VectorBoy

Be thankful that you are dealing with the FAA. Their mandate actually includes something about encouraging aerial commerce. If you were in Canada you would have to deal with Transport Canada, TC policy follows an ancient Royal Canadian Air Force tradition that requires paperwork to exceed the gross weight of the aircraft before they will issue an operating certificate. Be even more thankful that you are not jumping in Britain. British skydivers have work within regulations written by the CAA, which means Cancel All Aviation, er ... Civil Aviation Authority. The British gov't firmly believes that the best way to prevent aviation accidents is to prevent aviation. Or the US military who will not let you drop jumpers unless you think up a new "mean sounding name" for this variant of the same aircraft.

Those that think wingsuits are eventually going to get ousted from the sport 99.9% use events at Perris to backup their views. Perris is far from the model of wingsuit communities at other DZs, and it really shouldn't be thought of as such. All a matter of perspective, I guess. Well I would love to hear about the optimum model wingsuit community DZ as I will high tail it there with open heart, eyes and ears. I have much to learn and reserve my boogie spending on choice wingsuit destinations. Let the list begin. OUR SURVEY SAYS?

Its just a slit but the material is thick there due to the area being the backer for the little housing that the cuttaway handle slides into. The matter 2 ,as it has been explained to me, is designed to address all of the weaknesses in the design of all of the other Mono-wing suits. Matter wants to be a very customer driven company and greatly value input from all of the previous mono-wing users out there.

The perpetrators of both events were not from Perris but instead visitors with other home DZ's. The leg strap incident wasn't the first. The first one wasn't at Perris either and it happened years before BM came out to the west coast. This time I personally know the guy who it happened to. I would say he is a solid wingsuit flyer, a nice guy and have no reservation whatsoever flying a complex tight formation and take a dock on him ( oh yeah I remember now that is Exactly what we did for a few jumps a day or two after his incident )despite the leg strap bad press. He is human and his only mistake was maybe rushing on to a flock after taking a break from flying wingsuits and somehow ommited a very important gear item. Instead of getting on a high horse about it flockers should view it as really something to learn from. I've heard Pros say it about other pros that have gone in, "if it can happen to him it can happen to me". Now that's something to learn from. And In my opinion this flyer has more flight skill than some of the BMI's out there, could it be. If you know of any other bad events, incidents or bad habits due directly to the Perris area wingsuit crowd I would love to talk about it, in this open forum or via PM. For the most part we are a small self regulating group that takes care of it's own. When we go to other DZs the staff there is happy and never has had to overide foolish behavior or practices. And they should know because some of the staff has come along on rides with us. Perris was one of, if not the first, DZ to host a wingsuit flight operations area. Before Rantoul, before Eloy. But remember a DZ is fixed location, jumpers travel all over the world. Just to help those formally known as "the wingsuit world outside of Perris"with any further speculation. And I know some official BMI's may take my previous comments personal. Bear in mind that they were my comments but not my sentiments. They are the sentiments of a community of jumpers. I know its easy to attack the messenger and I don't take it personal at all. These sentiments were discussed by me with Chuck, Scott and Bettsy months before the new BMI program was enacted. I do believe you along with some of the other BMI's received some good BMI instruction at Chucks BMI class. Flyers that I respect have given the class the thumbs up in terms of value. The problem is that not every newly certified BMI has gone through this class, yes there still is some Gimme's out there ( probably outside of Chucks area of ops). This adds to BMI's out there self promoting with weak skills ( people skills and flight skills ) And some of the new BMI's also are conducting themselves, at other DZ', in such a way that bring out comments like Chris's above. I've had more than one wingsuit jumper from more than one DZ PM with issues about the BMI's behavior here or there. Bottom line if someone out there posts that they feel the BMI's are posturing or out to collect money instead of posting about all the fun they had on their fun first flight ( which I personally believe is fair to get compensated for )or at the whatever excellent organized flocking event than those particular BMI's are not "spreading the love", "Sharing the crack", or, in my humble opinion, not part of the cutting edge of the "new wing revolution" they are simply the part that gets thrown away.

Thanks Dragon I will look into it for mine

*** The wingsuit market is a very small fraction of the total skydiving market which is pretty small itself. The companies that actually make wingsuits have precious few employees outside of folks that are hands on productions. Some companies farm out production and are streamline sales and product support houses that can all be taken for a skydive in a C-182. Remember we are not talking about canopy manufacturer here. Who can absorb the costs of a bunch of DEMO gear in the field. In order to get the gear and quality first flight training out to the people the unseen costs to the volunteers has to be recouped somehow. The manufacturers can't afford to pay for this. And I couldn't expect a BMI to pay for this themselves. The BMI, for that brand of wingsuits, is how some of the volunteers do it. BM is probably the biggest WS maker and as some of the other makers out there grow and others come on the horizon They may choose different methods for these unseen costs. The definition of BMI and what it is all about gets clouded sometimes. The comparrison to an AFF instructor is weak. No WS instructor is gonna be able to fly down to Flailer/backspinner, grab them, right them and deploy for them to save their life. And this is exactly what an AFF I must be able to do. Freefalling, deploying and landing your equiptment must be mastered before you take your combination to the wingsuits. Its not the job of the BMI to fix your existing issues. The wingsuit mentor needs to explain the new challenges related to the suit and help with other traffic and navigation. Believe or not this is my biggest challenge with new ( for lack of a better word )students. You also cannot expect Airspeed/Alchemy's, who have tens of thousands of focused jumps, level of one on one coaching from a BMI unless that person has tens thousands of focused wingsuit jumps. Down here the initial batch of BMI's were so bad that they wouldn't be invited on later flocks for fear of them being dangerous. The word got out quick, save your money DIY on a borrowed suit. This practice still persists today with all but the people that haven't gotten the word. And there are plenty of spare suits floating around, few real BMI's past or present have spares. And, again down here, sadly the badge to this day is considered a joke.

I was under the impression that the campo was ONLY 2 intensive and fun days, after which everyone at the boogie could flock together. I could see where someone would want to work on their skills if they are not that current or get comfortable with a larger flock if they don't have this opertunity to fly with others at their home DZ. Or in the case of someone having all of the above wanting to fly with a pilot who has 2,000 + wingsuit jumps to take them to the next level. But I really need to know if the skills camp is an all exclusivo situation lasting the whole 6 days and separate from the jumpers that will just be attending the boogie and only have the weekend to play.

The Matter two has a dual teflon ( same material as your rigs ) cable per side. Mine is not here but I think it feeds through seven loop-grommets per side. The first cable goes through 3 loops, the second through the last four. This, it would seem to me, is to cut down on the resistance or pull force required. It is actually one cable folded back through a collar that creates the loop. Both cables stick out of two little slots on the chest . These two loops are attached to the cuttaway handle seen in your pic via a single french link. The Cuttaway handle has an internal stiffener that is seated into two slots covering the french link and yellow cables. To execute the cuttaway you simply grab the loop of fabric sewn to the handle and pull away from you. The french link must be (undone/ recoupled) and stiffener ( removed/inserted) to don the suit but only on one side and it is not hard at all. Its a small price to pay for a suit that can be removed from you rig via 4 short zippers instead of the bird-man cuttaway system. Which to some new wingers can be troubling and again for wingers with experience not hard at all.

Hey people, I may be mistaken but is the skills camp a mandatory precurser to the winsuit part of the boogie? I assumed that one could attend just the boogie portion, No? please get clarification about this out as several people have been asking me about that.

I hear you can skydive in it too. Ooooooh that skydiving suit. I heard about that one. Oh the delectable Ms Emma Peel .

Yeah, dump the patch. Then get rid of the tabs that connect the wings to the body (so what if most of them are behind the MLW). That's like SEVERAL square millimeters of parasitic drag. *** I already have, its called the Matter2. With its seamless transition between wing and body, sleak and sexy black neoprene and nylon.......Samokin!

I hope he doesn't go around blasting the "no tresspassing" signs full of pellets. That could get an object burned.

Steve I'll sell you my patch. Its a lot of parasitic drag for an S3.I'm sure I can achieve better numbers and faster glide without it.

You end up with a lot of shots of the backs of flyers unless you learn to backfly the exits and some shots thru the dive.

Post it Simon.

Send it in they will take care of you. If they charge you it will be minimal compared to getting another alti. Don't jump it without the lens as your needle can be too easily pulled off and lost forever and that part wouldn't be as cheap as a new lens.

Quotehey thats Brandy! Quote Brandy was my very besttest wingsuit student that weekend

Any applied goop may attract sand and grit which will make wear and tear worse.

Happy birthday Jake!

You mean Coors with red dye in it?

It depends, what kind of car do they drive?

I'm not sure if I agree with Paul's issue of hot summer days in a GA aircraft though. Although I shouldn't speak for Paul I'm pretty sure that he is refering to is airwork in the land of thermals. Out here we are lucky in that we can do back to back instrument full and failed approaches to a shared holding fix between up to three municipal airports and transition back again. If its that bumpy and your head is in the "hood" for a long session it could get "urpy". I've seen it get even tuff seasoned pilots. The heat has little to do with it.

Careful with that fear you are more likely than others to have a nasel corn kernel embolisim if you fight the urge when your body has that need.

Quote Seems to make life more interesting once in a while. Quote Yes and I love them too ....unless I'm camping at Rantoul.

You might consider scheduling later flights -- maybe make them night flights. There's less traffic to deal with and the thermals don't screw your attitude quite so much. It's not like you're ever going to be looking out of the airplane anyway. Paul's advice here is very good. While ATC is saturated with traffic and can't provide all of the services you would like to "players" during the daytime peak hours. At night some controllers become downright lonely and are willing to help a brother out. Night Time is a good thing to have in your logbook. JFK jr should have had more.