The first thing I always tell these people is that this is a long-distance race and also very expensive and can take years to achieve, therefore you have to be patient .
First of all, it is essential to do the AFF course (Accelerate Free Fall course) at a skydiving center. In Spain we have several throughout the peninsula and there are more and more.
I have already done the AFF, what now?
After taking the course, do 200 jumps to be able to put on a suit. The suits for beginners are smaller and do not offer great performance but they do offer safety, ease of handling and agility for acrobatics and are very common in acrobatic competitions.
This number of jumps guarantees that that person has the necessary dexterity to function freely in free fall without being a danger to himself or others.
I have done 200 jumps. Can I jump off a mountain now?
NO. The Wingsuit course must be taken with an instructor and at this moment a new learning phase begins where the new skills must be consolidated. I advise doing a minimum of another 150 or 200 jumps with this suit before considering climbing a mountain with it. And jump to the point where it becomes your second skin and you can perform all the movements or routines without having to think and let your body act for you.
What else do I need?
It is advisable to have at least 300 or 500 jumps from a plane and during all those jumps to perfect your canopy piloting and precision in landings.
They are essential skills for the next step where we will find ourselves at low altitude with very small landing fields and perhaps sometimes non-existent where we will have much less flight time under the parachute.
You also need to take a specific BASE jumping "course". It basically consists of learning to fold that parachute, since it has some differences and peculiarities with respect to a free fall parachute, on the one hand, on the other some basic safety procedures, reaction to unforeseen events and making exits. correct.
One of the biggest differences with respect to skydiving is that it starts from zero speed and a specific technique is required to have a controlled free fall, here a bad start could be the last since this modality is It is practiced at heights well below the normal heights of skydiving where jumps are usually made between 1500, 3000 and 4500 m and the base jump can be performed from 60m onwards.
Currently there is no official regulation in this regard. In Spain we do not belong to any federation, nor do the instructors have a specific qualification.
60m with Wingsuit?
Impossible, for a wingsuit jump you need at least 100 or 150 meters of "rock drop" which is the distance between the jump point and the place where a stone would impact if we dropped it, Let's add at least another 400 m to that height and having about 500 m or more from the "Exit" exact place from where you jump to landing we can now talk about an acceptable height to have time to fly, get away from the wall and open the parachute safely and with sufficient height.
Do you have an altimeter? At what height do you open? How do you know when you have to open?
No, I don't know anyone who uses an altimeter for this, it is not necessary, the "ojimeter" is used with visual appreciation you know what height you should open, the instinct of self-preservation is present and it won't let you reach the ground without trying. The minimum height will be that which allows you to reach the landing safely and in case of any malfunction in the opening, to be able to correct it in time.
Adding a few more meters for the wingsuit since we have to undo some zippers to be able to start directing the navigation.
Malfunctions in opening?
They can be the famous 180, winding or "Line Twist", "Line Over" what paragliders know as a tie, tension lines or "tension knots". To be able to solve them we will need more time than normal and in this case more time is equivalent to opening a little higher, no matter how well you fold the parachute or how many thousands of times you have done it, it is an uncertain science with an infinite number of variables: speed, body posture, folding quality, wind…
Where do you start at BASE?
The best object for start jumping are the bridges. They offer a security guarantee, if we have an opening with a 180º rotation we will not encounter a wall and we have the opportunity to save our skin. The more jumps of this type you make, the more prepared you are to start with the terminal jumps.
"The dreaded 180 is one of the biggest causes of death among those who practice Base jumping."
Once an individual becomes an independent BASE jumper and must make his or her own decisions, it becomes very important to have the company of those who have more experience and can serve as an example and guide. An inexperienced person can unintentionally make wrong decisions.
It goes without saying that they must be coherent people, with common sense and a broad sense of responsibility, otherwise it would be counterproductive for ourselves.
This does not mean that they are responsible for anyone, because here no one puts a gun to their head to jump and whoever does it is completely responsible for their actions.
What are Terminal jumps?
That sounds terrible! Terminal is that jump in which the height allows us to reach a maximum free fall speed, which is around 200 km/h. For this type of jumps we are forced to travel through Spain, Europe and the rest of the world.
In the Pyrenees area we have several possible ones but they are not the most appropriate for beginners. My advice is to start with the famous Monte Brento in the Trentino area, Italy. It is a really high mountain with just over 1000m to the landing, it also has a negative slope, which is positive for us, as the wall goes inward we run less risk of suffering an impact against it if the case were to occur. a bad start although it later becomes positive again, the unevenness gives us enough height to resolve this incident.
I recommend doing several dozen jumps like this before putting on a wingsuit, it's about consolidating your exit and making drifts that take you as far away from the wall as possible.
Drifts?
Drift or in English "track" is gliding horizontally through the air using the position of the body with the relative wind that we generate in free fall at that speed.
At what point are you objectively prepared?
After having done your homework, that is, the previous training, 200 jumping jacks. start jumping are the bridges. They offer a security guarantee, if we have an opening with a 180º rotation we will not encounter a wall and we have the opportunity to save our skin. The more jumps of this type you make, the more prepared you are to start with the terminal jumps.
"The dreaded 180 is one of the biggest causes of death among those who practice Base jumping."
Once an individual becomes an independent BASE jumper and must make his or her own decisions, it becomes very important to have the company of those who have more experience and can serve as an example and guide. An inexperienced person can unintentionally make wrong decisions.
It goes without saying that they must be coherent people, with common sense and a broad sense of responsibility, otherwise it would be counterproductive for ourselves.
This does not mean that they are responsible for anyone, because here no one puts a gun to their head to jump and whoever does it is completely responsible for their actions.
What are Terminal jumps?
That sounds terrible! Terminal is that jump in which the height allows us to reach a maximum free fall speed, which is around 200 km/h. For this type of jumps we are forced to travel through Spain, Europe and the rest of the world.
In the Pyrenees area we have several possible ones but they are not the most appropriate for beginners. My advice is to start with the famous Monte Brento in the Trentino area, Italy. It is a really high mountain with just over 1000m to the landing, it also has a negative slope, which is positive for us, as the wall goes inward we run less risk of suffering an impact against it if the case were to occur. a bad start although it later becomes positive again, the unevenness gives us enough height to resolve this incident.
I recommend doing several dozen jumps like this before putting on a wingsuit, it's about consolidating your exit and making drifts that take you as far away from the wall as possible.
Drifts?
Drift or in English "track" is gliding horizontally through the air using the position of the body with the relative wind that we generate in free fall at that speed.
At what point are you objectively prepared?
After having done your homework, that is, the previous training, 200 jumping jacks.
