This Guy is Going to Die

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

http://bgr.com/2016/01/14/wingboarding-wakeboarding-extreme-sport/

"Never been done in aviation.." Uhm, there might be a reason.

This has as about as much chance of flying as Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign.

Your first flight will be the first solo flight with a totally new control system. That is going to work well. That parachute isn't going to do you very well in the first couple of hundred feet. Maybe he will have some electronic stability control built in like there is on F16s and recent RC airplanes.

Ever see someone water ski perfectly the first time?

Crash and burn, Mav.

[BCmJUnKie]

Oh man. It looks cool. I can't imagine the person having as much control as a wake board or skis given the resistance.

It will be cool after he works out everything and figures out what optimum airspeed is good for being able to carve or roll or whatever "tricks"

[tb-av]

Ever see someone water ski perfectly the first time?

I was thinking the same thing. That's going to be some rough learning when you face plant from about 10-50 feet up.

[Moose-Knuckle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQa39YVeV6c

[Airhasz]

Glad my twenties were over before all these new fangled death traps hit the market.;)

[Hmac]

Man, I gotta hand it to that guy. What a fantastic engineering and modeling accomplishment. Really impressive.

Having said that, the safety envelope is small enough that I can't imagine enough people would be willing to buy one of these things to make it commercially viable. I've had a glider rating for my pilot's license for almost 30 years. I'm very familiar with the hazards of flying a towed aerial vehicle. While this thing would likely be a blast for someone like your average wing-suit daredevil once at a safe altitude, there's going to be a window from takeoff to about 700 feet where, if things go wrong, they will go really wrong and no parachute is going to salvage that disaster if it happens. The wing loading on the thing looks high enough that it's going to take some speed to get airborne. Envisioning 70 mph through the air from 0 to 500 feet altitude standing on a wing board just makes my palms itch.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Glad my twenties were over before all these new fangled death traps hit the market.;)

The wing guy can drink with this guy in Heaven.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/22/africa/asmelash-zeferu-plane-ethiopia/

"Man builds plane using Youtube, will fly it to his own wedding"

From another source:

"35-year-old Asmelash Zeferu dreamt of being a pilot, so he spent 15 years constructing his own light aircraft to realise that childhood dream."

15 years, and she put up with that crap.

"I want to marry you, but I have to get the plane done first, how about another hummer.." - How many times did I use that line....

[SomeOtherGuy]

Good luck with that.

Might merit a Darwin Award - Techno-Redneck Edition.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Man, I gotta hand it to that guy. What a fantastic engineering and modeling accomplishment. Really impressive.

Having said that, the safety envelope is small enough that I can't imagine enough people would be willing to buy one of these things to make it commercially viable. I've had a glider rating for my pilot's license for almost 30 years. I'm very familiar with the hazards of flying a towed aerial vehicle. While this thing would likely be a blast for someone like your average wing-suit daredevil once at a safe altitude, there's going to be a window from takeoff to about 700 feet where, if things go wrong, they will go really wrong and no parachute is going to salvage that disaster if it happens. The wing loading on the thing looks high enough that it's going to take some speed to get airborne. Envisioning 70 mph through the air from 0 to 500 feet altitude standing on a wing board just makes my palms itch.

Maybe with an ultralight airplane reserve chute with a safety cord attached to the wing so that if you fall off it deploys automatically. I thought some of those were close to zero height.

I was looking at doing powered paragliding, which seems pretty close to the thrill with about 1/100,000,000 the danger.

[Hmac]

Maybe with an ultralight airplane reserve chute with a safety cord attached to the wing so that if you fall off it deploys automatically. I thought some of those were close to zero height.

I was looking at doing powered paragliding, which seems pretty close to the thrill with about 1/100,000,000 the danger.

Those things are usually rocket-powered to deploy so quickly, and the deployment is a function of speed more than altitude. I tend to doubt the feasibility of wearing a rocket-powered parachute on your back, or any other propulsion method sufficient to get that chute deployed at 70 mph and less than 500 feet altitude. Newton's Third law of motion is a bitch.

I've done the powered paragliding (not solo, though). It's a blast and you do feel very secure, in large part because the speed is so low. The advantage is that your parachute is already deployed.

[polydeuces]

..."hey y'all, watch this...!"...