jeb

I just saw the new DVD Lika, very good work. Anyone out there who likes base jumping should buy this video. Very fun to watch the russians, they are crazy in the best possible way... Jeb Corliss

The people I learned base from told me the reason for longer bridles was both, to increase snatch force and to get the pilot chute farther from the burble. Jeb

Hello, I do not write here very often but this last fatality has got me thinking. I have been base jumping for a little while and seen quite a few jumps here and there. In all my jumps ( and more importantly all the jumps I have seen ) I have only witnessed two pilot chute hesitations in person. I have also seen two very spectacular hesitations on video both resulting in the jumpers being hurt and almost killed. One common thing I noticed between all of these 4 hesitations was a short delay stowed. I to this point have not seen or heard of a pilot chute hesitation hand held ( if anyone out there knows of one I would love to see the footage). I find this very interesting. My point being, when I learned to base jump I was taught that if you were going to do a 1 to 2 second delay you would go hand held because even though the likelihood was very small, there was a chance that the pilot chute could get caught in your burble and create a longer then anticipated opening sequence. If you were going to do 3 seconds or more then stowed was ok because it meant you would have the air speed to insure your pilot chute wouldn't get trapped in the burble created by your body falling through the air. I find it a bit odd that I was told this by my base teachers almost 9 years ago yet it seems like lost knowledge on these forums. I of corse have violated the not going stowed under 3 seconds many times. Mostly out of fear and just pulling to early. Some times I was doing acrobatics from very low object and was unable to take the longer delay and had to go stowed because I didn't want to get tangled in my bridle. But I was always told by people much smarter then my self that you must know the rules before you brake them. They also told me that what I was doing was going to get me very hurt and most likely killed. Why do a stowed jump flat and stable and only take 1 to 2 seconds? Why not just go hand held with a bigger pilot chute if that is the delay you take all the time? If you decide to do some super hard core acrobatics from something very low then at least know that pilot chute hesitations can happen and if they do then you could be very hurt or killed. Pilot chute hesitations are very rare but if you do nothing but 1 to 2 second delays stowed for every base jump you do at the potato bridge then you could be increasing the chances... Jeb Corliss

I think I saw that when i was there. Very cool for what they are doing but kind of a lame base jump. There are way cooler things in that area to jump from :) Jeb

Sorry guys, I have always hated that bio. Parts of it are over 5 years old and need to be updated. Other parts were updated with out people actually talking to me. It actually makes me want to puke any time i see it used and it was giving to Discovery without me being asked or talked to. Sorry again for it's gross inaccuracies and i will contact them ASAP to have them fixed... Jeb

This is an interesting discussion. What does a plane with a bad glide angle need to land? Don't they need a runway? Without the proper runway most jets could never touch down or they would crash and burn. Helicopters and harriers are the only aircraft I know of that don't need a run way to land. There are probably a few other types of aircraft that can land without a runway but a wing-suit is not one of them. I wonder how much the average runway costs to make? I wonder how much it would cost to make a runway for a wing-suit? Seeing that the runway has to be so very special for a wing suit I bet it will cost allot... Jeb

I haven't seen the article yet but I can already tell a sorry is in order :) I told them I didn't want to talk about it anymore till we had funding. I told them that at this point it is fantasy till we can find a way to fund the project further. I told them I didn't think it fit in with the rest of the people on there list. I told them we were at least a year out from doing it even after we got funding and there was no way of knowing how long that would be. So like I said, I have no idea what they wrote, because I have not read it yet, but I AM SORRY, because I am pretty sure it's lame. Jeb Corliss P.S. Man can get to the moon, but not by flapping his arms and his mouth...

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while DARING GREATLY so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

Hello Mike, this project has become bigger then most people realize. We found technology that not only makes this possible but makes it reasonable for any competent wing-suit pilot. This project is a huge undertaking. We were given a budget of close to one million dollars to start out with and we believed that would be enough to construct the different forms of technology that would be needed to make this safe. We went to the people who would be manufacturing what we needed and when we got the first bids back i almost passed out. The budget exploded from just under one million to over 6 million Dollars. When I go the bid back for the key piece of technology the guy said i have very bad news for you Jeb. I said what is it. They said it will cost close to 3 million $ to build what you need (and remember that is only for one piece of the 4 pieces of technology needed to pull this off), but that's not the problem. I said if that's not the problem then i don't want to know what the problem is. He said it will take us one year to construct it after we have the money. So right now we are working on two things. We are working on bringing the costs down for the overall project and we are working on finding additional funding. We will do both, it's just going to take time. I find it funny how everybody thinks this is so impossible. Try to think outside the box. This can be done and I am sorry to say the wing-suit is actually a small part of the project. After we get additional funding this will be something pretty much any competent wing-suit pilot will be able to do and I believe it could possibly be done without a wing-suit by one of the Norwegian super trackers. The wing-suit will just give you a much larger margin for error. There is a quote from Einstein that I love, " great spirits often encounter heavy opposition from mediocre minds." The quote is not intended for you Mike :) Just for the people who talk about things they know very little about... Jeb Corliss

I have to be honest, this is the first post that actually scared me :) Landing is so much easier then everyone thinks. After it is done the first time there is going to be an army of jumper capable of doing it. Its all in the technology and you will be shocked when you see what it is. Before we even land the suit you will look at what we build and say, damn that is so obvious :) It really does make me happy that everyone thinks its so impossible. Its funny how everyone thought it was so impossible to fly before the Right Brothers did it...