SkymonkeyONE

Well, actually this afternoon in a couple of hours, Katie and I will be driving the five and a half hours down to the greater Atlanta metro (actually Conyers) to eat dinner tomorrow with my mother and some other relatives.

The "face time" (actually "neck snapping") you talk about could be totally avoided with proper standoff for your skis (or skids, assuming downhill sled belly-mount configuration). I think they would need to be about a foot away from your belly and extend from a foot above your head down to around the middle of your thighs. Yes, arrestor cables across a speed skiing hill would absolutely work assuming you had the requisite wingsuit skill-set, the desire to do the landing in the first place, and the balls to commit to the landing. See, that's another thing though. On a slope that steep, if you blew your approach you could simply flare out, get separation from the slope and deploy your parachute. After that, the REAL stunt would be replicating that landing without a parachute on your back as a backup. THAT truly would be "landing" a wingsuit in the purest form I could imagine. Chuck

All the more reason to post it, for all of us that couldn't be there in person Mary, you are a perpetrator!

Z-hills for sure. The burning of the beerline at midnight on new years eve was fucking awesome. Making people who screwed up on "pirate day" walk the plank into the swoop pond was very cool too! I will be running a BMI course on the 29-30th of December too. Chuck

That is the best example the pot calling the kettle black that I have ever read! Chuck

What about catching a tail hook on an arrestor cable? Once already on the ground? Totally acceptable. Jets smash into the decks of carriers right at the edge of their suspension's ability to absorb the impact and then are arrested. The only reason they must use such a device though is to keep them from rolling off the forward edge of the landing deck. The key thought here though is that they are already on the ground and rolling before being arrested. They have already landed; they just have not slowed down to a stop yet.

Personally, I believe that this, under the right circumstances, might already be possible. Anybody ask Loic if he has ever been to a 90m ski jump and tried that sport? Anybody not think it would be totally possible for a trained ski jumper/wingsuiter to ski down the launch slope, hit the take off ramp and fly as far as he wanted so long as the landing hill stayed properly groomed, free of obstacles, and was long enough? This, my friend, is already totally plausible. Chuck

In all seriousness, I would consider the use of some type of wheeled landing gear on a belly mount absolutely neccessary in order to "properly" land a REAL wingsuit. Like you just said, a jet could not fly if it did not have a runway to land on. Ultimately, it comes down to one's ability to flare a suit enough to achieve level (relative) flight, if only for an instant, and then a means to safely bleed off the forward speed once on the ground without dieing. I don't see how anyone could call "foul" at that so long as you are talking about landing on a runway. Why would you need a special runway for that? There are plenty of those around which are not currently in service. Landing on a similar paved surface, only on a fairly steep initial grade, would make that even more logical. I would also not call foul if a person were to land on a speed skiing slope with a set of ski landing gear attached to a belly harness and some means of braking the aparatus upon touchdown. I believe Loic Jean Albert completely capable of that RIGHT NOW if he felt like it. The greater the slope, the less one has to flare the suit. The less one has to flare the suit, the closer to the body the landing gear (whether wheels or skis) can be, thus reducing parasitic drag. Flying into a net is not "landing" Landing something with fixed wings is not landing a wingsuit; that's landing a glider and people do that all the time. A "super sugar glider" or some other enlarged mono-wing might be suitable for a slow-flight "plop down"-type landing on a powder snow slope, but I think a high performance multi-wing design (S3, Vampire, whatever else might come out) with more flare power (but more forward speed) would be what's needed to attempt a wheeled/ski/skid landing on a hard surface (snow or pavement), whether sloped or not. Chuck Blue BMCI-4, AFF/SL/TM-I, PRO

I have two neptunes and love them. My wife also uses a neptune. I wear mine as an alti on my hand; it's virtually weightless.

Negative. Compare the performance of a Crossfire2 to that of Stilletto (quick turns), a Katana, a Competition Cobalt, a HiPer Blade, or a Mamba. They don't fly anything like a crossbraced canopy in my opinion. I have jumped Crossfire 2's in several sizes, down to a 99 I believe (Gimps main). The Crossfire 2 is a quicker-turning, slightly-longer-diving Crossfire. The ones I tried opened nice and flew fine, but in no way, shape, or form compared to a crossbraced canopy. Chuck

what about elliptical canopies like hops, twins etc flat packing those would be a nightmare? My Firebolt 350 tandem main is VERY elliptical on the back side and I routinely flat pack it (I actually do the "roll pack" version) with absolutely no problems whatsoever. Chuck

Agreed.

a 190 Sabre2 won't be a big step for you. You will actually find that it has a lot more flare power than that tri you are currently jumping. Chuck

Dates are now confirmed for 29 and 30 December. I am doing this for sure, so PM me if you want in.

um, no, not quite... i just felt left out w/ katie and chuck kissing on the other side of the table... I didn't actually expect you to follow through!! (but I'm glad you did, big boy!) Sinker is a STINKER! The boy ain't right!

It's very simple. My favorite teams are Auburn and ANYONE playing against Bama. War Damn Eagle, motherfuckers!

Since I got asked to do so by Zeemax, I am going to be running a BMI course at Z-hills over the christmas/new-years holiday. Katie and I arrive very-late the evening of the 27th and leave the 2nd of January, so I am willing to adjust the dates to suit anyone so long as it's a date good with Macca. It's a two-day course and I do not "give away" my ratings, so come prepared. Anyone not knowing the details of course prerequisites, pricing and any other stuff feel free to shoot me a PM. Chuck

That was NOT my idea.

Sinker showed up on our doorstep and demanded that he take Katie and I to dinner; we complied. Next thing you know 'ole Jed's a millionaire! Sinker is a STINKER. The boy ain't right. Chuck

Yes, the smoke will positively dye your suit. Red is the worst, but it shows up the best in freefall.

My oldest one is twelve years old now and is covered up by another one. My only regret is that I did not have the original one lasered off first. The cover up is a fantastic job (by Aaron Cain!), but it's pretty dark in some places. If I would have gotten a big enough tattoo in that spot in the first place I wouldn't have had to do that. It's a shame that the military didn't offer free laser removal back then. I would never consider removing any of the stuff I have now other than possibly the small one I have on the inside of my left forearm. Chuck

I have to add that Joey D'Annunzio has one now too (the next smaller one) and actually flew his an entire day before busting it too bad to fix. His new fuselage is on the way too! He was reportedly flying it so well that he was flying it through the trees at the DZ. Chuck

Tim Tennant and I both had a "crash-a-thon" at Raeford this weekend with our AeroBird Extreme electrics. It was great fun and the other people on the dropzone were fascinated that we could fix them up and get them flying again and again after some MASSIVE crashes. All total now, I have destroyed two complete fuselages (Tim's first is toast now too), three tails, and two main wings. We both just ordered new fuselages (they come with the motor and servos already installed), extra tails, and extra wings. As entire fuselages cost right at $50, I don't mind flying "too much plane" right now. I can drink fifty bucks worth of beer in a couple of hours in the bar and this is much more entertaining. Chuck

That's no worse than old "Chainsaw Trowbridge" jumping all weekend at the Hog Flop with an entire palm full of stitches. Perry is tough.

Yes, you can definitely get slag on your suit if you are jumping M-18 smoke, but who cares. Jim Wallace makes a decent bracket and the ones the GK's use is OK for multi can ops. So long as you have a quick release for it you will be fine. I am sure either Kevin Orkin, Scott Campos or some other techie will chime in with pics. Actually, there are pics of brackets somewhere already in this forum, so do a search. Chuck