This wingsuiter was just cruising along, having a fun time, and — in true wingsuiter fashion — wanted to figure out a way to land off! So, as he was about to deploy his canopy, he went head low, started diving, and flipped onto his back. When he couldn't recover, he pitched anyway. His canopy came out rather messily and with a line-over to boot. He was forced to cutaway, but landed safely.
While we all love to blame our packers, this is clearly a case of user error. Going from wingsuit flight to canopy flight is arguably one of the most sensitive parts of any type of skydive. The wingsuit pilot has to be super aware of what they're doing and needs to keep their body very symmetrical to not only avoid rolling over (like we see here) but also to prevent the wingsuit's large burble from affecting the deployment bag on it's way out. Here, the pilot went head low, ended up in a dive, failed to recover, rolled over, and pitched on their back.
One quote we often use comes from a wingsuiter we love dearly here at Teem, they note that "The pitch is just the start of the deployment process, not the end of it; wingsuit pilots need to hold that body position until their canopy is open." There are many ways to deploy while flying a wingsuit. Many newer jumpers are told to completely collapse their wing to make their burble smaller. Folks who have been flying wingsuits for a while drop their legs a little to increase the pressure on their lower body, flare, decrease forward speed, and deploy while a bit head-high.
Before we comment further, we want to note that, when in doubt, cutting away and going to your reserve is the right call. That said, this jumper appears to have been freaking out a bit and that was probably a factor in why he wasn't able to recover and get stable again before pitching. The panic that sets in when things get a bit wonky is something almost every jumper experienced in AFF, but we all learn that taking a split second to relax, arch, and reset is all it takes to recover.
This wingsuiter was just cruising along, having a fun time, and — in true wingsuiter fashion — wanted to figure out a way to land off! So, as he was about to deploy his canopy, he went head low, started diving, and flipped onto his back. When he couldn't recover, he pitched anyway. His canopy came out rather messily and with a line-over to boot. He was forced to cutaway, but landed safely.
While we all love to blame our packers, this is clearly a case of user error. Going from wingsuit flight to canopy flight is arguably one of the most sensitive parts of any type of skydive. The wingsuit pilot has to be super aware of what they're doing and needs to keep their body very symmetrical to not only avoid rolling over (like we see here) but also to prevent the wingsuit's large burble from affecting the deployment bag on it's way out. Here, the pilot went head low, ended up in a dive, failed to recover, rolled over, and pitched on their back.
One quote we often use comes from a wingsuiter we love dearly here at Teem, they note that "The pitch is just the start of the deployment process, not the end of it; wingsuit pilots need to hold that body position until their canopy is open." There are many ways to deploy while flying a wingsuit. Many newer jumpers are told to completely collapse their wing to make their burble smaller. Folks who have been flying wingsuits for a while drop their legs a little to increase the pressure on their lower body, flare, decrease forward speed, and deploy while a bit head-high.
Before we comment further, we want to note that, when in doubt, cutting away and going to your reserve is the right call. That said, this jumper appears to have been freaking out a bit and that was probably a factor in why he wasn't able to recover and get stable again before pitching. The panic that sets in when things get a bit wonky is something almost every jumper experienced in AFF, but we all learn that taking a split second to relax, arch, and reset is all it takes to recover.
