It seems logical to conclude that a future endeavour by a future stuntman, would be to land on a ski slope, wearing ski-jumping skiis, after jumping out of an airplane about a kilometer up! Ski racing has gone up to 150mph (world record), and ski jumping exceeded 60mph. Gary's successful wingsuit landing in the news was only 50 miles per hour, so technically, that is slow enough to land with skiis!?!
So, landing on a ski slope from a skydive, without parachute, should now be possible!
(assuming a person simultaneously has ski jumper skills and wingsuit skills)
Do you think so, too?
Cheers
mdrejhon
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
good luck finding somebody whos good enough at both and brave enough and the suits are pretty technically engineered, adding skis and ski boots are a lot of weight and resistance and might end up doing more harm than good.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Agree, finding the right person is key -- but as you can see all the videos show, there are already people trying insane stuff. It's just a matter of time...
However, ski weight won't be a problem if engineered properly: Ski jumping skiis are hinged and lightweight. It's not the everyday heavy ski boots.... Ski jumpers angle their skiis to improve flight, so that they actually get more distance, the airflow under the specialized ski jumper skiis actually lightens the skiis more than the weight of the skiis themselves! So that part won't be the main safety issue; it'll be logistical and training related, me thinks.
It's pretty FKNA landing in a wingsuit into a stip of boxes but it's a LONG way from a ski landing. Boots, skis etc. will be serious issues in terms of weight and drag, this may be as far as we get beyond piling in to a load of pow.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
yeah but what I mean is when you're wingsuiting you're pretty much horizontal, and your skis wont be, well they might be but I'm not sure, could end up with you catching wind on your tips and tomohawking mid air, also ski jumpers have a steep landing, to be going slow you would need to be going quite horizontal.
Wingsuit flyers have to go diagonal to slow down. Why?
Wingsuits are gliders and they fly in a slope, and at the end, they have to do a "nose up" flare manoever (much like landing airplanes) to slow down. Makes parachute opening less hard.
These flare angles overlap ski jumper angles.
Also, you have some angle control, you can flare a little, or you can flare a lot.
You can adjust angle with wingsuit, simply by manipulating air resistance (it's also how skydivers control their fallrate, for things like falling at the same speed to make www.theworldteam.com possible, 400 connected skydivers in freefall)
Also, I understand that ski jumpers have some ability to adjust the angles of their skiis too, with their hinged ski-jumping skiis, to make sure they land safely -- and also taking advantage of angling the skiis to the point where the wind rushing underneath them, pushes the skiis upwards, eliminating the weight disadvantage of the skiis...
Note: I am a skydiver with 810 jumps, and separately on ski slopes I have worn racing-style skiis (taller than me) and gone over 80kph, but I have no ski jumping experience, and have not tried wingsuit. I also have capability to change my vertical fallrate between 110mph and 130mph during a 'formation skydive', to match the fallrate of a nearby skydiver. Some videos here --
http://youtube.com/v/LKsTpXjZvqU
See how 100 people can simultaneously match fall rate?
Fallrate-matching manoevers (not 100% related to wingsuit, but demonstrates the human principle that it's possible to change fall speed, which also can be done with wingsuits too. Wingsuit & freefall control techniques is also how Gary slowed down before landing on the boxes.)
Also, watch Gary's box landing video, you'll see how Gary noticeably slows down before landing on the boxes, and how his flying angle changes. Real skydivers know that you have more capability to control your body during freefall, to change your speeds, angles, and directions, within a certain range -- (To nonskydivers for physics - simple means such as changing your body forms whereupon parts of your body acts as wind deflectors help shift you around in freefall, speed you up, slow you down, turn, change your angle, etc, while falling. Tilting your hands, arms, legs, chest, arching more/less, more and less air resistance causing changes your terminal velocity, etc.)
They intentionally bring their skiis up to help the skiis become like "wings" and take advantage of rushing through the air to push the skiis upwards, to eliminate the weight of the skiis from being a disadvantage in ski jumping distance. Observe how thin and lightweight the skijump boots are, and lightweight skijump skiis are.
Clearly, it shows:
- Skiing body flight angle control (you can lean forward more or less)
- Skiing ski angle control (you can tip them up while jumping, then tip down while landing)
- Lightweight hinged skiis
And my skydiver links show:
- Wingsuit angle control (you can nose up and down while wingsuiting; nose-up slows you down; which is what you want anyway)
And the ranges of human-controllable angles for both ski jumping and wingsuiting clearly overlaps!
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
And when someone does do it you can bet the Redbull heli will be in the shot
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Sun 27-05-12 8:01; edited 1 time in total
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Quote:
good luck finding somebody whos good enough at both and brave enough and the suits are pretty technically engineered, adding skis and ski boots are a lot of weight and resistance and might end up doing more harm than good.
That could be Gary Connoly again.I spent a couple of days skiing with him a couple of years ago as he prepared for the mens senior down hill circuit (apparently he had competed on the tour living out the back of a transit van in the 80's!!!).
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
It is going to be done, for sure. I have no expertise at all in this but have been wondering when this would happen for ages.
I think you may be looking the wrong way though. Flying hinged telemark type skis flapping around at the speeds reached in turbulent air seems unlikely to be possible. In fact even with fixed alpine skis I think ski-base jumpers Usually ditch the planks in the air. Probably wrong q
Two possibilities...
Landing on a board. It would keep legs together during the flight and landing. And there is lots of experience of people freefalling with small boards on their feet... BUT not sure the aerodynamics would work in forwards flight... How about a small monoski?
More likely... Landing into a deep powder cushion, like Jamie Pierre's landing from 78m at Grand Targhee, or on to a significant downslope, possibly with blade type small skis? I'd live to see the binding settings though.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
A wingsuiter landed in the field behind my house the other day without a parachute, here's the landing spot
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Worth bearing in mind that combining wingsuiting & skiing was what did for McConkey in the end...
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
davidof wrote:
A wingsuiter landed in the field behind my house the other day without a parachute, here's the landing spot
Landed and walked away or landed and injured / fatal? Looks a big splat to me.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
he will be in hospital for a few months, broken thigh bone, broken hip, fracture to 8th vertabrae.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
offpisteskiing wrote:
Worth bearing in mind that combining wingsuiting & skiing was what did for McConkey in the end...
worth remembering that McConkey used to ditch the skis and it was not ditching the skis that did for him in the end
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
davidof, indeed, so ideas about keeping skis on for full duration of flight seem 'spicy' at least...
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
davidof wrote:
he will be in hospital for a few months, broken thigh bone, broken hip, fracture to 8th vertabrae.
Someone will eventually try to land parachuteless on a 10- to 25-degree snowslope wearing modified snowblades and boots, probably on a glacier or grass-based trail in Switzerland, France, Austria or USA.
Whether they land or go splat, it will make great television.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
davidof -- video or it didn't happen. I'm normally in the loop of such incidents. It looks the same as a tipped cow or rolling dog. Also, high velocities (sufficient for the injuries you describe) usually dig deeper than that, to the ground. Also, there's a lot of forward motion even in braked/flared wingsuit flight (i.e. 50mph forward, 15mph vertical) to cause a much longer skid-mark for a wingsuit landing.
stoat -- the wingsuits have a tail fabric that requires the legs to be somewhat apart. People fall much faster on their boards during skysurfing (more than 3 times faster fall) than when flying a wingsuit. I don't think it's possible, due to the aerodynamics required -- it has to be skiis. HOWEVER, you are right: Specially-designed skiis might be required. There are many kinds of skiis -- alpine, freestyle, skijumping, crosscountry -- they all are different with different boots! -- so presumably some kind of custom compromise can be made once testing is done. Also, wingsuiting has become far more popular than skysurfing, by maybe almost two orders of magnitude -- a few thousand wingsuits have been sold worldwide by the various wingsuit manufacturers (i.e. Bird-Man.com, TonySuits.com, etc.), while less than a hundred people worldwide still practice skysurfing.
In theory, testing method that slowly progressively escalates risk: Wear wingsuit while skiing on the bunny slope. Just ski progressively faster on progressively steeper slopes. Find out what special gear modifications you end up needing to go faster more safely. Eventually, you'll ski fast enough to be flying half (1/2 of body weight being lifted by wingsuit) and skiing half (1/2 of body weight on skiis) -- you'd essentially be 'flying' while skiing, and balancing almost exactly like you'd be if you were purely wingsuiting. Eventually, you could maybe go fast enough to do a big hop (flying wingsuit) just by very gently jumping up and/or flaring the wingsuit. This could provide a practice/testing vector before actually doing a skydive from the plane. It'd start out at super low risk (just wear wingsuit while skiing on bunny slope, "just to get a feel") and progressively escalate in risk as you ski steeper/faster and make appropriate gear changes as you discover what works/what doesn't. Obviously, you'd prefer long straight, flat slopes, for those high speed runs -- that would be more difficult to find/choose -- but could be steep helicoptor-only-accessible slopes, such as the one used in the Salomon video. The pros would probably be using a testing method similiar to what I suggest.
NOTE: More info about skydiving. I am a skydiver with 810 jumps, so here's some info: Most wingsuiters play at high altitude, and are not interested in landing wingsuit without parachute. Also, WING SUIT MANUFACTURERS (many competitors such as www.Bird-Man.com,www.TonySuits.com, and their dealers such as www.Square1.com and www.paragear.com etc.) RECOMMEND A MINIMUM OF 200 SKYDIVES BEFORE TRYING WINGSUITING. A full time skydiver with lots of money and no job obligations, jumping at an average of 5 times per day (~$25/jump, or $125 per 5 jumps at experienced-jump prices rather than first-jump prices) at Skydive Perris or Skydive Deland, could achieve this skydive count in about 1.5 months for approximately $10K including the cost of the initial skydive instruction (~$1.5K including rental gear) and the cost of a used rig (~$3K after instruction), add another few K if you prefer a brand new rig (includes 2 parachutes -- the main&backup -- and the www.cypres.cc or www.vigil.aero emergency automatic activation device which pulls for you if you're unconscious or late at pulling). Then add about $1K for the cost of the wingsuit. If you can only do weekend skydives, then 200 jumps can be achieved in approximately 1 year. Also, over 100 potential practice drop zones at http://www.dropzone.com/dropzone/ ... with the 'biggest four' in the USA being www.skydiveperris.com,www.skydivechicago.com,www.skydivedeland.com,www.skydiveaz.com for any enterprising reader that have good ski skillz and interested in adding skydiving skillz, even if you have no current interest in combining the two sports. We have lots of fellow alpine skiier friends in our sport too.... To arm oneself with proper risk assessment, it is noted it is a high-risk sport, however skiing isn't a risk-free sport either; especially where advanced skiing is concerned, including off-trail and heli-skiing. Apparently, very few students are killed (some years pass by where 2.2 million jumps occur, with zero student deaths!) -- it's usually the extreme skydivers doing higher-risk skydives -- and some types of skydives are safer than driving a car -- while other types of skydives are more dangerous than driving -- see http://theblueskyranch.com/sta/tb7.htm for some good statistics.
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Sun 27-05-12 19:32; edited 2 times in total
davidof -- video or it didn't happen. I'm normally in the loop of such incidents. It looks the same as a tipped cow or rolling dog. .
Well obviously not that in the loop.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
davidof wrote:
Well obviously not that in the loop.
Most non-skydivers who say "the chute did not work", usually don't describe things such as swoop errors, or low pull deployment that still slowed the skydiver enough, or parachute end-cell collapse (partial collapse of parachute fabric, a stall caused by an aggressive last-minute manoever), or brake-line failure (a snapped line), or accidentally-dropped toggles (skydiver terminology for steering parachute handle), or simple steering error such as abrupt low turn that unexpectedly increases parachute descent rate, or sudden last-minute wind turbulence/bad whirlwind, all of which can cause a parachute landing (wingsuit or otherwise) to cause such a spot in your backyard.... Non-skydivers simply call it "the parachute did not work", but there's often more to the story.....Yes you can be telling the truth that it's a skydiving injury, but it definitely was not a "wingsuit landing completely without a parachute", just by looking at the damage on the ground. Have you seen photographs of marks on the ground caused by a skydiver colliding with the ground at the velocities found in wingsuits or terminal velocity? You may want to describe the parachute landing in full skydiving terminology, perhaps ask the skydiver directly to post a reply in this thread -- so that the exact failure mode can be described. Scientifically, the grass mark proves it is NOT a "wingsuit landing without a parachute". High velocities (sufficient for the injuries you describe) usually dig deeper than that, to the ground. Also, there's a lot of forward motion even in braked/flared wingsuit flight (i.e. 50mph forward, 15mph vertical) to cause a much longer skid-mark for a wingsuit landing. The photograph scientifically proves there was some form of deceleration, such as from a partially functioning parachute, as it is not possible to slow down a wingsuit sufficiently enough (without other form of drag, such as from a partially functioning parachute), to land a wingsuit on grass without causing more damage than that. P.S. I hope the fellow skydiver is okay, glad he is alive.
After all it is free
After all it is free
lol if you're skydiving at all still can't tell what a broken line or end cell closure looks like you've got a problem! Anyway I think even to the uninformed it's obvious when there's a difference between that and the parachute simply not working, imo to 99% of people that can only mean it didn't deploy. Could be a referral to a (stupidly) late reserve chute deployment (though they'd probably have had to be a mug and not turned on their AAD or something if what I'm saying is the case).
Anyway, people have already said but this is unfortunately how the world lost McConkey. I'm sure we've all seen skiing-to-wingsuit stuff before but the other way round seems crazy to me, I just don't think people will be able to control the wingsuit with skis on at that kind of speed - certainly not enough to want to try landing on a ski slope anyway! The weight isn't such an issue, just the dynamics of your movement in the air with a pair of skis on. I suppose if you were to hold a ski-jumping pose the whole way it might be possible though.
hmmm tbh actually 50mph with 15mph vertical doesn't sound ALL that different to what ski jumpers reach anyway. Maybe it is possible? Still, I doubt this will be tried all that soon. Unless someone truly mental gets the idea into their head.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Not being a skydiver I have no idea if this might be possible, however, aerodynamically I can see real problems trying to use a wingsuit with a pair of skis on, BUT what about a luge or skeleton bob ? that could be mounted to a persons chest I think just leaving you with finding a suitable landing slope, of course one small slip up and you hit head first but I suspect it would still be easier to do that than try landing on a pair of skis (even short ones).
No I will not be trying such things I'm far to heavy and rotund to either fly of skeleton bob
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
--> DannyB01, what was said was "A wingsuiter landed in the field behind my house the other day without a parachute". Technically, it probably was "A wingsuiter landed in the field behind my house the other day with a malfunctioning parachute" or something similar. As skydivers are trained during emergency procedures, anything above you (even a malfunction) is better than nothing above you -- Anything adds drag that slows you down. The phrase "...without a parachute" (nothing above you) is very different in meaning from "...without a fully functional parachute" (something above you, even a mess, is still contributing enough drag to save your life).
Also, even if the toboggan method was safer, what kind of progressive step-by-step training method would be possible with the toboggan method? Presumably we'd need some form of a low risk entry point to training towards a wingsuit landing. We need:
- Low risk entry point (non-skydive)
- Easily controllable escalation of risk (non-skydive)
- Easily Allow progressive gear changes/adjustments (non-skydive)
- Create a larger audience to increase pool of potential 'extreme atheletes' (non-skydive)
- The Daredevil Factor: Strive to eliminate untrainable territory (skydive landing)
*** Low risk entry point (non-skydive)
That'd be wearing a wingsuit while skiing on a bunny/intermediate slope. That's obviously super-low risk. (Even you and I can do that) You progressively go faster on steeper slopes while learning & adjusting the gear for safety, and starting to fly the wingsuit more and more, while you're skiing, and it becomes strong enough to allow you to balance on your skiis, just by flying the wingsuit.
*** Easily controllable escalation of risk (non-skydive)
Start on the bunny slope with wingsuit! It's nearly no risk at this point; I can do it, you can do it. Then intermediate, then black diamond. Steeper and steeper, gradually. Go from there. Eventually you may need to travel somewhere far away to visit a slope with a specially steep & flat slope, but you wouldn't need to start out with that. Just doing plain skiing on a recreational ski slope, while wearing wingsuit -- probably just jumping up gently (as if going from kneel to standing up, suddenly inflating your wingsuit) while skiing 30-40mph (I easily ski at least that fast, when wearing my old racing-style skiis) would allow you to hop up into the air a few inches and allow you to almost fly for short distances for up to one second. A skiier/wingsuiter could probably be able to 'learn'. I've tried a very minor amount of freestyle, and basically, freefly skiiers often assist their airtime with a little jump, a wingsuit would presumably 'add' airtime, even at low speeds of 30-40mph.
Wipeouts at 30-40mph typically is not often painful on non-icy, flat diagonal ski slopes without obstacles, provided you're wearing appropriate gear (including helmet/faceshield). I have wiped out on skiis at over 30mph before -- no injury. You can control risk escalation during training, as you go to 30-40-50-60mph to the point wherre simple wingsuit takeoff may become possible just by the sheer airflow speed alone with no leap-assisted hop. Even though injuries become more frequent at higher speeds such as at 60mph (but quite survivable wipeouts -- can be still injury free -- deaths during wipeouts are more often caused by collisions with trees/rocks/obstacles as you skid at higher speeds into them especially during curves) -- careful choice of long, obstacle-free straight slopes, with good flatten-out room at the bottom, would be warranted. Escalation of risk during training, is thus more controllable, than the toboggan method. Learning stays at a measured pace.
Mathematically basing off the fact that flared wingsuit flight can be reduced to 50mph -- flaring a wingsuit during skiing at 30-40mph should still be able to briefly suddenly eliminate more than 50% of your body weight off your skiis. (Kneeling during skiing then suddenly standing up and spreading your wingsuit). It is probably even within many of our skills of many of the fast skiiers here today to at least do ordinary 30-40mph, to be able to do that, especially if beginning on the slow slopes at first to get familiar with wingsuit air resistance and 'flying it dowhill' first. With such a big weight reduction off you feet caused by the wingsuit, you can jump very high with just a small leap with your legs when going down a steep slope. In theory, if I ever tried wearing a wingsuit while I went skiing, I'd probably train no further than about 30-40mph (based on ski speeds I've gone already, and risk assessment), given a suitable long reasonably mogul-free steep slope, but some other skydivers/wingsuiters/skiiers may have the guts to realize they're comfortable at 50mph-60mph going downhill skiing while wingsuiting -- there are recreational ski slopes at some resorts in the world that can allow you to go this fast on quiet ski days and/or special close-off requests (rented slopes) -- these are now speeds theoretically sufficient enough to do short takeoffs from a ramp-free slope while wearing a wingsuit (by flaring the wingsuit). Eventually you'll need a really long steep run for the final practice attempts and the eventual wingsuit landing. This would help figure out the proper ski gear, given the constraints of the wingsuit restriction on legs, and leg separation, ability and timing of spreading apart legs versus bringing them back together at the last moment such as touchdown (ala ski-jumping spreading skiis V-shaped, then bringing skiis back together just right before touchdown), what is discovered to be risky or more risky during training during faster skiing, etc. You would not need to ever decide to skydive with the wingsuit, if you're just practicing towards wingsuit takeoff from a slope, as you're just doing big ski jumps using "wingsuit launch" rather than "ramp launch".
*** Create a larger audience to increase pool of potential 'extreme atheletes' (non-skydive)
It's quite easy to just wear a wingsuit while skiing on a bunny slope. People jumping in the freestyle park of a ski resort, may resort to trying to wear a wingsuit to get 1/2 second more airtime during a plain freestyle jump. People who have no intention of doing anything else with a wingsuit other than to get a fraction of a second extra airtime. A few skydivers who are also skiiers, reading this post, might actually try to wear their wingsuit at their next ski resort visit, just to try it out, in just very ordinary situations.
Even at slow speeds, 20mph, 30mph, 40mph, that some of the everyday speedy skiiers often do, you can jump from the slope, and the wingsuit simply increases airtime a tiny bit because of the drag. Perhaps even a full second of airtime is possible, for a jump-assisted liftoff at ski speeds slow enough for harmless ski wipeouts. Therefore, I think that wingsuit takeoff from a ski slope is probably much easier/safer than doing a skydive and landing wingsuit on a slope without parachute -- since the risk escalation is so easily controlled (just simply start skiing on bunny slope with a wingsuit, and progress from there). Wipeouts are no big deal even at 30-40mph, as long as you're wearing proper protective gear. It seems like it would be safe enough to theoretically become a possible niche downhill-skiing discipline as popular (or moreso) than para-skiing, for people who might never skydive and land a wingsuit. At 30-40mph, you wouldn't need to choose much special gear other than a stock wingsuit from one of the main manufacturers, and lightweight stock skiis with freestyle ski bindings, and wearing a ski helmet with face shield, and off-the-store-shelf protection, all stuff you can get at a good ski gear store, you're ready to try jump-assisted wingsuit hops for a little extra airtime on existing slopes with what is probably low risk of extra injury over regular skiing that people already do anyway on the ski slopes... Who knows, maybe my post gives some skiiers some idea to try wearing a wingsuit at the slopes just to try it out at low speeds. (Disclaimer: It's not risk free. You can still die. Downhill skiiers still die too!)
Then, once a few dozen people have gotten the hang of plain skiing with wingsuits on for a second or two extra of airtime during hops (that many of us downhill skiiers often like to do anyway), some may be daring to go fast enough (60mph+) to go into the territory needed to do really huge ski jumps from a steep slope without needing a ramp. This will then, therefore, trailblaze the path to wingsuit landing on a slope without parachute.... (special skiis, custom made stuff, GPS gear, feat-engineering, Red Bull sponsorship, etc).
*** Allow progressive gear changes/adjustments (non-skydive)
Obviously, you can call off/abort training at any point when things start to feel too risky, until gear adjustments are made (wingsuit, skiis, ski boots, bindings, helmet, knee/shoulder pads, neck braces, etc), and then resume training. I think that we really don't know what final gear is needed for actual wingsuit takeoff/landing on slopes, until people begin skiing down slopes while wearing a wingsuit.
*** The Daredevil Factor: Strive to eliminate untrainable territory (skydive landing)
Once the extreme skiiers become proficient at doing big hops (liftoff from a ski slope), say 100, 200 and possibly 300 meters approaching the ski-jump world record (it wouldn't be official because you would be wingsuit-assisted), then the question now becomes, what needs to be trained for before you can do the wingsuit landing from an airplane? Instead of a wingsuit landing from a wingsuit takeoff from the slope? The recent wingsuit landing by Gary on cardboard boxes, provides some very useful information on the ability for a human to control a wingsuit flight to a precise landing. But that's only one wingsuit landing. All the Wingsuit BASE jumpers, including Jeb's trailblazing, show excellent proximity flying that are possible (Youtube search "wingsuit BASE", and also see the videos in my first post). But all of this is at extremely high speeds (>100mph) rather than an intent to land (flaring head-high to 50mph or less). You need to train through this overlap, and presumably, this will be via practice skydives at high altitudes and GPS tracks, some of which advice may be gained from people who have dreamed (or done!) a wingsuit landing without a parachute.
Now, the bigger risk is probably the skydive practice portion, if you're going to the next step (wingsuit landing on a slope from a skydive -- without deploying a parachute). Special emergency release mechanism becomes a much more risky endeavour -- due to the known BASE death from entanglement issues, obviously. But it appears the wingsuit BASE jumpers and ski BASE jumpers are blazing that trail (for ski-release techniques), and eventually enough knowledge may start to exist where there's a relatively safe release mechanism (for skydive practice situations, to be able to release skiis before deploying parachute), although they're often using cheaper/heavier skiis than expensive ski-jumping skiis or racing skiis that one needs to practice keeping on for longer periods while flying wingsuit, and probably need to practice angling them ski-jumper style to make the skiis aerodynamically support your flight.
Lots of thinking and thoughtful research is needed...
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
mdrejhon, You might be capable of breaking the mould but personally I'm rather persuaded that if ski-wing-ski flying were technically feasible then guys like JT Holmes and Miles Daisher would be getting all over it. Personally I can't see why you'd ruin the aerodynamics of a wing suit with skis.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
I'm normally in the loop of such incidents. It looks the same as a tipped cow or rolling dog. Also, high velocities (sufficient for the injuries you describe) usually dig deeper than that, to the ground. Also, there's a lot of forward motion even in braked/flared wingsuit flight (i.e. 50mph forward, 15mph vertical) to cause a much longer skid-mark for a wingsuit landing.
Anyway I think even to the uninformed it's obvious when there's a difference between that and the parachute simply not working, imo to 99% of people that can only mean it didn't deploy. Could be a referral to a (stupidly) late reserve chute deployment (though they'd probably have had to be a mug and not turned on their AAD or something if what I'm saying is the case).
