The111

Add me to the list... I'll be representing BirdMan and will have demo wingsuits, first flight courses and coaching available, etc. We will also put up some good flocks for those experienced birds interested. Looking forward to it! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Try click here, haole. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Scott Bland Scotchguarded his S3, with many coats according to him. I was gonna do mine but never got around to it, and with so many jumps on it now there's no point. I have washed it a few times. A couple weeks ago I had a brain fart or something and found myself sliding on my ass. There was a huge grass stain on the royal blue, but I tossed it in the wash and it came out no problem. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ha, I like when she tells him not to look down, then one second later asks "so, are you still 2-300 feet up?" www.WingsuitPhotos.com

No, I haven't tried the Phantom yet. I've flown next to one twice though. Once was Perry, and he was seeming to have a very hard time controlling it, but it was his first time in the suit so it admittedly doesn't mean much. Then this weekend I flew with Rebecca in her new Phantom. She doesn't have many WS jumps, and I made her chase me on my back (I'm still learning backfly, so I'm not a super stable base), and she was able to stay right on top of me the whole jump, which I was very impressed with. She seemed to have a good range in the suit, especially for her experience level. I will try one when I get a chance and post my thoughts, and I appreciate your compliment, but I will be the first to admit that while I try to be objective, I will usually lean toward the BM side just because that is what I am more familiar with, among other reasons. I had the chance to put 10 jumps on the Firebird at Rantoul while I was working for BirdMan - I was too busy to take it off my rig after the first jump so I just left it on. In those 10 jumps I got a really good feel for it so I feel confident in recommending it. The Phantom may be a great suit but even if I try it, I doubt I'll jump it enough times to really understand it. I have one Prodigy jump, and the same thing applies there. I did hear some good comments about the Phantom from local jumpers at Hog Flop this weekend... they were saying that newbies were doing better in the Phantom than in the Prodigy, something I think sounds very believable based on my experience with both suits. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Jesus. Did the "chin" of the helmet hurt your chest? Was your neck permanently or seriously damaged? I would be amazed that the opening could be strong enough to break a helmet but not seriously harm your neck. My Optik Illusion has a ratchet clip there and someone once told me it could shatter my chestbone (whatever you call it) on a slammer. Not sure what to think about that... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

IMO the Firebird is the best beginner (and intermediate/all-around) suit on the market (that I've tried), but the GTI is the next best thing... I put nearly 100 jumps on mine before buying my S3, and if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing. If you're getting a good deal on the used GTI (which you are), go for it. But not until AFTER you've made a jump! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I guess that is a pretty confusing concept. I read a funny story once (supposedly true) about a man in some war-torn country who was walking his dog, and saw someone he considered a mortal enemy, I guess. He tossed a grenade at the guy, and his dog took off running, picked up the live grenade and brought it back. Result, mortal enemy = winner. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

In my case, I was supposed to be doing a backflip, without anyone holding onto me obviously. The flip never stopped, I lost leg awareness and left my feet on my ass. So grabbing me ahead of time was not an option. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hey Wendy, jump tickets from Sebastian will be valid in the Keys, right? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Consider this analogy. A jumper hooks himself into the ground flying a 2.5:1 Velocity; his injuries are fatal. Sure, the incident was unarguably a case of pilot error, but the canopy was a major factor. Under a 1:1 Spectre, the same error would not have driven him into the ground nearly as hard, and he probably would have lived. While flying a wingsuit with an efficient glide ratio, a jumper flies himself directly away from the DZ, opens his parachute over a rough landing area and does not survive his landing. Sure, the incident was unarguably a case of pilot error, but the wingsuit was a major factor. Tracking in a freefly suit, the same navigational error would not have taken him nearly as far away from the DZ. How do you know he was trying to "force his way back"? How do you know he didn't choose the best out he had, and it was too tight for him? There are not always safe outs. It is possible to open up over a cone of possibility where all your potential landing areas SUCK. This is why it is important to think about your groundtrack WHILE flying the wingsuit. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You are right "factor" is a better word... that is what I meant when I said one of "many causes". To a degree, it's semantics: we are saying the same thing. The point is it was a wingsuit related fatality. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yes, it is like that. If you track yourself to a spot where you can't survive a parachute landing, tracking was a cause. As was your inability to land a parachute in that location. Most incidents have more than one "cause". One of the most important safety issues when learning to fly a wingsuit is knowing WHERE to fly it. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I think someone died from a bad landing in DeLand ~2 years ago, from landing out in a tight spot on a wingsuit jump. The suit was a fairly direct cause since it allowed him to get to where he opened/landed. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hmm, I stumbled into the instructor's forum by accident. When I did AFF years ago, on level 5 or so I got stuck in a neverending backflip for several thousand feet. I eventually said to myself, the ground is getting bigger every time you see it (green, blue, green, blue, etc), if you cannot stop this spin the next rotation, you are going to pull anyway (I could not, or thought I could not, check my alti). I managed to stop the flip and within seconds my AFFI was docked on my and screaming pull. I gladly did. On the ground I thanked him for "stopping" me. He laughed and said there was no way he could have stopped me, that he couldn't have touched me while tumbling and I did it myself. He simply came in after I stopped. This was a VERY experienced and well known skydiver/instructor/DZO. I am not a great belly flier, so I don't know the answer to this - is it possible to save someone who is tumbling out of control? If it's not possible, you obviously shouldn't punish an AFFI for failing to do the impossible. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

The rest of that specific jump was a fairly boring 3-way. I am collecting footage that I will compile into something cool near the end of the year maybe, but for now the only really outstanding footage that I had was what you just saw. I will try your advice next time I render a video file and see if I can get a smaller filesize, thanks. I tried various settings in DivX (before I changed my mind and went to WMV), and any smaller filesizes looked like crap. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hey Mark, were you there when I was dropping my Aeromax 2000 guy at Flock-n-Dock 1.5? It took me a few times to dial in his spot, and I actually put myself into a bad spot a few times figuring it out. I eventually started dropping him at 1200ft around the same place I started my landing pattern, which made it non-interfering with my landing, and I got the bonus of landing 30 seconds before him, so I could look up and figure out where he landed. I got him into the main landing area a few times, once he was going towards a bunch of the flockers that had just landed and two of them were running to fight over who could catch him and bring him back to me. The winds eventually changed 90 degrees as I was dropping him and he disappeared. I only got about 5 jumps out of him and they are like $7 online... I wanted to order a bunch more but if I keep losing them it's going to get expensive. Definitely fun for the whole DZ and the spectators though... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

This isn't what you asked for, but if you're interested in learning to fly a wingsuit, there are many good instructors at Zhills... it's the place to learn!

Congrats... I've also found (this is stating the obvious but still worth saying) that understanding how to do something is not the same as doing it. I've been trying to find the right backflying position for several weeks now (even though I already knew what it was, I couldn't make my body do it yet) and I finally figured it out the other day as I popped up ABOVE the flock I was filming from underneath whereas I usually fall away... A "click" is one of the coolest feelings in skydiving. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I understand that concept, and it would seem valid for tight flying. But the camera lens is only offset about 6 inches from center... and when filming a large object like a jet, at a considerable distance (I'm assuming he wasn't taking docks ), I would think that 6 inches is negligible... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

With a bit more forward speed and lift, he could climb. Several minutes of climbing could put him high enough to open above his exit point. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

But he has a skydiving rig, which was the rule you stated. What canopy were you using? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I've never flown a side-mount, but I've heard people say this before and I don't quite understand. If the camera is inline with your line of sight, wouldn't you have to turn your head the same angle in either direction to go left or right? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Here's some advice that does not include my "company preference": new wingsuit flyers should not be focusing on acrobatics. I'd recommend doing 100 jumps on a beginner/intermediate all-around suit and focusing on normal, flat flocking skills before worrying about acrobatics. If you're buying a Bird-Man suit, I think the Firebird is much more suitable for a new bird than the Phi. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I used Pinnacle Studio 9.3. But I realized right after I uploaded the video that there was an even cooler song clip I could have used, one that I have always wanted to put to WS video and the lyrics will probably never fit another video this perfectly. The line is "maybe we'll wake up with golden wings, and fly over the city screaming"... and the way it would have synced up with the video, the "golden wings" matched up with when I was looking at Scotty's yellow wings in the door, and the "fly over the city" matched up with the climb up the hill. Oh well, next time... www.WingsuitPhotos.com