The111

There's a huge thread at the very top of the bonfire for this purpose, check that out.

Me and a friend wore ours to a go-cart track this weekend, with a bunch of other skydivers. Good times. EDIT: I can't find anything about the PC55 on the Sony page. What's up? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Jesus. Nice work. This is why (and I'm sure this will open a whole can or worms, especially since I don't even jump yet) I have no interest in subterminal short delay jumps (certain exceptions - spans, windy towers, etc). I want to get FAR from those objects. And the question of the day: what was the total damage? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

"Landing" a parachute means the parachute is the only thing that allows you to touch down softly and walk away, rather than impact the ground and die. The parachute is the only speed damping device used (both horizontal and vertical speeds). As such, "landing" a wingsuit should mean that the wingsuit is the only device you use to slow your speed (in BOTH directions). Wingsuits don't have wheels, sleds, or air cushions. If you "land" a wingsuit that has been augmented by adding wheels, brakes, sleds, cushions, whatever... you didn't land a wingsuit, you landed some new crazy contraption. That's obviously MY unique opinion, and it's all semantics anyway. Based on my definition, it is not currently possible to land a wingsuit, nor likely will be anytime soon. ********** The flipside... I think what many people are thinking of is not the task of landing a wingsuit, but the task of landing a wingsuit without a parachute. To me, that's not that impressive, because with enough engineering, we could land our BODIES without a parachute. Airbags, bubbly water, whatever other crazy contraption you could think of to slow a really fast wingsuit down, could likewise slow a really fast meat missile (freefaller) down. If this is what is achieved, the wingsuit had nothing to do with the landing. Although it would, admittedly, be an impressive visual display, I would not say that it constituted a wingsuit landing. ********** The key difference in semantics here is using the word with vs without. Landing with (and only with) a wingsuit would be phenomenally impressive, but I can't see how it would be possible (though I'm open to suggestion - the snow slope is the most feasible option but still requires other "devices"). Landing without a parachute doesn't mean anything, because you haven't specified what you will use instead. If you happen to wear a wingsuit while landing in a $6,000,000 decelerating machine, that doesn't constitute a wingsuit landing in my book. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I will be running a small wingsuit weekend at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, December 16-18. The primary purpose of this event is to give those locals interested in flying wingsuits a chance to try, so I will be bringing demo BIRD-MAN suits and offering first flight courses and coaching. If enough experienced birds show up, I will also organize some fun flocks, so spread the word, and show up with your friends. This is a great dropzone with good vibes, a nice view, and always busy. At the very least we will have a Twin Otter for the weekend; I'll post more info as I get it. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Dave, what is the reflection? Looks like another birdman but it's oriented screwy. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Which says something about his skills since he is on the opposite end of the weight spectrum as you.

The angle of what to the floor? You will never change the angle between the rope and the floor. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

He flies an S3-S Chris, I know that much.

Very nice, Macca! A huge improvement on the last one you posted. Looks like you guys just flew circles the whole time? Could the pilot see you out his window? *(you're still a wanker) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Are you trying to say that being a schizo is required? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

$21,000 in 2.5 years But still

In the original thread in the WS forum, he says it was a "tardover" and also gives his body weight as 140, pointing out the underload. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I realize it's pointless to clean the LCD on a camcorder since you're just going to have to touch it again and it will get covered in fingerprints again. But hypothetically, if you wanted to wipe all the fingerprints off, what would you use? I tried a cotton cloth and it just smeared them around. Was thinking of using one of the "wet-naps" I use on my lens but didn't know if it would be bad for the LCD. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I don't expect it to blow out at the bottom; I don't expect it to blow out at all. But see what I wrote above about Perry's wing blowing out halfway through a flock jump, while flying stable (rather than on exit or while diving to the flock). I've never experienced a blowout but my guess is unless I was really maxed out, I could fly through it without too much loss of stability, as you say happened to you. This would not have been possible when I had less wingsuit experience, but now I find myself able to fly in weirder and weirder orientations the more I jump the suit. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Sure they can, but I will agree that something was weird about the "sight picture" from 2-4k ft in the Keys. I always felt waaay lower than I was, slightly before pulling, and while flying my canopy down to about 1k ft. Below 1k ft it seemed normal again. Even my whuffo roommate, who has never jumped and only watched my videos, the first thing out of his mouth when I started playing my footage from the weekend was "woa, that looked like a really low pull". Impressed me that he caught that, even if it is just an illusion. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I actually use NTFS for my PC disks, but I just checked and the iPod is FAT32, so hopefully it will work. Thanks for the answers guys! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

An easy way to increase that ratio is to fall faster without the wingsuit. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yup. I was not aware of the pre-existing condition of the suit, but that would not surprise me! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Thanks... Perry is the only person I've ever seen get to the camera step in a WS. Although I'm gonna learn soon. We were doing a beach jump and he climbed out, then the pilot yelled at us not to exit (still not sure why). Perry had to hang there for a minute or more... (you can't climb back in with the suit on, from the step) the look on his face was so pitiful. But he hung there until the real climbout/exit. Only he could pull that off. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Obviously I haven't been trained for WS BASE so I don't know exactly what deployment handle you use, but I did cringe while writing "hackey", thinking it would get me yelled at. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I have an iPod, but for the purposes of this question I'm guessing it could be any mp3 player or external HDD. I use it with PC's exclusively, and this question is in regards to using it as an external HDD. When I plug it into a PC with XP, it is autodetected as an external disk and I can use it to transfer data. If I hook it up to a Mac, will it be a valid external disk, or not? I seem to remember reading something once about needing a different type of format for each system. I've also never even used a Mac so even if this does work, who knows if I'll be able to figure out how to browse the file system. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Had a weird thought the other day. I always wonder how long my S3 will last. I've seen a couple wingsuits blown out in my time (although all but one were by the same guy ), and I don't expect mine to last forever before needing some restitching or other repair. Anyway, I see wingsuit BASE in my distant future. So here's a hypothetical. Way down the road, I'm humming my BASE wingsuit flights to very low altitudes and having very short canopy rides. I have a wing blowout right before pulling and it sends me into a tumble. One of two things happens: either I don't get the hackey in time, or I get it but the screwy unstable deployment only slows me down partially. Either way, I'm landing a lot faster than I'd like to be, possibly for the last time. Is this a serious risk or is it one of those things that's so overshadowed by other common risks that it's not even worth considering? In some ways, logic would say that a wing probably won't blow out during static, stable flight (more likely during inflation or maneuvers), but I have seen just that happen. In a large flocking event, the aforementioned wingsuit-blowout-king was flying his slot perfectly and all of a sudden disappeared into a tumbling yellow mess far below the formation. So it is possible... Also consider the repurcussions of a blowout during situations like Loic's mountain swoop (which obviously are NOT a normal day and nothing I really plan on doing, I'm just thinking out loud here)... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

XT is smaller too (obviously), which is nice for someone new to photography like me. Question: these cameras that have 3 (or 5) FPS capabilities... can you utilize those capabilities in freefall? I don't think I can operate a mouthswitch that many times in succession... does it operate like an automatic weapon (i.e. hold down for rapid fire?). Or do you have to set it up ahead of time on the camera to be a "rapid fire jump" and can only take successive shots for the whole jump (not to say that would be a bad thing, I guess I'm just wondering if you can alternate, during a jump, hands-free, between single shots and multiple rapid-fire shots). Obviously, I haven't jumped a still camera yet, or used a mouthswitch. Just started video. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

That is a really good point. Even if you do get into a configuration (fronts and rears) where you can shift weight, the major results you see will not be from the CG shift, they will be from the control inputs you inevitably make while shifting weight. Pulling down on your rears with 10% of your body weight is a very small CG shift (as noted before, rears and 3-rings are close, and portion of 3-ring load goes straight to rears anyway), but it is a very substantial control input that changes the canopy's shape much moreso than it changes its orientation. Which brings us back to your point about a rigid structure being needed. EDIT: Sounds like you're describing the controls kitesurfers use. www.WingsuitPhotos.com