Base Jumping in Wingsuits for Extreme Sport
Wingsuit flying is one of the most radical of extreme sports ‘catching wind,’ garnering recent and increasing popularity. The modus operandi that’s more like flying than falling varies, limited only by the imagination of the thrill seeker — some are base jumpers, others dive from planes or helicopters, and even from hot air balloons, while yet others take flight using snow skis. Some use parachutes for landing, others not.
With towering rock formations, steep slopes and breathtaking scenery, there’s no better location in the world to fly wingsuits than the mountains of France.
Dave Barlia has been base jumping for 16 years, and is one of only a few athletes to explore slope flying in a wing suit.
Flying at more than 100 MPH over tree lines leaves no room for error.
Barlia says there are only a few places in the world that are conducive to fly wingsuits. You need specific terrain for steep slopes to fly high-speed, where you can still find plenty of room to open your parachute. Conditions are extremely sensitive — there must be little or no wind, which can create unknown turbulence that could kill you.
Putting fear aside for the ultimate thrill, Dave continues to push the envelope for this innovative sport.
“Being in a wingsuit is like being in your own personal jet fighter. It’s like you sprouted wings and you’re a bird. To me that’s the ultimate freedom.” says Dave Barlia.
Man, Mountain & Wingsuit
Wing suit flying through the hills of France with expert base jumper Dave Barlia.
Wingsuit Base Jumping In Norway
The Phoenix-Fly team wingsuit base jumping from the Fjords of Norway.
The scenery is as amazing to watch as the varied forms of jumps.
For some, merely wing suit flying simply isn’t enough.
This Finland man adds to the thrill by insanity of attaching engines to his legs and jumping from out of a hot air balloon. He allegedly manages to achieve 30 seconds of horizontal flight without losing any altitude before his tanks (using hot water bottles!) run out of fuel. I don’t recommend trying this at home folks.
Foot attire with engines attached.
Skydiving Wing Suit with Jet Engines
Wingsuit Jumping — Ride the Planets
Much of the footage is from helicopter jumps in the Alps. These daredevils
come within feet of the mountainsides without opening their parachutes.
Wingsuit BASE Jumping — Alps of the Eiger
Wingsuit BASE Jumping
Copyright 2007 Life in the Fast Lane.
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That is, that is…. wow just cool
I’m wondering is it possible to land in one piece without parachute. I am sure “extreme sports” means different for each of us, however having fuel bags on stomach is too much for me
By the way, there is some joke about guys from Finland. Why they are speeding out while driving on the hill? Well there might be a bend on the top…
Now thats what i call extreme. I have done this. If you don’t believe me than thats your call. But it is seriously awesome. The biggest rush you can get. When your up in the air you just feel that nothing can touch you, and that the Earth is god. Its weird, but awesome.
Rami
It would be extremely risky to land without a parachute Wojceich. Wearing a ‘fuel pack’ of hot water bottles is even more so. Cute joke, thanks for sharing
I almost envy you Rami. I’m one of the greatest chickens there are walking, but if I could get beyond the fear of the initial jump, I’d love to try this! Just watching the videos and the amazing experience it would be to take in the scenery like that makes it awfully tempting
Man I thought when I raced dirt bikes that there was nothing better…but this is it man!!! WOW!!!! Not sure if I could ever do it …but you guys got my heart pumping away big time….just too cool…
Viewing the spectacular scenery while ‘flying’ is what got me Tony. I think it would be a blast!
UnbeLIEVable! I will hopefully dream about flying all night now. When it comes to the initial take-off, I think I would have to be thrown off the side of the mountain tho. Don’t think I could bring myself to do it otherwise.
One of the videos shows them tossing people over the edge of the cliff holding them by their arms and legs as you would when giving someone the ‘birthday bumps’, Lyn. I think that would be the only way I’d be able to take the first plunge myself
Wonder if on a windy day they could jump of Taipai 101 or some other building? Would be a great demo for the new building being built in Dubai when it opens.
Does anyone know how much a plane jump would be in one of these?
Sky diving is an extreme sport, I don’t think I will ever be able to do it because I am afraid of heights. I wonder if there is a cure for my fear of heights.
I do all my flying in airplanes. I also do all my hunting in supermarkets!
thanks for the information and happy holidays
El Man, I don’t think that windy days would be the best to attempt something like this, as unexpected winds could prove fatal since the jumper would lose control. High sky scrapers also have undercurrents around them, so I wouldn’t advise that.
Hmmm, usually the methods used to conquer a person’s fear is to face them gradually, Post.
Hehe, cute Irspariah
Same to you Psychic, and thanks
I think the question has been brought up a few times but i have to see an answer, so i’ll ask again.
Would it be possible, if you fly at a shallow enough trajectory, that it would be physically possible to land without thundering into the ground???, yes you may slide along the ground, get a bit of road rash…but with that aside…is it possible?
Slim, I poured over quite a few videos before posting these. There was mention in some of them that they had actually gone wingsuiting without a parachute to land, although you would really have to know what you’re doing in order to pull it off. None of them had actually shot footage of it though. So the answer to that based on what I saw would be yes.
Wing-suit test flying gauges speed for expert to land safely without a parachute—
Jeb Corliss set to revolutionize skydiving with world record landing attempt
Pioneer B.A.S.E. jumper Jeb Corliss and Go Fast!® – sponsored test pilot Luigi Cani, have paved the way for a world record landing attempt of a wing-suit—minus a parachute. Jeb and Luigi teamed up to gauge speeds and gather data to safely land Jeb’s wing-suit. Testing was critical, as no one has ever survived a landing attempt without a parachute. Jeb flew in free fall donning a parachute alongside Luigi, who was at the controls of the world’s smallest and fastest parachute—known as the ICARUS VX-39. The two were able to gather data using GPS systems attached to Luigi that tracked exact forward speeds, exact fall rate and glide angles needed for a safe landing.
After two days of test piloting, Jeb Corliss said landing the wing-suit was possible as early as next year. “We found there is a definite and reasonable speed for a landing attempt sometime next summer. We’re now developing four different types of technologies to land safely—it’s very important to land with zero injuries,” said Corliss after analyzing data from the test flight.
Showcasing the evolution of the sport of skydiving, Luigi Cani remarked on the uniqueness of Jeb’s wing-suit project. “The testing shows the technology of the sport—nowadays we can jump a parachute that flies as fast as a person in free fall and currently we’re discovering technology to land a wing-suit without a parachute,” said Cani. “If Jeb lands the wing-suit without a parachute and survives—he is going to be my hero,” added Cani
Wow, this looks very intriguing, Matt. Thanks so much for sharing that
Those vids are amazing.
Justcurious though; how much does it cost for all the training, equipment, etc?
I really have no idea, Riley, but I wouldn’t think the suits themselves would be extremely expensive. You could try a search for them online, but I don’t like to promote any particular company that I don’t have very much background on.
I would think your largest costs would involve your transport to the sites and back.
This is a real extreme. Awesome videos.
About as extreme as it gets, News, and looks like an amazing experience
this is horrible, if a person would die. dont incourage this
I don’t exactly encourage it myself, unless you’re very experienced with basejumping, Colton.
some really nice pictures. i would love to try this out one day. would be scary heh
i hope this sport kicks off. ill add a page of content to it on my site.
I am determined to try this one day in my life, unfortunately it takes first skydiving expierience and then base jumping expierience. One day though, and I too am afraid of heights, but I have decided it is well worth it, overcoming is easy. Just think about life put it all in perspective.
At the very least, you’d need base jumping experience, but it would certainly help to have sky-diving as well. But that’s what conquering fears is all about, confronting the very thing that frightens you.
This sounds terrifying and amazing, maybe the landing would be more easily possible on an intentionally wet/very muddy area of land… or are the suits too hard to controll for that specific a landing site?
You basically need a parachute to land anyway, so no, I don’t think you’d really want to land in a wetland area.
People just keep pushing and pushing the edge. This does look pretty fun though if I could gather enough courage to jump to start.
What makes some people inclined to jump — and other’s couldn’t even approach the ledge?
Some people just live for the thrills Joseph
You’d have to toss me over before I could do it, but I think it would be a blast once you were past that 
I’m very curious to know what their downward velocities are… I think that would be the key to knowing whether or not you could survive without a parachute.
What I thought was the coolest was when they jumped off the cliff. I mean they just ran over to a two kilometer cliff and launched themselves off, then dropping. I also think it’s cool when they fly straight down.
OMG this awesome!!!!! I am going to do this oneday!!!!!!
I read that they slow the fall rate to about 30mph, but the landing issue is with the forward velocity, I believe it is about 90mph.