gus

Yeah, I wondered that too but there's pretty much no chance of me making it out there. Other things seem to have absorbed all my money recently

Sadly I'm back in the UK. I'm at work, it's cold, it's dark, it's raining and it's not Florida . I don't know what Tash is up to but I'm sure she's checking her emails and pms now and again. Nice to meet you Chuck, thanks for the jumps. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

As far as I can tell Vesa is the only BMCI who's not in the US, is that right? I'd be really interested to get my BMI at some point but it's going to be a while before I can afford another trip to the States. Edited to add: What about a BMI course at the 04 Herc Boogie? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Hi Bryn, What about the mechanics and the physics of photography and videography? It might be difficult to judge what level to pitch it at but I would have thought that having at least a basic understanding of how things work will help people make better use of them. I used to have some great footage of me going low (camera jump #2) and me taking a formation out (camera jump #not very high) but both have been lost I'm afraid. I would stress the importance of maintaining altitude awareness and not changing too many variables at once. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I was out in Zephrhills in Florida. If you're on a larger, slower canopy your chances of a nice landing are probably better. Or at least your chances of walking away from a bad landing are probably better. With the provisor that I don't know you I would say go for it, just be careful and take advice from the experienced people on the load. If you're going to a new dz to do it definately jump there in daylight to familiarise yourself with the landing area and all the hazards. If, on the night, it doesn't feel right then don't be afraid to take yourself off the load, the worst that will happen is that you'll lose your ticket. And don't forget to flare! Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I don't think this really belongs in Incidents so I'll post it here. I did a night jump a few weekends ago, nice jump, no problems finding the airfield, the landing area or figuring out the landing direction. BIG problem with my depth perception. I simply did not flare. My canopy is moderately loaded and in nil winds it moves quite fast, I was saved from serious injury by the fact that my feet and knees were together and my legs were relaxed. I pounded in, I took a real beating, I bit through the end of my tounge and was spitting blood (what facial expression was I pulling at the time?! ) and I think I must have given myself concussion. The next day I felt like someone had giving me a real good kicking. I don't remember getting back from the landing area, I wandered around in the packing area for a while (I don't know how long) before I 'woke up' and realised that I didn't know what was going on. There were a few minutes where I couldn't remember where I was. The weird thing is that the next day people were telling me that I was quite lucid and talking normally so if I had concussion it wasn't immediately obvious. What did this little lesson teach me? Night jumps can hurt! Wear a helmet (I nearly didn't). Don't underestimate how much your depth perception can be effected. Thank you to everyone that helped me, even if I don't remember it! Hear endith the lesson, Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Amen to that.

My step-mum just got back from treking in Peru and she told me that, once I've got "this jumping thing" out of my system that I should do it too. That got me thinking, will I ever get it out of my system? I know people that jump sporadically, taking years off before coming back, I know people that have basically given up but I also know people who've been jumping for 20 years and are still loving it. I voted for "It doesn't work like that" because I'm not sure that it's really the right question. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

And maybe a link to their mugshot? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Cool, hopefully catch you both there. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I wouldn't worry about it too much to be honest. By the time you have enough jumps to be flying a wingsuit you'll probably have changed your canopy if not your whole rig. Having said that, any rig that's safe for rw or ff should be ok for wingsuit stuff, just make sure it's boc. A square canopy is highly recommended for your first jumps because your deployment is likely to be far from perfect and the suit can hamper your ability to deal with mals. Once you've done your first handful of jumps the important thing is that you're familiar and happy with whatever canopy you're jumping. Some people do have their rigs modified for wingsuit jumping, with longer bridles and/or open corners on their container but lots of people don't so it's not really essential and the mods can be done (I would have thought) to pretty much any rig anyway. These are just the opinion of a fledgling birdman. (edited for my appalling grammer) Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I have a .5 Kenko and a .3 Skyline. The .3 is brilliant when you're in really close, docking on people, taking grips but as soon as you put a bit of distance between you and your subject it's almost too wide. It's also very low profile compared to the Kenko which sticks out a long way in comparison. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Hey Sally, Incase you hadn't spotted it there's a dedicated wingsuit forum here, there are quite a few Birdman instructors in there that can answer your questions. I believe the current recommendation from Birdman is 500 jumps or 200 in the last year. So get jumping

In my limited experience people have chronically short attention spans. I would err towards keeping it short. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

LOL! Good spot dude. Edited to add: Which reminds me, good spot dude! Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

The following was posted on uk.rec.skydiving (28/10/2003) on behalf of Simon Ward: Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I know I'm simple but that's confused me. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

skyventure.co.uk, it's been in the works for a while now. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

The 1st generation is already here so it shouldn't be long before before we see higher resolution solid state memory video cameras. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

If you ask them they will ship it from the factory, at least they did last year when I got my GTi. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

There's no substitute for having an actual person show you how but if you can get hold it then Parachuting: The Skydiver's Handbook is a great book with loads of useful info including instructions on pro packing (which may be difficult at first with such a large canopy). I think there's also something on the PD website in their library of docs. Do a search here as well, this has come up quite alot before. Are you not being taught packing as part of your aff course? Your instructors really are the best people to learn from. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I'm going to be in zhills from the 4th to the 14th of November, staying in trailer #6. Not sure how much I'll be able to jump but I'll have my rig and probably my Birdman suit with me. I'm going to be there all on my own (ahhhhh) so please come and say hi if you see me! Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I wanted to put some chilled out music (as opposed to the usual rock) in my vid but I didn't really have the right footage to go with it. Nice vid Murray! Direct link here for anyone that wants to download it. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

DVD definately, I don't even own a VHS player. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Is this really replacing camera flyers? I can see that it would give a nice angle and getting some footage under canopy is a great idea but there's so much you can't do with it. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com