The111

Cool. I would love to see video of that if you ever get any. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Jeff, what is the story behind your avatar (profile pic)? Taken during gravitron? Would love to see a bigger version of it! Looks wild... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Oh really? When the hell will I see pictures of that??? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Seriously? I have to open a mile away from the DZ because of a strange opinion? Never mind that there are plenty of other tandems opening within 1/4 mile of him. To say his opinion trumps all also "seems extreme" to me. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I had a tandem instructor tell me once, in all seriousness, that he didn't want me flying by within a mile. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Good idea, thanks for volunteering. Let us know when you're finished. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Scott has promised me he says the words "Pink Mike" on camera. Can't wait to see if that is true... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I think you had your own 3 (or 4?) way "death defying burble funnel" near the end of that same jump. I sold that footage too since it was in the same jump, not sure if it will air as B-roll. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Unless the change has to do with only counting some of the people in the formation (instead of all) then no. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Next week there will be a small wingsuit segment on a Discovery channel show called "Moments of Impact." It will air on Discovery and DiscoveryHD, Thursday 7/23 @ 9pm EDT (8pm CDT, 9pm MDT, 8pm PDT, I believe). The segment will include a few different perspectives of Scott Bland and Zach Schroedel's "death-defying" (quotation marks intentional) aerial collision in Puerto Rico 2008. Scott should also get some face time on the show as I understand they flew a camera crew to his house to interview him! The show in general is more than a little bit sensationalized... we've all seen them. (For example, riding a bicycle in a shark tank). It apparently had its first season last year with a different name, called "Adrenaline Rush Hour." I've never seen the show but I found some clips from last year online: Kiteboarder vs Steel Pier (actually painful and scary) http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/moments-of-impact-kiteboarder-vs-steel-pier.html Monster Truck Flip (just dumb... no seatbelt and he JUMPED out of the window) http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/moments-of-impact-monster-truck-flip.html Also, our very own Jade T. had some footage on the season premiere of the same show earlier this month (and his is much more worthy of truly being labeled "death defying"). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCPiv3jpqyk Hopefully they don't change the date again. It was originally scheduled for 7/16 but they changed it supposedly because of some Billy Mays special. Stay tuned to this thread for updates if necessary. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

In addition to that, I am still interested in the camera lens distortion dilemma. One I've tried to solve myself and haven't got a great solution yet (other than fly a lens with minimal distortion, which I do, and which Craig obviously was for that shot shown as an example). www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Says the guy who has flown neither suit... (a small assumption here) To the people who regularly do fly them. Next class in session: tantric sex, taught by the virgin mary! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Dr. Kellett, ladies and gentlemen! I haven't watched the video yet since the site seems blocked on this PC... will check it out later tonight. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Damn, 100 wingsuit jumps in 3 weeks? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

This process has way too many steps in it and should in no way result in your "best" outcome. You need to experiment with encoder settings when encoding the media file to burn to DVD. Your question is probably best suited for a more technical forum, I have got TONS of useful info at the videohelp.com forum. Take a look at on of my videos encoded for the web here: http://www.matthoover.com/gallery/skydiving-videos/Puerto_Rico_2009-HD.html It started as 1080i HDV (MPEG-2) and was converted using x264 encoder to 720p H264 (MPEG-4). Not only that, the final product is 2.5Mbps, which is far LESS than DVD, while I think this looks superior to DVD in many ways. I could have done 480p just as easily, but 720p looks better when going full screen. Now, that goes off the topic a bit of your desired end media (DVD), but the point I was trying to illustrate is that the right encoder settings are everything. I spent weeks experimenting with x264 (and getting tons of help from those videohelp.com forum members) before I got good results. My guess is that it has something to do with what type of de-interlacer you are using when going from 1080i to 480p for DVD. Or are you burning interlaced video? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

So will it work retro-actively? Does last year's 71-way qualify? Or do we just start with new records from here? Cool either way! But if we are starting over I would like to claim the 1-way record, and this weekend I will go set a 3-way record! www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yeh, NOW you listen... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Submit to the GRID!!! I call that a square. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I can't really argue with your main point (which is ultimately up to the DZ and TM), but as far as the part I bolded... if only competent flyers are allowed to do this, then I don't see anybody ever hitting anybody. Here is a thread that was started because of a photo I took of a tandem flyby: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2680686 In it I made the point (which was never responded to) that most people would agree that 10 feet is too close, and most would also agree that 1 mile is plenty far enough. SOMEWHERE between 1 mile and 10 feet is a distance that is plenty safe enough, but the student can still see the wingsuit and smile. I believe it's 50 feet. Another point I made is that when you drive to the dropzone, chances are you might drive down a 2-lane road with a 50mph speed limit... in which case you are passing cars less than 5 feet away at 100mph+ relative speeds. It would be just as easy for one of those drivers to veer into your lane as it would for any decent wingsuit pilot to somehow veer off course radically and into a canopy he was passing at a safe distance. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Don't forget to add how you measure the distance. I would estimate on the pre-arranged flybys I've done, I've been 20 yards away. Closest flyby I've ever seen was when someone flew past my right side about 10 inches away just after I finished opening. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Well if that father is willing to throw his 17-yr old daughter out of an airplane, but can't stomach her hearing the word "pussy," I'd argue his prioritied are fucked up (either that, or he is a pussy). And yes, I understand the point of your post was that it lost the DZ business. Which is indeed a shame. I just wanted to complain about the pussification of America. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

By "packing mat" and "hangar" I meant the carpeted packing area in the manifest building. And the dropzone refered to you by name over a loudspeaker as you landed at the high school. So maybe they've got the wrong guy too. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You were on the packing mat, and I was about 20 feet away and heard you very clearly. I don't know if there were any children nearby because it's not something I was looking for. But I do know the hangar was full of people, of all ages. So let's forget about children and just focus on people. It didn't offend me, but let's assume it offended someone. Or even better, let's assume it offended nobody, other than the DZO who had a policy against four letter words, like a similar policy mentioned earlier in this thread, which you seemingly approved of. What then? Earlier in this thread you alluded to your opinion that using such language, even around adults, is "disrespectful" of others around you. So, when I observed you using such language at a DZ around many people, only days after that post, I certainly wasn't offended, but I was amused by the irony. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

The examples you've given were all hateful and insulting regardless of the language used. Racism, insults, and disrepect of property (the drunk guy in your classroom). That sort of shit (insulting and disrespectful behavior) is indeed wrong and shouldn't happen with or without children around, and it has nothing to do with "family values" but with "human values." It is also a lot different discussion that the original discussion in this thread, which is that of a DZO kicking somebody out for saying a "bad" word (fuck)... which is harmless in itself and does not express hate or anything negative or disrespectful toward another human. You can insult somebody without cursing, example: "Hey idiot, get your stupid rig out of my way!" And you can curse without insulting someone: "That swoop was hot as shit!" Interestingly enough, I heard one of the major proponents in this thread of "family values" at a DZ this weekend with "bad words" coming out of his mouth when children might have been within earshot (the exact phrase was something regarding "that swooping shit"). Now JohnRich, if the DZO had kicked you out for saying "shit," would that have been ok? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

What is the difference between 1/10 and 10? www.WingsuitPhotos.com