On Feb 11, 11:12*am, Vaughn wrote:
On 2/11/2012 10:10 AM, John Doe wrote:

Jeb Corliss is not just flying over terrain that is declining at
least as fast as his descent rate.

True, he is apparently deliberately diving faster that his best L/D
speed. *This maneuvers him down towards the rock face while at the same
time allowing him sufficient kinetic energy to escape the declining
terrain by simply pulling up.

What appears to me to be the
very difficult part is that he flies within 10 feet of the ground.

One could argue if that's difficult or simply foolhardy. *I will agree
that it's probably difficult to do it regularly without finally having
an accident.

What appears to me to be
unusually difficult about his stunt is that he has no escape
route.

Not necessarily true if he planned the stunt correctly. *As long as he
maintains sufficient maneuvering energy and the terrain keeps moving
down rapidly, all he needs to do is pull up. *He will simultaneously
slow down and move away from the rock face. (Trading kinetic energy for
potential energy) * (See above.)

It was interesting (to me) to note that the injuries sustained in his
cliff strike were to his legs and feet. As a former sport skydiver I
suspect this was a near miss (in the true meaning); in order to obtain
lift while flying, you must reverse arch to form a curve/lifting body
with your body. Since the wingsuit extends to include the hands/arms
and legs feet, one would have to include the feet as the tail/low
point of the arch.

I suspect he saw he was going to be low and hard arched, which saved
him from a collision with his body, but caused an impact with his
feet.

BASE jumping wasn't on my list of things to do and I left the sport
after 'only' 937' jumps. It became (I was primarily a freefall
videographer/photographer) just another weekend job....and that leads
to complacency which leads to injury.