On January 18-20 at Skydive Arizona in Eloy, local wingsuit organizer Cameron Stiles hosted Project Desert Skies, an exclusive invitational event for wingsuit flyers. This was the second year for the event. Stiles gathered a talented team of more than a dozen accomplished flyers and led them across the desert skies in one formidable formation after the next. The main menu items this year were slot back-flying, dynamic formation movement and synchronized carving. Despite the ambitious goals of this group, they achieved their hopes of high glide ratios and fast forward speeds. Everyone enjoyed being both personally challenged and progressing as a collection of pilots with different skill sets but a common cause: fly cleaner, closer and faster.

In the weird world of wingsuiting, most jumpers find maneuvers easier to learn at slower speeds. Ironically, this equates to a higher fall rate but a lower glide ratio. A primary reason to train precision flying at higher speeds—as this group did—is to increase one’s skill set when a wingsuit is generating greater lift and is most sensitive to the pilot’s inputs. No one minded the longer freefall times that accompanied the healthy glide ratios, and everyone stayed stoked spending several solid minutes shoulder to shoulder with their wingmen.

With no injuries, zero cutaways and not a single off landing, Safety and Training Advisor Brian Burke and the rest of the Skydive Arizona staff were happy to record a perfect safety score at this event.

Daniel Wilson | D-35247
Herndon, Virginia