Zennie

Not much I can add to what has already been said. Just keep plugging and things will get better. They always do. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." That phrase gets truer and truer for me every day. Hang tough and bloos!

I know Luigi is a tiny guy. What does he load that 46 at? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

True. We're sort of unique in that we're our own lab rats. We've grown to understand this stuff intuitively. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Just what kind of Frenchman are you? You're supposed to say things like "I fart in your general direction!!!..." or "Now go away you silly person or I shall taunt you a second time!!!" "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Like others I personally appreciate that we get this kind of information. I see it as part of being an informed consumer. Is this a wonderful sport or what? What other sport can you have extended, detailed conversations with the owners and engineers of the companies that manufacture the products we trust our lives with. This place is a gold mine of information. Thanks again Bossman! "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

My personal opinion is no. Freefly is all about flying in any orientation, and freefly formations are often a mix of sit/stand/HD. Although along those lines, should a hybrid consitiute a "freefly" formation? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Sorry, didn't mean to embarass you. It really was funny (in a good sort of way), especially since you were able to do it the whole time!

Ask him what terminal velocity in a vacuum would be. I'm sure some of the engineers with way more experience than me can answer this more technically, but basically terminal velocity is the speed at which the drag on your body is equivalent to the force of gravity such that you can no longer accellerate. By manipulating drag, you can thus manipulate your speed. And yes you can go 220. I've been 224 and ramon did like 270-something in a recent speed dive contest. How? By reducing drag. You can do this by reducing the drag your clothing causes (i.e. wear tighter clothes, or shorts) and you can reduce the amount of body surface exposed to the relative wind by taking a low profile orientation (such as head down). As far as high altitude jumps go, your Air Force friend may want to take jaunt over here and read about Col. Jospeh Kittinger. A brief excerpt... "on 16 August 1960, as an Air Force captain, Kittinger jumped from an open balloon gondola at 102,800 feet, the highest man had ever gone in an unpowered flight. He plummeted to earth, travelling 16 miles in 4 minutes and 36 seconds, before his main chute opened, the longest free-fall in history... Kittinger still holds the record for the highest parachute jump and first man to exceed the sound barrier (714 mph) in free-fall, for the Excelsior III jump. He has the most high altitude balloon flights (five): Man High I (96,000 ft); Excelsior I (76,000 ft); Excelsior II (75,000 ft); Excelsior III (102,800 ft); and Stargazer (86,000 ft)..." "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

The Star Crest awards are a very cool tradition. One of the first really neat milestones a skydiver can achieve. As an FYI, there are now vertical SCRs as well. Several of the freefliers (and some RW jumpers) at Spaceland are working toward them. Basic rule is a sequential formation with 4 on their belly max and the rest connected in some freefly position. So it's basically a sequential 8-way or bigger hybrid. Cool stuff.

This might jog Dave's memory.... Remember during the Freefly festival and Max Cohn was going through coaching footage? Rachel was doing a head down and Max gestured to her to do a flip and she shook her head "no" a couple times and then proceeded to do a great flip. That was Rachel.

I'm a little less worried than many here about us getting drawn into this primarily because we really haven't been the best of buds with either country. I think we'll wind up doing whatever the UN Security Council recommends. It's hard to tell how serious the threat is, because there is naturally going to be a lot of sabre-rattling for obvious strategic purposes. If it does come down to it, the loss of life would be staggering and very depressing indeed. I've just grown to be very cynical about human nature in general. Funny how we seem so eager to cause so much suffering over aribtrary ethnicities, religions & national boundaries that exist only in our minds. Some lyrics from Staind seem appropos.... "The more you see the more you do The television's feeding you. With what you want to hear, Anger and fear, because you suffer The hate you feel won't go away You're all programmed to feel this way To live another day Within a world that loves to suffer..." "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

The discussion came up a while back in connection with RW records and I don't think any real rules came out of it other than a big-ass campfire is not a "formation". What I threw out at the time, and I'll throw out here again, is that at the very least it has to be a connected formation. I'm ambivalent as to whether it needs to be slot-perfect. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Barry has historically been very cautious about not reporting anything until all the facts come in. I think that's a pretty responsible way to approach it. I generally see about a one-week to one-month lag between an incident and his report. It just depends on the circumstances. There has been a bit of a bigger lag lately, but there's plenty of discussion of these incidents here and on wreck. So it's not like the info is lacking. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Heya Brit! Welcome home! Hope to see ya soon!

Welcome to the forums Yuri! I look forward to your posts. We get some BASE questions from time to time as well. And I don't think I'll be doing the wingsuit-BASE thing anytime soon. I gotta get halfway competent doing it out of an airplane first. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Give us a holler when you plan to be in Houston. I'll try to get off work and meet you. You thinking of coming to Spaceland? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

See there's your problem. You're listen to the wrong music. Kaijagoogoo would get me all tense too. Listen to Slayer. Much more relaxing.... "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

OK this is a really, really basic question. But what do experienced wingsuit fliers do for "fun"? RW folks go bigger or crank more & more complex points. Freefliers start doing funky maneuvers at close range. What do wingsuit fliers do to keep things interesting and push the envelope? I know you do flocking dives. I presume there are docks. Anything else? This isn't a loaded question or anything, I'm genuinely curious and there aren't many wingsuit fliers to talk to about that kind of thing. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

My condolences to Seth's family & friends. BSBD "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I was really hot for a PC-9 and then heard about the PC-101 that's going to be coming out. I guess it's the same small size as the PC-9 but has megapixel resolution. So I'm going to sit tight until they come out and then either get one or maybe a PC-9 since the prices on those should go down. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I've been wanting to give the Birdman suit a try for a while. Hopefully by then I'll be in the 400-ish range. I hope that's enough because I'd like to try it. How much did it cost and what all did the training entail? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

August 28 - Sept. 2 (Labor Day weekend). "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Following gemini's lead on the Rantoul question, who all is planning on going to the Richmond boogie? I'm about 80% sure I'm going to be there Friday and Saturday. I know Scotty & Tami are going. Anyone else? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

My condolences to John's friends & family. BSBD "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

2:6:1 Lotsa good stuff again. Did a fun cross-country with ramon, pop, gemini, Rachill & a few others. Got out about 8 miles out but the uppers were way weaker than we expected so we wound up landing about 3 miles off. Thank God for cell phones. Also got in on one of our tandem-instructor's wedding anniversary jump with his wife, who's also a fun jumper. She rode as a tandem and about 12 of us bailed out & tried to get a round going off them. I was out last, so I never got down to 'em but it was still loads of fun.