Levin 0 #1 August 4, 2003 2nd annual "Fastest Man Contest" Labor Day, September 1st Skydive Houston 1st Place - 1st place plaque, free Pro-Track, full free day of jumps (one rig only), 100% off Firefly Freefly Pants 2nd Place - 2nd place plaque, free Pro Dytter, 5 free jumps, 50% off Firefly Freefly Pants 3rd Place- 3rd place plaque, 3 free jumps fom Skydive Houston Pro-Tracks will be provided to all contestants each jump to record competition speeds. Contestants may make as many attempts as they want but demo Pro-Tracks will limit the number of contestants per load to eight. Your entry fee is your jump ticket. All Pro-Tracks will be set to "true airspeed" and worn externally on each contestants rig. At 270mph a skydiver will fall a 1000' in approximately 2.5 seconds. Traveling at 270mph a skydiver who decides to go "flat" at 2000' to decelerate for canopy opening may or may not have adequete time for a safe deployment. Therefore, each contestant is required to wear an audible altimeter. It is recommended that altitude warnings be set at 6500', 4000' and 2500'. Anybody that is interested in competing and does not have an audible needs to borrow one or email me in advance and I'll see if I can find or provide one. Contestants may not use speeds recorded on their own audible altimeters. Only speeds recorded on the contest provided demo Pro-Tracks will be recognized. Pro-Tracks will be cleared after each use. In the event of a tie, 1st place will go to the 1st contestant to record the top speed. Ground coaching will be available for safety and technique. Last years winners were 1st place Thomas McDow @ 292mph and 2nd place John Rich @ 250mph. The contest last all day, from first load till sunset. The prize list is still gowing. My goal is to have overall prizes valued at $1500 with about $1000 worth of prizes going to 1st place. At this moment overall prizes are valued at approximately $1050. As of right now I have 8 demo Pro-Tracks for the contest. If you already know that you will be entering please email me (aerodeofreefly@hotmailcom) and let me know in advance so that I can get more demo Pro-Tracks if it looks like they will be needed. Generous gear manufacturersLevin vSCR#17 edit: just to fix some typos Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ramon 0 #2 August 4, 2003 I need some prizes..."Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.", Ambrose Bierce. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AggieDave 6 #3 August 5, 2003 Hmmmm...I *have* been needing a reason to practice my headdown...--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
clusterit 0 #4 August 5, 2003 ...This is a good place to squeeze in my congrats to everybody involved in the V-SCR at SDH last weekend http://www.clustermaster.com/D60/Aug032003/pages/IMG_4843.htm Henry, Catfish, Stephen, Bryan, Nick, Treeman, Chris, Pier, Levin, Mr. Hand....and that girl that likes to cook coffee at 5 am ! Looking forward to 1st of September. Cheers and blue ones. cG Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chivo 0 #5 August 5, 2003 I just got an email from Pier with a few of those photos. Dude, excellent work, awesome shots! ~Chivo Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zenister 0 #6 August 5, 2003 i wont make it (unfortunately) but i was wondering are there rules on weight belts? also is it highest speed? or highest average over a specified distance? always wondered how this things were judged..____________________________________ Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Levin 0 #7 August 5, 2003 I had to think about this one for a minute. I can't think of any reason why weight belts would not be allowed. I certainly wouldn't recommend piling on so much weight that you have to borrow a larger rig. For this type of skydive you should wear properly fitting gear and you should be familiar with the rig you are jumping. IMO, technique is much more important than dead weight. Levin vSCS#3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AggieDave 6 #8 August 5, 2003 Quotetechnique is much more important than dead weight. It is. The people that do the *real* speed skydiving aren't HUGE people, they're normal sized jumpers and they're getting up around 300mph+!--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #9 August 5, 2003 QuoteThe people that do the *real* speed skydiving aren't HUGE people, . . . They have a tendancy to not be feather-weights though. See http://www.speedskydiving.net/speedskydivers.php There are some quite "normal" looking folks (and one or two damn fine women!), but no real threat of starvation.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Levin 0 #10 August 5, 2003 QuoteThey have a tendancy to not be feather-weights though. See http://www.speedskydiving.net/speedskydivers.php There are some quite "normal" looking folks (and one or two damn fine women!), but no real threat of starvation. Thanks for the link. I didn't know they had a full blown competition circuit over seas. I guess there's not as much interest in it here in the States. Don't suppose you have link handy to a metric to english conversion table. Levin vSCS#3 edit: fix more typos Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #11 August 5, 2003 http://www.sciencemadesimple.net/EASYspeed.htmlquade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zenister 0 #12 August 5, 2003 QuoteQuotetechnique is much more important than dead weight. It is. The people that do the *real* speed skydiving aren't HUGE people, they're normal sized jumpers and they're getting up around 300mph+! true however weight as a proportion of surface area has ALOT to do with speed, so given the same technique (to minimize surface area and disturbance) the heavier person will fall faster... wonders if weight belts are common in speed competitions.____________________________________ Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ramon 0 #13 August 5, 2003 it is actually about cross sectional density, not weight. (i.e. arrow vs ball of the same wieght, arrow falls faster...forget gaillileo he used two items with the same drag coefficient)). and of course good technique will keep you more like an arrow than a flopping corking whale and so Thomas Mcdow at 180 lbs beat my record and the speed of a very big style and accuracy guy. A skinny person with some technique will go faster than any lardass..case closed.....I know a girl (Jeremy's gf) that has gone faster than any one else in Houston >290... Go big or go home ramon"Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.", Ambrose Bierce. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zenister 0 #14 August 6, 2003 ok how about two arrows with the same crossection (ie two divers with equal size/techniques) but one wieghs more?? thats why i asked about weight belts. seems they would give you an advantage (unless they were so large as to increase your crossection) since there is no other way to increase your mass..____________________________________ Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ramon 0 #15 August 6, 2003 You are right about 2 arrows, but the human body has to have the skill to remain arrow like instead of pancake like.. is so hard to go over like 250-260, that skill and finesse are required to stay straight down and allow gravity to pull you that little bit extra to get in to the 280- 290 realm before you cork...and you will cork unless you have a depleted uranium helmet and little carbon fiber winglets on your feet (ok I made that up..but at some speed drag on your toes and feet will be almost as great as the pull of gravity on your body and since youare unstable to begin with slight movements will make you cork.."Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.", Ambrose Bierce. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airann 1 #16 August 6, 2003 Quote I didn't know they had a full blown competition circuit over seas. I believe that is why the leather jumpsuit maker dude contacted me. He sells them overseas to skydivers 99% more than here. Maybe for the speed contest. Personally, I think it beats the wetsuit idea. GF of Jere was seen by me not long ago. Beyond humble that one is. In fact she rarely says a word until we are by ourselves. Id kiss her feet, for I am not worthy of her presence. And I tell her so and everytime she turns red. ~AirAnn~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Staso 0 #17 August 19, 2003 it's basically all about the balance. weight helps but if you lose your balance for a fraction of the second, you lose all your speed. so it's much more important to be balanced then dense. same goes for latex suits - it has high potential, but it's so hard to balance in damn thing that it rendres it almost useless for lots of folks. especially since for speed skydiving speed is measured as average over 1 vertical km and it's very important to keep going and accelerating as long as possible. and as one guy said flying in latex suit is like balancing in grease on your head. plus if you get into flat spin on your back at 250+ there is nothing to grab on, suit is way to slick :) this discipline is more popular in Europe and it came from there, but interest in US is growing. there are now some issues within current organization that governs speed skydiving (ISST - speedskydiving.net) but new organization is being formed and hopefully next year competitions will go more smooth. as a representative for the new organization from states i push to get one of the rounds of next year world cup here in US so more people could get involved. all the current news are usually posted by Ken Hansen at his web site: speedskydiving.com recently forums were organized for all the speeders and speeders to be at speedskydiving.proboards19.com. everybody is welcome to join ! there are not that many people who are interested in speed skydiving as i wish there were, so i think we should stick and play together. stan. edited: i screwed up with urls :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
courage 0 #18 August 19, 2003 hey all! here's some links for those interested in Speed Skydiving: NEWS www.speedskydiving.com RECORDS www.hangout.no/speed FORUM speedskydiving.proboards19.com One point to be made is that in Speed Skydiving, we never pay any attention to the maximum speedreading on the Pro-Tracks. The reason is that when travelling at freeflying/Speed Skydiving speeds, any transition, wobble, whatever, will cause the airflow around your body to affect the reading on the Pro-Track, and especially the maximumreading. To make it a fair discipline, we use the average between two hip-mounted Pro-Tracks. And if these Pro-Tracks show a difference of more than 30 kph (~19 mph) the jump is invalid, because you've been unstable at some point during the skydive. To win a competition where you're looking at the maximum reading is easy - just do a quick transition or two of any kind - but it doesn't mean you really went as fast as the Pro-Track says ;-) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Staso 0 #19 August 19, 2003 Quote To win a competition where you're looking at the maximum reading is easy - just do a quick transition or two of any kind - but it doesn't mean you really went as fast as the Pro-Track says ;-) even easier then that - put it on your ankle and kick as hard as you can :) i think the reading over 600 mph was registred once -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
courage 0 #20 August 19, 2003 You're right. Insane speeds has been registered before and these are several of the reasons why Speed Skydiving as a discipline has evolved into what we have today - a discipline that honour good performance and invalidates unbelivable freak speeds like a +620mph as a maximum reading on a speed skydive, or +250 mph on a freefly jump where you did several transitions. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WrongWay 0 #21 August 20, 2003 QuoteYou're right. Insane speeds has been registered before and these are several of the reasons why Speed Skydiving as a discipline has evolved into what we have today - a discipline that honour good performance and invalidates unbelivable freak speeds like a +620mph as a maximum reading on a speed skydive, or +250 mph on a freefly jump where you did several transitions. Then are they gonna use ground to air cams or camera flyers to make sure nobody's just going out head down and doing weedeaters all the way down??? http://www.skydivewrongway.com Wrong Way D #27371 Mal Manera Rodriguez Cajun Chicken Ø Hellfish #451 The wiser wolf prevails. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
courage 0 #22 August 20, 2003 No. We use two Pro-Tracks on each contestant and compete for the fastest average measured over 1 vertical kilometer. After the jump, the two Pro-Tracks are downloaded into the Jump-Track software and the result from the two are extracted by the software. If the variation between the two PT's are larger than 30 kph (~18 mph) the result is invalidated, because of instability during the dive. The software checks this aswell. I have found that my fastest jumps also are clean, straight down the tube, without any instabillity (the variation between the two PT's - on my best dives - has been as little as 1 kph). Incidentally, on my worst jumps (slowest and with lots of instabillity issues) my maximum reading has been freakishly high. So obviously, we should work together and by the same rules and standards in competitions. One important aspect of my involvelment on this thread is the media interest. Media is hungry for information on Speed Skydiving and they will print information, even if it is wrong. All it takes is one uninformed skydiver who focus on his maximum speed reading and wrongfully claims a world record. Once this is done, it will be difficult to get attention on what is right, and what really is the greater achievement done by focused athletes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Staso 0 #23 August 20, 2003 QuoteOne important aspect of my involvelment on this thread is the media interest. Media is hungry for information on Speed Skydiving and they will print information, even if it is wrong. All it takes is one uninformed skydiver who focus on his maximum speed reading and wrongfully claims a world record. Once this is done, it will be difficult to get attention on what is right, and what really is the greater achievement done by focused athletes. nicely said ... -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Levin 0 #24 September 3, 2003 Due to bad weather this past Labor Day, the Fastest Man contest has been re-scheduled for next Saturday the 6th of September. Levin vSCS#3 www.freeflyers.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #25 September 4, 2003 Hey Stan is there any idea where any competitons in this country will be?? I would love to see what kind of "official" speeds I could attain with the 2 protracks mounted on the main lift web. So far my best Average speed for a whole jump on my Protrack is 204 MPH set to TAS. Amazon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
