bdrake529

Jeff, are you going to have some new "Super Mach 1" suits to demo at the unConventional boogie at Perris? I wanna try before I buy. Brian Drake

Here's a screenshot from Google Earth Brian Drake

This is a preliminary announcement of a Wingsuit Boogie, to be held September 8-9 at Skydive California City (roughly 1.5 hours NE of Los Angeles). Details will be released as they're determined. The DZ has a Twin Otter and we're currently working to have a helicopter as well (confirmation pending). Cal City is in the Mojave desert and is perfectly oriented for wingsuit flying. There is a very large landing area and the surrounding desert is almost completely free of obstacles allowing distance flying limits to be tested without consequence of hazardous landing areas. The grid system of roads provides a perfect navigating tool (all N-S, E-W) and their even distribution (.5 mile squares) makes judging distance very easy. Cal City is also the only DZ I'm aware of that has a GPS repeating system installed in the Otter which allows perfect GPS reception on the ride to altitude. We'll be taking advantage of this to conduct GPS wingsuit races and an opportunity to analyze individual wingsuit flight data. The DZ has recently had a sharp rise of interest in wingsuit flying (due mainly to the efforts of our local expert, Dave Barlia) and we're eager to provide an event to bring together the wingsuit pilots from the other SoCal DZs (and whoever else wants to attend) for a flocking good time. Clear this weekend in your schedule and stay tuned here for details as they're available. Blue skies, Brian Brian Drake

Yeah, I guess I forgot how mercenary everyone is. What ever happened to the motivation of "flying a wingsuit in front of a crowd of adoring wuffos is fun"? (btw, no one's getting paid, including me) Brian Drake

A sense of well being. It's volunteer. Brian Drake

I'm planning a wingsuit element to California City's annual 4th of July demonstration. I was originally planning for 3 wingsuits, trailing red, white, and blue smoke (respectively), but Paragear no longer sells red and blue and I can only get white at this time. So I no longer need 3 but would be content with just 2. However, my second wingsuit pilot just let me know he can't make it and the third is undecided. So I need a replacement to make for at least 2. PM me if you're interested in participating. -You must have a C license -Let me know how many wingsuit flights you have and what suit you fly -Demo experience is a plus, but not required -Experience flying/jumping smoke is a plus, but not required -Your own smoke bracket would be a big plus, but I might be able to cover that -You'll have to be available at Cal City all day on the 4th (next Wed) -Ideally, you'll be available for rehearsal this weekend too Thanks in advance, Brian Brian Drake

Tony/Jeff, Have these improvements been incorporated in the currently available (new orders) Mach One? Or is this improved M1 still a prototype? Or are you planning to release this as a new suit? I hope to buy a high-performance suit soon and I'm leaning towards a Mach One. But I want to time the purchase to take advantage of these new developments. Thanks, Brian Brian Drake

I won't be the one going underneath. That role will be assigned to the most experienced wingsuit pilot of the group. He's a BASE jumper (lots of proximity flying with wingsuits) and buzzes canopies all the time. But thanks for the cautioning. If i remember correctly, Scott's book recommends the Jim Wallace smoke brackets, which do keep the smoke off the foot. The demo usually puts jumpers out at 7,000 ft. agl. So the 1 minute smoke is probably more suited for this. Brian Drake

I know Scott has an exhaustive chapter on this in his book, but unfortunately I have lent my copy out. The 4th of July is coming up and for my home DZ's yearly demo, I want to incorporate wingsuits. The finale has always been a gigantic American flag trailing from a tandem and this year I'd like to spice it up with 3 wingsuits "swooping" the flag. We'd exit after the flag and maintain a tight flock as we sped towards it. Then at the last second, we would peel off left, right, and below (respectively). To make this more visible (and themed) I was hoping to have each of the wingsuit trailing smoke. Red, white, and blue (respectively). So the first question: Where do I get red and blue smoke? Paragear only offers white, violet, and yellow. I have contacted a few other people regarding this, but have yet to receive a solution. Any ideas? The smoke has to be shipped to Southern California in time for the 4th. Next question (which I'm sure is addressed in Scott's book): How do I jump smoke with a wingsuit without destroying my suit, canopy, and container? My rigger is convinced that jumping smoke means destruction of all gear involved. Not only has he torched his own gear doing RW demos, but a jumper at our DZ ruined a fairly new Vampire. But I've seen tons of video of wingsuiters with smoke and I have to hope that not all of them had to trash their suits afterwards. So there must be a right way to do this. One tip I've been told is not to bend the knees on deployment (like I normally do), but to keep the legs straight, only collapsing the leg wing spanwise. Is this right? How do I prevent pitching head-low (which then puts my d-bag in smoke-harm's way)? Any info that can help me jump the demo as I've planned without destroying my gear is greatly appreciated. Brian Brian Drake

Where can I buy a "Neptune bracket" like shown in the pics? Brian Drake

This is another great resource http://hexten.net/wiki/index.php/WBT-201 I started jumping my Wintec 201 last weekend and I'm quite happy so far. It's got a much more robust antenna system than my Foretrex and I was able to get a usable jump record from a Twin Otter, without a GPS repeater (which is necessary for sit-anywhere use of the Foretrex). Brian Drake

Jarno, Thank you. That is exactly the kind of response I was looking for. Very informative. Thanks, Brian Brian Drake

If you've flown a Classic and a Blade, which would you choose (you're the pilot) to try for a personal best in glide ratio? I think the answer is very obvious there and I'd be very surprised to hear someone claim they get better performance from a Classic. The manufacturers rank their own product lines based on performance. So comparison between suits must be possible on some level. I'm not digging for the objective "best suit out there" declaration. I'm soliciting subjective opinions. For example, I know a guy that prefers to fly his Acro, but puts on his V2 when he wants to go fast and far. I'm looking for personal testimonies to that effect. I already have the "best" suit, the one I own and love flying. I'm not trying to find out which is the "best suit" (that line was a joke!!!). I'm interested in what people consider would give them the best glide ratio. I suspect all of you have a legitimate answer to my question. If I were to put up a million dollars to the person who could get the greatest glide ratio using any suit they wanted, there wouldn't be the same hemming and hawing. Answering this post isn't mandatory. If the question is indeed frivolous, no one is being coerced to respond. Why this question? I'm bored and work is slow. Brian Drake

I'm about to commit a taboo. Which suit is best? Flame away. This question is addressed to those who have flown more than one of the various "top of the line high performance" suits out there currently. (V2, Ghost?, S6, Blade, Rigor Mortis, Mach One, Pro-Fly, GS1, etc...) If you had to pick a suit (that you've previously flown) to set a personal glide ratio record, which suit would you choose? I'm not interested in the "it's the pilot" rebuke. You're the pilot. The pilot isn't the variable in this question, the suit is. I understand that different pilots with different body types and flying styles (and professional affiliations...) will pick different suits, but that's ok with me. This isn't science, it's curiosity. Also, I'm not asking about which suit you think is more fun to fly, or better for flocking, or acrobatics, etc... I want to gather opinions on which suit you consider to be the all-out drag racer in your tool set. Thanks, Brian p.s. I'm not trying to inspire a brand war. I'm just looking for personal opinions. Please only provide your favorite choice. There's no need to disparage other suits. Brian Drake

The IMPACT is a great transition to wingsuit flying. I recommend it. As Scott mentioned, I demoed the IMPACT at the SDAZ Holiday boogie. I had about 120 jumps, many of them tracking dives (split between group and solo), and the IMPACT was a fairly easy suit to get used to at that experience level. More importantly, it really gave me a taste of what it's like to have a suit to fly in addition to my body. It was a new feeling that I think translated well to wingsuits (at least partially). Having this experience made donning a wingsuit a few months later seem like a much smaller step. I went through a PF first-flight-course (using a Prodigy) with two friends and I took to the suit much quicker than them due, I think, to my tracking experience and flights with the IMPACT. It was such a natural progression for me that the PFI had no problem letting me fly his Phantom after a few Prodigy flights. I haven't looked back since. Wingsuiting is where it's at! Richard (Pendragon) let me demo the Phoenix-Fly tracking pants/jacket at the same boogie and I actually liked that system a bit more and got better performance than the IMPACT. But I think this is because it didn't require any significant change to my tracking technique whereas the IMPACT body position was a bit new to me (and I only made 5-6 jumps on the IMPACT, so perhaps I would have figured it out more if I kept jumping it). If I had to choose a tracking suit at this point, I'd go with the PF. However, my interest since AFF has been wingsuiting so I think the IMPACT provided a better stepping stone. Keep in mind my extreme inexperience so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Brian Drake

Scott, thanks for posting that. I looked at one of Klaus' Google Earth files and the data looks good. I suppose that settles it. Wintec 201 is the new king. Long live the king! I'll pick one up in a few weeks and will start recommending others interested in GPS logging do the same. As for my friend with a 305, looks like it is usable to an extent (otherwise, Klaus couldn't have compared the data), but the speed smoothing leaves something to be desired. Perhaps he won't mind dropping $95 to get a fully functional logger. Or he may not care about the reduced accuracy and be fine with it. Thanks! Brian Brian Drake

Actually, I'm currently without confirmation that the Wintec is truly "the bomb". Any updates on that front? My friend already sunk $260 into the Forerunner so I'm not really looking to tell him what he should have bought, rather, I'm hoping to give him good news on using it for skydiving. Any first hand knowledge on this is appreciated. From fiddling with the Forerunner and reading the manual, I could tell it wasn't "ideal" for what we do. But does "not ideal" mean "no go"? Or just there are a few nuances to making it work? Thanks, Brian Brian Drake

A friend, who is interested in wing suiting and GPS logging, has asked me to evaluate whether his Garmin Forerunner 305 will be suitable for jump analysis in Paralog and Google Earth. I tested the unit this weekend and was impressed that it seemingly had a more robust antenna system than the Foretrex 201 I use (which is basically useless in a Twin Otter unless you can put it on the co-pilot's seat, or have a re-radiating antenna system). I was able to maintain a signal sitting in the main cabin, a few seats back from the cockpit. So recording looks good. Unfortunately, I didn't have my laptop with me, so I wasn't able to see if there are any issues with downloading the data into Paralog (either directly, or through GPS Babel/GPX) or Google Earth. Does anyone here use the Forerunner 305 for skydiving? Does it log and download data like every other GPS recorder, or are there unique issues with it? I'm hesitant to give my friend thumbs up since it's designed primarily for running/biking and I don't know if it's limited in any way since it was designed for such a specific application. Thanks, Brian Brian Drake

Next time I'm out there (probably a few weeks from now) I'll take some pictures and post them. Brian Drake

Scott, I finally got the GPS repeater installed in my DZ's Twin Otter and it works exactly as I hoped. Perfect signal from everywhere in the plane I've tried so far. So my little Garmin Foretrex is finally earning its keep since I no longer have to worry about maintaining a signal and can use it on every jump. I'm still very interested in the results of the WinTec unit. If it's as robust as hoped, I may pick one up for when I'm at other DZs since I won't have the repeater helping me out there. Brian Drake

I re-compressed the file as an mpeg-4 which should still open in Quicktime or iTunes (or VLC). If clicking the download link doesn't work, try right-clicking and saving the link directly to your hard drive before opening it. Brian Drake

That's Ash with the flash (hey...that rhymes) Brian Drake

Whoops. I'll try a different format and post when it's up. Brian Brian Drake

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=5773 Here's my "remix" of the various footage and photos I received from the camp. Enjoy, Brian Brian Drake

Al! You're alive and not incarcerated! You never came back after your BASE excursion on Saturday and we started wondering about you. Tony and I did the balloon jump (solo jumps) on Sunday morning (6am) with wingsuits (his Rigor Mortis and the Classic Scott lent me). Absolutely awesome! I exited at 5.5k, opened at 3k and got 32 seconds of flight. What a rush! The rest of the day I flew the S-Fly you tried. It fit me much better and I actually really liked that suit. It had much more performance than the Classic (duh) so I had a blast flying it. Scott almost sold it to me, but my Acro arrives on Friday and I don't have the cash for two suits just yet. Glad you're ok. Brian P.S. Sorry everyone else for the off-topic post. Brian Drake