The111

When I am flying my camera (most of the time), between 3.5 and 4k. If I'm jumping without a helmet and know there's nothing snaggable on my head, I'll pull as low as 2.5k if I have a reason to. My canopy snivels a lot. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I've got the same on order. Am flying Spectre 170 now. Both work great, but I liked the Pilot slightly more after demoing it a lot. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Agreed... I tent @ Zhills every time I go, even if trailer space is offered. I like my tent. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Playing devil's advocate here, I will point out (as others have) that distance (proximity) definitely matters. Hell, if I flew my Spectre 170 close enough to a tandem, I would expect him to be pissed. Which is worse... a wingsuit flying by a tandem canopy 200 ft away, or a highly loaded Velocity (arguably the same amount of control as a wingsuit, and close to the same speed) flying by at 100 ft? Which would probably be received better by most TM's? This is a big part of the issue, that many people do not know a lot about wingsuits, and we do have to be sensitive to that. The bottom line is that we shouldn't be near canopies, but sometimes the flight plan goes wrong and we are. If I see a canopy somewhere ahead of me, I will turn to avoid it, and while I wouldn't call it a buzz, I don't get a mile away from it either. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

While I was hanging out in the bunkhouse at the Eloy holiday boogie somebody from Norway (I still don't know his name) put this in the DVD player and blew us all away. I asked him if I could buy it anywhere, and he said it was just a teaser, with a better release coming later. I agree that it blows away a lot of other amazing hardcore tracking/wingsuit footage... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

UPDATE: There is a very good chance (90%) that I will not make the first day, Friday the 20th. I will DEFINITELY be there during the weekend though (21-22) and will be organizing flocks for those interested. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I have a friend, an experienced jumper, who told me he jumped twice without a chest strap when he first started jumping (and lived, obviously). I think he noticed it in freefall and just brought his arms together in front of him after pulling, or something. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Sorry to nitpick, but those numbers don't quite add up. More like "just over one per two weeks." A shame either way. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

And what about the Dutch monkey? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

A delay from a skydiving gear manufacturer? Unheard of! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Here's a guess: The canopy is attached to the jumper who, while not a pole, does have a great amount of inertia, and is not initially moving downwind at as great a speed as he will be once he is a "jumper/canopy system in equilibrium", especially if he is subterminal. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Haha, I've never even heard that term but I like the sound of it already. It's like I rarely ever pay attention, but when I do, I pay VERY CLOSE attention. Or I'm either extremely disinterested or obsessed with things in general - no middle ground. Is that what it means? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

That would be a spoonerism. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

How about this, is it normal? I think my OCD and laziness battle each other. My shit gets WAY out of order and messy for weeks at a time, and then I'll go crazy and spend hours organizing it meticulously. I also often drink heavily while going on my organizing sprees. What would you call that? Lazy OCD alcoholism? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It happens man, I've been trying to tell people! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It's not a joke, and you should be happy you're not "in the loop", literally speaking! See this post for an explanation of my gratuitous pun. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Working in a BirdMan tent at a boogie, I get this question hands down more than any other. That is including questions like "how slow can you go" and "can I fly a wingsuit"? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

This is a second-hand report of an incident that was reported to me by a flocker at the Holiday boogie, while I was working in the BirdMan tent. Jay, if you'd like to post your first-hand account here, please go ahead. The jumper was a flying a Prodigy two-piece wingsuit. For those of you not familiar with the suit, there is a nylon loop on the rear of the jacket, at the bottom, with a little spring loaded push-button on it... the loop can be pulled tight to ensure a snug fit on the jacket (there's probably a better way to describe this system - it's the same as is used on the top of mummy sleeping bags). Anyway on some Prodigys (I think the newer suits have corrected this somewhat, James?) the location of the loop is such that it is possible for you to grab your hackey through the loop. I noticed this myself months ago and posted about it here. The loop is supposed to be tucked into the jacket, but as I found out while giving myself a pin check on jumprun, it does not always stay there. I was slightly shaken to feel a 3" loop right next to my hackey. Back to Eloy. You can probably already guess what happened. The jumper pulled his hackey to end his skydive, and was unable to throw it. He looked down and saw the hackey and loop, stretched out tight in his right hand. He thought quickly, and kept the hackey in his right hand while pulling his reserve with his left hand. He had an uneventful canopy ride and landing, but after landing he inspected his main pin and found it was almost entirely out of the closing loop. The result of this could have been a very nasty wingsuit-horseshoe. I hesitated about posting this in a public forum for fear of someone thinking I am badmouthing one product or one manufacturer. However, I have since talked to more than one Prodigy owner who was not aware of this potential safety issue. So in short, this is nothing more than an incident report and a safety notice. If you are jumping any wingsuit (or any attire for that matter) with a loop sticking out the back near your hackey sack (which includes quite a few Prodigys I've seen and jumped), know that this loop, at the very LEAST, needs to be tucked inside your suit securely. If it was a suit I was going to jump a lot, I would eliminate the loop... I don't trust that "tuck-in" method to stay secure. On a skydive, this incident was really just a bit short of a laughing matter. "Oh crap, time to use parachute #2". But the Prodigy, as far as I know, is used heavily in the BASE world, and it should be obvious what the outcome of this incident would have been, had the jumper been wearing a single canopy system. Everybody please keep your eyes open. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I think using your eyes is much more important than counting, although I do tell students to count to 2 (AND look). www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Voodew1 (TX) Professor (TX) FlyinBob (TX) Buried (IL) The111 (LOCAL!) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

How deep you diving, Mike? I could bring my freedive gear if it's less than 100ft. I would love to see some of that bioluminescent stuff... I've never really dove anything but the freshwater springs in FL. I will only be there 7th (afternoon) through 12 (evening) though. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Uwe's Country Jam at Skydive Sebastian was a great time last year, in the sky and on the ground. We had some great flocks during the day, and mechanical bull riding (among other things) at night. EVENT INFO PAGE I'll be bringing BirdMan demo wingsuits for those who don't have their own, or would like to try for the first time. If you live in central/south FL, you have no excuse to miss this! Mark your calendars.

They did not "sell you a piece of foam". They integrated a piece of foam into your rig, as a backpad. When you buy a parachute, do you pay the price of a roll of nylon? It's a piece of foam, that pads your back. They call it a foam backpad. Sounds pretty accurate to me. I'm sure their customer service would be happy to give you a better description if you're still confused. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'm not sure if I agree with this, Kris. I think a head high orientation generates much more upwards "pop". When you exit a tailgate and plan to get above the plane, do you orient yourself horizontal, or head high? Every video I've ever seen of a highspeed exit done right, and firsthand experience, shows head high jumpers getting way above the plane. Now, even if we disregard "pop" altogether, and just think about avoiding the wing, there is the obvious fact (implicit in the phrase "head high") that exiting head high puts your head closer to the wing than "head low". All that said, I keep my head high on exit. But I keep my arm wings IN. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Not as funny as the story I heard about Jari Kuosma's (BirdMan) rig getting stolen, and the thief showing up at Skydive DeLand (less than a mile from BirdMan HQ at the time) asking if they wanted to buy a rig (a rig which had JARI stitched on it, along with BirdMan logos). I heard the answer given to him by the Skydive DeLand staff member he approached was: "you have ten seconds head start to start running before I call the cops". www.WingsuitPhotos.com