WingFlyer

Do you have a standup comedy routine we can buy tickets for?

Cool. The company that makes Optima confirmed that the unit is designed to be left on (I emailed them.) Looks like a great design. That's perfect. turn it on, stick it in and forget about it. Its nice that it does a diagnostic at 1,000feet which I can cross reference with a visual alti to ensure the audible zerod itself properly. One thing that bugs me are the canopy alerts. I want to set the lower alert to 200 feet to practice standard landing approaches (I'm not a swooper.) Why won't it let me set the final leg entry point to 200!!! Manual says minimum = 300....why?

Because stranger things have happened, and the manual makes no mention of it being setup more like a watch and designed to be left on. Another weirdness. even if it isn't really designed to be left on. I would rather drop 6$ for batteries every 6 months than have to peel and unpeel ear pads on my Mamba to turn it on and off.

Thanks Shane, can really see it well in the pic. Thanks also to Kolla. Luckily my DZO had a sample so I decided I like the color :) Thanks everyone.

Cool, thanks man!

Come on now cowboy. Have you RTFM? This isn't in the FM, which is why I posted in the first place. The manual just talks about manual on/off, and I don't know whether it's because there is no auto off or if its an omission. Pro dytter has auto off, and optima was released after that so I would be suprised if it didn't have som similar functionality. Ralph

Does the Optima automatically turn itself off? If so, what are the conditions under which it turns itself off? How about powering it on. Will it turn on automatically once the plane climbs, or does it need to be manually turned on while on the ground? If no DZ offset is needed, and it has auto-on functionality, is using that feature not recommended against for any reason? For example, is it safer to manually turn it on for it to zero itself on the ground before going up in the plane?

Called bonhead and they confirmed that mine is setup right, and that wear could become an issue at which point I may need to restic another velcro tab, or buy more pads. This would be a long term thing though. They also gave the suggestion that iambeav2 gave about cutting a slit. One last thing. He said his audible turns itself on and off automatically. I just got an Optima, and don't know if it does that. THe manual makes no mention of this...

The audible pockets in the mamba are on the back side of the ear padding pieces. In other words, the cavity faces the shell, not the ear, so your ear doesn't go into a hole. This means that to turn the audible on/off, I need to unpeel the ear padding piece to access the cavity. Do you guys put the ear pads on the other way around? Maybe I have them in backwards? Really dont think so. This is how I bought it and my rigger checked it out. It would be weird the other way around...the ear would go into a whole with rubber bands (which hold the audible.)

Thanks man! Very nice.

Hi there. I have a Mamba helmet. Love it. Just bought an audible and I'm wondering if upeeling the ear padding from the velcro holding it in place to turn the audible on/off for each jump will wear down the velcro attachment on the helmet, or the fabric of the ear padding very quickly. What's your experience with this? Hopefully my concerns are not justified.

I'm thinking of getting a PD canopy with Lemon color. Does anyone have a pic or video of this color? I want to see what the PD Lemon color looks like. It's used on some of their stock canopies looks like. Thanks!

Try this one, it's in english ;) http://www.gamegecko.com/basejumping.php

Forget all the digits after the decimal point...excel paste junk. I realize they are not needed.

Hi there, I'm a newbie and don't plan on flying a wingsuit until 200 jumps in 18 months. I did however mainly get into skydiving for wingsuit flying and love doing tracking jumps. I'm planning on getting my first rig sometime soon. I heard/read that a docile canopy is advised for wingsuit flying. If that's the case, then maybe I'll buy a less crappy main since I'll use it in the long term rather than selling it and downsizing. Here's some info I calculated with my weight (200lbs) I'm trying to decide between the 190 and the 210 Precision Fusion. I'm currently using a 210 canopy. Canopy WL 190 1.184210526 210 1.071428571 I realize this is a personal choice in the end, but any advice you can give on the differences this choice can make on using the canopy for wingsuit flying purposes would be great. thank you!

Well things have really gone well. I went for 1 after work jump to try to get a 45 in. What followed was the best day of my life. First off, I got lucky as stink and I was the only student with the instructor so up we go in the Cessna grand caravan. What a beast! I felt like I was in a rocket ship. We kept going up and up....my alti (goes to 12k) past 12, and clocked back around past 2k...we were pretty high up ;) Opened the door, spotted, and gave count for my first door dive. Perfect exit. I just dove right out of that sucker head first and absolutely loved every split seccond of it. Got stable and btoe really quickly. Backloop....awesome :) Felt like the dood in mission impossible when flaring out. Turns, easy :) Did so many I got dizzy. The instructor went flying around under me....looking up like 2 feet away :> At 6k, I threw in a little extra as planned. Turn 180 and try my first track. OH MY GOD. WOW. I tracked like a freakin bullet. I could hear the sound get twice as loud, and my suit getting pulled tight...more pressure on my head etc. it was freakin unreal. I tracked straight as a dart. Apparently, my instructor said he has only ever seen a few people track like that, and I'm a noob. I got further than two folks tracking away from each other apparently, but my instructor didnt track! I'm a tall (6'4) thin guy, so I guess I'm cheating :) On the ground, got further tips to tune the track. Up we go again. Nailed the forward loop...but what came next was even better. My instructor was so close I just went closer, he responed and docked. We did a two way all the way to 7.5k. We started a spin together intentionally and stopped on dime when we wanted to...Ibroke off to get my track on :> This time, I brought my shoulders up, cupped them and after getting good speed bent in a little at the waist (de-arch)....hot diggity!!!!! this stuff is unreal!!!!! I did even better that time. I could not believe the sensation. I felt like a bullet. Flaring out of that sucker was super fun too :> Again, got lucky and bummed a third 45 ride due to a cancelling. ANother 14k...sunset load this time....awesome. The day was already unreal but it kept getting better. Another perfect jump. Nailed the barrels and 360s...onto more two way fun before another monster track :) I also landed and literally nailed the X right in the middle. :) I will never forget that day...ever. It was capped off with beers and dinner with jumping buddies. wow......

Go over how the jump should go in your head. visualize. See it happen well. When youre eating, walking, before falling asleep etc. When you actually go do it, you'll be a machine :) It will be much easier. Rather than focusing on not screwing up next time you go, focus on the visualization and making the jump go like you pictured it. I'm sure it will be better this time. It's great you're sticking with it. Once you hit that first 45second jump, you will be so stoked you'll be grinning for a week straight.

Welcome to skydiving :) I'm new myself and went through the S/L course just as you did. The first couple of jumps I think you're brain just needs to learn to not freak out. Relaxion comes down the line :) You swam, I ran. I looked like I was trying to run back into the plane. It was hilarious to others :) I won't even spend lots of time giving you tips because I think you just need to get up there and do it more. Get used to the feeling a little. Telling you to relax is easier said than done, this I know. It will come though, it's all about number of jumps and breathing. Take a deep breath before letting go. Exhale and let go. You get less and less scared as you get more jumps, and it gets more and more fun. Pretty soon, it takes over your brain and you itch to jump again all day long :)

I'm cured!!!!!! Did two 15s, no kicking or swimming at all. I was actually amazed how peaceful and relaxed it was. Something I thought was really hard turned out to be super easy. I just took a deep breath as you advised (my instructors said the same) and mentally pictured dropping instead of thinking I'll be going Belly to Earth right away. Did the step exits, on heading, stable and just watched the plane until i was nearing BtoE and it was time to get on with the business at hand :) I had so much time that I did 3 turns first time, and 4 the 2nd and still had time to spare for the wave off. I can easily say I never had as much fun as those two jumps skydiving b4 (I've got 14 jumps in by now.) I was so relaxed and it was so cool seeing someone fly next to me. I used the instructor for 90 degree turn reference...it was awesome. I made it to 45-60 seccond freefalls. :> I'm not nervous about door dive or loops. Those will be tons of fun I'm sure :) I can't wait to get up there again!!! The clouds shut me out today, but I'm on for 2 jumps next friday weather permitting :) Turns out this skydiving thing is mostly mental (you'd think I would have figured that out earlier...) I took a week to visualize the exit, myself arching and trusting the arch while looking at the plane, and just simply relaxing and waiting...enjoying the fall. After countless visualizations, the jumps just came naturally. It was just as I pictured it...awesome stuff :):):):) I'm so stocked...thanks to all for the help. This is so awesome.

Glad you made it off the rope! Hope you get up there next weekend. It gets a lot more fun from here on in. I'm also fairly recently off the rope and have gotten my fair share of jumps postponed due to clouds :) Stick with it, it's worth it :)

>>Again, enjoy the progression! It's alot of fun! Certainly is, but this darned performance anxiety is 10 times worse than the fright I had jumping out of a plane the first time! ARgh! Mistakes are expensive and time consuming (and make you feel like a looser to top it all off.) I just need to relax, I got this far pretty quickly. 2 more good jumps and I'm on 45-60 seccond freefall. That's gonna be so awesome, I can't wait to feel freefall for so long. I love the feeling.

Thanks folks. I hope I'm already past this...we'll see next time. Last jump I didn't swim. Thanks for the explanation about the sensation of falling in the first few secconds resulting in the kicking skydave, that makes sense. It was also great to hear that someone with so much experience "Rode the bicycle" on a chopper jump. I guess you did it because you didn't have so much relative wind coming from head on to stabilize you, so you felt much more like you were falling? Again thanks all. I need to relax and enjoy that first couple secconds of the drop. I already totally crave the rest of the jump...I love feeling and hearing that fast wind so much...its so awesome being bellow to earth I love it. It's also very cool to see the ground getting closer, though not too close

Very cool that you're doing it with your dad indeed. I'm sure you guys will have a blast.

Hey folks, just thought I would drop a note. I've been reading a whole bunch and think this site is great. I'm new to skydiving, doing the static line progression. I've gotten to the 15 seccond freefall stage. I'm having an absolute blast and am totally hooked. I can't wait to do a 45-60 seccond freefall jump. Never done that (no tandems in my past.) That looks so awesome...I'm earning my wings:) Things have gone pretty well so far. Whenever I'm belly to earth, I keep a heading and don't chip. Pretty easy so far. The weird thing with me is on a couple jumps I've started swimming/kicking before feeling more wind speed and trusting the arch. I know, trust the arch sooner, and look up at the plane. I've done that and know it works. Just annoy myself that sometimes I still kick :) AAAhhh bad brain bad...just chill and arch :) I wonder why I do that. Guess I'm just trying to get Belly to Earth quicker (and I know thats not the way to do it.) Weird because I've jumped off 25 foot diving boards into pools steady as a rock. Oh well...I'm just visualizing the jumps more in my head away from the DZ, and burning into my brain that I should look up at the plane and trust the arch. Wow that was quite the ramble :) Sorry :)