lurch

So I find this kickass video of various nuke tests. The blasts are beautiful in an "unholy hosannah" sort of way. I find myself puzzled by some of the effects that happen during the blasts though and figured I'd ask, see if anyone here knows anything about it. One effect in particular was quite striking because of its structure... looks like the EMP induced a symmetrical field of some kind resulting in what appeared to be regularly spaced lightning strikes along some dividing line separating normal space from whatever exactly is happening inside the fireball. Then the blast wave reaches down and wipes out the whole thing. I'm curious...is it lightning? Or a smoke and dust effect or what? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Mike! I know it won't happen again, because now you don't have a hat! I'm going to need a 3 foot tail extension to keep up with your speed but will fly with you anytime and take my chances with your hat. My condolences on the death of your protrack, if its any consolation to you it gave its all for a good cause, the forwarding of the human flight agenda. I wonder what kind of freefall rates it recorded? Only problem with having a playground made of 16 cubic miles of sheer spacial volume is its easy to misplace things and they don't stay where you dropped them. Congrats on the firebird, man! Your fallrate is going to PLUMMET, just wait till you find the sweet spot and hear the windblast die down to nothing and it suddenly takes you forever to reach pull altitude... You're going to be able to cross half the state in less time than it takes to say it. Out here we got a tandem master, Rich, scored himself a freaking V-1.... If it'd fit me I'd have been waiting for him in the parking lot with a burlap sack and a baseball bat. I got wing envy big time. Instead of mugging him for his suit (wouldn't work anyway...hes much bigger than me and it'd take 3 of me to take him down) we went up and flew instead. Oh fuck am I in trouble...he's got incredible reach and span, vastly superior wings and about 60,000 jumps under his belt. As soon as he gets familiar with it and has the sweet spot my ass is grass. This is so cool...now there's 4 birds at PSC and suddenly I don't have to fly alone much anymore. Video!!!! You guys DO know we got a CASA boogie coming up here soon, right? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

I'm going to have to try that someday...half a suit? Damn. You know Rich, tandem master out at the home DZ just scored a freaking Vamp suit. Just spent the day jumping with him and Alex. Bouncing off the walls again. I bet 50 bucks that at least right now my grin is bigger than your grin.

Oh god I haven't laughed that hard since I caught my sister shaving the cat... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Does anyone know the exact specs of the relevant parameters of Loic's famous ski slope video? I'd like to know: The exact angle of the slope...45 degrees? 30? The length of the slope he had to work with. Exact forward speed and descent rate. Loic? Anyone? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Don't be disappointed, man. I think the jump number minimums and scary reputation scare off a lot of undecided would-be birds. Just means there weren't enough people around ready for it yet. The art is catching on around here a lot slower than I'd like, but we got a whole crop of under-200's here, quite a few of whom have expressed strong interest and will make awesome birdpeople given a bit of time. We waited 100,000 years, another season or three won't kill us. I should have remembered rt 2 dammit... oh well. Sometimes you just lose the game. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Fucking awesome, isn't it? Done it at night yet? Pure 100% fantasy moment made real, flying along above a glittering carpet of ten billion orange and silver city lights. Closest thing to immortality I expect to ever experience. ! Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Think you're right about hang gliding a regular jumper with no wings.... I'm going to guess 2 wingsuits'd turn into a total flapping wings everywhere cluster-fuck, but it'd be fun to try anyway... Now boogie boards, on the other hand... That sounds fun. If I turned around one day and found myself being pursued by a flock of flying boogie boards I think my head would explode out of pure outraged professional pride....there'd be a dull thud sound audible from the ground and no more Lurch, just a cloud of hair, shredded nylon, the occasional chunk of carbonfuckingfiber, a few feathers and some electronics. ...Video!!!!! Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

My god...Lou's done birdman banana drops...theres got to be a way to cook up a really dirty joke around that, come on, somebody, help me out here.... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Now THAT is a kickass idea... lay down a temporary racetrack, couple lanes of smoke on a good glide slope? Anyone know somebody does skywriting? I will go in this way and find my own way out... Nice sig. What song was that? I can't place it but I know it.... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

I've been trying to grow feathers for some time now. Since the feathers are slow to grow I'll have to settle for another suit. The balloon idea may be the first original idea I've heard of for birdman airtoys... Who would we ask about making such a thing happen? Need big, bright balloons and a lot of practice buzzing canopies to get a feel for it before going to balloons though.... How bout an SF3/Prodigy hang glide? Could it work? You can reach toggles with armwings hooked up, right? If so I wonder how the aerodynamics would work out with you hanging from my chest strap...could be you'd trail back behind me due to your legwing and you'd tow me up to forward speeds I could never hit, horizontally... That'd make me the worlds highest loaded canopy... Paper airplane with a 235 lb keel weight.... Has anyone tried this yet? Or, I wonder if I could keep a grip on your rig with S3 wings on and rodeo your Prodigy...get up to your insane horizontal speed, then bail off...high speed exit, launched from another Birdman? Video!!! Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Yuri! Whatup Birdman? I forgot about the UFO...Ok, UFH.....unidentified flying hat... Bummer I missed the rest of you guys' exits... when we lost you in the glare I couldn't tell what was coming down the hill so I hung hard left and got the hell out of there while watching overhead. I spotted several streaks against the sun which told me roughly where you guys were, then I spotted Mike, helmet or no, doing about oh, I'd say about 170mph some 200 yards overhead. He won't be getting killer freefall times, not with his size in a classic, but oh my god does he go FAST....fastest thing I ever saw flying horizontally, he left me Dave and Ken behind like we were standing still. When I finally caught up with him around 4 grand after he opened I buzzed him from maybe 700 feet off to his left and got awesome video of it on my way back to the field. I'm going to be chuckling about your UFO encounter all evening....with all the cool stuff that happened I'd forgotten about that... what the heck is that? Oh man you gotta start doing video just in case that happens again... You know it just occurred to me that Prodigy suit of yours opens up new possibilities for unique flight plans....how about a Prodigy/SF3 rodeo? Exit, fly a ways, then deploy you off my back like launching a sidewinder missile? The video would be awesome..... -BC Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

It was just such a cool occasion I had to share it. Got invited to Jumptown's CASA boogie by skydave114 who was organizing wingsuits. Thanks again Dave I had a blast.... I'd also like to thank Zibolateur who hooked me up with his S3 for the day, time I ever flew a suit bigger than a GTI. Holy shit what a difference! Almost lost it in the first 5 seconds, felt like breaking a wild horse getting control of the damn thing but the performance is unreal...Now I desperately need to acquire an S3...first time trying to fly slow I found the sweet spot and got a new best average down to 44 mph and got 2:38 from 12,500. Another bird I've been jumping with a lot lately, Murphy, exited side by side with me in the cleanest exit I've ever seen on tape, most perfect timing I've ever seen.... And learned that a flock made up of big guys in classics and prodigies + little guys in S3s and GTIs has a tendency to scatter when launched into sunglare. It was worth the speeding ticket I got on the way home. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Just wanted to step in for a sec and leave a message for the guys who just crossed the strait... I figure they'll find it, where else on the net will you find clumps of birdmen congregating? Congratulations guys, that is absolutely incredible. Wish I'd been there to see that.... Hell, I wish I'd been ON that flight, I'd have gladly given a year's pay, I fly my GTI in New England winters, I'm good for the cold.... Wow, gentlemen. Just Wow. The only questions remaining to me are which birdmen are going to figure out a way to top this, and HOW. Ok actually one more question: How big/bulky/how much portable O2 was required to pull this off? More than half that flight was outside of what most people would consider breathable atmosphere, I wonder about time, weight and bulk of the gear. Just incredible, guys. Talk about taking the human flight thing to the next level.... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Analagogy: The act of using rhetoric and propaganda to manipulate the public's opinion of the human anus. Why anyone would bother or why it would matter to them is a topic for another thread...... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Theres this old saying, something about sound, fury and their significance? Bill....you aren't missing stuff. There are benefits to refusing to turn over your visual cortex to someone else's marketing agenda. I don't watch TV either. It sucked all my friends' brains out and left behind people obsessed with watching "friends". All ten mind numbing years of it, or however long that was on the air. Much like every sitcom I've happily missed in my last happily tv-less 15 years I was never able to force myself to sit through even one full episode. As soon as they cut to first commercial and the volume doubles to make DAMN sure you pay attention to the lobotomized soccer mom apparently having an orgasm over the incredible cleanness of dishes washed in the latest colorful consumer cleaning chemical- Poof I'm gone, A.D.D. break, go do something else like compose the world's longest run-on sentence. What was I watching? Does it matter? Why bother? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Just wanted to put in to say the "flight" pic you just posted is one of the most fucking awesome images I've seen. Borderline pornographic. Something about the background cloudscape gave me the willies. Here I was all proud of my vidcap of the plane dropping me off and I get oneupped by what looks like a vidcap of the same thing, plus a bird and an incredibly appetizing sky. I'm envious in the most excellent way. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

...Much later..... You were quite right. Exit 15k, +/- a bit... Under clean canopy by 2200.... Avg 49 mph, 46 for chunks of it, never above 51 mph average. Result: New best time-3:13.25. Holy shit that was cool. Yeah I got video. Now I got to learn to fly decently with others. 'nuff said. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

It may be time for the next step. Where is the nearest birdman instructor-instructor? I'm at Skydive Pepperell, Massachusetts. Will drive 1000 miles if necessary but prefer not to have to. I want the wingsuit instructor rating so I know for sure I know what I'm doing when new birds want to talk. Tell me about it. What does it entail? Cost? Time involved? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

-What a load of ignorant bigotry and racist tripe. The ignorance and disrespect for other cultures and religions shown by many posters here just illustrates why the US is not very much liked in the world community.- Big hole in your cry of racism. The friend he is quoting, the guy who said these things, is an arab himself. This guy is doing the unthinkable: speaking truthfully and honestly about his own culture of origin. Bill Cosby got the same flak for having the balls to smack his own racial/cultural group for wasting itself on "Bling" and gank-sta culture. In a PC world truth is the biggest crime. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

I coulda sworn it was a skyvan... black checkerboard tail, tailgate held up with bungee cords, sign on the tailgate says GB hit his head here? Or am I mixing up two different flying boxes? edit: Think Im semi-screwed up. Think the checkerboard tail bush plane was in fact crosskeys not css. I still say it was a skyvan though. Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Absolutely. Unfortunately I'm about 50 miles north of Boston right now. You? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

He's doing a normal descent, its just our descent rates crossed over about 3 seconds after exit. In the video the plane vanishes up out of frame as I exit, then drops back down into the frame several seconds later as I dig in with the wings and cut my own descent rate down to less than the plane's...by which time I'm also falling behind rapidly. Our pilot babies the plane big time... Some I've jumped banked and descended fast enough to leave me hanging hundreds of feet above them looking way the hell down at the plane I just exited, the carolina skysports skyvan, george bush edition comes to mind. I used to wish for a camera so bad....spectacular visuals... Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Consider the hangtime required to be on a level behind instead of below the plane that long after exit. Fly suits yourself tink? Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.