Wingin' It - it's the way forward

Wingin' It is the UK's biggest wingsuit school. Mainly based at Netheravon and Hibaldstow, the school is available to travel to dropzones in the UK and Europe.

Run by Liz Ashley with "wingmen" Mike Ehlas and Jack Harfield, we are available for first flights most weekends, and will be running "Meet the Flockers" events throughout the year to develop flocking skills. See us if you want to join the fun...

There is a mailing list to hear about past and future events... let me know if you want to join it by emailing liz@wingin-it.co.uk

Also as of September 2007 there is a Facebook group for Wingin' It

First flights

Wingin' It has two demo suits available for first flights in sizes M and XL so there should be something for everyone's first flight. See the Demo Programme tab for details of all the Wingin' It suits (currently 8 and increasing!)

£25 buys you all the instruction you'll ever need - for the first flight course or FFC and also progression after that. Suit hire is £7 per jump and includes use of a ProTrack to see just how slow you really go!

Currency is much more important than jump numbers, but if you have under 500 jumps then you must have at least 200 non-student jumps in the last 18 months, and also pay your instructor's slot for a follow-out on your first flight. It's recommended to have this follow-out anyway even if you have over 500 jumps.

For more information on what an FFC involves, and for further details on the requirements pre-500 jumps, see the First Flights section.

Flocking

Wingin' It is about quality wingsuit jumping - no zooming around unsafely! Once you've learnt the basics on your FFC, you'll do solos and small flocks to learn more about flying the suit.

For more advanced flyers, the 2008 season is about two things:

1) bigger flocks
2) pretty, slot-perfect flocks

Bigger flocks - the current biggest flock over Netheravon is a 9 way, and I want this record broken this year! But, like in FS, bigger isn't always better...

Being in the sky with 10 other wingsuits is simply amazing, and the smiles make up for the fact that one or two people may be lagging behind or gone low. But we still call it a formation, even though not everyone was in. In FS we would call it incomplete, and try again.

Quality flocks - although wingsuit jumping has been around for quite some time now, there's still a lot of stuff that hasn't been done yet. I'd like to challenge people more this year to fly tighter, pre-planned dives. The parallels between this and big-way FS are huge - the discipline required to fly a slot and maintain it, the feeling of elation when it's complete, the resolve to go up and try again if it doesn't, the pretty pictures for the bar when everyone's in slot...

But this is harder because it's 3-dimensional and no-contact!

Any experienced FS jumper or freeflyer who can successfully work setups, do cross referencing, can leave a slot open for someone to fit into and all the time maintain their own slot without wobbling, will find that these skills transition straight across into flocking, and that high quality wingsuit jumps can be done despite relatively low numbers of flights. Similarly, CRW jumpers will find that flying on the outside of a flock is just like flying on the wing of a CRW stack, and that the picture of cutting the corner while approaching a flock that's turning a corner on a flight plan is just like how you'd do it under canopy too.

For more, see the Flocking section.

The future of Wingin' It - 2008 and beyond

I’ve been running first flights for four years now, and 2007 was Wingin’ It’s second proper season. I’ve been concentrating on first flights and early progression, trying to get as many people as possible into wingsuiting. There are now over 50 people who have done first flights with the school, and I’m planning to change the focus a bit in 2008.

There’ll be more coaching and load organized flocking on the calendar, as well as specific weekends for specific experience levels. The first of these was the high-experience invitational event at Netheravon in October 07. The idea is to push the boundaries a bit, to challenge the more experienced wingsuiters and do some totally new stuff, while at the same time showing the up-and-coming intermediate jumpers just what can be done and giving them something to aim for.

First flights will still be run regularly but the school as a whole is growing up and I need to respond by organizing some more challenging stuff.