SuperGirl

ok I finally moved my ass to graphically illustrate what I'm talking about. So to clarify what I was saying before, notice in the picture, there's a smaller grid. I placed it once somewhere near the front of the formation, and again somewhere near the back. You can move it around and center it on every single flyer in there, as much as is needed. Is that grid too large or too small? that's not the point... those are details one can determine later, by trying a few different things and determining the best one. The main idea to remember is this: if the first people are in their slots, but each of them is off by 2-3 inches, and the next row is off by another 2-3 inches relative to the people in front of them (in the same direction so it adds up), and so on, by the time you get to the end of the flock, there might be a cumulative error of all those added little inches that puts someone completely outside their square in the big grid, when that person is actually doing a great job flying their slot with respect to the people around them. Nobody from the back of the flock can see the accumulated error. Unless the camera guy above gives radio commands or something and lets everyone know what it looks like as a whole. The guy in the back of the flock can only see so far in front. So even though everyone can fly their box perfectly within normal expectations (a little error here and there is expected, that's why you've got 3 square meters to play with) the big grid can make it look not perfect enough... when in fact it is. Hence the suggested smaller grid that you can slide around. Maybe this can come in handy for future events. Regardless of all this nonsense, you guys pulled off an amazing record flock, the pictures are simply breathtaking to look at, and no nitpicking grid-bullshit can ever deny that. Like I was saying before... take a look at a picture from other records in this sport, e.g. the RW huge-ways, and try to fit a grid on that... good luck! They get away with it because they can hold hands... This flock was flown way more accurately than that. Now that's a real record! Great work, you guys!

if we're talking about ground shots, isn't Z be large enough to be negligible? I feel it's just like comparing (infinity) to (infinity+1)... not much difference there. on the other hand, on pictures taken by the camera flyers, such as Norman's picture (3rd pic in Spot's post above), I totally agree that there's Z distortion that needs to be compensated for. Although by looking at the average size of a wingsuiter in the back of the flock compared to the average size of a wingsuiter in the front of the flock, the distortion might not be as big as we think. kinda like polar coordinates? sorry, i might be completely misunderstanding this... but if you assign the slots radially from the base, wouldn't that give you an even more distorted result? flyers are aligned on parallel lines, not on radii of a circle. this would make sense if every single person was looking straight to the base in stead of in the direction of flight. also, if you use angle and radius in order to compensate for distortion from the lens, shouldn't the center coincide with the point the lens is focusing on and not necessarily the base of the formation? ------ Now here's another idea. Before everyone starts flaming me, I'm not trying to tell anyone how to do this, nor am I telling anyone they're wrong or right or whatever. You guys did an amazing job. It's the most incredible flock I've ever seen. I realize that since I wasn't even there I should probably shut up... but let me just throw this out there. What if, instead of using one solid grid for the entire formation, we look at each individual flyer's slot within a smaller region? Overall, we check that every flyer and all neighbors are in a locally correct pattern, but avoid dealing with summing up small errors that end up becoming larger errors by the time you're looking at the back of the flock. I really need to draw this to properly illustrate it, but think of it this way: say you have a 3 by 3, or 5 by 5 or whatever smaller grid. You overlap that grid with the front of the formation. Everyone look good? Cool. Slide that grid further down, considering another flyer as a base and look at that local set. Everyone look cool in terms of distances with respect to one another? Cool. Slide it further down... in this way, when you consider a wingsuiter's slot, the grid is centered on another flyer reasonably close to that person. You're still requiring people to fly their 3-meter square, the thing is that each person is flying that square with respect of those people around them, whom they can actually see, and not calculating where their square would be from the front of the formation. Another important thing to think about is that we need to have a model that allows for errors that are easily ignored in world records in other disciplines. Perhaps even a model that could be ported to an RW formation and still work fine. OK, we aren't going to be able to fly a docked 71-way (wow that would be wicked cool, wouldn't it?). But if you take the 400-way RW record and put a grid on it, are the people in the back going to be in proper slots according to such a grid? Even worse, try putting a grid on the Head Down record. Yeah right. Any formation breathes a bit, including those docked ones. And that's okay. It's really fucking hard to fly these things together. The difference is that when people are docked, you can get away with it. We need a model that is strict enough to enforce the idea that every flyer is in their correct slot, but flexible enough to allow for some of the natural breathing that occurs within the flock. That's how I see it. ok now I'll go and try to draw what I was talking about.

somebody should start planning for a 100way

ok, everyone together now... get ready... let's give Jeff a big, loud ****** HIM, HIM, F**CK HIM!!! ********

Holy shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! This is fantastic news, I am very proud of you all. Congratulations and lots of hugs to everyone involved. You guys are true bad asses!

awww man, the improvement in those formations looks awesome, you guys are too fuckin close to having it absolutely perfect! great work, all of you! keep it up!

and here is the direct link to the Monday video, for Jarno and everyone else who doesn't want to go through all the trouble of going all the way to Spot's blog.

oh wow. cool looking shot. love it.

hey, he did show us some aerial video... which was really bad ass by the way! you guys are looking good, can't wait to see the stuff at the end of today. show me a solid 71way!!!!! so true, man, so true

here's a picture of a sugar plum fairy. notice the striking resemblance to purple mike.

Spot, you're doing an excellent job documenting the event. Thanks for putting the time and effort into it... it's really cool for those of us who aren't in Elsinore right now... Keep up the good work, dude. more pictures, please

better stay away from his burble you don't wanna fall on top of that container for sure...

Burble Mike's username on here is Birdman_Mike. Try sending him a PM...

yeah, what he said. all you need is a good credit card :)

it's the best antidepressant whenever the shit really hits the fan. for me at least.

awww I wish meh... next time!

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Spot, i absolutely LOVE that wingsuit embroidery you got on there. That's one awesome looking rig.

nice lookin suit, dude

yes. we will all think less of you now. those who know morse code fly better, too.

way too funny

looks like my dream rig right there.

that is simply BAD ASS! love it.

shit, dude... I dunno... If I were you I would stop flying until I got one of them shiny certificates...

I get better performance with vmware fusion than with parallels.