THE
WINGED
ADVENTURE
| This
summer I was provided an opportunity from my pilot friend, Kier Knuttson.
For his final year in Aero-Engineering Kier wanted to build something unusual.
Through-out the skydiving season Kier and I engineered, sketched and sewed a wing suit. Instead of tight-fitting arms and legs this suit has double-swoop inflated wings on the arms and a wing between the legs. The arms unzip just below the leading edge to allow steering and the wings cutaway along the torso and hip. The handles for cutting away were velcroed onto the harness in an out-bound position. I chose to rig the main with a spring-loaded pilot chute and rip cord. The wings themselves extend from just above the knees to the wrists. There was no way to reach a BOC. |
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When
fully dressed and walking like a penguin, I presented almost two square
meters of zero-P to the wind. A lot of surface area for guy who stand 5'5.
Finally came the day of the first jump from 9,000 ft. I admit to having sweaty palms at first, but forgot all about this as I attempted to climb out of the aircraft. |
| The solid wing from the tip of my toes to my crotch made putting my legs out very difficult but eventually I flopped down on my bum and stuck both legs out. Reaching for the strut was no easy task either. After exit I spread out big and wide then tracked for a bit. Suddenly I lost all directional control and slid two flat spins but as airspeed picked up I regained control. I think that I stalled on the relative wind. After performing two practice pulls I leaned onto the air hard and went for some forward speed. I looked at my chest-mount altimeter and notice it had been blown flat against my chest. My Time Out was set for 5,000 ft. It seemed like an incredibly long time before it beeped. I coasted a few more seconds, bent my leg abruptly, pitched up and reached for the ripcord. I confess to being unstable on the follow-through. In total, I covered 3/4 mile at least. |  |
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The next jump I did something rarely done at Winnipeg Skydiving. I took the plane to 12,000 ft. This time on exit I turned onto my planned heading with no loss of control. I set a body position and held still. Progress across the ground was easily apparent. For this jump I wore a Time-Out and a Pro Dytter. The Dytter was along primarily to collect numbers. The combination allowed me to have beeps at 5,000 ft, 4,000 ft, 3,000 ft, 2,500 ft, etc. I put my altimeter pillow over the buckle of the chest straps to provide a more solid base, however, it still blew flat against my chest. In flight I looked briefly over the top and bottom of the wings. Minimal chambering was readily apparent and the wings were held tight and smooth. |
| At 4,000 ft I slowed down and pulled. NOTHING! … Shake and look up! A ribbon of bridle and soft pilot chute was all I saw. So I got small, shook myself and the bag lifted. Canopy at 2,500 ft. Whew! |  |
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Kier
and I had been projecting speeds of 100-140 mph and a fall rate of 75-80
mph. The Dytter showed an average rate of descent of 63 mph and 98 seconds
of freefall. The maximum fall rate was 91 mph … I think I got that speed
when I was shaking the pilot chute off my back. And this time I covered
2-1/2 miles in distance. Kier did the math (he is the engineer after all)
the forward speed was roughly 80 mph with a glide slope of 37%. I think
it's interesting that the freefall descent rate was slow enough that an
AAD would not have fired. Next time I jump the suit I think I'll trade
a bit of fall rate for extra forward speed … yea … more speed!
Robert Hutchinson |