Trae

in reply to "Was wondering what the history of the kiss pass is?" ................................ Not sure who had the first kiss ever in freefall ???? At 18yrs I had my first kiss pass, thankfully with a very attractive female what I had a bit of a crush on. I couldn't believe it when she quite forcefully stuck her tongue in my mouth and wriggled around for a micro-second or 359+. Time slowed down for me, I lost full height awareness and under canopy I can remember wondering what her boyfriend ( who was on the 8way national team ) would think. I sort of falled in love as much as an 18 year old can. Since then many loverly kiss passes with cherub like beauties. On more than one occassion i was sure it was a case of mistaken identity.( why did ythey run away on the ground??) Some girls (ok ladies ) used to pride themselves on being good for a quick swoop over and kiss while no-one was looking or if the dive went to shyte. Last kiss passes were with my long term pardner who came along for some beautifully memorable sunset tandems .... sigh

in reply to "1) Pack it sloppy, it does not need a lot of attention to........ 2) Pitch and relax........" ............................. Have to agree with the spirit of this but don't pack it sloppy just loose . The idea is to let the thing open itself during deployment. It does move around a bit. Just ride it out and it opens beautifully. Most of mine are on heading with fullinflation... but after a very slow wingsuit deployment sometimes it doesn't fully inflate. Try and control it during opening and anything goes usually over-correction= nice spinners. it doesn't need rolled nose or tail but it definitely HAS to have the slider FULLY up against the stops and nicely squared. Same basic packing rules apply. lines right and tight, slider all the way up against the stops, stay symmetrical I've had about 200 wingsuit jumps + about 100 ordinary skydives using my Kat120 and only had one spinner after deploying from a backloop on a hop'n'pop. ...even that was pretty fun

Looks like the BASE pouch/deployment handle is located in a better position... with a more natural direction of pull than on the V1 & V2.

in reply to "...............aviation art..............." ........................................ very nice !!! More???

in reply to "What we really need are longer arms and stronger chest muscles. " ............................................. Agreed. Longer arms = wingextensions Stronger chest muscles = spars

in reply to "just a question of time . . . also rome wasn´t burned down in a day " ............................................. from fire to digital technology in an apes brain. Just love the maths of it all . here's what the fires got to say.......

in reply to "I transitioned from fun jumper into JM/I and DZO and then gypsy jump pilot. It's hard to go back making an occasional jump. My daughter wants to jump when she's 18 which is in three years. I'll get current by then so I can jump with her. " .................................................... Sounds like a top plan bloke. It also sounds like you've got to spend more time in the air than most fun jumpers ever would. Its good to see skydivers that get organised enough to take it to the next level. Cheers

in reply to "Every leader has to have an enemy." ............................................................... We're all lucky Dubya didn't manage to pick the Chinese as his enemy when his admin was trawling around before 911. The Chinese combined with their new African allies ?? now there's an enemy the US and its allies don't want or need or perhaps could ever handle. Iraq? & Afganistan? small fry in comparison. Fear mongering leaders....yawn

The perfect system has NO moving parts and no point chucking a spanner in the works round those guys. Good subliminals

in reply to " It almost makes me cry with nostalgia to drive by Cross Keys and see the canopies. Or even to hear the whine of a Cessna 182 simply flying overhead on a nice jump day. It amazes me what memories rush forward simply hearing a Beech or a DC-3. [I don't hear enough of them!] " .................................................................. Just wondering Guru but why don't you still do the odd jump ? It's been my experience that long term skydivers (and there must be zillions out there somewhere with their old rigs under their beds ) are the best influence to be found in the sport. Recently i attended a Xmas boogie and there were two or three faces from twenty odd years ago around the fire . These guys could actually tell a story and communicate with strangers not just talk about how awesome they were.! It was a wonderful thing to experiecne again. So much of the current breed seem to be all about themselves and selling themselves and big-noting themselves and snobbing off others , it was truly heartening to be reminded how selfless most old-time skydivers used to be . Please get ye back to a DZ you oldies (meant with the best respect ) and show us how caring and multi faceted our sport can be . Its gone and got a bit cold hearted what with all the money to be made by so called professionals. Too many little exclusive private parties not enough inclusiveness. Is that why you all stay away?

In reply to " I´ve done some bionics. My first paper model of this wing concept amazed our simple minds when we made the first flight tests. I´m busy with too many projects and there is no easy way for us to develop a wingsuit on that model at the moment. I also got plans for two different wing structures (bionic science), which I like to combinate: 1. Electrostatic airfoil via "living strings" (intregration of moving synthetic fibre strings in air cells) The concept from flies when they create electrostatic energy by scrubbing their legs and transfer it to their wings. 2. Surface in micro mushroom structure (I don´t eat them ) Every wingsuit manufactor with enough experience in 3D flexibles is welcome to work with us ................................................................. Go the Jester! can see this in combination with low density foam inners skinned with harder shell. Twist activated multiflaps providing controllable burst of max lift (eg make a fist and thumbs-up twist it -twist it good.) In combo with twist activated l.e. spoilers might even get a wingsuit that can... gasp...flare. Now to get it to custom made stick to muscles for maximum usage of every muscle on bod just like real birdy. No wasted muscle usage equals ability to flap ie hold up body weight using all muscles not just tiny arm muscles. gooey layer between suit and bod to provide full eletrostatic connection?

in reply to " I'm keen to get a better understanding of the requirements in other countries that have to be met before you can jump a full face. " ................................................................. As far as I know there are no specific regs re restricting use of full face helmets in Oz. Everyone seems to want one for some reason.perhaps to reduce the feeling of wind in the hair?? My feeling is that anything that reduces the peripheral vision of novices is a real bad idea. Sure is a good idea to wear a hard hat with so many bumpy people out there but not one that makes you part blind.

in reply to "Is this a design issue with the inlets or just by bad body position. " ......................................... You look to be flying in a reverse aerofoil position and are basically in a stalled flying position. ie too butt down,head up . To max out on your back you will need to adopt a more heavily arched position butt-up,head down, ie opposite to the de-arched (butt-up ) possy if you were flying face-to-earth.

in reply to "If we could combine only 1% of our collective talent, we'll be..... etc etc " ....................................... Its not difficult to see where you're coming from here. The overall and relative sameness of the wingsuiting experience can be a bit of a let down after such a rush of innovation when commercial wingsuits were new(ish). Many see this as a necessary stage of development ie to boost numbers in the flock or boost sales of wingsuits and perhaps even to fuel continued innovation of design. Perhaps the difficult part is facing up to the challenge of actually helping to push this whole human flight thing forward. For myself ,flying around in the sky is a relaxing and beautiful experience. This could be improved by going faster, longer, slower higher etc but basically the flying bit is fairly fulfilling., even with the current gliding wingsuits. I'd love a manufacturer to come up with a soaring suit or one that could take off from the ground but accept that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon perhaps for reasons you and others have exposed. getting back to the sharing bit- do you have any ideas that could revolutionise our wingsuit gliding habits? I've had an idea that might be worth sharing. After flying around this last xmas watching all the ram-airs getting around I was struck with how much we (as wingsuiters) seem to be copying parachutes. My idea is to get rid of the whole ram-air pressurisation thingy and replace it all with semi-solid wings made of low and high density foam. The aerofoil sections would be better shaped , if it was cleverly designed we could still easily deploy and walk around , sit in the plane etc No probs with ballooning wings and flapping bits of fabric. Thing is i couldn't care less who makes money out of such an idea -I just want to be able to experience an enhanced sense of flight and perhaps even get to gain altitude on a thermal in a wingsuit one day. To any potential manufacturers out there--get cracking fabric wings may very well be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. here's hoping and sharing

in reply to "Does anyone have experience with this? How problematic is skydiving with an artificial hip? I'd appreciate any insights/advice." ................................................................ just in case you need some more encouragment to have a go with your new hip(s).... there is an aussie guy getting around in his seventies who has had both hips replaced. He skydives regularly and has BASE jumped in the USA and at Kjerag walking in at least twice. Another guy I know ruined his hip replacement by over-doing it too early after the surgery not giving it time to properly seat itself in.

in reply to "I've flown my Phantom to several sub 2k openings this summer and never once had a moments fumble, or even felt like I might." & WHY? " Because I wanted to, and I felt comfortable doing it, especially with the kit I have at the moment," .............................................................. Everyone I've heard talking like this (in skydiving ) is either dead or scared back to 4000' deployments. If you keep pushing it to the limit the limit WILL get you.... one way or another. At 400jumps in 4 years you don't really know how shyte can easily happen to over-confident low-experience people. Out of the first 3 wingsuiters I flew with for my first 40 flights in skydiving world ALL of them are dead admittedly wiped in the BASE environment . I got to hear too many little chats like yours. You want to learn to fly sub-2000' try the BASE environment . In skydiving getting down there in a wingsuit is just unnecessary. That's what BASE jumping's for.

in reply to "Let's take AFF Instruction off the drop zone. I mean, let's, each of us, make the investment in upgrading what we do into a profession. It would hurt, but that's the investment I'm talking about. " .................................................................... Perhaps all it would take is the right people forming a company and doing exactly as you have suggested. Too many DZ's seem to concentrate so heavily on tandems that the AFF side of things withers and dies. Too many times pro-skydivers seem uninterested in putting in the time to train students via the AFF course.- of course there are many commercial reasons for this . supposedly poor $$ returns for their time/efforts compared to tandem at the top. *Farming out the gaggles of well prepared students should interest some dollar tight operations. *Once the public become aware that they will receive a much higher standard of training by highly experienced and interested professionals the 'pain of change' might turn into the joy of excellence. Pipe dreams ?? some-ones gotta do it

in reply to "what the best High performance non cross braced elliptical 9 cell canopy is"? .............................................................. not sure if its the best (judgement call ) but the funnest would have to be the Katana. When it came out it represented the peak of non-crossbraced developement. Its getting a bit on in age now though. but you want non-crossbraced fun and you're ready for it ...Go Katana.

in reply to "Is there really such a thing as "just another skydive"? " .............................................. people with mega 1000's of jumps talk like that. pity the poor souls with so many jumps they can't remember them any more. Ask a person doing say 12 - 15 jumps a day what they did on their 7th jump of the day. Apart from the look of confusion you just may hear-- " it was just another skydive." Some go quantity but its quality that delivers.

in reply to"etc... is this a common attitude with some jumpers? Opinions? " .................................................. even though your intentions were honorable ....Its rude to touch without asking. Him telling others about your behaviour is an example of self -policing. only its you being policed Boundaries exist and are different perhaps for different people /different experience levels. Touch an experienced persons gear without asking nicely first and its you who looks like the problem. nice pick up on the pin/flap I believe you would've been within your rights if the gear situation was creating an immediate danger to yourself or others. otherwise taking the time to ask is just being polite .

in reply to "- If fatalism is fact should we stop worrying about risk mitigation and enjoy ourselves? - Is fatalism a form of dillisionment, mental illness or coping mechanism in dealing with death and should it be treated? ...................................................... Thought provoking stuff. reminds me of the truism-- " negative fore-thought is the birthplace of paranoia". Perhaps we get what we wish for -consciously or unconsciously.. part of our creating things/situations depends on our headspace. think bad make bad think good make good. (?) ........................... "If somoeone is taking un-necessary or extraordinary risk is their belief structure based on fatalism and therefore the risk argument redundant and what "means" of preventing them killing themselves is available? " ......................... .. don't think so. some of the most risky things can make a person feel the most alive. most skydivers know what its like to be called crazy by whoofos . risk is assessed differently by different people. many BASE jumpers know what its like to be called crazy by skydivers. Instead of belief structures being based on fatalism the exact opposite may be true. What constitutes 'risk' and 'excessive' is a personal judgement call that is going to look different to observers than the doers.

inreply to "Can anyone think of some activities ("high risk") or otherwise that could accommodate that type of training progression? " ............................................................. Bungee jumping?

in reply to 'ugly as they are, pro-tec helmets are likely the best you will find in the air. ' ........................................... Have to agree with this . and they can fit so well they don't have to rely on over tightening the chin strap to hold it on. Still an excellent student helmet and beyond. If you jump with a lot of novices such a hat makes good sense...and who gives a stuff about the coolness factor ... its got to work is a priority! I've tried some newer carbon cool ones that were dangerous just to put on. One totally up to date but ineffective one cut the top of my nose just getting into it. It had an edge that looked like it had been sharpened. Looked coolish worked like shit. Apparently some poor sods have had their heads cut off by helmets that rotated on their noggin during the traumatic event. Other people have sustained neck and facial cuts from the helmet as it caught on something and moved. If you're trying a new ultra expensive carbon hat made by amateurs, see if it rotates about the axis through your ears. If there is much movement then it may actually end up hurting you rather than saving you. Also check the peripheral vision. A lot of cool helmets actually contribute to the likelihood of collisions by restriucting your vision. that said some newer hats can take extremely hard knocks and in some types of glancing collisions\impacts can do a lot of trauma protection. I think its a pity that hard hats are so common. Its like people don't have to be so careful anymore.

Bungee PC's work just fine. Like all skydiving gear they have their advantages and disadvantages. Kill line PC's have issues as well . If a bungee PC is set up well and the bungee replaced regularly well before it gets weak it will work everytime just like a kill line PC If you hopnpop with nil airspeed eg from a balloon you're gonna tow it till you get some speed up. I'm a bit sick of my kill line PC and after doing some jumps ona bungee P?C liked its simplicity and lower packing hassle. 6 of one half a dozen the other

in reply to 'What would you like to see as a boogie fee at your next big event? ' .......................................................... We could start at cost price jumps . ..with any profits shared amoungst the boogiers. I also like seeing organisers giving away totally free jumps occassionally eg every first load and sunset load being free. For the people that think a band is a waste how about only having all female bands . Free boogie Tshirts , free beer, a free raffle for new gear, brand new free car raffles, free campervans hell make everything free. ...that's what I'd like . It looks pretty free for some why not make it free for all