ManBird

http://www.deepart.org/files/MB1stWS.BASE.wmv Did two WS BASE jumps from the Italian terminal wall. Yeah, I pulled high (like halfway through the potential dive). Whatever. I had some gear fear (1st time on that rig and PC) to overcome. Sort of head-low for a sec and pretty turbulent in the "bowl", but the glide felt really nice once I got going. I didn't expect to get the visual/feeling that I got -- as you outtrack the talus and the ground gets further away, it gives you the sensation that you are flying up. TOO COOL! I need to work on my BASE skills a bit more and then hit Norway next year. The giant talus here makes it tough to judge altitude for a BASE low-timer like me (and this is way bigger than the biggest thing I've ever jumped). Uncle Charlie floats like a bastard. It was cool watching him fly towards me from the landing area on the first jump and from the side on the second one. Sounds like a little jet. Good times! Edited to make clicky. Also, the descent was 2,100' in about 31s. So like 46mph average (my favorite fall rate for a good glide). I GPSed the first jump, and will get a glide together later. I was more than halfway between the exit and the landing area, but sure how much more. Bla bla bla... "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I think there's been a misunderstanding. The S is not in Prague. I was in Prague when I posted, but the jump was two days earlier, elsewhere in Europe, quite a distance from the Czech Republic. If there hasn't been a misunderstanding, then I apologize for site naming. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

There are a CRAPLOAD. Back in the US now. Took a river tour and went to a Black Theatre. Checked out Kutna Hora yesterday. Kostnice is too cool. Anywho hit the biggest thing in town? One side looked doable from the top -- the rest from halfway up. The whole thing looked super high profile. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

In Prague on Monday night (right now). Packed and ready, or up for hanging out. At Hotel Central (the smaller one on Rybna) in room 501. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I am in Prague, trying to figure out a Czech keyboard. Anywho... Did a 600ft S in Europe with Uncle Charlie two nights ago. Awesome object. I went to land near a light and a large bird flew out from a tree and I felt it hit my canopy. Very cool... the light made the wings glow. As soon as I landed, I backed into the shadows and began stashing my junk. I had about half the canopy in the bag when it started to shake and I noticed a wing sticking out! The bird was INSIDE my canopy! I ran over to UC and told him, "There´s an owl in my canopy!" We began working on extracting the bird and found that it was actually a hawk, and a large one at that. After quite a bit of fumbling, getting nipped at, and having holes poked in my canopy, the bird was free. Rather than fly off, he just sat on my canopy for awhile and stared at us, giving us a rather dirty look. He eventually spread his wings and flew away unharmed. My canopy got a few pinholes in the rib of the third cell from the left. It is packed up and ready to go (after thorough inspection). So, there, I truly am a Bird Man. The wingsuit jumps were nice, too. If I can catch a bird in my canopy from each object, I will began handing out Birdcatcher BASE cards. edit: Site naming. Come on, Steve, you know better. ~TA "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

BACKFLYING: Relax. Keep your spine straight, your hands directly to your side, your feet back. Relax. Don't look at your toes. Relax. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

If I'm tracking with you and looking at you from the side, this is what I should see: - Shoulders below the horizon - Toes below the horizon - Your back, at the center of your chest, above the horizon - Everything else ON the horizon When I say "Everything else ON the horizon", I mean everything. People have a habit of putting their hands too far in front of them when they "roll" their shoulders ("roll" is a bad description). Either that, or their hands are to far back and their shoulders aren't low enough. The trickier part (especially with the PF suit) is to maintain an overall level pitch in your body. Cool. There were lots of people there, but I'm sure I'd recognize you if I saw you. I'm sure we'll bump into each other again. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Yeah, I pull like I'm reaching for my toe. In the case of my impossipull it was even difficult to take out on the ground. It had definitely bunched up/monkeyfisted or whatever people like to call it. OK, I've officially overthought this whole thing, but here goes... I've got my wsExtreme hooked up to the suit now. It's a really damn nice rig. Anywho, I started the PC pack job like I usually do with my 32" -- a clean, flat-packed mushroom. Rather than roll it at the end, I "stacked" each side. That is, I just folded each side into 2" zig-zags, putting each stack on either side of the center, then clamped it down. It was maybe 2" wide by an inch high in the end. It slid in easily. Doing a few practice pulls, I found that it returns to it's normal PC shape right away, just holding it in my hand. Whereas the dill-do stayed more or less rolled. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Flew yesterday. Adding to Leroy's statements. Holy f*¢k yes! I dare say I had about the same forward speed as I get with my S3. I was totally impressed at the ground you can cover. I was averaged 78 on my first jump, and I KNOW I wasn't flying the arms right for about 90% of the freefall. At about 6K, I finally felt the arm position, held it, and got down to 69 right until pull time (per charts). I saddled out at 3,600' (because I LOVE to fly my Katana). 9,300' of freefall in 85s. Here, here again. The suit can feel really fast, overall, because of the forward speed. It's intense to say the least. I exited 1.3 miles north of the DZ (1.1 nautical miles per GPS in plane). I flew about 3/4 miles off the line of flight, flew parallel with a little tailwind, and then cut back in, making it halfway back. So that was about 2.3 miles in 85s -- an average forward speed of 97 MPH or so (sans tailwind, it's more like 90 MPH). So, on my first jump, which I can tell was nowhere near the potential of what these can do, I had a glide of 1.25:1. I see what people mean now when they say the legs are "twitchy" or "fishy". Having over 200 BirdMan Pantz jumps and nearly 500 wingsuit jumps, I found it easy to manage and keep symmetry in my feet even when I was really pushing the legs hard. However, someone without a lot of max tracking experience could definitely run into some big time instability. I also want to note how this feels overall. It's not a wingsuit flight, and it's not a track. It really is somewhere in between. The fall rate feels like that of flying relative/compensated in a Classic or GTi, but the forward speed feels like a super S3 flight. COMPARED TO A TRACK: To sum it up: It feels like THE sickest, most surreal track ever. For the most part, I definitely found it best to use a pretty standard max-tracking technique, only with my legs a little further apart. It definitely takes more leg strength to hold your feet down than the BirdMan Pantz, but less strength than a mono-wing wingsuit (I feel that BirdMan suits require the least leg strength of all). Once I finally felt the arm position. COMPARED TO A WINGSUIT: The "fishiness" you can feel when encountering instability is VERY close to that of a Classic. It's definitely as demanding as a small wingsuit. The exit was more wingsuit-like than track like. I got out and stayed on level with the plane, like leaving with a wingsuit with the wings open a bit. Then I watched the plane drop away below me, very fast, like being in a wingsuit. I deployed wingsuit style in a full track, as I always do. I felt so much like the opening I get on a wingsuit that I instinctively did NOT go for the risers. Weird. When really nailing it, it sounded like a wingsuit flight, and the way the ground flew by looked like a wingsuit flight. If you look at the horizon and feel the forward speed on your face, it feels just like it does when diving the S3. ONE WEIRD NOTE ON ARMS: Where I finally nailed and held the arms was with the "ridge" of my forearm pointed at the ground, but my hands rotated flat (palm to earth), which is a little weird, but OK. To keep from going head low, I had my arms out at about a 30°. I normally don't like to let a bunch of air slip through, but when the arms inflated and I was back on level, I found that this was an exception. When the arms are right, you can REALLY feel the lift. I was really surprised to find out how much the jacket actually does. I figured it was there to look cool and balance out the pants, but properly flown, it took off 12% of my already low fall rate. I might try to the jacket with the BirdMan Pantz, as well -- see what happens. And finally... a tandem instructor saw me from about 1,000' away and told his student, "Hey, that's the wingsuit guy! Check out how that thing flies," not yet realizing that I wasn't wearing one. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

There won't be a major fall rate difference with the GTi. If you're getting 55 on the Classic, you might get into the high 40s/low 50s on the GTi. So maybe like an extra 20s at best. If you want to go for freefall times, look into the "big" suits: Skyflyer, Skyflyer 3, MTR2. The Phoenix Fly WS and the Sugar Glider are on the horizon, as well. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Yes. I've always done the dill-do, but am concerned about hesitations. Then again, I'm less concerned with a hesitation than an impossipull. Early on, I had a stuck PC in the pouch on a skydive (I didn't pack that one -- I pack it every time now) and went to my reserve. These days, I do a super-neat, flat-packed dill-do. I clamp the apex while sliding in the PC. It's a paranoid PC pack job, but it's worked X-tremely well for about 90 jumps. This happened with me until I started pitching one-handed. I reach with my right hand and I'm essentially doing a big left turn with my legs, while my left wing is still extended. The position of my legs sort of automagically puts the pouch in a position that makes it easy to throw without extra bends or extensions in my body. This also keeps me flying straight with minimal altitude loss. Try it on skydives first. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I have a good 100 skydives using my BASE PC pouch. I pack it in a way that makes a 32" PC easy to extract, but is rolled, which might be giving me a hesitation. This is OK on a skydive, but I'm about to go BASE this with a 36" PC. Is there is a special way that anyone packs this for BASE? Do you just do a mushroom and try to make it nice and thin, or is there something else you do? I have a 36" fine mesh ZP PC that I'll be using. I'm looking for long and thin with no mesh on the outside of the pack job, yet not so rolled or folded as to cause a hesitation or off-heading opening. Any tips? "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I believe I've seen video of Robi and Obi (hmmm... one letter difference) get over 20s. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

And you mean to tell us that you didn't put the hood on and pull the drawstring tight and walk around outside like a weatherproof ninja? What were you thinking man!!?? We need to know how well it stands up to the elements and it's stealth factor. As a matter of fact, I did! While I didn't get to jump it, I was using the jacket as my rain gear, and it did very well. Nobody noticed or talked to me, so it's evidently very stealthy. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Totes. While I have only a few wingsuit/Xaos27 jumps, they all went well. I had a half twist/half dive on one, but it swung out ot level flight and was chill after that. My Katana does the same thing some times. It can seem hairy for a second or two, but it doesn't turn into anything that needs to be chopped. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Rained all weekend, so I'm jumping today and tomorrow. I will be doing a wingsuit style pull. I'm more used to pulling that way than not, and find that it works well for maintaining symmetry on any type of skydive (I always pull in a track). Low 80s is what I do in BirdMan Pantz. I've been up to 99s over 12,000' of freefall, but haven't broken 100s yet. Let's see if that changes. My wsExtreme just came in, too. Woohoo! "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I have a Katana 97 and have been jumping it for about two months. I was going to keep the Sabre2 around for ground launching, but I think I should get like a used Stiletto 135 for learning, and then eventually go to like a Crossfire2 109, Stiletto 107, or even a high-90/low-100 VX or Xaos (if I find a cheap one) for an all around GL canopy, once I have my runups dialed. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

There won't be any pics or video. It'll be very dark out. If there's weather this weekend (or a lack thereof), I'm thinking maybe Kirk and I could get some video from a plane, with him in the S3. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

It's not directed at RayMod2, of course. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

We'll see how they do from 850' on Sunday. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Body position is my bet. It'd happen on any canopy. No one ever wants to admit it. It's always the canopy's fault, right? Even then, a 90 or 180 means nothing, even in a wingsuit. Especially on a Sabre2. You aren't BASE jumping it and you're at least a couple thousand feet up. 300 jumps on that canopy. Line twists maybe 6 six times (5 were body position and 1 was definitely a packed twist (from a packer)). Maybe 2 dozen off headings out of 300 (about 1 in 12), which is a hell of a record for skydiving and super fast pack jobs. And those were always to the right -- due to a slightly off body position in the S3 (hey, it happens). "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Sabre2. http://www.deepart.org/sight/Sabre2.wmv. The first opening in the video is in a wingsuit (note that it's all hands off). On the third opening (also in a wingsuit), note that the canopy flies straight with line twists (there were FIVE -- messed up pitch/hard pull resulted in bad body position). Then note that it swoops like a mother.

The Slammer! Whatever happened to that? The Icarus Ridicarus 11 was some of the funniest shit ever. Chuck, we gotta hook up and party hard so I can get my damn monkey hat. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

No shit. Here's how it goes. The recovery arc is shorter in altitude loss, but the difference in time is marginal! Let's say you dive for 5 seconds. Do you know what it means to lose 600' instead of 300'? It means you are going TWICE as fast! Get a clue! A canopy with a longer recovery arc builds more speed! The time between when you get ground rush and say "oh shit" to the time you meet the ground is MUCH SHORTER on a canopy that has a longer recovery arc. When you get that low turn ground rush at 50' (regardless of when you started the turn), at 35MPH, you have one full second to stab it out. At 70 MPH, you have half a second to stop twice the momentum. If you haven't developed that sort of reaction or the judgement to avoid that situation in the first place, you will break yourself. This concept of a longer recovery arc being safer is total bullshit and is definitely coming from those who haven't flown something that dives long and hard. I've seen people follow this advice and wreck themselves because of it. STFU! "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

WL is about 1.8:1. There are rotors if the wind is directly out of the west, which is very rare. When that happens I swoop into the open field about 80 yards south of the pond. Either that or hug the trees a bit to get under the messiest part of the rotors (those trees are about 100' tall). "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click