The111

With Tony's blessing... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You must have very good eyes because I cannot see that in the exit shot, but yes, that is how it's set up. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

No shots of good backflying, but I did get some of you. Here's a few attachments. Email me if you want hi-res versions, Mark. The "top secret" suit is visible in the exit photo. Chuck if you look closely you can see legstraps. Sorry for the dark pictures, I was experimenting with camera settings and am too lazy to edit right now. I was joking about the "top secret" thing, but in truth I don't feel right posting a pic of the suit without asking Tony first. He did design the suit and he did put a blurb about it in Skydiving, but he may not want a flight photo posted on the web just yet. I think it'd be great advertising, and it's great that people are talking about it already - but out of respect for him I'm not gonna post one just yet... maybe soon though if I can get in touch with him. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ditto on everything you said. Work sucks the life out of me and getting home and being free brings it back. Never in bed before 2 usually, up at 8 or so. I'm running on about 4.5 hours today, I really wanted to work out tonight but I don't even know if that's healthy. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Because I am happy with my wingsuit.

I flew with him on Sunday and took several pictures. Top secret.

I'm not disagreeing with you (I have not seen your stills, and my HC90 does shoot decent 3MP stills), but filesize has NOTHING to do with quality. I can make a very good looking file 1MB and a very bad looking file 4MB. It has to do with compression more than anything else. Pixel count is definitely a good start, and 640x480 is not even half a megapixel. Going to 4" x 6" prints from 640x480 is ~100 dpi (which is PUSHING it). So what you said is pretty accurate, anything under 8x10 might be doable (though I reserve 100 dpi for poster size prints... might look poor on such a small picture), but keep in mind the still pictures from these aren't great quality, regardless of resolution. The 3MP pics from my HC90 don't look nearly as good as shots from a 3MP pocket camera. Whether it's sellable or not, is up to the customer I guess.

Yes, it will depend on airframe (wingsuit + body type). There is no magic number. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Boobies. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

But it's so fun! I think we're all on the same page here.

Forward drive in unpowered flight comes from a forward-angled lift vector. Why do you think returning your lift vector to near vertical will provide a boost in forward speed? In your example, what force is causing your forward speed to increase during plane out? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You are right, the 270 approach does increase horizontal speed. But planing out does not. You misunderstand my point. There is a certain point in that 270 degree dive when forward speed is at a maximum (before plane-out). But vertical speed is also very high. Planing out is done to prevent yourself from bouncing. It does NOT increase your horizontal speed further (it may appear to, but this is only a visual effect - the same reason you feel faster in a wingsuit when you buzz a cloud or canopy). It actually decreases it a little bit, but at the advantage of decreasing your vertical speed hugely and saving your life. While flying a wingsuit for maximum forward speed miles above the surface of the earth, you do not need to flare out and prevent from bouncing. You can remain in the "dive" (steep glide rate) for as long as you need, and maintain a maximum forward speed. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Me neither. More vertical speed than horizontal speed (relative) is irrelevant, since vertical speed does not play into the contest, only distance covered and time (horizontal speed, essentially). So the highest horizontal speed (absolute, not relative) wins. The highest horizontal speed does not come at best glide angle, or best hang time. It comes in steeper flight angle than either of those (how steep, or whether or not it's a "dive", I will stay away from). As you pointed out, the vertical speed may be higher than the horizontal speed (glide < 1:1). But as Costyn pointed out, if you are jumping from high enough that you can afford a large vertical speed (i.e. if you start off high enough) and still achieve 90 seconds freefall, you will benefit in terms of horizontal speed and ultimately distance covered. "Planing out" does not increase the horizontal speed. It only decreases the vertical. When you flare your canopy to land it does not boost forward, it actually slows down gradually. Why plane out if vertical speed has no bearing on the contest? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Eh, fuck it, I just paid it. My credit rating remains untouched. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hey look at me, I'm getting legal advice from the internet! I got an envelope in the mail from my grandmother (who lives in an entirely different city 70 miles away). Something had been sent to her address with my name on it (I have never lived with her), so she forwarded it onto me. It was a letter from a collections agency saying I owe a $60 debt to a hospital in Orlando. I called the hospital to figure it out since it made no sense and the accounts lady said the debt is leftover from an ER visit in 2000. I was 18 years old, covered by my parents' insurance, and a college student. I asked her why I was just getting contacted now, 6 years later, by a collection agency, at my grandmother's address? She said she really couldn't do anything else since it was in the collection agency's hands now, and I'd have to call them. Now, it's only $60, and it is true I did visit that ER, but the principle bothers me. I have ALWAYS paid all my debts on time or early. I've never used credit cards. To get a call from a collections agency bothers me a lot. This is actually the second time this scenario has happened - a few years ago a collections agency called me about a recent ER visit (geez I go to the ER a lot), and again it was a debt I was not even aware of since the hospital made no attempt to contact me themselves (or, they did, but they got my address wrong and rather than fix their mistake, passed it on to collections). I guess my question for the legal-types is... is there any sort of "statute of limitations" on something like this? It really pisses me off to hear about this 6 YEARS LATER. I'd imagine, with no real legal experience, that even if it is possible to fight it, it would be more hassle than just spending the $60 to shut them up. What do you think? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Wind direction/magnitude has no correlation to your fallrate or airspeed - only your groundspeed. Even if what you were suggesting would give you longer freefalls, there is another small problem with the idea - in order to fly in a straight line, into the wind, for the entire jump, you'd have to exit far downwind of the spot. Not a great idea. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I think canopy type is much more important than wingloading... what do others think? I went from Spectre @1.1 to Pilot @1.5 and the Pilot feels better in most cases (not that the Spectre was bad). Every once in a while I get 1 linetwist, but before I can even think about fixing it, it fixes itself. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Come on. Inherently you have better vision in front of you. It's certainly easier to see what you're doing going into the space. And backing out, you have a lot more latitude to be off, short of running over something. Anyone that has 'precision' issues driving forward into a perpendicular or angled parking space needs to be given a moped. Perhaps precision was the wrong word... but there are spaces small enough that they require a 3 point turn to pull forward into, where backing up is only a 2 point turn. A car can be manuevered into TIGHTER spots in reverse because of the front wheel steering. This may be what he meant when he said "precision". www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'm not going to comment on the advantages of backing in, since everybody else has already. But I will add something. Not if the people behind them aren't tailgating them.

Very nice video James. Was all the footage yours? I especially liked the transitions to backfly in front of the flock, very cool way to do it. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Forgive my ignorance... what would you use a lens like this for in freefall? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

But Omar is Mexican. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

There is an old thread asking the same question about skydiving canopies. As I said in that thread, if you are curious about what sort of potential damage an opening can do to your body, I think jerk (change in acceleration per time), in addition to max acceleration, is important to know. A high constant G loading alone is not very damaging, I don't think. It's the rapid onset of a high G loading that will get you. If the original poster was not actually interested in "damage" numbers, then I have gone off topic. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Zhills is your best bet, you will always find the flock there.

You post about it on the internet. www.WingsuitPhotos.com