cpoxon

As Robert said, not a lot of text. Wasn't going to pay £3.99 for the pleasure of scanning that. Luckily it's on the Wired website Accompanying images: FT_wingman_1 is by Patrick Barton and is sub-titled, "Aarns wings it." FT_wingman_2 is by Dädalus Service and sub-titled, "Test jumpers Christoph Aarns(right) and Patrick Barton get ready for take off wearing the 9-pound Skyray." Quadruple the freefall time? Either Michael has only done a tandem or an AFF jump or the Skyray can fly for a lot longer than 2 minutes :-P Only four DZs in Germany? DZ.com lists 28 Don't get the bit about the velcro. Where was it initially? On the wing or the rig? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

I wonder who/where? :-P Although he does appear to be jumping a non-BirdMan wingsuit in the other pictures on his site...

http://www.panasonic-europe.com/d-snap/

Doh! Put skydivingvideos in the link, not movies. Correct link You could say that!

Easier hike :-P. Seriously though, no real reason. It just worked out that way with the group I was with and the exit points we were jumping. The exit point may be better on the other side of the valley but is there any difference in altitude? Yes, I remember now :-( Guess I'll just have to toughen up or wear a neck brace!

From Section 8-2 (Achievement Awards) Sub-section C (General Requirements) I'd quite like to apply for a USPA award when I've achieved one so it looks like my BPA license will be accepted instead (I've never applied for a USPA license. I wonder if obtaining another countries license, or the FAI International Parachuting Certificates of Proficiency (which I don't believe requires a night jump) could be a way around this. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Another nice pic

On Monday I made my lowest wingsuit BASE jump from exit point 2 of the Rhino-esque object in the Swiss valley, which is approximately 1600 feet to the landing area. I can safely say it was the scariest thing I've ever done! I put myself under a lot of stress because of this jump. The main factors being the exit, the flight, the altitude and the deployment. So basically, pretty much everything! The wingsuit jumps I've done before in Italy and Norway have had much nicer exit points. This particular exit point is not normally a problem in good conditions. However, slick wingsuit booties (note to self - put grips on soles of booties), a sloping, lightly scree-covered exit, my lack of finese and abundance of nerves conspired to prevent me from getting close to the edge! Even with miniscule steps, I felt like my feet would slip out from underneath me at any time. Bizarrely, I felt more comfortable taking a couple of full steps (as much as you can in a wingsuit) to get a good launch. I guess, once I was going I was committed and better to fall forwards than backwards! I've done over a hundred wingsuit skydives, more than half of which on my Skyflyer, and apart from a few early flights I've never had any problems with deploying. However, deploying only a few hundred feet from the ground and having to get around a larger wing such as the Skyflyer is, to me, a large psychological factor! The jumps I'd done before were from 4,000 and 3,000 feet. Plenty of time to sort any exit problems out. An exit from 1,600 feet would give me much less time. I wondered how quickly I'd be able to get the suit flying and how far I'd get from the cliff before deployment. If I had a bad exit, and bad deployment, would it be enough? So, how did it go? Not bad. I had a good exit. The flight was reasonable, although it didn't really feel like it was starting to move until the last couple of seconds. I don't know if this is poor flying on my part (my natural flight seems to be slow descent rate rather than high forward speed with a steeper angle and I'm still working on rectifying that) or a factor of my exit weight (210 lbs) and the suit style - could I get a smaller suit flying faster? My delay was approximately 11 seconds with a reasonable opening height of a few hundred feet (10 seconds from this exit point without a wingsuit is a healthy delay). Pretty pathetic by Robi, Outrager, Little Aussie or Man In Black standards! My opening was "positive" (in fact, I can still feel it) so my forward speed must have been building. How can one safely flare out a suit at low altitude in order to get a reasonable opening? Maybe you can't and just need to toughen up! When I landed, it was with an overwhelming sense of relief. At the time, I wasn't sure whether it was worth it. Did the gains outweigh the effort? Why do we do things like this? In reflection I'm chuffed that I faced up to a personal challenge. As with anything, it is a progressive stepping stone. I can see that there's a lot to work on and a great deal of room for improvement. I'm looking forward to improving on it. I'm even starting to realise that it was fun :-) Thanks to JB for the moral support and the filming on what was only his third wingsuit BASE jump (but then, his second one had been a 45 second delay from the Mushroom a day before!) Also thanks to BirdMan, Morpheus Technologies and Consolidated Rigging for the awesone tools. Attached are some pictures and you can download a short video of the exit (requires QuickTime) Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

5 on an SMG? Pah! How about 4 on a G-92!! This was at Sibson though. And we got 15,400. And it was bloody freezing!

I've jumped at all of those DZs and I've not failed to have a good time at each of them (even Headcorn!). Each DZ has it's own Pros and Cons, even my personal favourite, Langar. I suggest you try them all out! Just be aware that some DZs will be closed during the winter (i.e. Weston) and some DZs will have a seriously reduced/non-turbine lift capacity e.g. Sibson)

I assume this is the article to which you refer? http://www.lematin.ch/nwmatinhome/nwmatinheadsport/sport_divers/base-jump_dans_dix.html

None yet, but then I've only done 32. Had one girl start to throw up but I got the sick bag to her in time and turned it downwing so none went on me. Just had another idea for a poll, is John creating Tandem polls to encourage the creation of a new forum? :-P Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Sorry, no Tandem Masters, only Tandem Instructors :-P Off the top of my head, I can only think of half of them (sorry guys): Steve Apps Dane Richardson Aron Jones Arron Hearsum Mick Cooper Andy Parkin Ian Charnock Wolfie Max Hurd Tommo + Grant Steve Blee Andy Goodall Dave Luke Dave Skinner Martin ? Pete Maclaughlin Me! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Pussy! :-P And how long does your Cessna take to altitude? Bet you had a nice long rest then :-P

Were you packing for yourself Dave? Probably a bit warmer where you are too...

Incredible! His shoulder muscles must be bigger than his thighs!

Sorry, another thing that isn't clear from the poorly written article. 255 tandems were completed. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Sony have announced the new handycam featuring a 3.3 megapixel CCD, the DCR-PC330 Looks good...

I'm very pleased to be the one to report about this story since I was one of the 31 Tandem Instructors taking part in this attempt. With only 24 tandems to my name (the most I'd done in one day before was 4, hell, the most skydives I've done in one day before is 8) I endeavoured to complete 8 in one day along with 30 other instructors. I was packing for myself too. Hard work but well worth it. Just to clarify a few points in the story, the aim was for the most number of tandems in a day. They weren't RAF planes, they were Steve Swallow's G-92s (Do-28 with super engines) from Hibaldstow. And the exit altitude was 10,000 feet. These planes can each go to 14,500 in ten minutes. You can imagine it didn't take very long to get to 10k! Barely had time to tighten up the straps before exit. It was a fantastic day. The vibe was excellent. Everyone one was great and well up for it. The DZ worked really well and all went smoothly. No mals (a couple of snapped lines). One minor injury (sprained ankley). Wheels off was at 8am and they were all done before 5pm. With 3 hours of daylight left a lot more could have been done but we'd run out of students (a few even went back up for a second go). £100,000 raised is just staggering. Having said that, I do wonder what other dropzones have done. I don't think there is a record because no-one has claimed it. Guinness mentioned on uk.rec.skydiving that Cross Keys recently had 200 tandems booked in for the day. I wonder if any of the large busy turbine DZs in the States have done anything similar? Copy of the article:

Neptune Owner's Home Page Manual Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

This would make a great poll for the new Tandem forum ;-) Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

http://www.msnbc.com/c/0/172/583/ssmain.asp?fmt=child&sld=2&res=10x7&0ss=N281172583

I think you are both wrong :-P Look to me like he's wearing two harness/containers. The McConkey rig is under neath his freefall rig as it would take up very little space without a canopy in it. Edit: Added a grab from the video where you can clearly see two legstraps around one leg. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

A friend of mine has told me he is getting a "Sugar Glider" wingsuit after seeing it in action in Norway. He says the wings are bigger than an S3 since they go from wrist to ankle as opposed to in at the hips on the BirdMan suits. He says it is very well made and uses all zips to rig the suit to the container and is very quick to do. There is a cutaway for the arms and it is located under the chin. My friend says it is "slower" than an S3 (but as we know, slower isn't always the best measurement). The bad news is that is isn't widely available yet. It is apparently being produced by "Sean" from South Africa. Anyone know anymore? Any pictures?

Sorry, missed this after the event. Felix was interviewed by Peter Sissons on the "BBC Breakfast with Frost" just prior to the Flugtag. From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast_with_frost/3120713.stm This article allows comments. Anyone care to set the story straight?