MarkM

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Everything posted by MarkM

  1. MarkM
    The clip made wingsuiting seem cool, dangerous, fun, full of great visuals, participated by a bunch a guys worried about one of their own and led by a fearless leader who pushes through his own injuries for the good of the flock. Is is exaggerated as hell? Yeah, but it's still pretty good shit and doesn't at all dis the sport.
  2. MarkM
    No joy under wine + mono either.
  3. MarkM
    That's not true. An instructor can't put other people in the plane at risk for some silly "think of the students!" brain fart. If a TM can't handle a tandem student safely unless he has a mile clearance of everything else in the sky he has zero business hauling meat. But that's a DZO call in any case and as fun jumpers all we can really do is vote with our dollars. I mean, there's nothing at all wrong with reasonable requirements and wishes, but I think we all know many times in this sport you're dealing with ego issues, not safety issues.
  4. MarkM

    Tandem Flybys:

    MarkM replied to DSE's topic in Wing Suit Flying

    I guess the 3 things that worry me would be: 1> A "stunt" level flyby, being way too close where a canopy turn or turbulence kicks you into the canopy. There's no reason to be flying this close to a tandem passenger. 2> A flyby with a too close WS canopy opening causing a collision. You have more control in your wingsuit than you do under your opening canopy. For me, this is the part of the flyby I worry about the most: off heading opening, line twists, aimed right at the tandem.... 3> Some wingsuiter not paying attention and colliding with a canopy. Even if we discourage flybys I'm guessing at some point #3 will happen. There are ways to minimize it(don't let noobs into wingsuits), but it's sort of a numbers thing. Put enough wingsuits and canopies in the air and at some point they'll collide.
  5. MarkM

    Tandem Flybys:

    MarkM replied to DSE's topic in Wing Suit Flying

    I guess I'll break from the pack and say I don't think tandem flybys are particularly dangerous, if you're not flying stupid close. At wingsuit speeds you're not in the tandem's airspace for more than a second and a tandem canopy isn't going to travel a lot in that time frame. So as long as you leave a safe "bubble" of space around the canopy to cover unexpected cutaways and turns, a collision isn't going to happen. Wingsuits have a very fine level of control, otherwise we wouldn't be flocking within inches of each other. Though I think Chuck makes some very good points about the burble a wingsuit makes. To me this is an issue about respect more than safety. Wingsuiters 100% have to respect the airspace of TMs and other jumpers. If they don't want you within 100 yards of them, then you have no business being within a 100 yards of them.
  6. MarkM
    Any chance your DZO's name was AJ? He told me the same thing back in 2000 when the DZ was at Waterloo. Always wondered how accurate it was. I think tandems have killed it off. Tandems are very good $$ for DZs and it takes someone with a bit of training to do it, more so than a SLI. Someone with a tandem rating is likely to have/want AFF training or be more interested in the extra money made off that type of jumping. Real shame though. When it was just SL being offered a student would come to the DZ wanting to "make a skydive", you'd do the 6-8 hours ground, have him spend $180 and when it was over, he could keep on jumping for $40 a pop. It made it real easy to come back out to the DZ over and over. Now I take someone out and they want to do a tandem, still spend $180 and after if they want to jump again, it's another $180 for a 2nd tandem or $300 for AFF/ground school. Most people get that "oh, it was fun but not THAT fun" look in their face.
  7. MarkM
    No. There's an impaired risk questionnaire specifically for skydiving with a lot of carriers. Ditto if you work in the aviation industry.
  8. MarkM
    Cool vid. Appreciate the SD link too. My eee PC won't play the HD ones
  9. MarkM
    If I were in your situation, I'd take enough jumps as necessary to get myself feeling back into the groove of things. Basically, when I felt comfortable enough to land in a golf course without breaking something Two reasons behind this. You'll probably need a few jumps to not be nervy about landings. Especially off landings, which will happen in your wingsuit. And when you start wingsuiting you'll have a lot on your mind making you nervous just with wingsuiting. You don't need any extra mental baggage before strapping yourself into the straight jacket.
  10. MarkM
    Went up with tunnel rat up once on his first jump. He had the 200 jumps, but wasn't very current in the sky. Body position was amazing. Stable. Very good form. Deployment body position was also great. But he couldn't navigate for crap. Had to fly in front of him like 3 times to point him back towards the DZ. Wingsuiting is more than your body control. It's deployment, navigation, flying around in tandem and student airspace, more complicated gear, etc etc. You need those 200 jumps for all of that. Those jumps give you a solid all around knowledge wingsuiting will test you against.
  11. MarkM
    Do you mean the DZ wouldn't let anyone help the person until the ambulance arrived? No that's not normal. But if you saw locals helping, they were likely EMT trained. And I'm sure the owner is going to be more comfortable with people he knows and that are also familiar with skydiving injuries helping on a scene.
  12. MarkM
    Hmmm Aerodyne did the lineset for a Hornet I owned about 2 years back.
  13. MarkM
    Spring 2005, ZHills, Scott Bland took me up. I think on my 2nd or 3rd jump he invited me in on the 7 ways that were going on there that weekend. It really got me addicted to it.
  14. MarkM
    I had a lot of problems with stability during pull time. Hanging exits from a Cessna, chest mounted ripcord. Would look, de-arch, flip, etc etc. Even had one deploy that went up through my legs and had me hanging upside down in the harness when the chute deployed. The only thing that helped me was... practice practice practice while on the ground. I did hundreds of practice pulls in a swimming pool. Hang from the edge of the pool floating in the water, push off, reach, pull, repeat. When I was jumping from the plane I was so amped up I couldn't "think" my way through the pull sequence. I'd mess up, and not even remember way. Sensory overload. So I just trained my body to react the proper way. Sort of like driving a car. You don't think "lift foot, move foot to brake pedal, press foot down" to stop. You just think "stop" and your body knows what to do since you've done it so many times before. You just repeat something enough times and it gets trained into you. Muscle memory.
  15. MarkM
    Illegal yes, but I can understand why they'd want to use base rigs. Much safer on a low pull. Sad thing though is it's the pilot's ass if there's any flak for it. Wouldn't be at all surprised if the pilot didn't know it was a rule violation too, but I'm sure the jumpers did.
  16. MarkM
    The only thing criminal about that was the music they were playing. This show would have zero effect on new jumpers. Just the whuffos and they already think we're all crazy anyway.
  17. MarkM
    Buy a used container for $1k, use it for 50 jumps, sell it for $900, or rent for 50 jumps. Buying is better. You just need to be patient, learn the market and look for good deals.
  18. MarkM
    I was a student at 5 different dropzones. I never had to start from square 1 again. At most places they just backed me up a jump or did a sort of check out dive to make sure I had been properly trained in my other skill sets. It was never a big deal. At every DZ I went to the instructors were willing to work with me. They just wanted to make sure I was safe.
  19. MarkM
    Pics! A review isn't complete without some wingsuit porn.
  20. MarkM
    I did a lot of tracking jumps prior to wingsuiting. I think tracking helps a lot in navigation, thinking about exits, the flight line, body position, etc etc. And you can do it solo pretty easily.
  21. MarkM
    In a way I see this, yes. But if you don't like what you see around you in any given situation, the best way to initiate change is to step up and lead.
  22. MarkM
    21> Just listen to the music and watch the beauty of the world unfold. 22> You may not yet have accomplished all that you wanted or what others have expected of you. Know that is okay. Know that you are where you are supposed to be. Don’t look back on what you should have already done, look forward from where you are today.
  23. MarkM
    I wouldn't let you. The thing of it is, I don't see anyone being able to prove to me they're "okay" on a high wing loading with low jump numbers. Just because you can foot launch it all winter doesn't matter. Just because you can stand up all your landings on your existing canopy doesn't matter. Because those aren't the skills that'll keep you from pounding it in on a low turn in those X, Y or Z skydiving situations you're going to face. Jump after jump after jump teaches you to deal with that stuff. You're already at a 1.2 wing loading which is pretty aggressive. I'd take you off the Monarch and put you on a snappier semi-elliptical at the same wing loading for awhile. If you wanted to continue to downsize aggressively, I'd expect to see you at the DZ all the time racking up a lot of currency. Then we could talk about a 150 or moving to a full elliptical.
  24. MarkM
    Sweet. Wingsuiting is becoming mainstream enough to mock. We're officially popular.
  25. MarkM
    Sure thing. Come live with me in Orlando and you'll be a stone's throw from 6 DZs. I'll make sure you're jumped, er jumping enough and learning a lot.