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I have been having problems with the leg wing (possilby the butt deflector), fluttering in flight. I have tried a variety of different things including keeping the leg wing tightly spread by pushing out with my calfs and heels. In looking at photos of some of the best wingsuit pilots, there seems to be two different techniques. One is to keep your leg wing super tight and flat. The other is to not have the wing as tight and let it develop a natural curve. I went skydiving today and found that if I did NOT attempt to push out so hard on the leg wing and have a bit more of a relaxed spread to them, the flapping seemed to stop. I would like to hear some of the different opinions out there in regards to this topic.

I am aware that many pilots have issues with their V1 leg wing flapping. I have also seen pilots, some very new to wingsuit base, jump their V1 with no audible fluttering what so ever. This leads me to belive that the problem is simply body position, and not the the leg wing is to long. Just wanted to throw that in there....

Check out the photos comparing two different leg wing stances.

I have an identical problem with the V1 that fits me perfectly. Pointing toes, spereading legs as hard as I can, wearing Hanwags, blah blah - nothing helps. On chase video you can always see alot of flutter. About the only time I noticed the flutter dissapear is when I dive headdown.

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Felber and Leroy.. In case you didn't notice this is the BASE technical section and your attempted humor belongs back in dorkzone with the rest of the homos. I was hoping this new site was going to clean up all the bullshit posters, oh well.

vis666, your comment about the flapping going away when diving head down is interesting. I jumped with Yuri this summer in Italy and he commented on the flapping as well as how I was not flying steep enough. When flying flat, you are not "slicing" through the air and it causes a lot of air disturbance over your back. I found when I started to fly steeper the flapping become less noticable, that is why I thought it might be the butt deflector? Part of me thinks it is just the last two inches of the leg wing since I can't actually feel the flapping during base jumps. I wonder what would happen if I had the suit modified to have 2-3 inches cut off the end?

 
Technique 2 (some slack) is correct, 1 is incorrect. Practice 2 and it should solve your problem.

the wonders of 63" TV :)... I noticed that I am not sucking in my gut, and the flutter is much more pronounced when my butt is pointing down and not up..... Till next weekend....

Currently I am only getting mid to high 50s in a V1, almost the same as with my old S3.... the forward speed is much faster though (or at least it seems so), but the protrack graph doesn't show much variance in speeds....

cya

Hi dhracer33
I had the same problem for a while with my V1 too (common problem with the V1). What I ended up doing is to have a very small bend in my knees. Not as big bend as it would change the shape of the wing, but just enough to tighten up the fabric around the knees.
Not sure if it will work for everybody (different shoes, pointing of toes, tightness of suit and so on) but it worked for me.

there's been an answer no one came up with, get a V-2!

sure.. who wants my V1 ?

on a more tehcnical note - those of you who have some jumps on both - what are the differences that you notice between the V1 and V2? I transitioned to a V1 from an S3.... and I really like the cutaway handles (never had to use them though)....

The fluttering would be caused by the wing being stalled out towards the trailing edge, usually caused by pulling too tight and creating a seam.

The wing needs to be taut; how you accomplish this is down to individual technique, suit fit and your own body shape.

The answer is the simplest one. The wing flaps because the pressurization isn't there. It is foolish to try to correct that with technique. It will work sometimes but that means a suit that can start flapping at anytime.

This problem has been fixed on the V2. Eliminate the ports that inflate the leg sleeve and the reduce how far the wing extends beyond the feet.

The way to do this on a V1 might be to plug the ports and add some kind of secondary inflation mechanism for the legsleeve.

The V2 solved the leg wing inflation problems but added other problems. The arm wing inlets on the shoulder inflate the legsleeve. This causes inconsistent inflation of the arm wings and armwing flap.

Using the shoulder inlets to only inflate the arm wing(and seal it more), and another set of inlets to inflate the legsleeve will make for a better performing suit because of consistent inflation.

Kris.

I recently heard that flying with your chest strap undone is a great way to reduce drag on the underside of your body (including the entire lower surface of the leg wing) thus eliminating "tail flap".

I just have to say some short things.

Flying the V1 was never a problem for me. getting my leg wing stable was a problem when I dod not gove it fredom or when I was flying it like a Skyflyer (to flat).

give your V1 soe energi in steeper angle. streach your sholders up tpwards your ears and streach your toes by pointing them down. but let your arms and leg-wings relax in width. let the suit curve it self naturly. your arms will vibrate a litte. but thets ok.

If you are flying in a steeper angeö let the handles/sticks point a bit upwards in flight to let the air up behond you without breaking.

but the ultimate trick for a cleaner and more controled flight was for me to start flying the V2, a refind V1 with many new soloutions for small problems. I like it a lot and I recomend it for all kind of lying. both steep proximity in Norway and long induance flights in the Alps or for agressive dog fighting in skydiving.

For flockdives I recomend you to stop floating and stop flock-diving. loos waight and get skills. flockdiving is like driving a ferrari in 10 mph along with idiots in jeeps. stop flapping and start flying.

flocking sucks and skydiving is boring.

remember to pull before impact!

martin