magentabluesky wrote:Is a wing suit a hang glider?
I'm with a habit to discern audience and context. (Naw, that is not my habit; rather my habit is to poetically reach to see if I can discern "kite" in a flight system.

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In facing the quoted question by Michael, I hesitate; he put the question in a context or post that has many FAR phrases. I do not want to disturb his flow in the FAR realm, but actually may want to; I get challenged on these matters and sometimes just toward the habit mentioned. Maybe both kinds of answering could be done while identifying what is unfolding; I'll try.
FAR context: FAA is not considering wingsuit as a hang glider. So, in that context: FAA does not equate wingsuit with hang glider at first glance.
Kite context: Some of us, at least one of us, can see mechanical equivalence of wingsuit with hang glider with kite system. I see that a wingsuit flight is a flight of a free-gliding kite system that is a hang glider system. How does that go? Mass of good portion is hanging some via threads (tethers) to wing of wingsuit; the mass forms a kite-system anchoring to the effective main wing portion of the flight system. The threads (tethers) from the anchoring free-falling mass are in tension as the wing portion lifts and drags in the kiting action. That these parts of the wingsuit (kite system) are quite close coupled does not cause the system to be disqualified as a kite system. The wingsuit (as kite system) flight system operates to glide. Kite systems need not have fixed anchors; notice how the kiteboarder's kite system during a jump is still a kite system. Explore
FFAWE for some cousins on this matter. And since the wingsuit (kite system) significantly hangs some mass for the glide, the wingsuit in this context is a type of hang glider with both weight-shift control and wing-warping control and variable geometry control and even airframe control (bones of the pilot). The human in wingsuiting holds the airframe within his skin.

In some courts: I'll know it when I see it. "THAT is not a hang glider." Refer shown linked photo.
But in some company what is shown is a hang glider.
Decide how one wants to get along to get along, if wanted. '
Perhaps be able to be comfortable in various contexts.
