mccordia 74 #1 January 8, 2007 Just random musings... With more and more windtunnels appearing everywhere, and tunneltraining becoming the norm for FS and Freefly if you want to be able to keep up with the ever climbing skill-level worldwide..(which is a good thing imho) It is starting to look like, that in a few year, wingsuits will be the only 'honest' freefall dicipline left in skydiving, where you really have to make the # of jumps, to learn to fly your body to the max.. Although money is always an issue, no matter what dicipline, someone who can afford 200/300 jumps a year, will never be able to fly at the same level as someone who can keep pouring thousands and thousands of euros into tunneltraining. Im going to be flying the new NL tunnel as well (work on my freeflying and belly skills), hopefully a lot even... But I do like the fact that wingsuiting will always be about a big piece of sky, and an airplane (or cliff) to jump from (big non-realistic plans people will come up with for wingsuit-suitabel tilted tunnels aside) and the only way to learn is to fly... Just random thoughts..JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeemax 0 #2 January 8, 2007 you know mark has pictures of himself in the tunnel... in a wingsuit...Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piisfish 140 #3 January 8, 2007 and what about a giant ring-tunnel where we could have wingsuit races ?scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mccordia 74 #4 January 8, 2007 Quoteand what about a giant ring-tunnel where we could have wingsuit races ? I think we'd end up with something more like a hovercraft race.. And attached an image Mark just sent me... Though it more lik training in camera-geeking then anything else..JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yuri_base 1 #5 January 8, 2007 I think tilted windtunnels for wingsuits won't happen, because a boring hovering in place is about the only thing you can do in it. Once you make any maneuver - transition to back, barrel roll, max out - the windspeed will need to be instantly changed and the tunnel be tilted to new angle. Unrealistic! Most of the time you'll be pinned flat to the mesh like a dead butterfly in the box. What I can see happening in 2007 is someone will try slope soaring somewhere in the mountains in high winds. Kinda natural windtunnel with no walls. ) and retrofit your ghetto suit with big patches of superstrong velcro or maybe bottles of Krazy Glue so that if you get thrown around you'll be anchored to velcro mat on the ground. Jumping from airplane with nothing but wingsuit on will be the next step... but it will take huge balls and great skill to do it. My guess is it'll be either Maggot, Jeb or Loic to do it first. I'll put my bet on Maggot. Just some cool things that wingsuiters can do that belly and assflyers can't. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LouDiamond 1 #6 January 8, 2007 Where is Medusa at right now? He contacted me over a year ago on how to set something like that up. Seems the producers from Jackass wanted to do something very similar to what you described (tethered flight) for the 2nd movie. I think the forcasted carnage scared them off."It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required" Some people dream about flying, I live my dream SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohanW 0 #7 January 8, 2007 You mean we're tougher than Jackass ? WE ROCK! Oh wait .. tether. I don't think the pilot would like for me to tie a bungee between myself and the ground before take-off. That's out then. Back on topic: with even Atmonauti being done in tunnels, there's still also tracking .. and Crew. Downplane in a tunnel anyone? And maybe those 20-somethings could be swooped into an open tunnel at least? I'll get me coat now .. Does it really matter wether you're practicing RW in the tunnel or making a 1000 sponsored jumps per year swooping or wingsuiting for "unfair" advantage? Face it, we're weekend warriors. If you have to pay your own way, there are very few people that can make more than a handful hundred of jumps. Is that bad? The important thing is still to get to do it again. For that, you need to land safely. The amazing skills tunnel rats or factory teams have will do next to nothing for hundreds of thousands of landings (except for slight improvements in canopy technology) (I'm talking handling in turbulence here, not the ability to hammer into the ground at ever higher speeds). If the sport gains in popularity, it mostly means bigger airplanes, more people in the pattern, and look at Eloy what that gets us. Accuracy as a discipline is underrated. You can do it well past retirement. I have no hope of being Henny Wiggers someday, with his 12000 jumps. But I can aspire to be Gerard Warburg, with his 75 years. (Both are active jumpers at my home DZ.) But I concur with the OP's sentiment as well. We're an "honest" discipline. We don't even need lead (except for certain values of Yuri, of course) or tailored suits to adjust speed; we work with what we have to begin with. I like.Johan. I am. I think. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
