Pre-wingsuit drill dives

[Macaulay 0]

Here's an idea for pre-wingsuit people like myself. Birdman recommended that you do a tracking dive once before your maiden flight, and that gave me the idea to do drill dives.
Basically, go on tracking dives that mimic what you would do in a wingsuit. Go out last. Get out from inside the plane, chest into the wind, with arms at your sides and legs together. Once you clear the plane, get your arms and legs out all together, simultaneously, as you would with a wingsuit, and fly 90° from (perpendicular to) the jump run. About half of the freefall (not the total altitude) down (or when you're out far enough, but not too far... use your judgement), turn 90° back to the DZ, parallel to jump run. Use your legs to "wave-off" by clicking your heels three times and keeping your feet together on the third click. Bring your arms down to your sides, and when pitch your pilot chute, bring your arms out symmetrically.
I did five of these drill dives on Wednesday, and will be doing more, similar tracking dives this weekend (even though they just started on my suit). I've been deploying in a full track, to get an idea of what openings will be like. I also threw in some bad body positions in the track, and on opening, to present some potential problems I might have to deal with in a wingsuit. It isn't exactly the same, but it's better than no practice at all.
Know the wind direction up top and stay away from your fellow jumpers.
Blue skies and safe skydives.
- Mac

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

Actually, that is a very good plan you have there. I will say, though, that dumping in a "regular" track is not the same as you will experience in a wingsuit. I can see you getting spanked, but if it's not happening then go for it. The only weird stuff to me about wingsuit flying comes at pull time, so practicing the wave-off and pull sequence will really help you(feet together, arms back to the bottom of the rig simultaneously, then popping both back out).
Chuck
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