But we’ve come for a reason today, not merely a discussion of injury, only partially a discussion of injury. The most recent injury being a broken collar bone (right clavicle). All my fault, and without getting into the intricacies of my inability, I smashed the ground at good speed after a ski jump on a 20m hill. Skydiving feels much safer to me than ski jumping, just so you know.

Cancel all plans for the two months following that day…… FML….

Sit around healing, not having full use of the arm, being refused a beneficial surgery in one country, holding the knowledge that without surgery full use of the arm won’t be possible, examining the possibility of flying to the US to have surgery and fix this thing, knowing that flying with others is one thing that brings immense joy along the journey… Surgery time…

Alright, metal additions make for strong, straight bones (photos at the end LOL). Within a few weeks, there’s a return to wingsuit activities. We’re back jumping and flying, but the stamina and strength is gone. The beginning of being back is tough. I can jump, I can move my body, but it’s not what it was before the injury. I gotta get back to that. And after that set up, we finally reach the flying lesson contained in this seemingly unrelated story.

Getting back to flying is much easier than getting to flying the first time, for sure. But the path from not being able to being able could be the same. That gets down to doing the right stuff the first time, having an understanding of what you’re looking for because of some prior knowledge. Let’s discuss shoulder movement.

I might say that shoulders are one of the most important body parts for wingsuiting. Precise, independent control of each shoulder is crucial to precision maneuvering of the suit. But really, the most important thing to learn is the feel, the feel of the air, the pressure, the power, the pull, the push. The feel comes for different parts of the body. Targeted practice to feel the air is what I use to get better at feeling and moving.

Physical therapy exercises for the shoulders are what I use now, and they are what I used prior to injury. They fucking work, end of story. The internet has plenty of resources, and most of it’s good stuff, such as this website listing 13 shoulder exercises: Sporty Doctor.

The goal here was to emphasize the importance of having use of the shoulders and the importance of shoulders generally. Equally important though, if you get knocked down, remember that it’s temporary. We have it within us to keep going. It might be a little different now, but we are always learning our bodies and learning to fly our bodies. This injury has definitely given me the opportunity to take a deep dive into how certain parts of the body move in relation to flying. Time to get better at flying for me!

Blue skies, my bird friends!

-WSL

We wanna fly with all the lift, all the speed, in all orientations. But, big but, all journeys begin with the first step. Our first step was accomplished long ago. When we first got that itch to fly as birds, we knew we would have to train a bit to get there. Some learn faster than others, but we all can learn. With enough time and dedication (and the right attitude) we cannot fail to progress. Lots of big words here, and nothing useful that answers the question, “what the hell do I do to get from the back to the belly?!”

Let’s go with some instruction at this point. First, a small video to prime the mind:

Now that you’ve seen it, we can talk about what you’ve seen. We can talk about what you’re seeing, not knowing what you’re seeing, the hidden truth behind those clean transitions.

In order, from top to bottom, these are the body movements:

• Head – fixed upon a point to the side. In the video, the head is fixed on the other flyer. In back fly orientation, the other guy is on the right side of the transitioning flyer. After the transition, the other guy is on the left side of the transitioning flyer. The head remains fixed in an absolute sense, not a relative sense. This can be good for all flying, look at the people you’re flying with. In-face transitions allow us to keep the head locked on target; out-face transitions do not allow for this, and we won’t be discussing those differences in this article.
• Arms – The arms are the driving force behind a transition. The arms, the wings, the lift away from center mass, asymmetric lift, we could call it many things, describing the same factor, but it’s the arms that we control in this. You cannot move the wing, you cannot generate lift, the only thing we can do is move our arms, which in turn moves the wing and generates lift, asymmetric lift, from the altered airfoil configuration.
  • First step – fly up. We do this by pulling tension into the wings and moving the arms into a less dihedral orientation. With straight arms, slightly in front of the body, move the arms to the side of the body at the same time pull tension into the wings by moving the arms up toward the head. I like to say, elbows to ears. This is how we generate symmetric lift.
  • Second step – asymmetric lift. We do this by removing one wing and keeping the lift with the other. Easier said than done. We already know how to generate the lift, but what do we do with our body that properly removes the one wing? With a straight arm, engaging the tricep to keep the arm straight, bring the elbow in contact with the ribs, with the thought of reaching across the body, while putting the elbow in contact with the body. The removal of the wing removes the lift from that side of the body, allowing the rotation to happen. For in-face, remove the wing that is pointing toward the direction we are looking. In the video, the flyer is looking to the right and removes the right wing.
  • Third step – wait. Yes, wait. Be patient my bird friends. Allow the rotation to happen, give it enough time, trust the physics, trust yourself, trust that you will be back to the belly in a moment. We must not rush the transition. Rushed flying is sloppy flying. Deliberate haste is different from rushed sloppiness; we can move quickly and with purpose, but we must not get ahead of flying. Save the quickness for next time. Slow is smooth; smooth is fast. Go slow, get smooth, speed will come with practice; do not let speed be the target.
  • Fourth Step – stick the landing. Like a graceful gymnast, we must stick the landing. If we don’t stick the landing, are we even doing it right?? Of course you ask, what do I do with my body to stick this landing? That’s always the base question for effecting change in the physical world. After the rotation has happened, we will be flying on the belly, but, at first instance, we have one wing pressed against the body. Open the closed wing along the same path we used to close that wing. Move the elbow away from the body, sliding the arm along the body, opening the wing to match the dihedral angle of the wing that has been open. Stopping the rotation comes from the lift-generating wing. Remember, elbow to ear, pulling tension into the wing; except, this is only keeping tension that existed from our original lift generating move. Give a little bit of symmetrical lift to prevent the loss of altitude (elbow to ear, both arms, tension the wings). How much to give here? That’s why we practice. We call this “Goldilocks lift”, just enough lift (Lagom, shoutout to the Swedes lol).
• Legs – Keep them straight. No Kicking!! Just keep the legwing flying. Nothing special here. If you close the legwing slightly, cool, no prob. If the legwing stays fully open, cool, no prob. It makes a tiny difference, but that’s not our focus today. While learning this skill, just keep the legs straight, don’t kick; trust the wings to rotate the body. The suit rotates the body, the body does not rotate the suit. Asymmetric lift is causing the rotation. Try to imagine an airplane, and model that airplane. An airplane does not rotate its fuselage; we don’t rotate our bodies.

Recap of Key Points:

– Head: Fixed on a point to maintain orientation.

– Arms: Control lift—symmetrical to rise, asymmetrical to rotate.

– Legs: Keep them straight and avoid kicking.

– Patience: Allow time for the rotation to occur naturally.

– Landing: Open the closed wing and stabilize with symmetrical lift.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice these steps repeatedly to master the transition. Each attempt gets you closer to silky, buttery smoothness with more confidence in your movements. With time, you’ll be transitioning like butter, just like in the video!

If you have any questions, notice something I missed, or just want to share your experience, leave a comment. Let’s keep learning and flying together.

That’s all for today, my bird friends!

Blue skies!

-WSL

Sipping the coffee and writing this piece on the wonders of going up in a wingsuit. First, we nee to make some distinctions on what we’re talking about when we say “go up.”

“Up” is a term used to indicate the relative movement in the suit, relative to those we are flying with. This does not mean altitude gain in an objective sense. We are talking about lift. Increasing lift causes us to go up, relative to someone flying next to us. If we’re flying in the wingsuit tunnel, up means up, objectively. Although, we’ll talk about this is bigger terms, sky terms.

“Up” can also be thought of as a temporary change in glide ratio. If we are flying together at a constant glide ratio, when you go up, you have changed your glide ratio to be more forward than down (increased glide ratio).

Increased lift is what causes us to go up. We can accomplish this in 5 ways. And before you start questioning, admittedly, there are certain body positions that decrease lift that we will assume you’re not doing (e.g. closing the tail wing). We will only discuss the 5 ways for now. If you have specific questions, leave them in the comments, or call me.

Okay, increased lift, thanks for the tip… But what the hell does increased lift actually mean? How do we move our bodies in a way that increases lift? That’s our question, and the answer is coming, be patient.

Lift = Shoulders + Arms + Stomach + Hips + Knees

Shoulders

We can use the shoulders to increase lift. To do this we push the shoulders forward. Forward, meaning forward of the body, down and forward. I can take this moment to share one wingsuit never. It is never shoulders up, up meaning toward the ears. When we put our shoulders up, we limit the mobility of the arms and make the flying heavier. This is because of anatomy. Shoulders in the up position don’t move as freely as shoulders in the down position, and the arms don’t move as freely when the shoulders are up.

Pushing the shoulders forward, we create lift. We also create a bit of drag, and that will be consistent with most of the up moves. Keep this in mind to be able to compensate for the increased drag when going up. There’s a chart below that ranks the 5 ways in lifting capacity and drag creation.

Arms

Arms must be defined so that we are doing the correct movement. When using the arms to create lift, we are pulling tension in the wings. We are tensioning the wing so that we get more effective lifting surface in the relative up direction. This works according to Newton’s 3rd Law, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” By pulling tension into the wing, we are causing the wing to push against the relative wind. Our arms are not pushing against the wind, the wing is. We cause the wing to push against the wind by pulling tension into the wing. This is a pulling motion. Pull the arms up toward the ears. This move is accomplished with a straight arms. We can think of it like putting our elbows on our ears (although, when I do this without the suit, it’s my bicep that touches my ear, and my elbow is slightly above my head). Lock the triceps out to keep the arm straight, raise your arm up toward your head. We want to keep the arms slightly behind the body during this move, resisting the urge to push the arms forward. This is a pull move, not a push move. Pull the wings to increase the tension along the wing.

Stomach

This is a simple move that is all too often complicated by overthinking. Suck in the gut to go up. Push the belly out and we go back down. Simple as that. Imagine you’re walking down the beach and you see someone cute coming in the opposite direction. You might suck in the belly a little to give a lift to your appearance. That’s what I do to lift my appearance on the beach and to lift myself in the wingsuit. Belly in, going up. Belly out, going down. Even folks that have sizeable bellies can use this move, no worries there. It’s relative movement that we’re looking for. We can increase lift from neutral by sucking in the gut. Don’t overcomplicate this move. I like this one a lot for small corrections when my arms are occupied doing other things.

Hips

The hips are typically my set-it-and-forget-it move. I like to maximize lift on the hips in my neutral flying because this allows me to keep the body flying while I relax my arms, shoulders, stomach, and legs. I also find the hips a difficult body part to move and get accuracy in the movement. The hips tend to make abrupt movements that are tough to dial in for smoothness. The max lift will be hips back. Or if we say it another way, hips toward the sky. This is a pelvic rotation. Rotating the pelvis back increases the lift we get out of the body. This is not bending at the hips. If we bend at the hips, it has a different effect. It will usually pitch the wingsuit down and cause a big forward movement, or a dive. I prefer to think of the hips as down and not down. Arching will cause a decrease in lift and forward speed. De-arching (hips back) gives us the lift and forward speed we typically want. As I write this, I am beginning to realize that these words can have different meanings to different people. If you’re doing this move and you’re getting some weird result, you might not be doing what I mean when I use the words. Send me the video. We can fix it.

Knees

Knees in the breeze, baby. This can be our thought, but it doesn’t help us much just to think that. What to do with those knees, and how does the breeze affect our lift? So glad you asked… By pushing the knees forward (toward the earth while flying), we increase lift. Be sure to keep the knees apart, keeping the legwing open, tension along the left/right axis of the legwing. This move is powerful creator of lift, but it has its disadvantages. The lift comes with a lot of drag. The lift also changes the airflow on the belly-side of the suit. We increase our stall speed when flying in this position. Flying with the knees down is an easy way to slow and stall the suit. There are very rare instances where I truly use the knees to generate the lift that’s possible. Only because it requires very active control, and it messes with the airfoil shape that is my body. Using the knees to break is taught a lot (I was taught this at first), but it comes with the typical popping up and getting behind the place you wanted to be. So we reset, get back down with a lot of speed, use the knees, and pop up again. There is a way to do this correctly, but after nearly 1,000 hours of wingsuit flying, I can say that I don’t use it much.

Conclusion

We need one amount of lift to maintain flight. We get this amount of lift from the combination of the body parts we discussed. If I remove lift from one area, I will go down. If I add the lift back in another area, I can maintain the position. We can take most of these body parts and split them in half. We have two arms, two legs, and two shoulders. This allows for asymmetric lift using those parts of the body. Asymmetric lift and directional lift are topics to be covered another day. Just think about the sweetest of pancakes transitioning the wingsuit to a different lateral position in the sky, that’s asymmetric and directional lift at work.

When we think about life, the only action we can take is moving our bodies. It’s the fundamental way we bring about any desired outcome. Whether it’s strolling along the beach, resting, composing a letter, eating, or flying a wingsuit, it all just moving our bodies.

Understanding that body movement is paramount in life leads us to realize that refining how we move is the key to controlling outcomes.

Personally, I do specific daily exercises to enhance my ability to move in the precise ways I want to. For wingsuiting, movements may not align with typical everyday motions. As creatures of the earth, mastering the art of moving through the skies becomes a learning curve. Spending time in the air enables us to refine our movements and perfect our techniques.  We must rewire our brains so that we behave as creatures of the sky.

In flying, areas such as the arms, shoulders, chest, and back play crucial roles. I have a routine of daily exercises tailored to keep these muscles functioning optimally.

In the accompanying video, you’ll observe me systematically working through each body part, manipulating them together, separately, and individually. For instance, we could move one shoulder forward and down while the other moves backward and down and bending forward at the abdomen. These exercises involve slow, deliberate movements, moving a specific part of the body while keeping the others constant.

This approach to understanding body movement helps us to improve control over the body and proficiency in wingsuiting, where mastering precise movements is essential.

The Essence of Transitions

Transitions are like the glue that binds your skydiving routine together. They seamlessly bridge the gap between belly flying and back flying, allowing you to just keep flying. The key to success here is simple: always be flying. But today, we won’t delve into the nitty-gritty mechanics of transitions; that’s a tale for another day. Instead, we’re going to unravel three ways to execute that beautiful transition (beauty not guaranteed).  What we’re really talking about here is, what do I do with the arm that goes under during the transition.

1. The Bent Arm Transition

Imagine bending at the elbow, bringing your arm close to your body. This is the “Bent Arm” transition. It’s a graceful move that involves collapsing one wing to allow rotation while relying on lift from the open wing to initiate the rotation. It’s like poetry in motion, a symphony of balance and grace.

2. The Straight Arm Transition

In contrast, the “Straight Arm” transition requires you to keep your arm extended and draw your elbow towards your body. This technique maintains a rigid arm as you shift from belly to back flying. Like a conductor leading an orchestra, this method harmonizes your movements with finesse and precision.

3. The Push Arm Transition

Now, let’s explore the “Push Arm” transition, a dynamic approach that keeps both arms straight while pushing one wing through to the other side. This method often involves some body rotation. It’s like throwing it and catching it on the other side.

Creating the Perfect Transition

Each of these techniques involves leveraging asymmetric lift, but they each have their own style. The first two methods use the arm that’s going under your body to collapse the wing and relying on lift from the open wing to initiate rotation. In contrast, the third method achieves rotation by swinging one wing under your body, which, in turn, propels your body to twist and accomplish the transition.

While I favor the straight arm transition in many instances, I still use the bent arm technique. I’ve even experimented with a variation of the third method, combining it with flying the over wing to transition smoothly between both sides. With enough practice, we begin to use what feels appropriate in the moment.

For more insights into transitions, I recently gave a talk on this thrilling subject during Ekstrem Sport Veko in Voss, Norway. The full video is a thrilling 44 minutes and is available below for your viewing pleasure.

In closing, remember this: to master the move and achieve those seamless in-slot transitions, seek coaching, practice diligently, and the skies will be yours to conquer. Should you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Blue Skies,

-WSL

In an objective sense, this equals a diagonal flight path. In a relative sense, this is simply moving to the left and right. As I ponder the bigger questions in life while writing, it becomes obvious that wingsuiting allows us time for reflection that can be carried to other aspects. But we’ll save that for another day’s discussion.

This article shifted focus around this point. Even changed the title, but the information for the original title will definitely come in another article. I really do want to discuss the left and right movement. Although, to learn that, you need to know this. Enjoy the detour…

I will take this opportunity to say something that has weighed heavy on my mind for a while. I have been told that when aiming to meet up with someone in the sky, I should aim ahead of them because if I aim at where they are, they won’t be there when I get there. I have a problem with this way of thinking. It assumes I am aiming at a static point, which is weird to do in the sky. A freefaller who is higher than the group wouldn’t think to get on level by aiming below the group. They would aim at the group and match the group’s speed once level is reached. They would accelerate to a point then slow down once that point is reached because they are aiming at the people and not a point in the sky.

So, why is it so popular in wingsuiting to use this saying? We are not aiming at a fixed point in the sky. If I aim to be in front of someone, I will be in front of them, not on level. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills to agree with the faulty logic. And I now propose a different way of thinking about flying. Fly relative. Boom. Simple.

Fly relative to the other people in the sky. Their speed is fixed, and my speed is not fixed. If that person is a fixed object in relative space, then by flying faster than them, I will move forward. If I fly slower than them, I will move backward. If up from them, then up…. You might see a pattern here. The person, group, or whatever is a fixed object moving at a fixed speed. If I treat that fixed speed as zero, then I can be relative to them without worrying about where they are in an objective sense.

If that person is actually flying faster than me (i.e., I am flying slower than them), I can speed up to match or exceed that speed. Nothing changes. We still set their speed to zero, and I am now moving backwards. To fix this, I need to fly forward.

Let’s explore the ridiculousness of thinking you will end up “where they were.” Picture yourself on a train. The train is moving, so you are moving with it. But you’re in your seat, and your friend is three cars ahead in their seat. You look out the window and see a tree that is three cars ahead, right outside the window by your friend’s seat. You decide to go see your friend who’s by that tree right now. So, you decide to walk to the tree? You take a few steps forward on the train and the tree passes by your window. Would you stop? Hell No!! You’re at the tree, you’re not at your friend. You keep walking forward to your friend no matter what the fixed objects outside are doing. Your friend is moving at speed zero, relative to your forward speed, because the movement of the train doesn’t count. You keep moving forward until you reach your friend then you stop moving forward; the train is still carrying you both forward, but your relative speed matches that of your friend. Now you’re hanging out playing Uno and shit. Don’t fixate on objects that aren’t moving at the same relative speed. Fixate on the object of your desire and get after it. Move your ass forward until you get there. And don’t aim for the trees!

This works with forward, down, sideways, and probably even the dimension of time (time travel is slightly outside the scope of this article, or is it…?).

We’ll call this a topic well-covered.

Blue Skies,

-WSL

We begin with a goal in mind.

Our goal can be whatever we decide. Some of us want to carve head-down around a tandem to get sick outside video for the tandem; some of us simply want to maintain a formation slot; and some of us want to be able to do everything this suit can do, more than what is “possible” today.

Put this in your mind: One Thousand (1,000). That is the number of repetitions it will take to get good at something in a wingsuit. Personally, I believe a thousand might be too little, but to many, it appears an impossible feat. Just keep going and be patient with yourself.

There are many books dedicated to how we train, practice, and learn. A common thread through the writings is a concept called deliberate practice. We aren’t just flying the suit in already known configurations, we are pushing the limits, expanding what’s possible. The idea being, if we never do the thing, we will never be able to do it. We must allow ourselves permission to be bad at something. We must accept that we are bad at it. We must proclaim from the mountaintops, “I don’t know how to do this! But I’m doing it because I want to know how.” We learn by doing. Reading all the articles and books only prepares us so far. I can’t tell you how your knees will react during a barrel roll; you must do a barrel roll and review what happened to know what happened. Then we can fix things.

We know where we want to be, but we sometimes forget to realistically assess where we are. This results in wasted training time. We need a map to get from where we are to where we want to be. First step though, determine where we are. Then, we figure a path to get there. Finally, we start down that path, and keep going.

I support the Full Send. I don’t care if you “can’t do it.” Do it anyways. Be bad at it. That’s how we get good at it.

Learning is an emotional process, filled with ups and downs. We want to be better. Wingsuiting is more fun the better we become. Safety goes up with knowledge. The sendy-ness goes through the roof when we have the skills. The skill development will test your patience and your resolve. There is always someone better than us. We must not let ourselves get distracted or depressed by slow progress. This is particularly evident when we see our friends excelling at things with relative ease that are much more difficult to learn for ourselves.

We’ll wrap this up with a message of hope for the future. We’re all getting older each year, and there are more new wingsuiters than there are veteran wingsuiters. These new folks will be better than we are, and probably in less time too (just a little salt for the wound lol). This doesn’t matter. We are here for ourselves and others. We share freely that which was shared with us. We encourage the baby birds to leave the nest. As we help others improve, we likewise improve. It’s a vicious upward spiral of skills! We all get better, share memories, and fly the fucking skies together. If MLK Jr. had a wingsuit dream, “I have a dream that one day baby birds and big birds will fly together. I have a dream that my children will one day fly in a sky where they will not be judged by the size of their suit but by the content of their skillset.”

That could keep going, but we get the point.

Keep it Full Send, no matter the skills my bird friends.

Blue Skies,

-WSL

Parachutist cut the content to fit on their 2 pages. Here’s the full length article:

As the wingsuit flocks get bigger, it becomes ever more important to spread the gospel of bird traffic control.  Transitioning from belly flying to back flying is the basic maneuver for flying the suit, and not letting the suit fly you.  The essential element of the transition is to continue flying the wingsuit, flying through the transition, and maintaining lift to ensure a smooth transition.  There is a significant difference between rotating from belly to back while flying, compared with throwing your body and catching yourself on the other side.  We’ll discuss flying the transition in this article.

Patrick is the Chief Instructor at Indoor Wingsuit, has his AFFI and TI Ratings, has more than 3,000 skydives, and has flown over 1,200 hours in a wingsuit (equivalent to more than 36,000 wingsuit skydives).  Patrick’s team won the German Nationals in Wingsuit Acrobatics, and they also won the Indoor Wingsuit Games in 2021, setting a couple world records in the process.  Alex is a coach in the wingsuit tunnel and in the sky.  With more than 900 wingsuit jumps and 300 hours of wingsuit tunnel flying, he is on the way to learning a few things.

As always in skydiving, we recommend you get a good coach to teach you and help you practice these skills.  In our biased opinion, the best wingsuit coaching can be found at the wingsuit tunnel.  If you can make your way to Sweden to train in the wingsuit tunnel, you will be able to accomplish in a few hours of flying what might take months to learn in the air.  If you can’t make it to Sweden, you’re in luck because we’re getting a wingsuit tunnel in Orlando, Florida.  But honestly, doesn’t a trip to Sweden sound much more fun than a trip to Florida?

We will begin discussing proper technique and then walk through the individual steps of flying a transition.  Throwing your body and catching yourself can work to get you from one side to the other, but it does not make for a clean transition, and it is unlikely that you will keep the same altitude and speed.  Flying the suit through the transition allows you to maintain control, and it’s just an all-around better way to transition.

Doing transitions in an efficient manner, while maintaining flight, makes for a smooth transition without losing speed or altitude.  When we are able to transition effectively, we look cooler, have more fun, and we’re safer flyers.

You will learn the proper body position for doing a transition and the proper techniques for you to go practice in the sky.  Invest your time wisely in the beginning and get more out of every jump.  If you have questions, we encourage you to ask an experienced wingsuit coach.

First things first, always practice with a partner for a frame of reference.  If you are doing solos, you have no idea if the transition was good, bad, or ugly.  We define good as maintaining level flight, altitude, and speed.  They might be sloppy in the beginning, but with enough practice you will achieve that beautiful, smooth transition.

Belly-to-Back

We begin with a good flying body position.  Our bodies and the wings give us lift.  In the smaller suits, Havoc Carve, Sprint, Swift, and the like, the body is the main driver of the lift.  We gain lift with our shoulders, chest, stomach, and leg wing.

The arm wings are there to keep us flying level and stable, but, as it turns out, we can accomplish a transition without wings (we won’t go there, it’s weird and incredibly difficult). 

A good transition starts with an efficient flying position, which means arms and legs straight, the stomach flat, using our body for lift.  The body provides the upward and downward motion needed to accomplish most of the movement necessary in the wingsuit.  We are flying our bodies and using the suit to supplement the body.  Keep the head fixed and the arms straight.  You can see in the images how Patrick illustrates the starting position.

The body gives us lift with the wings, and the wings allow us to control the lift more effectively than with the body alone because of the larger surface area of the wings.  We can accomplish the transition by removing one wing (i.e. arm) and allowing the suit to continue to fly normally.  When we remove the lift from one side of the suit, the suit will rotate onto the other side, from belly to back, and back to belly. 

When doing a belly-to-back transition, we want to continue flying the suit and allow it to rotate us from belly to back.  A common mistake is pushing down with one wing and throwing the opposite shoulder into the direction of the transition.  This results in what looks like clapping the hand together and throwing the body.  This can “work” to accomplish a transition, but usually means losing altitude and speed because we stop flying.

We remove one wing by sliding a hand to the hip and across the stomach, while keeping the other arm straight and gaining lift on that side.  Keep the legs straight during the transition and allow the suit to do the work.  Keep your head fixed on something to the side (the horizon or your flying partner work well).  As you can see, the suit rotates the body from belly flying to back flying.  The finish to the transition is with a strong back-fly body position (stay tuned for that article).

Back-to-Belly

When going from back to belly, the process is similar.  We remove one wing from the equation and, once again, use our body and wing to gain lift, which causes us to rotate from the back to the belly.  Bring your elbow to your side and your hand to your chest.  As you rotate from your back to your belly, you will extend the closed wing again into a strong belly-fly position.  Your head remains fixed throughout the transition.  Keep the legs straight, and let the suit do the work.

The back-to-belly transition is important to learn early in wingsuiting because one day you will find yourself on your back, perhaps accidentally.  You need to know how to get back to the belly for deployment time.  It can be slightly dangerous to deploy on your back.  It can be done, and if you have no choice, throw the PC and deploy that parachute no matter the body position. 

As a safety tip, do not wait or forget to pull just because you are on your back.  Stay altitude aware during the whole skydive.  If you have reached your deployment altitude, pull, no matter your body position.  If you are unsure about your body position, give yourself as much altitude as needed to deploy the main and prepare for a possible cutaway.  It is safer to slow yourself down with the main canopy before deploying your reserve. 

Even if you end up chopping it away, let your main canopy do as much work as it can to stabilize you.  Going straight to reserve increases the chances of a reserve malfunction.  That could be a catastrophic situation.  Let’s not go there.  There’s also the added possibility in a wingsuit that your vertical speed may not be high enough to fire the AAD.  This is another reason to deploy your main parachute at your deployment altitude, no matter what your body position.

You can avoid any of the consequences of deploying on your back in a weird body position by learning how to do a back-to-belly transition.

Let’s recap, both transitions are similar because they involve removing one wing and allowing the lift from the other wing to rotate the body to result in a transition.

There is a slight difference in the positioning of the arm we remove in each transition.  The hand is placed on the chest and the elbow to your side for back-to-belly, and for belly-to-back, the hand is placed on the hip and extends through during the transition.  As the body rotates over when the arm wing is removed, we extend that wing again into the solid back or belly flying position and stop the rotation.

We don’t want to lose altitude because we want to stay close to our friends.  Just as many things can “work,” we often use techniques that accomplish the transition at the expense of altitude and speed.  If we don’t lose altitude and speed, we have what’s called an “in-slot transition.”  In other words, we did not move relative to our friends flying with us.  This is yet another reason to have someone to fly with.  If we fly by ourselves, we have already lost all our friends and don’t know if we might have stayed with them or not.  Don’t be the lone wolf in the sky.  It’s certainly less fun that way.

A key point of proper transitions is to maintain smooth and controlled flight.  The smoother we can do the movements, the better the transition will work.  This is tough to do at first, but do not be discouraged if it doesn’t work on the first try.  Not even Neo did it on the first try.  Find a good coach or come see us in the wingsuit tunnel to really hone your skills.  With more confidence in the air, we will have more fun and be safer while flying!

Just keep flying my bird friends.

Blue Skies,

-WSL

In the past year, I have worked full time as an instructor at Indoor Wingsuit in Stockholm, AKA the wingsuit tunnel, AKA the Lab. When we invest a couple hundred hours flying the wingsuit and many more hours observing others’ flying, we learn a thing or two. When we spend just a few hours in the tunnel, we speed up the learning process. I’ve become a strong tunnel advocate because I see firsthand how the flying in the tunnel translates to good flying in the sky, and off a mountain.

And really, there’s no place like the tunnel. The whole experience, the people, the occasional BBQ, all the coaches, all the staff, all the flyers, and even the hotel nearby, they are all part of coming to fly in the tunnel. I forgot to mention the most fun part, the flying. Turn the fan on, let it rip, fly all day, train, train, train, play. So much fun! I highly recommend the trip.

Enough about that, let’s talk about some flying. I started a wingsuit mindfulness and awareness practice, and I’d like to share it with you. I began the practice in the tunnel, and I have also done this in the sky. In the tunnel, I would fly perfectly still and maintain the position. I begin with deep breaths, paying attention to the inhale and the exhale. Pay attention to the way your chest expands when you inhale. Feel how the suit feels across your chest. Can you feel a chest strap as your chest expands? How does the wind feel on your chest during the inhale? Now, pause the breath briefly at the end of the inhale. Exhale slowly, paying attention to how your chest changes with the exhale. How does the suit change with the exhale? How does the feel of the wind change during the exhale? Pause the breath at the end of the exhale, and repeat the breathing.

This breathing exercise slows everything down and allows us to begin feeling the suit, the pressure in the suit, the wind, our connection with the wind, and we can also hear changes in windspeed when we are paying attention. During the breathing, we can intentionally shift the focus to different areas of the body and the suit. How does it feel when we move our left hand, right hand, left knee, right shoulder, right elbow, etc.?

Just had an idea. If two people ask me to do this, I will. Record a wingsuit guided meditation to listen to during flight LOL. I might just do it for myself, but I already do this on my without the audio. Anyways, the point here is to really take the moment and be extra in the moment.

I would close my eyes for 1 second. Then I would try to go longer. But in the tunnel, I would only do this if I were touching the wall. This is for safety in the tunnel. In the sky, we can do this without worry of hitting things. Do this on a solo jump, and there really shouldn’t be anything you could hit. Check your heading first, that’s always a good idea. Check the airspace around you by giving a quick look. Then, close your eyes…. Ohh shit… it’s scary… When you open your eyes, check heading, airspace, and altitude. Do it again, for a little bit longer this time. Can you feel heading changes? Keep practicing, we gain more awareness over time.

We’ll wrap this up here, for now… I tell folks, “you gotta fall in love, catch feelings for the wind.”

Stay mindful my bird friends!

Blue Skies,

-WSL

How do we even fly on our backs? Birds don’t do much backflying, and squirrels certainly don’t backfly, but we, as bird people, do backfly.

We won’t discuss the transition in this article, that is covered in another article. This article purely focuses on how to fly once you’re on your back. We will begin backflying the same way we begin belly-flying, in a straight, flat body position. The arms have a slight upward angle, a dihedral angle. This angle of the wings allows for more stable flight. It also allows for range of movement in the flight.

When we talk about range in wingsuiting, we are referring to the ability to change speed and lift in the suit. It’s the ability to go up/down, faster/slower, and left/right. The range of a suit is correlated to the suit type, and it is also correlated to the flying position. An inefficient body position robs us of our ability to maneuver the suit. This is because we must use the suit to compensate for a lack of lift in the flying position. This topic might be an article of its own one day… Moving on for now… Backfly….

Legs: Fully straightened, toes pointed.

Arms: Straight arms, dihedral angle (hands will be in front of the body)

Head: Chin off the chest, rotating the head backwards to aid in aerodynamics and forward speed control.

Back: Straight (imagine being pulled straight with a string running from head to toe)

Butt: We like big butts, cannot lie, but that wingsuit butt should be less. This is not sitting in the suit; it ain’t a hammock.

Shoulders: Can be used for lift and speed control. Shoulders forward tends to increase lift and drag, and shoulders backward can have the opposite effect.

Hands: Hands can be palms up or palms down. Both methods work. I teach palms down because this tends to put the arms in a position where the larger back muscles are used for moving the wings instead of the smaller shoulder muscles.

There are folks who will tell you that back-flying is easy, and there are folks who ride bicycles backwards with ease. Perhaps, it’s one of those things where it’s easy to do but hard to do correctly and efficiently. Or some people learn faster than others. Took me a long time to figure out back-flying techniques and have the proper control over the suit in this flying position.

One common mistake is arching the back. This leads to a loss of lift and can cause the suit to dive. The best lift position is a fully straight back, like a board. This is key because many people will try to push the head back, but they will also bend backwards while doing it.

This article needs more. We need more pictures, and we need concrete examples. Be on the lookout for Part 2 where we will look at some of the theory in practice.

Keep flying my bird friends!

Blue Skies,

-WSL