VectorBoy

I spent an entire reserve re-pack trying to convince a jumper w/ 200-ish jumps that hook turns with a Stiletto 135 isn't a good idea at this point. He simply didn't believe me. He has since hit vry hard, missing some paved ground only by hitting on one side and landing on the other. Derek If you would have been succsessful in the convincing of this stilletto hooker and every S&TA in the world was also succsessful simultaneously of doing the same to the new fresh underskilled canopy pilot. You would collectively have an effect on mearly a fraction of the jumpers in danger. Even very skilled swoopers drop a toggle now and then. Even experienced AND conservative canopy pilots compound their problems with a PANIC response to a situation that could have been a piece of cake otherwise. Have you examined the latest fatality demographics. What worries me is an attitude out there that because a jumper has chosen not to delve into the high performance or greater wing loaded side of canopy flight they are some how in less danger Than the guys that do. I had a few conversation about this very thing in Eloy. Anytime your canopy size isn't matched to your canopy skills, regardless of the size of either, you are indeed in a great deal of danger, equal to the person with a little more skill and a few square feet less. Actually we are in a great deal of peril anytime we strap on a rig and climb on a jump plane. It shouldn't take a broken body before our eyes to snap us out of euphoria and make us "think" about what we have chosen to do with our afternoon.

QuoteWell put. Perris is a cornocopia of air traffic. I was constantly looking around for those airborne cuisanarts Its not just around Perris. The entire west coast, east coast, gulf coast are air traffic saturated. When I was learning to fly in the north midwest you could go someplace without seeing another plane for hours. Out here you are talking to controllers at the rate of an auctioneer!

Exactly. So does that mean your going to get the Strobe light and Ident. option on your next suit? After seeing some of the cool crazy colors flockers are getting, you know the next one will be disco reflective pimpOrama. No more of Jari's handme downs for me brotha.

What, he wasn't granted the high speed tower flyby? Thank you for sharing.

Like I posted on another thread, the NOTAM that we jumpers work under is an advisory to other airmen pilots that there is parachute activity in the area. Just an advisory. They do not have to give the right of way to jumpers the same as they can fly into MOAs- military operating areas- without giving way to fighter jets doing training. This is in regards to the airways in America and I can not speak for the services provided in other countries in terms of flight following and separation. Is it smart for a pilot to just fly recklessly into an area with jumping activity or jet activity? Hell no ! Legal yes. At Perris the wingsuit and tracking area is on the east side of the normal jump run, clearly defined on a large map outside of manifest, easily discernible at full altitude by the use of roads as the boundary marker. Still it is right next to the fairly busy March AFB ( most commonly used ) Southern approach. I have flown alongside a fighter jet by a few 100 feet in my wingsuit before. We are lucky here as the jump pilots receive pretty good flight following, traffic separation and "holds" due to commercial air traffic in the area from ATC. But what no one is expecting is an electronically invisible wingsuit jumper skirting along horizontally half a mile from the traditional jump run. Not ATC, not even pilots that have decades of experience operating around traditional parachute jumping activities. Just now some jump pilots are getting a taste of the area that can be covered by a wingsuit. See and be seen!

You had your hand on my leather-panted ass and you tried to see me naked. There, I restored your boogie slut reputation. Are you happy now? You say that like it is a bad thing?

I call bullshit!,...... But I still love ya!

Yup, I couldn't agree more and the openings only hurt..... a little.

I love the diablo, but the diablo and the stilleto would be my last choice for a wingsuit main. A crossfire or cobalt would be OK as long as you have perfected deploying these before you ever jump on a wingsuit. I jump a cobalt or two with the wingsuit but I had a hundred jumps on them before my first wingsuit jump. Spectres are great for wingsuits but not if you want the glide of the 9-cell. Sabre2 is good and little more tame than the x-fire, cobalt for deployments in a wingsuit. Demo some semi-elliptical nines before you dable in full elliptical nines. Your ability has almost as much to do with good deployment under a wingsuit as the right canopy for wingsuit flight.

What is a stack pack? Is that like a flat pack?

Whats next having sex on all of your wingsuits on your bed like on all of the coats on the bed at christmass time?

I have about 200 wingsuit /cobalt jumps on two cobalts, sone at 1:4 and most on the second at 1:6. The smaller one opens like its on rails with no heading change and with one exception softly. Whenever I start to have divergent openings I can, with some help, trace it back to lazy or over vigerous throws or less than perfect body position on deployment. By divergent I mean heading changes of more than 30 degrees or line twists. At Rantoul I was experiencing a batch of bad openings that SM1 helped me cure ASAP. When I deploy in the proper position for wingsuit deployment, just a little extra attention to detail that the wingsuit demands is all, I am rewarded by my cobalts.

In this case seeing the plane shouldn't be so alarming. I have flown similar patterns with jump aircraft many times. Sometimes the pilots are fascinated by the birdman facet of the sport and want to watch for a while after you exit. At rantoul a six man flock we were in was heading straight for the arizona skyvan but I personally felt in no great peril as we saw them first. Once our leader changed heading everything was wonderful. The danger is when you and the aircraft don't see each other, as in the Perris strike. Descending aircraft , wingsuit looking around but not forward and "up". I don't typically look "up" as this would arch me and spoil an otherwise proper flying body position. We as jumpers loose sight of the fact that the airspace we jump in is not PROTECTED. It is not a control zone victor airway or a military restricted airspace. All of the S.O.P.s we come up with are to protect freefallers from each other small groups to large, slow fallers to fast. and with the use of wingsuits now, its bird-man from the planes they just left and the one in trail on the other jump run. Thats it. WE never know about or have forgotten that the airspace we use is free for anybody with a medical certificate and enough money for fuel for an ultralight to a military transport jet to do just about anything they want in. Dropzones post a NOTAM which is just a notice that there will be parachute activity in the area. Unless your are in Seal team six jumping at groom lake you have no guarantee, nobody else has to grant jump run or wing suiters the right of way. Its just an advisory. Remember the Bomber footage from the two freeflyers a while ago? How many times have you been on the DZ and witness a low flying small craft cross the DZ? I've seen it plenty. And guess what its perfectly legal. I wouldn't do it but it happens. Most DZ share space with other general aviation or sport aviation activities. It could get crowded with ultralights, gliders, balloons, fire bombers, acro-batics and agro-sprayers. Now jumpers and the rest have got along ( well almost ) for while now and almost know what to expect. I say almost with a smile. Now enter the wingsuit.....TA DA! Think of how many jumpers or jump pilots have never seen one. Ever or know what they can do. Or know what to do around one other than say oohhh, ahhhh, cool. Now take that same train of though outside the jumper community to the sport aviation and rural commercial aviation world who expect to see jumpers only directly over the grass landing (if they even care) area and not two miles out at 10,000 feet traveling at 100 MPH back to the DZ. If you find yourself doing some jump plane R-dub don't panic, you see you avoid. It will be a skill of great value to you in the case of pleasure flocking and an emergency situation. The pilot knows you are out there. In time things will get better, more refined. In the mean time keep your head on a swivel for all of the other traffic out there that doesn't know you from a UFO and will panic!

Its re-election fluff, nothing more.

Yes I have but I wasn't going with the river flow. I was on anchor retrieval duty and had to fight the current. What a work out!

I'm not sure what that means. Is that even a word? Sorry meant aerobatalicious. New word really, normally reserved for sukois, xtras, way customized pitts or anything with a symetrical airfoil, way overpowered, inverted oil system equipt, ridicoulous strong pilot harness sporting aircraft. Rarely used to describe a nylon suit.But you get what I mean, dontcha?

I used to just lick the face sheild Ya but at Eloy the licky part would have just frozen over.

Is this the one that is rumoured to be more acro-dynamic?

Perris's Boogie on the colorado river. Right in a casino with its own beach and marina. I heard its a party within a party. Lost prairie. Friends recommended that over WFFC last year and this year I have to investigate. And locking for anything south of the border. No more bad weather boogies!

Forget sex, I wanna see someone take Beer into the tunnel!

No kiss pass but this is a challenge in a wingsuit. Still, I'm sure I had a rodeo lick the back of my helmet.

Now then for the other part....in this thread please let me know what can we do better? what would you like to see incorporated for next year? Quote Manifest could use some computers when it gets this busy but I'm spoiled rotten with this at home. There were some errors and confusion that PC based dispatching would cure. Despite not having them they did a fine job with a few exceptions. Few but noticed.

Plan on going into a downward spiral a few times until you get it and maybe a few times after. Nothing to be alarmed about but you may need to have some separation or be on a solo. Its easier if you are good at backflying and can stay relaxed.

Yes but if pretty little fish come up and kiss your face in your wingsuit its Hypoxia demensia.

No Senator, I do not recall where that photograph was taken. That would be the DC-3 JP, I hope you didn't get any of the main gear hydraulic fluid on your drunck asses.