The111

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Anybody have any idea if the hurricane ruined our fun? I've seen pictures of Key West under mucho water... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

CLICK for pre-made extensions (with pictures). www.WingsuitPhotos.com

BTW, I just topmounted my first camcorder, IN a d-box... the camera is an HC90 but the only box Bonehead has that works with it is the box for the TRV22, which is a nice box although I have a bit of spare room in it and had to dremel down the extension on the front so it wasn't in my HC90's FOV. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

An update on my progress/observations: Yesterday I realized I probably don't want my legwing wide open most of the time anyway. The reason I am learning to backfly is so I can shoot video of a flock from any angle, including underneath, obviously. Yesterday I made a couple jumps with one or two guys in GTi's flying base and me getting under them and shooting video. I was able to get my legwing open, but realized it was causing me to outdrive them like crazy. Then it hit me: when I am flying with a flock on my belly, my legwing is never fully extended (or I would outdrive the flock). I have my knees bent, which does not translate well to backflying since knees only bend one way. I have seen many descriptions of how to fly efficiently (maxed out) on your back, but no descriptions of how to fly relative, i.e. overall flight controls. For normal (right-side-up) wingsuit flying, the basic controls are as follows (tri-wing suit designs): Fallrate - arms, hips, chest Forward speed - legs Turns/sideslip - arms, legs Most of the controls for fallrate and turns seem to translate pretty well to backflying, but the forward speed is going to be a bit different due to the one-way knee thing I just mentioned. So I experimented with closing (partially, as needed) my legwing while backflying for forward speed control. It worked really well and I was still able maintain a 60-70mph fallrate (good flocking speed) and stay with the base, right underneath. So it seemed to work, but I am curious what thoughts people have on this method of controlling drive (forward speed) while on your back. One of the GTi jumpers commented on my legwing being closed so much, and I explained why. He suggest leaving the wing open but bending at the knees for drive control, just like on your belly, only the knees will be bending downward rather than upward. I am not sure if that would work and I didn't get a chance to try it. So which is best for drive control on your back (while maintaining a fair fallrate): 1. Legwing open/close 2. Bend at knees, like on belly 3. Pick entire legs up, sticking your ass down - I don't like this idea since when I pike at the hips, it makes it harder to maintain a good flat position with the upper body. So far I'm voting for #1... I also continued to notice that I don't have the endurance to backfly efficiently for more than 40 seconds or so... very tiring on the arms in a way I'm not used to. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yeh, the quality was nice, but the editing in that trailer really got on my nerves. They just keep alternating between 2 second clips where you can't see the beginning or end of the manuever. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

With nothing securing the LCD, couldn't it flip open (and get torn off) if you go on your back? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Scotty Burns uses one topmounted on Optik Illusion, he is a local wingsuit pilot in Zhills. He seems to be getting good footage with it. I also heard that Scary Perry just got one but I haven't talked to him recently. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I've already used 2 tapes in 3 weeks. (The first day I was taping canopy rides). I jump with a couple of other wingsuiters and we all have camera and all swap footage back and forth after every jump. You are right, for the most part we swap at the end of the day but sometimes somebody wants something that may be a few days old and that takes a while to find. Oh well, I'll make it work... using the tape remaining counter is a good idea. Thanks for the replies. :) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hmm, that's nice to know I guess but it doesn't help if I'm at the DZ (without a PC or editing software) and have a tape that my friend wants to copy a part of. I would prefer to have my own little info card I stuck in the tape case, so when I want to find jump "xxx" I can see on the info card exactly what time it is at. So I can fast forward exactly to that time and cue up the footage for my friend. You may think I'm crazy but I want my continuous counter. And sometimes I have to remove the battery or eject the tape. I guess I can see how scene breaks are useful, but why can't we have both? Like when watching a DVD movie on your TV, sure there are chapters you can skip to, but there is also an overall counter, so you can always tell how far from the beginning of the movie you are. I'm still not sure how the first tape re-ordered itself to a continuous counter when I filled it all the way up... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I just found out, it's official: Due to the brandwar, we will be holding TWO separate Flock N Dock events. One in March for all BirdMen, and one in April for all Phoenix Flyers. (I'M KIDDING!) I don't know when it is, maybe Scott Bland will chime in. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

For archival purposes. For example: Jump 459 - 00:00 Jump 460 - 02:15 Jump 461 - 03:59 And so on, WITHOUT resetting. If you counter resets every few jumps, then how do I find jump xxx? Write down in my book that it is at "7:00"? Doesn't help me out much if there are 3 or 4 instances of 7:00 on the same tape. Are you talking about a new tape? Wouldn't a new tape already be zeroed out automatically? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Come to Zhills, we have many BMI's and PFI's there, many demo suits available, and it's one of the best flocking DZ's around. New Years always has some good flocking going on, and in March we have the Flock n Dock event. Remind me when it is closer to the time you want to come, and we'll see if there are any good boogies coming up.

USA, USA! I know more than one person from UK who learned to fly here in Florida with just over 200 jumps, then went back home and kept flying. You could try a beginner suit from any company (BirdMan Classic/GTi, Phoenix Fly Prodigy, etc) here in USA with 200 jumps. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

On the second tape I have ejected it more than once, but on the first tape I did not until it was complete, and that tape still did the "segmented counter" thing... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hmm, I just got a second bigger battery and was swapping them back and forth to charge each fully, maybe that had something to do with it? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'm a little annoyed by something the counter is doing on my HC90, not sure if it's like this on other cameras or what. I'm only on the 2nd tape too, so this may not be normal, but here's what I'm seeing so far. With the first tape, the counter kept resetting itself every few recording sessions. Like one day's jumps would be on 0:00-7:00, and then after 7:00 for the next day's jumps it would start over at 0:00 again. Made it very hard to find clips sometimes. And here's the weirdest part: when I finally finished recording the tape, this problem fixed itself, and the counter changed to one continuous (0:00-60:00) counter throughout the whole tape. WTF? So now I'm on the second tape and seeing the same annoying thing happen. I'm assuming when I fill it up it will "switch" again and fix itself. It's still annoying now because it makes clips harder to find in the meantime. I've searched the instruction manual but can't find anything about this. Anyone know about it? Is there a way I can force the counter to be continuous WHILE recording? And just out of curiosity, anyone know WHY it switched at the end of the first tape? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I didn't bother counting seconds, but 12k - 7.5k = 4.5k, not 5.5k. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

CRICK! This is weird, man. It almost sounds cool but it's impossible to watch the demo videos without cracking up. A bunch of people floating around on tethers bumping into each other saying "wow, this is AWESOME!" It's even weirder how I found that site... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

CRICK! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

The thing wrong with that idea is that you're "pranking" a giant, faceless, bureaucratic corporation. The people responsible for you getting junk mail will never even know you mailed them banana peels. Some poor mail sorter getting paid minimum wage will have to deal with all that crap. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

That's hilarious---I used to wake up in the middle of the night and that's the first thing that would come to mind CRICKY! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Especially when you only have one hand! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Nope, the picture was taken at this really cool zoo/park in the Netherlands where monkeys roam free and climb all over you. The first thing they do is search your pockets... so you have to put all your belongings in this bag they give you with a special zipper that the monkeys can't undo. It's called a "monkey free bag" which I think is funny, since monkey-proof is probably more accurate. Monkey-free means there are no monkeys in it, which I guess is also technically true! Cya soon Tammie... no monkeys. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I know somebody who has his left arm amputated, just below the elbow I think (correct me if I'm wrong Mike, if you're reading this). He has over 800 skydives and is as far as I know a skilled RW jumper, using a prosthetic attachment with a claw on it for taking docks, etc. He is interested in flying a wingsuit, maybe, and I am curious what people's thoughts are on how safe/doable this would be. Real experience is better than hypothesizing, so I guess the ultimate question is "has this already been done?" Does anyone know of any amputee flockers out there? Concerns besides flying in my mind are post-opening procedures, etc. The Prodigy sounds attractive for this purpose. www.WingsuitPhotos.com