jdatc

Cookie helmet(s) / toys New Gas with top mount CX100 with hypeye D pro Cookie Rok with top mount CX7 and black box Cookie bellymount... Also have a digital rebel, but since I only shoot video / stills for myself, I don't have to carry both a still and video at once. Also, since I mainly / only BASE jump and fly wingsuits, the setups are perfect... After changing from a sidemount to topmount, it'd be hard to go back! Not sponsored by cookie, but love them... Now how about a d3o liner for my rok! _justin

Ok. First of all, is price a concern? IF not- Get a skyhooked equipped rig, and get either a trango or a flik lite, or even better a flik ultra lite. I have a flik lite 182 with spectra line set that I freepack into my mirage depending on my pull altitude, with a small mesh slider. When I am jumping at someone's DZ, I have a sail slider and a dbag to make the openings nicer. Also, a 9' single pin bridle with a proper base pc (32" is what I use, but I wingsuit the set-up) If you size the container correctly, it will pack just like your base rig, only with one extra fold. Boom, legal rig with a fast opening canopy, all TSO's and a reserve. Be advised that smaller base canopies, loaded above 1 to 1 without vents are not as friendly as their less loaded larger brothers. Also, any malfunction on one low, will be worse then having a mal on your typically sized base canopy. Also, opening force can be brutal in a free-packed configuration, especially if you have a spectra line-set. Dacron is better, but if pack volume is a major concern, go spectra and experiment with different packing techniques to tame the openings..... Here is what my flik 182 opens like in the free-pack config, dumping full flight in my V2, with my pack job for such. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvmlS0sDpFo&feature=channel_page _justin

No offense, but someone's thoughts about what makes a good base wingsuit, who doesn't base jump, and only skydives wingsuits, regardless of their jump numbers, means very little to me. I'd rather here from an experienced BASE wingsuit pilot flying that suit in BASE... Are there any really experienced BASE wingsuit pilots BASE jumping tony's wingsuits? Last couple trips to the valley I've seen a lot of suits, but one manufacturer seems under represented. _justin

Hey Yuri- funny enough I am sitting in the SLC airport once again waiting for my jetblue redeye flight home. Cx100 does well in slider off openings, doesn't skip, or stop/shutoff like some hard drive or tape cameras. It's on par with my cx7 i feel. I used both this trip, but if I could only bring one camera on a trip... it'd be the cx100... unless it was a night only trip.... Having the internal 8 gigs, and then sticking in another card in is great. the weight is better, and even though it is only slightly lighter then the cx7, my neck thanks me.... The one feature I recently fell in love with is the smooth slow record this trip. Makes exits look really cool and openings are awesome... I was directly underneath welshmans shooting some footage of people freefalling it, and it's really cool how it looks.... Downside is I wish it was longer then 3 seconds, but it is really cool, especially on lower jumps... I should have been using the feature before. We'll see how it holds up.... _justin as for the footage, well I am on my travel laptop, and my blackberry for the net connection so can't get anything up for a little while....

I recently took my cx100 on a sunset base jump. Was pleasently surprised at how the footage turned out. It was a lot darker than I had thought, but the footage looked pretty good.... I found my cx7 decent in low light (not using night shot) but my PC1000 sucked at anything when the light dropped. The cx100 is going to replaced my cx7 for every jump but night jumps... _justin

Just got my cx100. I also own a cx7, and previously a pc1000. I shoot mostly BASE footage, and wingsuit skydiving footage, and have been happy for the most part with my cx7. The areas that I saw shake were in some wingsuit footage, but it was occasional (top mount cookie). I look forward to the cx100 getting put through the paces this week, as I am out in utah for a few days for some slider off base staring wednesday. However, while I think the cx100 is a great camera on my initial impression, I have decided to keep my cx7 as well. Why? Night shot too me is important. You can't dayblaze all the time, and the cx7's nightshot is decent. Also having 2 cameras that take the same memory is great, and batteries, and cables..... And with the adapter ring I can switch between my cookie .45 lens and my raynox .3 on either camera Looking forward to this camera this season. I hope cookie gets the vert glove pattern for it soon... as having 2 cameras will give me a good amount of interesting angles (front, rear facing, belly mount and hopefully soon, the glove) the size of the cx100 though, still blows me away! I love technology. _justin

Wow, don't know whether to laugh or not. The money spent on the magazine / publications (page 18) is staggering in relation to the money that was spent on government affairs (page 21)... $822,378 vs $116,201 Then on page 23, I see airport Access Defense fund... No spending that year eh? At least some of it makes sense, like the members insurance premium $355,524... Which is truly the only reason I am a member. I'd stop delivery of the magazine, pay the same and hope they'd put the difference into the 'spending on governemnt affairs' I couldn't find, maybe someone else with better eyes could, what the revenue from advertsising in the magazine was? No, I've decided it's really sad. If there was an outside 3rd party insurance company that was recognized by USPA dropzones or what not, I'd dump the USPA and not look back. I'd hope the 2007 and 2008 reports show a shift in spending towards government programs and airport access defense funds, otherwise some people seem to just be blowing smoke.... _justin

Then probably newly minted commercial Multi pilots wouldn't be flying solo loads in twin otters.... nuff said. _justin

300' E and I tripped on exit, go figure....

I've noticed with careful observation, that scuba fins tend to make you go head down in zero wind exits. The snorkel also provides added drag and should be discared.... Not a 100% sure about the goggles.... We'll do more research next year. A picture is sometimes worth a 1000 words.... Scuba BASE http://www.gofastsports.com/~mexico1/imagenes/zona/games08/gfg61.jpg

So what did you learn after 500 wingsuit jumps, a 1000 wingsuit jumps etc? do you think maybe you hit a plateau? But, It's nice to know that one day when I have that many wingsut jumps, I will have an ego to match! woohoo! Maybe I'll have to make a dedicated skydiving trip to Z-hills... You do coach as you put it so coyly, I'll bring a few suits to, sorry since I am not sponsored or otherwise I only own 4.... _justin

wow, that was a stupid reply. here's a follow up- I'll give you a dollar for your unacreddited wingsuit 'school' _justin

I understand the thought process in each of these. But I cannot come up with any circumstance where it is safer to jump without an AAD. Since you quoted me. My dedicated wingsuit rig freepacks a flik 182 base canopy, so I have the option of using no dbag, tail pocket and mesh slider making it an equivlent of a 'base' rig.... Hypothetically lets say I was to fly my wingsuit down past cypres firing altitudes. While I tend to fly much slower than the cypres firing threshold I feel that turning it off is a prudent choice in these situations. _justin

I will be in switzerland next week... can't wait, it's been a year. Course, the lower air there is much much better.... but I'd love to fly a nice flight up high after seeing some of these shots.... oh, and here's a shot or 2 of me (my avitar) out of the caravan on a hop and pop a few weeks ago.... V2, wings open, duck! _justin

I'll be in switzerland next week, so if you want you can borrow my flik 182 Mirage rig that freepacks nicely.... Most reliable FAA APROVED low pull wingsuit rig there is..... And you can hook it, it recovers so fast! It's as good as it gets for 'legal' low pulls... USPA BSRs aren't enforcable anyway.... Who knew that actually working for the FAA and knowing the system is worthwhile..... Brace yourself for all the skygods online who can't tell the difference between a FAR and a BSR..... _justin

I used to believe that... I have a sabre2 135 that I load at about 1.5... the opening below must have been number 10. I used to have a sabre2 170 that was great for lowish openings, much better than it's smaller brother, but I swapped it out for a 7 cell..... Here is the difference though between my skydiving canopies I wingsuit. Guess which one I prefer to open lower with. V2 flight Flik182 Phantom flight Sabre2 135 _justin

And what is that amount (premature deployments) per number of jumps with the pouch? What is the number of premature deployments from the BOC? Do you have this solid info, or statistics? _justin I tend to use my base pouch on solos, or long flights depending on airplane and other factors. I don't do aerobatics with it. I don't use it if the flock gets above 3 (which is pretty much as high is it can get at my DZ) It can be used intelligently. Have you ever used it skydiving?

Depends. 400 some odd wingsuit jumps.... V2, base pouch, flik 182. mesh slider, (1.1wl) on my back free-packed, cypres off, anything is fair game. V2, base pouch, flik 182, mesh slider, in a dbag, cypres on, 2k. Anytime I use the BOC on a suit with my Sabre 2 135 (1.5w/l) associated rig, the minimum I deploy is 3000'.... Even with my flik and the boc, I tend to pitch at 2500' or 3000' to give myself a little more time..... I had an opening this weekend that the neptune deployment registered 1800' because my S2 135 spun up wonderfully after I pitched at 3k.... My canopy was diving was faster in vertical velocity than what I had with the phantom flying... not fun. Especially after a 2min 40 some second flight.... Also, I terminate any wingsuit aerobatic type stuff at 3k. Being stupid in a flat spin below 3k is not fun. _justin

aside from the incredible 270deg hooks at 350ft - how would you rate full flight opening shock on the 182 with microline vs your 266 w/ dacron ? The worst fast openings on my 266 with Dacron are like car wrecks... The fast opening on the 182 with spectra is like a plane crashing into a mountain. I scream in pain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvmlS0sDpFo I will be suffering permanent damage if I keep up the mesh slider full flight openings. However, the altitude loss is negligible when so configured. So it has it's uses...... On the other hand, I had to stop wearing my camera helmet out of fear of a broken neck. It's a lot of fun for a canopy, but truth be told I am finally looking for a sail slider since I have upped my pull altitude and turned on the cypres in that rig...... Btw, you can do a 270 hook sub 280' with it, but you have to dig out a bit so you don't skip off the tarmac. Great canopy for reliable lower pulls and what skydivers would consider *real* tight landing areas. Bad canopy for base jumpers where the landing area is really really tight, or base jumpers who fear a lineover or similar malfunction with the possibility of impact with solid ground. I'll take the extra weight and chance of riding in lineover/mal on one of my 266's than the lighter weight and possibility of it on the 182.... Risk/reward I guess. _justin _justin

I'll chime in. I have a flik 266 for base (vented) and I have a flik 182 for wingsuit skydives, (non-vented but ZP HTS)... I weigh 165lbs ish, sans gear. So I load my base canopy about .7 and my skydiving one at 1.1 Loading a canopy in the base environment above 1 to 1 in my humble opinion is not the wisest move. The stall / sink of the canopy is night and day. Things I can do on my flik 266 I cannot do on my flik 182. Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable on anything smaller than a 220 if I was looking for a low pack volume base canopy. The smaller canopy does open like a rocket though. ANd you can hook it... _justin

I like clocking up airmiles. Wingsuit Cross Countries are fun. With a good suit and pilot, anything within 5 miles from your DZ is fair game, and easily attainable. I reccommend using google earth and finding whats around the next DZ you visit, or your home DZ if you haven't tried..... For instance; Skydive the Ranch to Mountain BrauHaus It's a good flight. However, depending on your approach, very few outs after you commit and even fewer near the LZ..... Remember also the bar is higher then the DZ (about 300') , and if you fly over the mountains, your altimeter will be off, but well worth the visuals if you have the glide ratio. Also the landing area is tight, watch the power lines on multiple sides. Fly within your abilities, have fun. be safe. The whole world is a dropzone. _justin

Just to hit this fact, tailgates and tailpockets are 2 different animals. The tail pocket helps to organize deployment by containing the suspension lines even though the canopy is free-packed in the tray The Tail Gate is a device that controls the steering lines before and during deployment. It's purpose is to prevent line over malfunctions on slider removed BASE jumps http://www.basicresearch.com/tailgate.htm http://apexbase.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=58 Look an old basic research article found by google! FWIW, I have a wingsuit rig in which I free-pack a base canopy with a mesh slider, non-collapsable pilot chute, long bridle and base specific ZP PC....... It's fun, and it can open faster than heck! I often shuffle back and forth between a free-pack and a Dbag on that rig depending on my deployment height..... _justin

Hmm... 7 wingsuit jumps today, 4 the day before, 1 wednesday last week.... Then got weather'd out on my BASE jump last night.... Does that help? _justin

Funny, I had to do my first one today for a stuck brake, 6th jump of the day..... I thought the canopy opened weird, and after checking, realized it was a done deal, hard knot, no getting it out. Few practice flares up high, and it was all good. Stood it up fine, but was pissed at myself for not being more careful with my excess brake line stowage. Thought about hook knifing it, and just flying with the stearing line in hand, but didn't want to bother with getting a new brake line put on, and rear risers work fine. Funny thing was it never occurred to me to use one toggle and one rear riser.... Even though I always thought I would do it that way. I've seen someone break their tailbone on a rear riser landing for blown toggles (base), so I made sure *not* to stall the thing.... A good experience, and a valuable lesson for a nickel. _justin

This is what I call insta-canopy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvmlS0sDpFo I was playing with different packing techniques seeing what the canopy is capable of for openings. However, there are 'situations' where having a fast opening canopy is desirable.... For technical stuff for those wondering- The canopy is a flik 182 with a composite ZP top, spectra lines, utilizing the tailpocket and a small mesh slider free-packied in my G4 for wingsuiting.... Nose was packed wide open, No rolling of the outer cells, 1 wrap of slider with a rubberband on the inboard c line and a double wrap on the tailpocket primary stow.... Bridle is 9', with a 32 inch ZP vented non collapsable pilot chute. Full flight pitch in my V2.... _justin