The111

Hey that's one of those bat suits isn't it??? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Church bells are really heavy... you use the extra weight to flock better. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It is :) Well, there are 1.3 billion people in China alone, and while I won't claim to know what even one of them was doing when this aired, it seems somewhat improbable that 1 out of every 3 of them would be watching it. Possible though, I guess. How much of the supposed 500M was outside of China? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It's actually really bumpy. Actually, that entirely depends on your point of view. If the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a billiard ball, it would actually be smoother than one. According to the World Pool-Billiard Association, a pool ball is 2.25 inches in diameter, and has a tolerance of +/- 0.005 inches. The ratio of the size of an allowable bump to the size of the ball is 0.005 / 2.25 = about 0.0022. The Earth has a diameter of about 12,735 kilometers. Earth would be an acceptable pool ball if it had no mountains or trenches more than 12,735 km x 0.00222 = about 28 km in size. The highest point on Earth is the top of Mt. Everest, at 8.85 km. The deepest point on Earth is the Marianas Trench, at about 11 km deep. Which is clearly within tolerance. I still wouldn't want to climb Mt. Everest though ;) it's really bumpy ;) As a mechanical engineer (who spends a LOT of time doing tolerance analyses), I can really appreciate that, and I will admit I had not even considered it. Kudos. But like you said, it depends on your point of view. And I'm a tiny little human who spends most of his time walking around this bumpy sphere, and sometimes hurtling towards it... and it definitely seems bumpy to me.

It's actually really bumpy. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I can't tell if it says NOXIN or NIXON! Actually, for that matter it might even say ZOX-Z. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

LOL @ Lurch knows how. LOL because I get this reference. Never, ever ask Lurch to fix any part of your camera gear. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I will give $20 cash and a bucket of fried chicken to whomever posts video of themselves going to one of these events (the ones with the fallrates and glide ratios that trackers could supposedly keep up with), and gets in the formation in a RW or freefly suit, and stays with the formation for the entire jump. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It was a joke referencing each of you repeatedly asking questions the other refuses to answer. His question always involves physics. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Maybe Butters can teach Kallend to backfly, and Kallend can teach Butters to physics, and then the world will be a huge happy place. We still need someone to teach Kallend how to match answers with questions, though. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Right, and this post was asking what to do once you are already low. I'll bet even Jerry Bird went low once or twice before he turned into your hero. And since most of us are not Jerry Bird, we've all been low many times. Have you ever been low? How did Jerry Bird recover when he went low? Or did he just divebomb to the earth, give up on his jump, and resolve to never make a mistake again? How did you recover when you went low? How did the rest of us recover when we went low? Hint: we already answered rather than being obtuse. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You clearly don't know as much about CPR as Jarno. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Correct to a degree, though that is a different debate. But the very fact that you are comparing them means you recognize that they are different. As such, you should also recognize that when someone asks you for the best cure (which makes it clear they are in a position where they need it i.e. past the point of prevention), responding with a description of a preventative method is inapplicable, unhelpful, and also quite smug. For a more clear example, if a newbie asks you how to respond to a lineover that won't clear, and you tell him that "better packing prevents malfunctions," you haven't helped him at all. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Incredibly good advice. It sounds hippie/zen, but it really works. If you are aware of your breathing, you are in control. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

When you believe that flat spins are a myth, it is time to upsize.

Lurch, my favorite memory from being brought up in the church was the concept of a "prayer chain." If you're not familiar with it, people with urgent needs present those needs to the entire congregation, and the congregation agrees to "team up," each praying for the needs of many in their own time. I think in some cases they literally pass those needs along person to person over the phone, hence the "chain" terminology. You sign up to be a member of the prayer chain and get to present your own needs to the group, but also agree to pray for all the other needs brought by other members. To me, this implies that you can extort your god. Power in numbers or something. I really get a kick out of the idea of a benevolent, omniscient deity who is more likely to respond to a request if it is brought to him in by a large mob. Maybe he has a busy schedule and this is the best way to get his attention? Then again, this is the same god who knows how many hairs I have on my head, I've heard. Yes I'm sure to those who believe in it, it's much more than extortion. Sharing, community, etc... which is probably the tangible benefit that it actually offers. While I do agree overall with Billvon that if your beliefs harm nobody else you are free to have them... I still do get a kick out of the above ideas. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Oh, so that's how it works. Popularity. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Also, pigs should not ever be compared to birds. And hell does not freeze. EVER. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Here's a better question: how do you know where they are? Somebody "above" you on a wingsuit jump is really "behind you" in the normal human (standing) frame of reference. It is impossible to look behind you while flying a wingsuit belly-down. Obviously there is a certain angle you can see by bending your neck (if they are far forward and only slightly high), but in general if they are above you, you can't see them. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Some of the worst near collisions I've witnessed (including one where I was at fault) are those where a low person pops up as hard as possible and nearly collides with a formation, from BELOW, at a high closing speed. How you deal with this problem is much more important than just how you shape your body to decrease your fall rate. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ha, I got married this summer too. That's another thing I forgot to mention. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I would prefer that you go get your computer and put together another video ... I've always enjoyed them and it's been to long! Yeah, I know. I started grad school this year in addition to having a full time job... not much time for jumpy videos. I hope to make the drive down to Elsinore next month for the acro thing, but I can't even commit to that for sure. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Watching a couple people insult each other on the internet over stupid arguments is one level of entertaining. It's a whole new level of entertainment (and irony) when one of them (arguably the most insulting one, but I'll leave that up in the air) decides to whine about insults being thrown. Need to go refill my popcorn... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Even if someone can track at 80mph fallrate, they can most likely not even keep up with the most bent-legs formation ever. http://www.matthoover.com/gallery/skydiving-photos/2006-09/2006-09_p11.html#navbar Notice the guy on the camera step without a wingsuit. That's Tony Hathaway with more skydives than most people in this thread have combined. We told him we had an 80mph fallrate and he said he'd come along on the next jump. This was 2006, smaller wingsuits, legs-bent even more in style then than now. Indeed, he had no problem matching our fallrate, but we left him in the dust horizontally. I had warned him that would happen. Even with legs bent, you still cover a lot of ground. The haters love to pretend you fall straight down if your knees aren't locked, but that is simply not the case. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It's amazing the things planes can do. I once saw one take off AND land on the same strip of solid pavement. Quite impressive. www.WingsuitPhotos.com