Re: A sport more exciting than boating! Wait until you see this!
In my opinion, they are flying as gliders, but with an extremely poor glide ratio. To me, there are two reasons why this is true - first, that there is a sustained forward component to their descent, and secondly, because they are able to control their flight.
There are also a few visual tips to confirm actual flight. At about 00:32, you can see the rate of descent lessen as the jumper transitions from freefall to extension of the arm and leg panels. At about 01:50 in the video, the jumper crosses an outcropping on the cliff and encounters an updraft. In watching this, you can see a change in attitude of his body, and a slight "flaring" of the flight profile. Finally, in the sequence between 03:00 and 03:25, it is clear that there is a forward component to the flight.
The reason why the suits can not be used for a landing, is because the glide ratio is so poor. Simply put, there isn't enough of an abilty to arrest rate of descent to a point where the landing would be soft enough to do, without injury. Unlike an airplane or glider, you can't "flare" to a degree sufficient to produce a soft landing.
This is also why sustained flight is not possible - unlike in a true glider, this suit does not provide a high enough glide ratio, to result in an increase in altitude in an updraft. In the wing suit, the rate of descent is much higher than the rate of ascent of any updraft that you might find. You just can't ride uplifts along ridges, or updrafts from convective air masses to greater altitudes, the way a glider can.
I still find these suits to be fascinating. They are not particularly efficient right now, but who knows - they might just get good enough to allow sustained flight at some point in time!
amazing courage
