notsane

119 seconds is pretty easy to bust. Check the specs online for your model. Neptunes (for instance) don't have the 119 second limitation. The hardest thing for a logger to do is to figure out what is freefall and what is canopy flight when freefall speeds can be lower than canopy speeds. The easiest way to fool your logger is to increase your fallrate (by diving) and then flare aggressively. The sudden decrease in fallrate lloks like a canopy opening to most any logger. Aggressive break-offs can look like a canopy opening too. Otherwise, most loggers will work well down to very low speeds as long as the transition to that speed is fairly slow.

The monkey fist PC handle is a perfect example of what PC handle not to use. The heavy monkey fist tumbles around as the PC leaves your hand ... even worse with a single attachment point ... regardless of flight speed or position. I have seen this setup cause PC in tow when the PC handle fell into one of the holes in the PC, knotted around the PC itself or knotted around the bridle. WooHoo! Cross your fingers as your reserve rockets past that flopping PC and bridle! BASE jumpers can't afford a PC malfunction. Check out BASE gear and see how many BASE jumpers use a heavy little PC handles .... none. Imagine your obit saying that you died because of a monkey-fist ...

Bear in mind that the old ProTracks would not record any freefall over 119 seconds. That can be very frustrating.

Sebastian to Z-Hills is about 2 1/2 hours

We will be holding a Docking Skills Camp the weekend of 10/30 - 31 for all you flocking dockers that can come. Don't miss out!

Try judging that ... the time and points were picked because they are easily judged. Much more than that and we're into the artistic realm, like the"grid".

No additional points for backflying at this time. That will be considered in the case of a tie. No minimum glide ratio ... that would be difficult to measure precisely. Wingsuits are required, though. Anywhere south of the knee is a foot dock. Without low grips, a docked diamond gets too tight. Any flyer racing is thinking more about speed than videoing their opponent.

Z-Flock Wingsuit Challenge Nov 19 -21 A fun event to push the boundaries of docked flight. Dates of the event are Nov 19-21, 2010. Show up with a team of four and a videographer. Judging will be done solely by video. Any team member can swap positions with the videographer on each dive if they wish. Nov. 19 Event: TIME TO LINE – the time from a no-show exit to a four-way docked line held for three seconds. Videographer should be outside the a/c looking at the door. Other wingsuiters cannot be touching the outside of the a/c. Wingsuiters form a docked line as quickly as possible after exit. There are four jumps in the event. Team score is the average of the three lowest times. 30 second penalty for early exit or failure to complete formation. One jump is tossed out to encourage strategic “risk-taking”. Lowest average time wins. Nov. 20 Event: MAX POINTS – maximum points for a docked formation held for three seconds Wingsuiters form the docked formation(s) of their choice after exit. There are four jumps in the event. One jump is tossed out to encourage strategic “risk-taking”. Team score is the average of the largest docked formation built on each of three jumps. . Only one formation will be judged per dive. Maximum points wins. Formations are judged as follows: A hand to hand grip = 1 point A hand to foot grip = 2 points Examples: A four-way docked line = 3 points A four-way docked diamond = 8 points Prizes Saturday night for overall 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Overall rank determined by average of both day’s placing. Nov. 21 Event: Fun dives and sequential docked formations. Head to head bracket racing - Competitors exit together and race around a specified course.. Canopies... winner of each heat advances to the next round. Speed is life, Float will not help in this event. winners are determined by video and Air/ground Judging.. points for proximity to canopies~ No T-shirt, no dinner. $20 competitor entry fee ($100 per 5 person team) goes directly into the pot. First place gets 60%, 2nd gets 30% and 3rd gets 10%. Prizes in case of tie will be equally split. Reply here to sign up or contact Scotty or me. This will be fun! Scott Bland

Alright! The "land a wingsuit" thing is back in the news! My BS meter hasn't been off the scale in a while ... thanks!

Don't buy a suit that you haven't tried first.

My experience was somewhat similar, Lurch. I "trained" in 1999 from Jari and Robert at WFFC Quincy. I later purchased a GTi and an S3. I jumped that S3 until it was a rag ... I still have it. Later, Chris Ware and I ordered two Phi's for ourselves. It took nearly a year for the suits to arrive ... and they were cursed with the dreaded mylar. That experience put me off BM permanently. Best of luck to Jari, though. You were there at the start and helped make this a sport rather than a stunt.

Most folks stretch the arm wings for all they're worth when they solo. This results in a very "draggy" flight with your nose high. The P2 loves to fly forward. Drop your arms back a little, flatten your body and point your toes. Let you head drop ... at first you'll think you're going down faster, but what actually happens is that the suit picks up a LOT of forward speed and develops more lift to compensate. You notice that your freefall time is about the same, but the distance covered is MUCH greater!

If you have a wife and kids, an AAD is CHEAP life insurance, as opposed to the DEATH insurance that companies sell. If you're single ... well, there's no one to miss you for that long. I made probably 1500 non-AAD jumps. Don't expect to be chased to the ground, though. If you pass 2 grand, you're on your own. I've watched several people spin like tops in freefall while I thought "I wonder what I'm going to tell his wife?"

I lost a friend, in my early years in the sport, who had her gear built "left-handed". All the handles, including the hackey, were swapped left to right. The first two links in the chain of events that led to her death were that she went low, and when she excitedly reached for the hackey, where it should have been, it wasn't there. This is one of many reasons I don't like the wingsuit base PC pouch. My 2 cents.

Snap and flap. I've got pics Matt Hoover took of Jeff N. backflying a GS-1 with the leg wing extension. There must have been 40 feet of zipper in that suit.

Never buy a suit that you haven't jumped ...

I was unaware, until now, that Ed used carbon fiber in his hair. It does make sense, of course.

Never buy a suit that you haven't jumped.

I'll be there early to make a couple. I've got to leave about lunchtime. Scotty Burns will be there too.

I'd like to remind everyone of the unique way wingsuiters have to get out of line twists. If your canopy is flying well and you have the altitude, use your arm wings, as if you're barrel-rolling, to get out of the line twists. If you start off going the wrong way, there's usually not enough force to cause more twists. It's surprising how quickly and easily this technique works.

Thanks to everyone on the ground and in the air for this memorial. Releasing Chris at the edge of that cloud, at sunset, as Mike dove off as Chris would have ... it couldn't have been more perfect. It was amazing to see those on the ground who formed a human peace sign. Fly free brother.

I know that Mike and Paul are planning on being there. Scott Bland Chuck Blue Scotty Burns Walt Todd Michelle Gray Mike Pilot Paul

I've been in touch with Kelly and the updated date will be May 15th at sunset. We'll be doing a missing man formation and taking a little piece of Chris with us ... one more than what's in our hearts. Chris' wish was to be cremated in his Vampire and taken on one last wingsuit flight. Come down if you can ... we'll say goodbye and celebrate our friends' well lived and too short life. Scott

I think Helen Keller said that "Life's a grand adventure or it's nothing at all". You should write wingsuiting poems, Brian!

Fck YEAH! CAW CAW!