Costyn

Very cool. I love it. It's one of those videos you can watch over and over... and just get a happy feeling from it.

Very cool pics. I'm jealous!

Indeed, I was getting lower vertical speeds and longer flight times in my classic than I now have in my S3S. The S3S is a lot more work to fly and gets tiring quicker. I'm thinking of starting some training to increase my stamina. I hope this will decrease my fatigue at the end of a day of wingsuiting as well. At the moment I can only do some 5 or 6 wingsuit jumps in a day. I don't have the energy for more. Cheers, Costyn. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Damn, that is one sweet looking suit. PF certainly did a nice job on it. The Phantom is a really nice suit to fly. Very comfortable to wear too. Enjoy! Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Nasty man! So that's what happens when you fly into a barbed wire fence.. ugh... Well, at least you have a good story to go along with the scars. Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

I'm using a Garmin ForeTrex 201 with FlightTrack (for the Mac, and it's free: http://flighttrack.sourceforge.net/) to plot my flights. As you say, there's no combo dytter and gps unit yet. This probably cause the gps antenna wouldn't get any coverage if it's in your helmet, and besides the market for such a combo device is too small.

I do... Indeed... as do I. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

I've tried this and it's kind of a pain. My ForeTrex 201 does not fit comfortably on my wrist with the zippers from the armwings and it is mounted lengthwise on the strap, so it hinders the movement of my wrist (which is strange, cause thats where they designed it to go). Other places I have tried to mount it was on my main lift webbing, but there it was slightly too close to my face to read comfortably, and coverage was kind of spotty (if I look at the tracklog). I've also tried on my chest strap, but here coverage was really crappy for tracklog purposes. I now have a mount on my helmet (the GPS is in the green/black pouch) which works perfectly when I want tracking data for post-flight data analysis. Unfortunately you cannot read the display there.

Perhaps it would be possible to use the realtime NMEA/GARMIN output of a GPS. Have a small device which can talk these protocols and generate a tone (or beeps) based on the forward speed, descent rate (and thus glide ratio). I think it would actually not be that difficult using a PDA that has a serial interface and a sound line-out for earphones. The GPS can be mounted where it has a good view of the sky. The PDA can be whever you want. I'm not sure how the Bluetooth GPS receivers work (as in protocols - are they proprietary?), but that would cut down on the number of wires. You'd only need one for the earphones. Unfortunately my C programming skills are not up to undertaking such a project, and neither do I have a PDA or BlueTooth GPS reciever to play around with. The only problem is that the GPS data does not get updated very frequently; my ForeTrex 201 does max once per second track logging. Some interpolation would be needed to generate smooth data. Cheers, Costyn. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Ah, ok. No problem of course. I'd buy it... I just thought if there weren't any more copies being sold and they were okay with people making copies of eachother maybe they'd be okay with a torrent too. But if they're gonna be making more copies to sell, cool. Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Agreed, this is something that sounds like it needs to be distributed by bittorrent. A full DivX/XviD rip of the DVD should reduce it to 700 or 800 MB; making a torrent and seeding it does require some initial bandwidth, but it does not have to be fast, if people are willing to be patient. I'll help anyone who has the dvd is willing to rip it and set up a torrent. PM me. It's not that hard, but requires some patience.

I think he means the suits like Da'Kine rags, which are huge baggy suits. Compared to that, what you wear is not baggy at all, Jarno. It seems a trend that I first saw here in Europe, with manufacturers like Matter and Sonic producing tighter suits. American companies now seem to be following suit. Although Bomber-flite suits were always pretty tight weren't they? Cheers, Costyn. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Well, monkeyboy keeps telling me he probably will not have enough money to go. But I'll keep harassing him about it of course.

1-Voodew1 (TX) 2-Professor (TX) 3-FlyinBob (TX) 4-Buried (IL) 5-The111 (LOCAL!) 6-Skyflyingbecca (FL) 7-Moonglo (TX) 8-Luminous (TX) 9-unclecharlie95 (ITALIA) 10-Base733 (UT) 11-nathaniel(IL) 12-HELMUT (Tatooween) 13- OmarPR (LOCAL) 14-RobertPecnik(CROATIA) 15-Purple Mike(Earth) 16-Costyn (NL) (very likely) Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

In my experience, getting out last does not mean you have catching up to do. The forward speed of the aircraft is a lot greater than the forward speed of a wingsuit, so when you exit later, you are a lot further ahead and above the base which (in most cases) exited as one of the first. The trick now is to fly down to where the base will be, not where it is now. If you fly down to where it is now, you will end up behind (even if you are on level) and play catch up most of the flight. Seems logical, but (for most people), it does take some getting used to. In the case where the flock is making a 180 degree turn, cutting corners does help. Flying along the same path as the base did will end you up behind the flock. I learnt these lessons from trial & error mostly, but I'm sure Scott covers these points in his book. Of course if you tumble on exit, all bets are off. Even so, if it's only for a short time, you will still be above and forward of the base. Cheers, Costyn. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Check out Skydive Radio show #20, where they interview BJ Alexander and Scary Perry about the World Wingsuit Boogie and Competition: Skydive Radio: http://www.skydiveradio.com/ Show #22: http://www.skydiveradio.com/show_files/sr20_12_20_05.mp3 Skydive radio is a podcast you can subscribe to with iTunes and other software. Cheers, Costyn. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Okay, you have a point there about the max-time position in wingsuit.

This is true, however, in a wingsuit you can get more forward speed with more vertical speed, and thus increasing your distance (separation). On the other hand, when you fly flatter, you will get a lower vertical speed, but the forward speed won't be as much. This article explains it better: http://www.phoenix-fly.com/articles%20stvari/performance_flying_1.pdf (see the pictures on page 2). What I'm trying to say is that a lower vertical speed won't necessarily equate to more horizontal speed. To get to my point, I'm wondering if the same thing is true for tracking. Atmonauti dives can cover a lot of horizontal distance, although the angle is a lot steeper compared to a hard flat track. The vertical speed is higher in atmonauti, but so is the horizontal speed (but the jump doesn't last as long and someone in tracking and atmonauti will probably end up in the same place). I don't have any GPS graphs (yet) to back this up, but maybe someone with more atmonauti experience can chime in. Cheers, Costyn. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Indeed, in Crosswinds. That was flying in a canyon... but this is a whole new dimension, tearing along, passing over trees with 20 meters (or less) clearance. Simply amazing. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Yeah, very cool indeed. I was wondering if anybody knew how he manages to make such tight turns with minimal altitude loss. I know that when I bank in my suit I generally lose quite a bit of altitude, but he seems to have mastered flat, agressive turns in a wingsuit. Anybody know details on how this is done? Okay, to answer my own question now , I just looked it up in Scott's book, and apparently you can turn using your hips in a monowing, making a very flat turn. is this possible in tri-wing suits too? Cheers, Costyn. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Yeah, so I've heard. I'm not saying he has an ego, I'm just saying he must have a pair of huge brass ones down there to pull of the kind of stuff he does. Very cool. He's my hero. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Haha I believe it. The huge mass of his scrotum must surely also lower his center of gravity, making him extra stable during flights. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Heh, indeed. Now if he were posting in response to having watched the Soul Flyers 2 DVD, it wouldn't have been as much a repost. Just watched the whole thing last night and there are some jaw dropping sequences in there. Loic is one amazing guy. I sure would like to shake his hand some day. Cheers, Costyn. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Heheh my thoughts were similar. Hey, if PF want to make a helmet, fine, but don't advertise it as having better aerodynamics. Whats different about this compared to any other full face helmet? Good looking, yeah. Color coordinated with the rest of your PF gear, yes. Specially aerodynamic, I doubt it.

Hey, our copies arrived today!!! You should have yours too, Hans. I've been watching the first 10 minutes (I'm at work, can't watch the whole thing ), but it's awesome... very cool wingsuit footage. Crazy stunts involving mountains. Hehehe. Really glad I got it.