Is there anywhere to do this on San Jacinto?

[Flyhigh]

Norris-

We fly owens valley and can usually find little spots between the bushes and cacti in the desert to land if we miss our intended lz. But we will have to scout a landing for sure to make sure there is a decent spot for us to come down.

Motivated- I think we'd prefer to come down on the west side if possible, down one of the canyons most likely. North side we will have the wind farm to worry about. It can be done snowboarding fyi, though typically a snowboard stance is quite sideways. But if you set it up alpine style so your facing forward its possible. Im a decent snowboarder but will need to strap some skis on and go practice a bit before I try a launch. Its been awhile.

We also all wear go pros so well have plenty of footage for you.

[neverwashasbeen]

I've been giving this a little thought and I can't think of anyplace that is a good launch point. There was a tram operator a few years back that was big into hang gliding and he never found anything good as I recall.

[Flyhigh]

Hrm, hang gliding is very different from speedflying. Our gear all fits in a very small backpack and requires little room to setup. But I do think your right any launch will be quite hard to find. We prefer to fly in zero wind. But if we do fly in a slight headwind it actually makes launching much easier. To the point that all you need is room to lay out the wing then fly it into the wind, turn and step off and your flying. I think the best move is gonna be to just go take a tram ride to the top and see what we see. But I still appreciate anyones thoughts regarding possible launches and wind conditions throughout the winter.

[zippetydude]

From the videos, it seems like those wings are designed for a lot of speed and very little lift...are you able to flare for a landing, or do you just run really hard and hope for the best?

By the way, I'm sure the tram would not like it, but it would be cool advertising for them if they let you use their roof for a launching spot. You could really do some spectacular stuff dropping down the canyon to the lower tram, then land in the parking lot, jump back on the tram and do it all over again.

Talk them into that, and not only will I show up to watch, I'll personally buy your whole crew a beer at the tram bar.

z

[Flyhigh]

HA that would indeed be cool. But we can't even get ski resorts in the US to let us do this, so I doubt the tram would, but you never know.

The wings are designed for speed more than lift, but it depends on the wing. We have a few different wings for different needs. The smaller are more fun but sometimes you need to glide to make the landing. We usually look for a 3/1 or steeper terrain to really have fun. As for landing usually its a combination of landing into the wind, flaring hard, and running a bit.

[ps_native]

this is more my style....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfph3iNC-k

[Flyhigh]

Half of us are base jumpers. But we do a lot more antenna around here, if only we had the terrain! This is still my favorite wingsuit video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaMTSOI1Zk4

[PatrickSupra]

I'd give anything for a flight in a wingsuit.

Excuse me for being so ignorant, but how do you actually start base jumping?

[Flyhigh]

I'd give anything for a flight in a wingsuit.

Excuse me for being so ignorant, but how do you actually start base jumping?

Go get your skydiving license and a few hundred jumps. Then take a base course.