mccordia

When I just started on camera, a few years back, I shortly jumped an ugly helmet with a Heller Mount. It resembled an oil-rig, and though it had a proper cutaway, I quickly switched to a better helmet. But one feature I did like about that butt-ugly mount, was the front mounted plate/bracket for stills. It could quicly rotate 90 degrees, and be snapped in place. Switching from Portrait to Landscape. Is there any seperate front mount (stills) available that would fit a FlatTop/Wes pro type helmet that enables easy switching from portrait to landscape without fidling with screws/bolts etc? JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Friend of mine had some problems with flutter in the image (not digital artifacts, just image shaking) and we finaly discovered it was the loose end of fabric of the clip holding on the camera. It was flapping in freefall, and in certain positions (mostly head-up) it ended up flapping and and hitting the side of the lens. Check if there is anything loose on the camera, or camera-condom that can flap and hit your camera or lens. As that could be a source of image flutter as well.. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

With the proximity on some of the jumps, we could just as well drop people in groups of 6 in seperate jumpruns An72 '08 "smaller..tighter..safer" Would definately have my vote... JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

I think we'll need a 2nd AN72 if Loic shows up as an organiser.. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

I must be honest, and say that Im torn between the An72 Boogie, or heading off to Gap around that time of year to fly with Loic... So Im not sure if I'll be there this coming An72 boogie...but as soon as my mind is made up, I'll slap my name on the list! JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

its mostly the banner dancing in the burble, just like smoke forming a ball/puff on the back, which is why its so hairy at pulltime. as it is not angled the same direction your pilotchute/bridle go, as they do get clean air. mark experienced some scary openings. so the angle of the flag is not representing the actual glide angle., though backflying and trailing a meter of material, i think you can save yourself another night of lone math problem solving by predicting its not the best ever flown:) fun to try, not recommendable for low experienced flyers....or drunk Russians ;) ps typing this on my new mobile..24/7 online..all hope is lost JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Here's some photos by David Haygarth (the text labels on the images are incorrect) for our new TopGun website (coming soon) Mark Harris is backflying with the Banner. Pulltime was supposedly quite scary, with the banner loving to eat the pilotchute/bridle at pulltime, as it dances in and out of the burble. I'll give Mark a shout about this thread, he'll probably have some usefull tips. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Everyone is using the words pissing contest, and this is no such thing.. When you're boasting about a certain perfmance with excact numbers, its not weird to actually ask for some proof is it? Or didnt I tell you about the time I outflew a gliderplane in a cross-country challenge wearing just my grandmother raincoat and a thong? Sadly no video-camera, gps or device capable of recording freefall speeds produced a log I can show here...but damn it was good, fast flying... JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Im also not saying what Jeff is doing is flaring (though its fun to annoy him with it untill we finaly gets some proof) But in short...I can fly at speeds of around mid-30 something mph. But I have some protrack logs that actually show me (if you take the avg. speed) flying at 25 mph avg during a 40 or second stint. When I start leveling off my suit, trying to go for the slowest possible fallrate. I start pushing untill I reach the point where I stall/loose lift/whatever. That happens at speeds of as low as 15 mph sometimes. Leading up to that point, from where I pull the wingsuit into the sub 30 mph speeds till the point where I can push no further and start speeding up again and finaly go back to 'normal flight' in 30 to 40 + mph-ish speeds, I've done around 30 to 40 seconds of flight way, way way bellow speeds that I can NO WAY ever maintain. Yet if you take the avg. of those 30 to 40 seconds of flight, I suddenly have a 'sustained flight' of 25 mph according to some people. Look at the graph I posted..though that one has a reaaly clear extreme dive before the leveling off, there is a long bit of slow, slow, slow flying that comes after that where Im using all the energy from the dive before that time. And that goes down to 18mph (and is still sinking when the device stops logging) I think a lot of people see a flare as a big dive, and then doing a massive pull-out, leveling off. But just going from a relaxed pose into something close or even past a stall is doing exactly that. Or more extreme...high speed exits...Ive done some freaky high exits where it takes up to 15 seconds to pass my point/altitude of exit again. Does that mean I can honestly say I have a sustained fallrate of 0 mph for those first 15 seconds? Or does the airplane exit speed maybe have something to do with it. I mentioned 1 minute, as in the logs Ive seen, and attempts at slow flying Ive done, I can see a slow relaxed push for slow/slower/slowest flying work its way down to incredibly low vallues. Even when using only slighly faster flying as a start-off point. But the effect wears off. Sometimes its only a 10 second spike, other times it last close to 40 seconds or more before I return to normal flight speeds that I can maintain. To prove what you're doing is sustained flight, there should be no real difference in speed/dive precede the slow flying, and you should also have the airplane exit behind you for a while already. Having a full jump log, and being able to take large middle section out of that will show if its truly a maintainable fallrate. The swoop itself wont last 30 seconds...its only 15 to 20 seconds of maxed flight it gives you, but it can take that long for you to loose ALL the energy untill you finaly go back to your normal fallrate/glide ratio. Again...Im really looking forward to seeing the altitrack log, and hopefully be shown it actually IS sustain-able flight. As it would truly be an incredible achievement, and a great step forward in wingsuit performance. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Legs that need tending to? But you dont need to be an aeronatics expert to understand he ment 'non-extented' legs..right?? But does it do 20 mph if you pick appart a few seems..thats the real question! JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

This is looking really good... Im planning on switching to top mount soon (jumping a side-mount FF2 atm) and this thread definately sparked an intrest in trying to make a D-box myself.. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Then dont waste another second and attach it to this thread already...we wanna see them flares JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

All the non-data aside...any chance at actually showing some pics on the mod, before everyone starts cutting wings off their suit in the wrong places? We'll show you eurotrash can fly next summer... JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

ps. I made my point 10 posts back, the rest is just me annoying you guys and having fun JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

If you have speed left to slow down from, then you are still left with residual speed/energy to slow down tony... Even 5 mph above your lowest possible fallrate means the suit is technicaly 'diving' with extra speed/energy left to use in slowing down/flaring. Seeing the 21 mph is the lowest possible sustained flight according to you guys, all speeds above that are technicaly slight dives, with energy you can carry on into a plane-out when trying to aim for the lowst possible fallrate. Its not a pissing contest...its end/peak data being posted, seeing it quit the moment the fallrate was hit, and incorrectly labeled as sustained flight... Its not sustained flight untill you can maintain that speed for a longer period, past the 1 minute mark where you are sure there is no leftover energy from before that time. And THEN actually having full flight data to back up the claim.. Great toys..but when you post tech data, make sure its complete and correct Again..not saying its not possible...but go back up...repeat it (and try and make it smooth, as too rapid descelerations on flaring make an altitrack stop logging) and the show the full plot...I'll be the first to congratulate you on the actual achievement.. And yes...you probably dont like this flying piece of Euro-trash too much now hehehe JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

You sayd you looked at the track from "top to bottom" but it supposedly switched off the moment he hit 20 mph, so there is just a track ending at that point....which mean there is no complete data from top to bottom or avg./sustained speed.. Im not saying its impossible, far from it, but these claims tend to impress a lot more people when they are actually backed up by data instead of guess-temates.. The track I posted quits at 18 mph. I guess I could say I flew 18 mph sustained for the rest of the jump now? As I believe thats what I was flying the rest of the jump JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Steve and I have been busy with some writing the past week. There are 2 new articles up on our FLB website at http://flylikebrick.com/safety-training.php and there is a 3d article on the way on 'choosing your first wingsuit' which should make it online sometime next week. Enjoy.. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

As for the 'flare' action. Attached is a protrack graph from one of my last wingsuit jumps. After an exit at 10.000 ft, I make a big diving turn reaching 140 or so mph. When I level off, the freefall speed starts to drop rapidly. For the next 30 or so seconds, the freefall speed drops to really low vallues (18 mph is the last reading on the graph) and then it takes another 10 to 20 seconds for it to build up again. During a flare like this (which is just me speeding up, using the energy from the faster falling before to speed up/slow down) I can spend 20 to 30 seconds at speeds of way bellow 20 mph. And get a really flat glide (which gets less and less, the longer you hold it) But there is no way this can be called sustained flight. I sadly decelerated too quick on this jump, thus making the device think I opened, but its possible to get similair readings decelerating smoother, not coming out of such an extreme dive. Its way to late now (4:00 Am) but if anyone cares, I can scoot through my jumptrack and print/screen a dozen similar low vallues. Breakoff from anything falling over 40mph makes a nice flaring action possible, with freefall speeds of up to half a minute into the low 20's. But it doesnt mean anything unless its actually sustained... JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Its a common misconception that the devices stop logging because of certain low speeds. If your data logger (Optima/Protrack/Solo/Naptune) quits logging, it just means you had a change in fallrate that exceeded the set parameters for a canopy opening in terms of deceleration. If you're doing a 180 mph dive, and you suddenly level off/pulll out of the dive (even if you stay above 50 mph after the dive) it also registeres as an opening if the deceleration is rapid enough. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Seeing Tony sent me a PM that sayd the Optima quit logging the moment he hit 20 mph out of the door...yes..Id love to see it.. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

The device used here is an Altitrack, which I also own and use, and it too has a SLOW mode. And that one can still be 'fooled' As long as the (downward) peak in the reading is sharp enough, it'll switch to canopy mode or quit logging. Not really...sustained means, you're flying for a long period of time, where you are not using any risidual energy from a dive/exit/swoop. When I flare out my wingsuit, I carry that energy on into the next 30 (maybe even more) seconds. So yes. Anything shorter then that timespan is not sustained flight, and most likely a flare/plane-out. Sustained flight idealy is for a full jump. But seing muscle-strength limits what we can fly 'sustained', demanding a full 12 to 15K jump is a bit much. But using a minute (mid jump) as a guideline, knowing there is no dive/exit directly before that recording point in flight, you know that its true sustainable flight, and the 1 minute timespan (if the 20 mph is flown during that entire timespan and not slowly dropping) also makes clear that there is no other energy from a flare/plane-out being used. *edit* Maybe a mod can split this thread (from post #16) off into its own seperate thread, as its just a debate about avg speed /sustainable flight and not really linked to the suit mod tony was posting about? JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

The problem is that you think a flare means a big push on the wings. You may know how to fly, but you dont always have the science to back it up ANY move where you use residual energy from a fallrate/speed/exit above your lowest maintainable fallrate is flaring... It may be able to maintain the 20 mph fallrate for a full jump (or at least 1 minute+ section of a jump), but untill that time, its just a peak reading. And not a maintained fallrate. Its quite easy to prove if its a flare. If the logging device (protrack/altitrack etc) switches off, its because it detected a sudden peak/drop in fallrate, which fooled it into thinking there is an opening. If the device switched off...its a plane-out/swoop/flare.. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

I say we need suits made from Lycra! Pink and tye dye if possible! JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Definitions of sustained: * adjective: maintained at length without interruption or weakening Though I often agree with you Tristan, in this case you're flat out wrong 15 seconds is not a complete jump. Im sure you like telling girls you date that 15 seconds is enough to count, but sustained flight means, being able to fly at that speed for a full jump. And 15 seconds DEFINATELY doesnt qualify.. This is more info on the side, but I (and quite a few other people I know and fly with) have flown 25 mph and even lower fallrates, for 15 to 20 second periods at beakoff and/or directly after an exit or dive, and thats really nothing more then a flare.. Using the airplanes' throw, or driving away after a flock, the speed/energy can be carried through in lower fallrates for periods lasting up to 30 seconds. If you look at GPS plots from these seperations, you can also get some insanely flat glide-ratios..just like a swooper under canopy at landing. Sustained means avg speed from exit till opening, or at least only a large middle section of your jump, without any airplane exit or faster (then your slowest possible sustained) fallrate before that time. As that gives you a lot of energy that 'enhances/improves' your flight performance.. A plot of at least 1 to 2 minutes (mid flight) would be called sustained....anything under a minute at speeds like that 20mph are just peak-readings.... If a recording device switches off during a jump (protrack/altitrack) its because of a sudden drop in speed. Which means the device algorithms think its an opening. Its not slow speed itself that makes it think your canopy is open. As long as speed changes are gradual, it keeps logging. If its a quick change in speed (leveling off too quick, coming out of a dive, or directly after exit) the device will stop logging.. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Does the detached seem change the backflying ability in any way? JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?