The111

I don't know a lot about economy, but I would think all the people overloading the stations today actually has an even more adverse effect on an already struggling market. Sort of the same way when traffic gets thick, people start driving more aggressively, cutting each other off, refusing to let mergers in, and basically making the flow of traffic even less smooth. A few dollars is a few dollars and I would fill up today if I could, but if I'm not near empty I will not go add to an already huge line of cars at the station. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

On a serious note, as a skydiver, I guess I have no right to talk about wasting fuel. But hey, I get out at the top to conserve fuel for the plane's descent! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hehe, I'm in a weird mood right now, so in the interest of getting this moved to SC, I'll add this obligatory comment: If your dad and half of America wasn't driving Avalanches, but Corollas like me, we wouldn't be facing such a serious problem. Sometimes on the way home from work, when I'm bored, I make a tally count of the SUV's I see and how many passengers each one has. Usually about 75% have ONE person (the driver) inside. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You obviously don't understand the laws of physics. Sorry, just trying to get this back on-topic to ridiculous arguing. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I put about half a dozen flights on it at WFFC. Here is a little something I wrote in an email to Jari about my impressions of the suit: As far as flying goes, I am very impressed with the suit. The leg wing (and likewise, leg pressure) feel very small compared to my S3, so much that it was odd for me since I'm used to so much pressure... but for a newer jumper it is probably a good thing to have less effort required to control the legs. The suit wasn't as good at fast starts and stops (acceleration) as my S3, but as Scott wrote you, and you put on the website, I felt I was able to keep up with a very good pilot (Mike Swearingen) in his V1 at breakoff from a flock, so while the suit may not have the "burst power" that the S3 has, it certainly flies very good at its own top end. And those characteristics are exactly what intermediate pilots need. Burst power, in the wrong hands, can equate to twitch (instability), so not everyone wants burst power. In this suit you've given them something not too difficult to fly, but something that can be flown hard when they develop the skills. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

In the grand scheme of things it's only a few bucks if you fill up today vs next week. No reason to panic. EDIT: Comment not directed at you, DS. At all the people who appear to be panicking... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ok, there have been lots of posts about the price of gas in the near future, etc. Tonight I saw something that puzzled me. I was driving through Orlando and EVERY gas station I passed had dozens of cars lined up waiting for the pumps. My first thought was that some stations ran out already so the ones that were still up and running were seeing more customers than usual. But then I realized that I didn't see any closed stations. I passed 10 in a row that were all open and all overflowing into the road with customers. The price wasn't that high yet either (relatively speaking), in the $2.6x range. So what's up? I'm guessing these people are either anticipating a price increase or shortage of gas soon, and are trying to stock up early. Are people seeing this in other areas? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Google it, kook. Kook is not a personal attack, I just watched North Shore recently and can't stop talking like that. You guessed right on TFPFI/E, which BTW (by the way!) is not a standard internet acronym, so your guess is as good as mine! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

That's me! In a Firebird.

Isn't selective quoting great? I thought you damaged the wings too? Or was it just the leg? Either way, congrats on the repair! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I did not see this happening, but there were a lot of new people taking up Prodigys (ProdigIEs? ) that weekend, and most of them were either taken up by Scotty or Perry, so perhaps one of them remembers this happening and which student it was. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Small difference, but the Birdman standards are 200 jumps within the past 18 months, not 250. (Or 500 total). www.WingsuitPhotos.com

The word of the day is: irony. Kallend's entire post was decidedly ON-topic. An example of off-topic, would be something like someone spending half of every post whining about the type of response one received to his previous post, and going on a witch-hunt against those in "in charge of physics", you know, those who persecute "free-thinkers". www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You can be damn sure when people receive their suits they WILL make posts about them saying what they love and/or hate. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hey prof dude, your "physics" and "aerodynamics" have been outmoded. Get with the times. There are newer, bigger ways of thinking that I can turn your mind on to. First, you will have to consume a few of these large mushrooms here... AND LEAVE THE SACRED COWS OUT OF THIS DAMNIT! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You got it already? Seems like just yesterday we were at WFFC... Congrats man.

I told you exactly what would happen if you took pressure out of the inside of the inflated wing - you would lose pressure (go figure). The wing would collapse (partially or totally, depending on how much pressure you take out of it). www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Sure, if you consider a loss of pressurization to be an advantage. Where should we "poot" our feet next? You're the one continually asking questions; that's hardly leading us... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

aubsmell (from the collage), zeemax, and droquette all tried it at WFFC, maybe you can PM them if they don't see this thread.

Nice work Omar, this video made me BOB MY HEAD!!! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Nice reference. :) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I beleive it was the white trash population who first coined the term: "Yous", pronounced: "Yooz" as in: "Hey, yous-guys gonna be at that there pig-roast this evenin'?" I dunno, that sounds more like a gangster/northerner dialect to me... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Why do these things always come on the weekend? I never got snow days as a kid, can't I at least get a hurricane day off of work? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hijacking my own thread... We also don't assign genders to inanimate objects. Ever see the Calvin and Hobbes where he tells his teacher he demands to know the gender of his desk? What say you and I invent a non-gendered form of he/she, and see if we can get it to catch on? Any suggestions? How about Xe? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

No matter how smart you are, it's likely to get overloaded when learning something like skydiving. I observed this first hand taking people on FFC's in wingsuits at Rantoul just earlier this month. I watched some students (some of them VERY experienced skydivers already) struggle to emulate the simple (to me) procedures I trained them to perform. I watched almost all of them make common mistakes on their first jump. My insides were screaming sometimes "c'mon, it's just a simple wingsuit jump, get is straight!" But it wasn't until I thought back to my first WS jump that I realized how overwhelming all that new info seemed at once. There may be a few students who could handle talking to you, as you suggested. But why not err on the side of caution? It can't hurt. The purpose of this post is not to debate what we can talk to students about. It's about WHEN we can remove the zipper from our lips. Sidenote: "he is a dumbass" "they are dumbasses" www.WingsuitPhotos.com