "upper" wings would also be a good idea I believe.

Anyhow, I have *no* personal experience with the wingsuit myself, so these are only my thoughts accumulated from the experiences gathered at a dropzone where waterlandings are a real threat.

Again, I know the BSRs say that one should not cut away the main, but I believe this to be a dangerous practice. When making a waterlanding one is usually *very* unfamiliar with the situation one is in (how many people make waterlandings regularly?), so the chances of making a mistake are higher. Having lines and canopyfabric around your body at that moment is a disaster waiting to happen IMO. I wish they would revise the BSRs on this particular subject, regardless of the wingsuit, but I guess that's just my opinion.

Anyhow, I hope I made some sense and that someone can use this for good and not evil )

Thanks for listening and if you have any comments please let me know.

Espen
"The Flying Norwegian"