- Do you want to start wingsuiting?
Do you have a ton of questions
about what it takes to start and to improve?
Well, keep on watching,
because in this video we have a wingsuit instructor
here to give you some answers.
Ready, set, go.
(upbeat music)
What's up skydivers?
It's Catherine here with skydive vibes,
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So today this is the second episode of our series,
Let's Ask a Coach.
And in this episode, we will talk about wingsuiting.
So we have a wingsuit instructor here with us,
and he's gonna answer your questions.
So all over the skydive vibes, social medias,
I did ask you guys, if you had any question
for a wingsuit instructor or coach,
and you did answer with a ton of different questions.
And so you'll get your question answered
by a wingsuit instructor and a well-renowned one.
Actually, we have Jarno Cordia with us in this video,
I'm gonna first let him introduce himself.
- My name is Jarno Cordia,
I'm a wingsuit pilots.
Have got around 5,000 swings with skydives.
I've got a good thousand hours on wingsuits channel.
And together with Jenic Hickey, who's behind the camera,
we teach wingsuit flying as team fly like rick.
We're a occurrence indoor or outdoor champions.
And yeah, I'm here to answer some questions.
- So thank you so much, Jarno,
for taking the time to answer
the skyvibers community questions.
And let's start right now with questions
around getting started into wingsuit.
So Jason asks, "why do you need 200 plus jumps to wingsuit,
when you are actually introduced to tracking
on your A license?"
- You need to 200 skydives to fly wingsuit
mainly because of all the extra factors
that wingsuit brings in.
Deployment has a lot of things you need to watch for exits
from the airplane navigation.
And even though in basis,
it's a bit similar to tracking,
it definitely needs that extra experience
to be able to handle all the additional stress
and all the additional things skill-wise
and attention-wise that you need to do during jump.
- [Catherine] "How is the feeling of piloting a wingsuit
different than the feeling of just skydiving?"
- Comparing normal skydiving and wingsuiting,
I think the biggest difference
is just the immense power that is behind every move.
In normal skydive if you make a move,
you'll shoot a few meters left, a few meters right.
And even though you can also have massive speeds,
with the wings, the range is basically increased a lot.
So there a lot more power
and of course a lot more time,
your skydive becomes almost doubles long.
- [ Catherine] What do you recommend for a progression path
from a newly A licensed skydiver to a wingsuiter?
What skills should be practiced and in which order?
- For somebody that's fresh office,
A license at wingsuiting,
I think the biggest thing you can do is just skydive a lot.
And especially don't start doing just tracking jumps.
The best preparation for wingsuiting
is having a good awareness of what you're doing
with your body and a good awareness of others in the sky.
So experiencing stuff like free flying
and formation, skydiving,
those will be the things and biggest value.
- [Catherine] "What are the individual things to work on
for a new wingsuiter and in which order?"
- For a new wingsuiter
I think the most important thing to work on
is just your own skills,
making sure that you're fully in control of your suit
before you start flying with others.
And I think a lot of people are instantly in a rush,
there not starting in groups and starting other things,
but if you're still learning something,
it's not a good thing to combine
that with jumping with others.
So working on your normal flying,
like on the Valley, working on backflying,
working on the beginner acrobatics,
those are all really good elements that serve as a basis
for later jumping in groups.
- [Catherine] "What are the best steps
for getting started flying in a wingsuit?
Should we practice tracking regularly?"
- This similar to the previous question.
I think the most important things,
when you wanna get started with wingsuit flying
is just having a good body awareness.
So working, especially on things like free flying,
where you're not afraid of being upside down,
things like backtracking and especially formation skydiving,
those are all elements that teach you a lot of things
that will help you learn faster once you're in a wingsuit
and they'll especially help with the awareness,
if you know what's going on around you.
And tracking-wise,
just the tracking you do at the end of every skydive,
relative to other people,
that'll teach you a lot more than just solo blanking
for a whole skydive.
So there, don't worry too much about tracking,
just skydive and have fun.
- [Catherine] "What is the typical flight path
compared to belly or tracking?"
- Typical flight path for wingsuit
mainly it's just allowing for extra distance you fly.
So quite often that flight path
will be flying a little bit with the airplane,
then taking an offset relative to the jump run
and then flying back to the drop zone.
And the most important aspect
if you're going to fly in navigation
is always staying away from jump run.
So that anything that is in a way be like high canopies
and accidental high polar
or anything else in free fall.
And wingsuiters sort of sticks to their own space
on the sides where you don't really get in the way
of the other jumpers.
- [Catherine] "Do you have any tips to deploy
with a wingsuit?"
- Deployments on wingsuit?
I think the biggest thing is symmetry and aerodynamics
Symmetry, basically things like,
don't lean in with a shoulder,
because it's quite common as you pull,
do those kinds of things.
And another big thing is just make sure you keep a heading,
so eyes on the horizon.
And especially aerodynamics,
make sure you have a fully nice and out spotty position,
once you're pulling,
don't drop the knees, don't de arch the hips,
but stay on a straight or even a slight arch,
but basically create the smoothest
and cleanest body position possible
and try to not give any lean inputs.
- Well, this is all very interesting.
So if you liked this video so far, give it a thumbs up.
And before continuing on,
if you've ever wondered,
what are the actual steps to become a wingsuit pilot?
Well, you can check out this video.
I made about how to wingsuit.
Now let's dive more into questions around wing suiting gear.
"Should I start with a wingsuit or a tracking suit?"
- It is a common question.
Should I start with a one piece track suit
or normal track suits before wingsuiting?
Even though it is quite similar and especially
in terms of the controls,
it's exactly the same as wingsuits,
it is not a necessary step for wing shooting.
If wingsuiting is something that worries you,
when it comes to like reaching rises and everything,
then for sure it's an extra step you can take,
but if it's about the money you spend,
I would much rather spend that
on having more be it free fly jumps,
formation skydiving jumps or just general more experience,
instead of investing in gear,
that you'll only use for a few jumps,
if you anyways, want to transfer to wingsuits.
So needed no, option yes.
- [Catherine] "When you wingsuit,
do you use a regular parachute or a base rig?
Or does it depend on the type of jump you're doing?"
- Gear we use mainly depends
on the type of jump that we're doing.
So if it's anything like jumping from mountains
with the wingsuits
or maybe some kind of special demo jumps we're doing,
where the deployment altitude is a lot lower,
then we will use the base parachutes.
Base parachutes is essentially not that different
from a skydiving parachutes,
but it just opens a lot faster.
It flies as well, but it's basically built
for a little bit more consistent openings.
And that is why we'd like lower pulls,
regardless of what environment we tend to use basically.
But skydiving,
it's always just normal skydiving gear
because there you got the advantages of a reserve, an AED
and just in general, the parachutes
that are especially designed for winter flying
- Here, I'm gonna jump in for a quick second,
because I do have a question too.
What should someone look for in a canopy for wingsuiting?
Do you have any model recommendations?
- Looking at Academy for wingsuiting,
I think biggest thing you want
is like nice consistent openings.
Size-wise something that is...
Not if you have a small line twist
or anything in suddenly going with like scary spins.
Wing laws, try to not load it too heavy.
I think around like a loading of 1.3,
tends to be the advice given.
Within our team, Jen and I jump the Wing X from altar,
which is one of the many options out there,
they're wingsuit specific.
There's a lot of canopy options available on the markets,
we're a particular fan of the Wing X
because it's actually available in Zippy fabric,
instead of all the ultralight options.
Which is not any noticeable difference
in terms of performance compared to others,
but it does have a much longer life span.
So furthermore,
some of the links with the options out there
are not the strongest with flare.
And that is also one of the main reasons
why we prefer the Wing X,
it has an actual normal deployment, normal flare
and it's just a really good Oren canopy for inches flying.
- [Catherine] "What is the best way to wash
and dry a wingsuit?"
- First of all, best way is to wash the wingsuit.
I think there's a lot of really stinky people out there,
that have never washed their wingsuit.
Know that it's like any clothing you wear,
it's so sweats and everything, dirt.
So please do wash them.
Washing wingsuit is simple,
it's just put it in like a pillow casing
or put it in some kind of laundry bag,
just toss it in the washing machine
and put it on cold wash light or hand wash cycle.
For people that have ultralight fabrics,
you might not wanna toss it in a washing machine
or like a, the CP kind of fabrics.
They're just rinsing it under a shower
and just letting it dry,
indoors is probably the best option.
For the normal Potter box style fabrics,
you can use like a laundry detergent,
but even just,
like a hand washed without soap will work fine.
- [Catherine] Here's a funny one.
"How do you go to the bathroom with a wingsuit?"
- When it comes to going to the bathroom with the wingsuits,
I think too many people already do that partially
on the way up in the airplane, but that's unrelated.
Going to the bathroom with wingsuits,
in general I don't think that's the easiest thing to do.
So we just tend to do them before the jump
or after the jump.
And so that's more a thing of timing
than it is about,
managing it while you have the wingsuit on
- Super.
So now let's talk about some tips and tricks
to become a better wingsuit pilot.
"Do you have any tips to wing suit backflying?
Because every time I try,
I fall almost head down like a rock."
- Starting to backfly,
I think the biggest thing is try to work on
not having legs bends, so legs strays
and try to work on having the legs halfway close.
'Cause initially the leg bend tends to overpower people
and throw people head down.
So try to focus, not so much on good performance
in the beginning, but just on stability.
And even if you need to be in a complete set position,
that's okay.
Don't focus on the performance you have to dare,
especially in light wing,
keep it about halfway closed when you're just starting out.
- "How do you learn carving.
And is it possible with any wingsuit?"
- Currently with wingsuits,
there's essentially two variants.
One is like on access.
So flying straight
or basically flying wingsuits in smooth circles.
The other one is like completely head down.
It is possible with any wingsuits.
It is definitely easier with the suits
that have backflying lens.
And especially the smaller the suits,
the easier it is to learn.
The main thing about the carving is that's,
it's a bit like a normal transition,
where the technique is not that much different,
but just a lot slower.
And the main thing to focus on when you're learning it
is trying to not throw your body through the sky,
but try to really work smoothly
with the surfaces of the arm and the leg wing.
And try to let that do all the work,
so you smoothly fly your suit around
instead of throwing it around the sky.
- [Catherine] "How do you make a transition
without losing altitude?"
- Making transitions without losing altitude,
that's mainly a thing of smoothness.
Again, similar to the carving question we had just before,
try to not throw your suit,
but try to really work with leaving the wings open
and letting the actual surface of the wing
be the thing that pushes you over.
So the specific technique
is something that is a bit too long to go into now,
but the main thing is
try to not wheel everything through the sky,
with force and aggression,
the slower you do it, the cleaner the transition
and the less the loss of altitude.
- Awesome.
Thank you so much, Jarno
for answering all those questions,
questions from the skyviber community.
And please, can you let us know what is the best way
to connect with you on the internet?
- Best way to connect is either Instagram, Facebook
or YouTube.
YouTube, McCordia as the username.
Facebook McCordia as the username.
And Instagram McCordia as the username.
Instagram, you can also find our team
at Team fly like Brick.
And that is also where you can find
a lot of the information on the wingsuit camps
we do on the wingsuit channel
and the coaching outdoors that we do here or there.
If you want to know more about learning to fly wingsuits,
also give our website flylibrary.com a check.
- Thanks so much, Jarno.
And all the links to his social media profiles and websites
are gonna be in the description below.
All right, that was a lot of information.
If you like this video, make sure to give it a like.
And let me know in the comments below,
who should be invited to our Let's Ask a Coach series,
here on the skydive vibes channel.
If you wanna watch other videos from skydive vibes,
including the wingsuit one,
how to start wingsuiting.
We'll make sure to check those videos here.
And on that, keep jumping stay safe and blue sky.
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