ManBird

10am, but I've been showing up around 11am. Friday night is what I call "sleep night". It's the one night of the week that I get more than three hours of sleep. Good plan. SDO on Saturday. Kentuckwell on Sunday. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Paraglider pilots generally carry ballistic deployed reserves, as they are usually very, very low when the shit hits the fan. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

As I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong), if he leaves the plane in a legal configuration with no plans to be in freefall over a crowd, then no laws are broken. Therefore the pilot doesn't get in trouble. As far as BSRs, the DZO, and S&TA goes... that's a different story. I wouldn't do it here, but a more "test jumper" friendly DZ (aka, one seated next to tons of manufacturers) might find this too be a little less abnormal. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I concur. Maintaining a dive when my canopy wants to plane out results in losing a lot of the "sling" that provides distance and fast "entry" speed. I'm working off a habit of planing out high right now (I still do it about 25% of the time), but I've definitely found that I get much better speed and distance when I "attack" the entry point and then, as Dan said, sort of "trim" into it. Gear + camera + clothes + wingsuit + winter weight loads my Sabre2 at 1.84:1. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

As the old saying goes... "Keep your pants on!" "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

HAHA!! Nice. How about Sunday? All my gear's (shared) in a locker at SDO now. I'll jump at SDO on Saturday, take my gear home, and then head down there on Sunday, if you guys are going to be there. I'll go ahead and bring my GTi if anyone is interested in a first flight, fits my suit, and has adequate experience and gear. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Did you guys come out on Friday? I generally can't make it on Fridays, though I may take one off to go do a day of hop and pops with you guys. SDO was kicking ass this last weekend. Hybrids, twelve-ways, three - four wingsuit people, and tons of swooping. Here's a fraction of the swooping activity (and a wingsuit snippet thrown in for no reason) from this weekend: http://www.deepart.org/files/24apr2004.wmv "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Right, no barometric altimeter. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Four of us birdpeople tried out this plan this past weekend. Two of us spoke with the DZO and S&TA for some further imput and think we've got something pretty sound. I took some photos of the plan in action, but am going to get a few more to paint the whole picture a bit better. TALONSKY put his suit on without his legstraps (intentionally and did not jump that way). I walked in, not knowing he what he was doing, and thought our call was cut down. It was, of course, unnoticeable to anyone except himself (who mentioned that it felt as though he had a load in his pants). So we donned our suits, legstraps in place, and left one body zipper open. It totally exposes one leg strap and partially exposes the other. Another birdperson was actually boarding with both zippers undone and, of course, both legstraps were highly visible. Our leg wings are zipped before boarding. The Caravan we jump (until an Otter comes back) has seatbelts that hook up to legstraps. We found that by side-saddling the bench (to not take any extra room), we were belted in without the use of seatbelt extenders. We zipped our arms up before take off. At 1,000', we all unbuckled and zipped up. Yes, zipping up while seated is different than doing it standing up, but it still took less than three seconds. I filmed this process. You just zip in 10-inch-or-so segments, rather than in one fell swoop. Hold the zipper together in one hand and close the zipper with the other. Think of a very full, but not overly stuffed, gym bag. It's like that. It goes quickly. We were all fully in our suits and ready to exit by 1,200', without rushing. As a side effect, it was noted by all that zipping up in the plane forces a chest strap check... definitely a bonus. Like every other process in wingsuit flying, you get faster as you go along (like unzipping your legs after opening). I agree with Scott in that, regardless of suit configuration, if you are exiting so low that you need to go right to your reserve, you should exit in a manner that allows you open your reserve ASAP... hand on your handle, keep those wings collapsed. I recommend that at any altitude where you would anticipate using your main, your arm wings should be zipped, at a minimum, past the elbows, preferably all the way. This is to maintain control over the leading edge of the wings. The leg wing is less important in this situation. Zipped up and ready to go is highly recommended, but if that isn't the case and you're in a bailout situation, just keep your feet together. Objective advantages are that this process exposes your leg straps, allows use of any type of seatbelt, and promotes an extra chest strap check. A fourth, subjective, advantage is that this process puts the suit in a ready-to-fly configuration shortly after removing seatbelts, which is a subjective advantage. I see no objective disadvantage in this process. Subjective disadvantages are that having the body zipper open in the plane at all, or having the suit fully zipped up at a relatively low altitude is not ideal for a bailout situation. Four people participated in this process over ten jumps, and will do so again this weekend. Jumpers were as follows: S3 / 370+ WS jumps / 700+ jumps / 5 WS jumps this weekend S3 / 100+ WS jumps / 700+ jumps / 1 WS jump this weekend GTi / 4 WS jumps / ~300 jumps / 2 WS jumps this weekend GTi / ~50 WS jumps / 2000+ jumps / 2 WS jumps this weekend Comments, suggestions, welcome. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Yeah, I checked this out before. The thing is awesome, but just way too spendy. May as well buy another wingsuit for that price. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Nice, Perry. We were just discussing this over the weekend. Even use my skydiving main to start. Just free pack it. Hold the slider up with a rubber band. I have a 32" F111 PC, 10' bridle with the PC pouch's shrivel flap attached. Our DZO would have a shitfit if I dumped under 2,000, but the idea is practice uberfast deployments. Do you have plans to ever BASE that setup, or just use it for skydiving? I doubt one would ever need to cutaway a BASE canopy, but I could see wanting a reserve in a PC in tow or "impossipull" situation. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Forerunners don't have altimeters (yet). If they come out with a 301, it probably will, since that's how it's gone with their other series. If the start times are good and they slap in an altimeter, I'll definitely be picking this one up. BTW, the Vista is actually pretty small. It's cel-phone sized. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Oh, I just mean that Felix and Sascha really come across as glory-seekers. Ueli's name usually gets mentioned along with Felix and and Sascha, and I was hoping he doesn't have that same attitude. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Aaahhh. From BR's site... "The control range has changed, (with a the additional control lines) it has condensed the toggle stroke, making it feel a little sportier". I'm glad someone pointed that out. Even on my skydiving canopy I don't like a short toggle stroke... I prefer the range I get when (and am use to) flaring at my arm's full extension. This would be advantagious to those who usually jump skydiving mains with shorter brake lines. I think I'll forego the fifth line on whatever I get. Either that, or let it out several inches. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Those lucky bastards get to use BASE gear from a plane (in the Swiss Alps). Very nice pics. I hear Ueli's named mentioned along with Sascha and Felix all the time. I'm hoping this doesn't mean that Ueli one of those pompous chunk-necked blockfuckers. Wouldn't think so if he's aligned with the FlyYourBody crew. It looks like Loic is sponsored by Red Bull now? "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

shit, me and vern went up 2 weeks ago with winds going 28 gusting like 35 to 37 doing downwinder's. those where exciting. later Totes. When the 16 knot windsock is horizontal and not even budging, that's the time to go downwind. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Why? Note that this is a genuine "why?"... not a sarcastic or defensive "why?". I'm considering purchasing a FLiK and would like to know what negative aspect the fifth control line has. I've only jumped the FLiK once in really nice conditions, so I really haven't been subject to it much (all other jumps were on a Fox a couple years ago). "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Check out my want ad. I know we aren't supposed to do the classifieds thingy here, but I'm pretty proud of the picture attached to the ad. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/detail_page.cgi?ID=9703&d=1 "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

You know how you put your hands to your side and slide them up to the bottom of your container? With the pouch, your hands go right to the same place, but instead of sliding your hands up to the container, you just throw. It happens very instinctively. I've gone back and forth in the same day a number of times and never had an issue of looking in the wrong place. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

...and for old time's sake.... "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I'm just being gangsta. You know how we do. You... you do, right? "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Owen Quinn was the first person to flik it in 1975. Nick's post wasn't trying to state that Thor was. He was simply stating that six, not three, people jumped the WTC. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I have to admit, the aspect ratio is wide as f*¢k and the nose is very solid. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Looks like they're pretty proud of that short lineset. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

You during-the-week bastards. I probably could, but I'll be drinking at 3pm. Just finished the McMenamins site (http://www.mcmenamins.com), and we're having a launch party involving large amounts of liquor (if the site is still ugly, it's because the DNS hasn't resolved). I'm out on Sat and Sun, though. Are you just jumping in Creswell over the weekend? You have to hit SDO on the weekend and let us take you to the Acrop on Saturday night. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click