Costyn

Yeah, but I don't have your skills, and it was a very slow base this morning. Dunno what kind of forward speeds we were doing when we made the docks... damn a GPS would be handy for analyzing these suits. Guess thats next on my wishlist of toys! Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

You mean all of the 2 people that tried it? Actually, I believe it's the leg wing this suit gets its most lift from, and in order for it to work, it has to be extended, and if extended, the suit flies fast. Indeed, in the jumps where I was flying the S3S I could fly with my legs in a 90 angle and fly nice and slow using mostly the lift from my wings. As Jarno stated, in the formation this morning where the base flew quite slow, it was impossible for me to stay in the formation. If I slowed down to the speed it was flying at, I would sink beneath the formation. I might have not used the arm wings to full capacity, but it was pretty close. If I then extended the legs to get more lift, I would also increase the speed and come out ahead of the formation. A quick chasse (zigzag) would bring me back to the side of the formation, but I would drop below it again. Frustrating. Even Jari agreed that it was a challenging base; that consoled me a bit.

ya, I too have been jumping the Phantom today at the 3rd Teuge Wingsuit weekend. James couldn't make it, but he very kindly sent me his Phantom for this weekend, and I've put 6 jumps on it today. All of them were flocking dives with 6 or 7 others. It has great range and is easy to fly. It is very comfortable and the drive and lift are perfect for flocking. I could keep up nicely with a bunch of S3 and S3S (I usually fly a Classic II). And when you put on the gas, it just keeps going... At breakoff extend the legs... and it goes... its a fast mother too.

ok, weird... I had the same problem, could only select black, but then I right clicked, hit 'rewind' and then 'play' and then it worked fine. Using Firefox on Mac here. Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

I am so there! Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Nice dude... so do you have any names for some of these moves yet? Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Nope... silly ProTrack stops counting after 119 seconds. Its time for me to buy a Neptune I think. Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Hehe, well, I guess you've seen the pics of a friend and I doing a funny sort of atmonauti thing while docked to my rig (is that the totem thing you refer to?). That was hilarious. It certainly works although is a little awkward to fly. Couple days ago I tried the thing where someone is holding on to my rig (see attachment - dunno who's in the pic, dunno where I got it, can't attribute it - sorry cameraman!), although that didn't go well at all! We were flipping all over the place and I didn't think I'd be able to get it stable, so I waved my hands and he let go. Guess that needs some work. Heheh. So who knows what happens when you fly a formation like this for a while (given that its stable)? Do you get a "hanger" like in freefly-rw hybrids? Or is the person more flat on their back? What does the non-birdman guy have to do to aid the formation? Arch perhaps? On a similar note, what is the deal on linked birdman exits (in various positions)? Anybody have anything fun/useful come from that? I too have tried backflips and found them difficult. Back flips and barrel rolls are easy. Perhaps it should be possible to fly on your side as well... Keep on arm collapsed or something. Haven't tried it. Good luck; keep us posted on your acrobatic progress.

From what I understand he was not maxed out, as to have some margin in case he needed it. Also, it was a ridge he was flying along, so if he felt he needed it, he could always fly off to the side and into 'safety' of more altitude. Nevertheless, its a truly awesome video, and I just watched that other video of his, where he flies alongside a cliff and through a gap between two rocks... (and breaks his camera lens at the end. Hehe) Simply amazing. Serious brass balls that guy. Respect! Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Hey Lou, what exactly is a high speed pass? Is that a higher than normal speed for the a/c to start dropping people or ... ? Anyways, the flocks sound like a lot of fun. Wish I was there.

Very nice dude... Too bad the phantom doesn't have more panels to color... I mean, the front is pretty much all one color unfortunately. Oh well, nothing you can help of course.

Heh, so I was right...

Totally sweet! Inlets on both sides, thats genious. Man, I can see this opening whole other possibilities of efficient back flying, like the rabbit in a tracking dive. Get to the gym and train those back muscles people! Now I don't know what I wanna get... a Phantom or an Acro... damn you Phoenix-Fly for making all these cool suits! I can't buy them all So you guys are actually taking orders on these suits now? Cheers! Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Hehe thanks. That was a great dock... it was challenging to keep it flying, but it was very quiet and you can see us talking to eachother. We couldn't really hear eachother, but lipreading was sufficient to make ourselves understood. It was SO awesome! Too bad our AADs were going off and we had to break the formation. Thats the last thing you see me say: "breakoff?"

Well, I dunno if you saw the video of the past Wingsuit Weekend in Teuge (shameless plug: http://dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=635396;#1728395), but "Toothless" Tristan (Airowpoint on dz.com) was flying James' V1 in the flocks, and those were his first couple jumps on the suit. Granted, he wasn't flying right next to the base, but he could keep up nicely with the flock, both in vertical and horizontal speed. Yeah, he is a bit of a natural (I think he has like 50 wingsuit jumps - correct me if I'm wrong Tristan - the guy is quite the flyer), but I see no real reason you can't flock with a V1, especially with some practice. Yes, the thing is a speed machine, but there's brakes on it too. Cheers! Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Indeed you are correct. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1275591 Looks interesting. Gonna give that a try. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Hi, There was a thread about tracking feet first, and was thinking of other strange positions which might be able to be flown stable. So, I was thinking that perhaps flying on your side would be possible? It would be a fairly fast position (not very many horizontal surfaces: side of your body and bottom leg), but I imagine you would be able to carve around someone in a sit, perhaps even stick out an arm to take a dock? Anyone ever see anyone do something like this? Any video available? Was thinking of trying it out next weekend, but if others have tried & failed (there might be fundamental reasons why it doesn't work), then I won't have to bother.

As promised, here's a video I hacked toghether last night: http://www.xs4all.nl/~costyn/wingsuitweekend-hq.avi It's a 50MB DivX avi. Enjoy! I have no idea what my bandwidth quota is, but if it dies, I'll put it somewhere else (and post the link of course). Or maybe I'll make it a bittorrent download; but maybe people aren't familiar with that? Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

I think it may have to do with air leaking through the fabric. Like someone else mentioned, the bed sheet gives a lot less drag than a sheet of ZP because it leaks a lot of air. In the same way, I would imagine having a leaky suit will give you less "lift" as opposed to a ZP suit, which, for the same surface area, will give you more "lift". I think there's 2 sorts of drag: flappy drag, which creates vortices as it leaves your suit from the irregular surface, creating drag, and "flying surface" (for lack of a better word), which is surface which the wind directly hits the surface. In case of ZP, it will be deflected better, creating more "lift", and less tendency to leak through, like the proverbial bed sheet. Wing suits are also made of ZP material, but in this case they're made for the same reason as a canopy: as a wing surface. Still, even the non wing surfaces, you want as little as possible air to leak through. Of course I may be completely off the mark; this is just my theory. Feel free to criticize me.

Saskia, I'm gonna try to see if Sony's Vegas understands the raw DV files I captured off the cameras. I have some editing experience, so I would like to try to put together the footage as well. Hope that's ok? I mean, there's not really a problem if there are 2 videos using the same material is there? I find it weird that Premiere converts them to AVI when capturing them. Digital camera's don't actually record in avi file format with DVSB codec I think? Anyways, maybe GSpot (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=115) or VirtualDub (http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=VirtualdubMOD)will help identify it. Good luck. I'll let you know if Vegas will read the files. Cheers [edit: added another URL] Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

As I understand it, the PF Prodigy is somewhat like the Classic: to get people going and learn the basics of wingsuit flight. If I were you I would get some more jumps on a Classic (or Prodigy) and eventually buy a Phantom. I've seen it fly this weekend (I didn't have a chance this weekend to try it out), and I think fits the slot between the Prodigy and the Vampire perfectly, in terms of difficulty and performance. Certainly its probably the best for flocking (considering James was using the Phantom, not the Vampire for our flocking dives). Oh well, this is just my opinion based on my impressions and what I've heard; don't take my word for it. There's people on this forum with a lot more experience than I. I think I'm gonna be getting a Phantom when it comes out, especially for the flocking, and from what I've seen, it can stay up for ever too, if flown right. Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

I'm not that familiar with many different suits, but the Phantom is a pretty cool suit. James was using it the whole weekend to flock with us, and he had a great range of flying in it. It seemed very stable (well, he is an awesome flyer too), we docked a couple times. Good fun. But what really struck out was during one jump I had opened a little higher (4000ft) and watched James from under my canopy. He flew on... and on... and on.... and it seemed like he wasn't losing any altitude! He said he later pulled cause he was above the landing spot because there was quite a bit of wind, but I'm sure he could've kept going for quite a while. It was amazing. I want one! I also tried out the Vampire yesterday. It's quite a beast (I usually fly a Classic II). It was very fast and a lot of fun. I don't have enough experience to compare it to an S3 though (which I have flown a couple times). Edit: added some pics. Pictures by Saskia Z (www.dragon2.nl). Cheers. Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Ah, so is that's how they did it? They were wearing "monkeys of wings" Also: "Nevertheless, soon they obtained the tension necessary to remove all the aerodynamic efficiency to the suit." Automated translation has a way to go, but always good for a laugh. Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

I ordered a Sonic suit and grippers were indeed an option. I didn't really see the extra benefit of it; you can still grip some cloth right? Or perhaps I was wrong, but several people I asked didn't really think they were necessary. Do you people have them? On a side note, although I was positive about Sonic at first, it's almost 6 weeks now since I ordered it ; delivery was supposed to be 3 to 4 weeks. The suits I've seen are all really nice, quality stuff, but if you're looking to get something in a shorter time frame... Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

Looks pretty cool James. I can see how the smaller inlets will reduce drag. I also think the longer wing which extends from just behind the rig is a good idea. So its an intermediate suit because it has less wing area? These features seem like it would perform quite well... but then of course what do I know about wingsuit design. BTW James, you gonna be at Teuge again on the 9th and 10th of July for the Wingsuit Weekend? Lets hope for better weather this time. Cheers Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News