DSE

So, a four-way that turned into a two way that blew past both of the other 'unseen' four way participants. Then he takes it past 1200 trying to film a deployment. Yep...the problem with small cameras is "snag hazard." This guy's "flight recorder" could very easily been significantly more hurtful to him or the other jumper. Did she make it back to the DZ OK? Or were there two low-timers that landed off?

Add a "5" to the model number, it often works out that way.

This sort of thought process seems to abound... Megapixels are really meaningless in the grandscheme without discussing the size of sensor. 5mp on a large sensor is significantly preferable to 15mp on a small sensor.

Only if they know how to use it. Through quite a bit of testing, it's obvious that the weight can help if leveraged properly. I'm quite sure it would. Would you allow the use of added weights in competition? Nope. The ENTIRE point of the competition is to level the playing field as much as possible so that lightweight competitors don't hold a hard edge over heavy competitors and vice-versa. The 11K exit point only 1K above the competition window also goes a long way to eliminating real benefit to the heavier competitors. This is a unilaterally agreed-upon approach. Weights allow too many variables to be introduced and until this discipline has more momentum, it's already pandemonium for judges. KISS. We learned a lot. One thing that I definitely appreciated; whether one won, lost, drew zeros...people showed up to test their skills. That says a lot about their character vs the guys that say "I'm the most bad-ass flyer in the wingsuit world, even though I've never flocked nor competed in anything." Kudos to those that put their asses against the clock.

This thread is so over-duplicated that it's past silly. There is a sticky at the top of this forum. There is a small-camera incident list at the top of this forum. This conversation has been had at LEAST 200 times. Please read the stickies at the top of this forum??

Lurch, Nothing was weighted against you, just that nothing was weighted in your favor. For those that weren't here, we had a lot of problem with GPS units and satellites. About halfway through the day, we discovered that for whatever reason, only two and occasionally three satellites were functioning. Regardless of GPS placement, acquiring signal in aircraft, powering up unit on the ground, powering unit in the aircraft and acquiring in the air...none of it mattered. Nevertheless, everyone brought in scores, and so we shifted judging per round and best average of multiple jumps to best recorded jump from each competitor. What we could see with the eye for distance pretty much matched the data GPS' provided. Speed...only GPS could provide that data. We also changed exit altitude to 11,000 (there were two runs where the pilot mistakenly went to 12,000); by lowering the exit altitude, competitors had a much shorter time to get flying at their best speed. Our feeling was that by lowering exit altitude, it smoothed out advantages of really heavy guys over skinny guys as the competitor is just coming off the hill as he/she enters the gates. Despite the satellite problems (something we could not control), everyone was a great sport about the problem (although it was incredibly frustrating). Winners of the top three prizes were incredibly gracious in sharing their booty with those that few very well, but didn't achieve a top slot. This event did not (and could not have) followed the exact PPC rules; like other competitions, we deviated for reasons of time, number of competitors, and eventually, because of satellite issues. Weather played a big role in the unanimous decision to modify the comp rules. Kudos to Scott Callantine/BSR, Cate Heneghan, Simon Repton/Wickey, and Brian Caldwell/Lurch. Not so much because they took top slots, but because they were incredible sportsmen and made everyone that didn't do quite as well, feel like a million bucks. More than one tear of gratitude was shed by some newer jumpers as an "older" jumper quietly stepped over, shared a prize and said "You did damn well, you deserve this." Darren Burke spent much of the night drinking beer from his 4-can-capable trophy. Joel Hindman spent most of the night in a stunned smile. Both are newbies. We had a LOT of new blood wanting to 'test' themselves at this event. It was incredibly inspiring to see Robi, Callantine, Scotty, Zach, Owen, Jojo, Jarno, and a few others 'coaching' some of the newer jumpers. Watching guys like OJTahiti, Rich, Joel, Darren, Omnia, Scott N, Migs, Forrest, increase their performance and excitement was what this event was about. This set the stage for many future events both here at Elsinore, and some events we have planned around the US in the coming year. Competition, REAL competition where we have numbers and values that may be measured, are an integral part of the growth of our discipline. This first experimental effort in the USA taught us a lot, and showed us the way to move forward. Gotta send huge props to Klaus @ Paralog, who was available 24 hours a day when we initially thought we had a Paralog problem, props to the satellite experts and then military guys who helped us determine the problem was in space, and not the Flysight units (We did have one malfunctioning flysight out of 33 units), Jarno, Daniella, Natheena, Lisa, Amber, all the office chicks at Elsinore, Karl Gulledge, John Hamilton, Sydney Owen, the packers (Especially Tracy and Chris) Robi, Lob, Tickle, Jason Timm....A lot of people made this event work in spite of the nasty rains we had (and are having right now. THanks to the Sponsors that either donated product or sold us product at low prices so that we could offer some good stuff; Phoenix-Fly, L&B, Paralog, Square One, Flysight, Gatorz, Skydive Elsinore, David Sanders, and a wingsuiter who wishes to remain an anonymous donor. Kudos to all the competitors, the new suits, the sportsmanship, good vibes. Pictures and video are forthcoming, I'm sure. Facebook is already pretty active. One last comment that I feel is noteworthy; there was no politicking, no yelling, no fighting, no egos displayed, no backbiting, no arguing amongst the competitors nor manifest chicks. The worst part of the event (from a personal perspective) was that I was unable to jump due to the business of managing intake, manifest, loads. I truly wish I could have had a fun jump with my friends and fellow wingsuiters. I made a lot of new friends, enjoyed re-meeting old friends, and despite the stresses of weather and satellites...I had a blast. Thanks to all that cooperated to make it happen. Can't wait for April 2012~!

1/8 sensors and even the best 180 degree lens won't replace an SLR lens. Won't come close to even a fairly poor non-prime SLR lens. Glass is half the conversation. Sensor, almost the other half. The rest boils down to algorithms, compression, and build. Glass holds its value well because glass is the constant regardless of sensor, althorithms, compression, and build.

When it rains, we bowl... Weather kept the trial jumps from getting up, but we'll be starting @ 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, first comp loads around 8:30. We spent this morning hearing a great lecture from Robi Pecnik about the history of wingsuiting, where he feels it is today, and where it may be going in the future. We also went bowling in the afternoon. Rules were simple; you must hold your gripper with the hand that is not holding the bowling ball, and you must be fully zipped into the wingsuit. It was a blast; thanks to those that participated. I think we had 25 peeps in wingsuits at one point. A few opted to not attend. This evening, we watched Gypsy Moths on a projected screen. Thanks to Scotty Burns for the beer, Joel and Laurence for the pizza.

looking at the topscores at the ppc website, you are right. caldwell, boole, uragallo, kloska, tacke, scherrinsky...they are ALL skinny and little...and absolutly talent free everybody who knows a little more about this kind of competitions agrees that each disciplin (time, distance and speed) favors a slightly different tecnique, body shape and suit. and without talent, you get nowhere. on the ppc website you can analyse each individual jump by graphs. show us one of the ten best time jumps where there wasn´t at the same time a big distance covered (taking into acount the influence of wind that can´t be seen for the individuel jump.on some there was a lot of headwind involved, still, no one ever managed to get a great time just "falling down like a leave that goes nowhere") blue skies and cu saturday tim Didn't say "no talent involved in previous comps..." but rather "no talent required." Lightweight plays a significantly greater advantage to time than heavier weight grants to speed. For this first comp, we wanted to make it fun and similar advantage to everyone. In the future, we'll likely grant a larger budget to the comp and add time as one task in the jump series. Of the three possible tasks, Time is the least talent-driven. Perhaps I should have said "Less talent required?" any more than it takes into account the jumps where tailwinds were involved, either. Looking forward to seeing you Saturday.

Only if they know how to use it. Through quite a bit of testing, it's obvious that the weight can help if leveraged properly. And it's not that easy to do. The PPC scores page demonstrate that. Robi isn't very heavy in relationship to height, but he does pretty well. Either way, this comp version is easier on the competitor, provides more options for a new competition, has a great potential for a lot of fun, provides more peeps opportunity for bragging rights and talking shit, and providing a solid foundation for where this is going in the very near future. Although it's a comp with real scores and real rankings, it's also about having a great time and bringing something new to the discipline. Sorry we won't see you here to claim your share of tin, James.

Taken directly from the Flysight assigned to you, measured by Paralog competition software. FWIW, *most* everyone is new to competition, AFAIK, Lurch is the only one that has flown in this kind of comp that is attending the US Cup.

Thanks for the heads-up on that, Simon. The webmaster of the Elsinore page apparently copied that from early media. I don't have the ability to change it, but wasn't aware the Elsinore Event's page had it incorrect. The Facebook page is accurate; there is no Time event. Sure...go head-down through the window. :-) See where that gets you. Time....is for skinny lil' guys in big suits; no talent required. They can be a leaf that goes nowhere. The tasks may indeed be combined in future events. For this event, we didn't want to require large numbers of jumps for the tasks not only to make it more economically feasible, but to also provide a more broad competition experience for the first comp in the US. We intend to combine all three for an All-around award in the future.

Pixel count is only 1/3 the conversation. Cameras like the Hero are great for what they are designed to do. Delivering high quality photos is not one of those tasks.

It makes no difference for wingsuiting.

Ah I see, makes sense, I won't be able to throw mine into the pot then as it is pretty much glued to my helmet! Simon No problem, we'll provide one for you. No competitor will be using their own flysight for this particular event. Smart people, custom programming, all that sort of thing...wanna be sure no one has any hidden advantage. Thank you for the offer tho!

Jim, I'd heard that story from Bill M, and when I asked Ted to tell the whole story, he asked us to shut the camera off, saying that history was written and he didn't want anyone to think otherwise. He referred to it in the PIA interview after prompted, but he wouldn't say much. I wonder what else Ted isn't known for?

Well now that you mention it, there is a 'Prom queen' category :-) BTW, we'll have more of the "Prom Dresses" shirts available at The Cup comp too.

There are four of these, in addition to medals, plus the assortment of other winners earnings. Open/Distance Open/Speed Intermediate/Distance Intermediate/Speed Elsinore Casino still has rooms in the lower building @skydiver rates. If you haven't called manifest to register, do so. Otherwise we can't guarantee Tshirts in your size.

Glad you'll be bringing yours, but you likely won't be using it for the comp. units are scrubbed per jump so that there is no confusion, nor claims of tweaked software. Units are randomly assigned as well. Any units "borrowed" from their respective owners, will be returned in identical condition, but scrubbed of any data. Looking forward to seeing you here, Simon!

If Butters answered every question with a reference to physics, ducks, yawns, whatever, I'd think he was off his perch too. Honestly, I dunno how you fly; the few jumps we've had together were when you were quite new. Honestly, I don't care how you fly. I just know you're a really smart guy that comes up with some inexplicably ridiculous responses sometimes. I do the same, but I'm not a rocket scientist.

Who gives a flying/falling/flailing fuck about turbulence when the conversation is flocking skills/speed? John, I'm convinced you've lost it. AARP and you are MFEO.

FIFY... THere are a few "name" guys that fly big suits, I'd love to put em' in a P2 and fly against em'. Always fun to see these guys that show up in Sbirds or V3's that have no small suit experience, and they're usually several hundred feet low. Not because I'm that good, but because they're *that* bad.

you and Kallend need to get a room. You argue like a couple, and I *know* you're not Kallend's boyfriend..... Yet.

Any Flyights that show up extra are appreciated, we only have 23 for the comp (Otter load) and we've got more competitors than that.... Also hoping to do a high-speed flock or two with the kind of talent coming to this event.

Congrats to the winners, glad to see we'll have a couple of em' here at The Cup competition. Got any photos of the event?