ManBird

Sorry, typo. Dual 1.25. Must slow down... Another note: The tests with Premiere were done with every piece of Adobe software, and there were similar results across the board. Literally every program ran significantly faster on the PC. Apple claims that it's a bug in Adobe's software. That's a bad thing to say because A) no one is dumb enough to believe that there is the same bug in every one of their programs, when they have different programmers on different products and B) they really pissed off Adobe, which is Apple's lifeline in the market. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

HAHHAAA!!! Oh, man. First the whole customs thing and then butt.jpg... you weren't kidding. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

OK, so it goes like this... RUNNING with the wingsuit. Exiting without the wingsuit from a few hundred feet. Flying the wingsuit at a few thousand feet. Canopy. Leg straps make it outside the suit. Nonetheless, that was some seriously proper flight by Martin and Per Fler, both in the BASE jump and wingsuit flights. What's funny is that people will probably see this movie, see the wingsuit scene, and be like, "Yeah, right... that's bullshit." When they eventually find out that this exists, their minds will be boggled. BOGGLED! "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I can attest to this. I have a 1.7GHz P4 with the 845 chipset (Win2K), a 2 GHz P4 laptop with the 850 chipset (WinXP), and a dual 2.5 GHz G4 (OS X) (all OSes are very patched/current, the boxes have 1 GB RAM, the laptop has 512 MB). In every respect, both my PCs just slam the dual G4. Faster start times for the OS, and individual programs. Video is exponentially faster (though 500+ MB files tend to slow on my laptop with its 4300 RPM drive, but it still beats my Mac, and my 10,000 RPM SCSI drive on my PC box puts both other systems to shame on large files). 3D and audio, while drastically different, both have the same huge gap performance. Lightwave skips along for on the dual G4, and is smooth as shi*t on either P4 system. In music/sound production, I can endlessly pile channels on in various programs on my PCs, drop in unlimited VST plug-ins, etc, without thinking twice (especially on the laptop). In music production on the G4 (mainly MaxMSP), it really starts to crap out if I try to accomplish the same level of production, and ProTools is a DOG next to CoolEditPro (the most-related program for Windows). When it comes to vector graphics, it's no question. Illustrator, Flash, Freehand, CorelDRAW, etc, P4s just tear Macs apart due to the built-in floating point calculations on the processor. Raster graphics is the only marginal area. I get faster Photoshop startups on my PCs, but performance within raster editing programs really comes down to hard drive speed/buffer, rather than processor. That's the physical comparison. Physically, it's like Velocity versus Spectre. Aesthetically/preferentially, it doesn't matter. All that matters is the end product. If you can manage to swoop 300 feet on a Spectre, then stick with that Spectre. ;) I use PCs for EVERYTHING now. My dual G4 went from the development machine to the platform/browser testing machine. I'm using the same programs. The mouse moves the same. The keyboard types the same, The only real difference is that I get stuff done a lot faster. When I get 3 600 MB AVIs that need to be compressed and eventually make it into Flash, I'll have two SWFs on my PC before I'll have a single compressed video file on my Mac. OK. Done. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

WTF?! I just figured out what your avatar pic thing was. Good lord. That's awesome. Is that YOUR eye? Your ORIGINAL eye? Er... it's late. I'm tired. I'm working on a little something for the flock that I hope you'll all enjoy. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Word, I am without camera, but I'm down for ground crew should a camera be available. I think I'd like to get at least a dozen ground crew trips in before going up again. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Where are you? "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I'm definitely not the authority on this, but even I know, do NOT go pin first. Do NOT go right into wingsuit BASE. Get BASE experience first. Speaking of which, I'm considering wingsuit BASE myself, which would require getting current on BASE again. Doug and/or Dwayne, I know you're in Portland, or nearby at least. I may have to hit you bastards up for some guidance. I'll PM or e-mail if/when I've decided. I know I want to, but I have to make sure I need to, er... something like that. Damn, I sound like a chick. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Have you tried using a web browser, instead? Those seem to work better. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Those colors suck. Black and red. No other colors allowed. Dammit. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

http://www.poxon.org/Craig/Skydive/PatrickDeGayardon/canyon.html http://www.bpa.org.uk/skydive/pages/people/Patrick%20De%20Gayardon%203.jpg http://www.para-net.org/paramag/archives/deug/wing1.html http://perso.club-internet.fr/kustam/birdman/deug04b.htm "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

That's what I thought. I'm assuming Doug's reply was taking WSs into consideration. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I dumped all other forms of skydiving after my first flight, and have done only two "disconnected" jumps since. GTi will hold you over for a good one hundred jumps. You definitely want to start on no more than a GTi. Backing up another post on here, I have more fun going for distance than fall rate. It's really cool to slow down and get everything really quiet, but nothing beats getting horizontal mileage, even if it's at the expense of fall rate. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Who has doubts? Do people not know of the millions in exile, hundred of thousands killed, public and private torture, amputations, and executions? What about the laws that have been instated for this war that order civilians to go to work or be executed, and stand on the roofs of targets. Life is nothing to the current regime. This is no secret. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens have been killed under Hussein's rule. He puts himself before his people. If wasn't so selfish, if he would have stepped down, or at least complied, for the sake of his citizens, none of this would be happening. While I still stand in the position that war is never the answer, I must admit that for the most part, this attack has been impressively strategic, and, dare I say it, justified. Saddam is a bad, bad man. If only there weren't those damn executive assassination laws... "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I hear from everyone that wingsuit BASE should be done with a pin rig. Are there differeing views? "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Don't say things like that. ;) "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Correcting myself... AADs ARE required on student rigs. Makes sense. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Agreeing with these and just adding that that injury should put you out of the sport. If you heal completely, you can jump whatever you want. Though, a Spectre is probably the best canopy for your situation and experience. Smooth openings and a performance envelope that should satisfy you for at least a few hundred more jumps. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Because I haven't fallen faster than 75 MPH in about a year, I open at 3K, I've never lost altitude awareness on a jump, and in four years of full contact fighting, I've never been knocked out. An AAD is useless for me. A governing body is not going to take my, or anyone else's, personal experience into consideration when establishing such a law. This decision really is best left up to personal choice. If there is to be any sort of regulation, I think all student gear should have an AAD. Until everything is clicking with a new jumper, there is potential to lose altitude awareness or pass out. Even without regulation, I am willing to bet that at least 90% of the student gear in the US is AAD-equipped. I really don't think there is such a law even being considered anywhere, as the need has not been seen. Blacking out on a skydive, if it happens at all, almost always comes due to opening shock. Freefall collision knockouts are extremely rare, and people usually come to in the air. I could probably count the total number of freefall unconciousness Cypres saves on one hand, with room to spare. Even then, one finger has to go back down for the one that got knocked out, AAD fired, and they still died on impact under their reserve. I also think too many people use AADs as substitutes for altitude awareness. It's a catch 22... they claim that they need one because they might lose altitude awareness, but if they didn't have one, they'd probably pay more attention. On top of that... I can't say that I've ever fired my reserve at 170 MPH, but it can't be fun. You could blow the thing up with no way to, uh... cut away and go to your main. ;) Even 120 is going to sting you. I don't think I'm "macho" for not having an AAD, I just genuinely feel that I don't need one. If I did RW or freeflying (and I used to freefly), then I'd probably get one, as those two disciplines put you in situations where you may end up paying more attention to the activity and not the altitude. But as long as I'm flying a wingsuit, I'd really rather not have my government tell ordering me to spend $1,000 on, what is to me, a paperweight with a couple wires. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I haven't fallen faster than 75 MPH in a year, and I always open above 3,000'. You have to be going 78 MPH down at 750' to fire the thing. Flying a wingsuit, I'm pretty much guaranteed that I'll be flying with experienced people. What good will an AAD do me? My chances of needing one are so drastically reduced, that I don't feel I would ever need one. Making it illegal for me to skydive because I didn't shell out $1,200 for a tiny metal box and some wire running off of about 50 lines of code, when I don't even need the thing, is just ridiculous. If this sport kills me, it most likely won't be do to a situation wherein I needed an AAD. And if I do impact, you can say "I told you so". If you're making a car analogy, AADs aren't seatbelts, they're oh-shit handles. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

One should not have more posts on dropzone.com than jumps. For shame... I don't know why the pirates are on there. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

BTW, Tom, the above response isn't really targeted at you. In looking it over I could see that a lot of this could read as condescending or argumentative. Not the case. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Actually, I've been speaking with someone at SDO about this. We have his decent rate nailed down to 65 MPH down. These turns are in front risers, of course. In my GTi, I've left right before him when he did a high pull, and he was able to pass me (vertically). In chasing after him to a bit to swoop him, I found (and confirmed with ProTrack chart) that I was hitting up to 80 MPH when I'd try to bank down to him. My forward is too much to approach any other way. We've discussed it several times since, and we might go for it after I have enough Skyflyer experience. When you've been pretty close to it in the air, you can really see how it would work. It was even to the point that I was thinking, "man, if I could keep my fall rate down in these turns, we'd have it". "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Here's a theory. Don't travel in a line. Spiral both the canopy and the wingsuit down, getting the spiral tighter and tighter until contact. Keep about a 65 MPH fall rate (would definitely require a Skyflyer... the fall rate in turns on a GTi or Classic would probably be too great). This may also better match relative speeds for a longer period of time, reducing the risk of injury in the event of impact. It may even be easier and allow for several chances at docks, and maybe longer docks. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Right, I don't disagree with anything here, but this wasn't my point. I wasn't speaking on Robert's general flight effeciency in those videos. I was just using the body position during the launches as examples where the differences between head-high and head-low flight are fairly noticeable. Continuing to use those videos as examples, look at the "external" views when he launches to note the position of his camera. Then watch the onboard video of him in full flight. The reason you can see his rig throughout those flights is that his head is up. On launch position, here's how I look at it: Body position has no effect during the drop. As you approach/reach terminal, you can start flying. Common sense. However, body position during the drop can determine what terminal is going to be and how much control you will have at different altitudes. Steep/head low flight (after the drop) may be 60 - 70 down, while head-high may be 40 down. If you drop in a head low position that would give you 65 down in flight, it's going to take a bit longer (altitude) than assuming a position where your terminal is going to be 40. It takes longer to hit 65 than 40. Therefore, it takes longer in the "65" position to attain the same level of control of the "40" position. Theoretically, you could launch the suit head down, and if you manage to adjust to your optimum body position at the exact moment that you hit your optimum body position's speed, then the it wouldn't make any difference. In all reality and practicality, this isn't the case. Of course, it all slides... there is no on or off speed. There is a hyperbolic control curve, caused by the increase in viscocity between the jumper and the air. It has more to do with the amount of control you have at different speeds than control on/off at different speeds. You can attain the ability to control your fall at the same altitude, regardless, but a wingsuit will give you more control at lower airspeeds, and a wingsuit sitting in the right position, waiting for its control point, will give you control sooner than that same wingsuit that needs some position tweaking. In other words, better launches are better. :) Note to people who aren't Tom: All of the above refers to fixed object jumping only. This doesn't apply to jumping out of a plane that's already traveling 80 - 100 knots, so no comments like "Are you crazy? I can fly right out the door!". (dammit) "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click