Skwrl

Actually, that's not right. "Apache" was the name of a mid sized suit that Tony sold in 2006. It pre-dated the Mach (if my memory serves) was pretty much replaced by the Raptor. "Apache X" is the new suit, but since most people never saw or heard of the original Apache, people use the name interchangeably. I don't think there were many made. One of the packers at my home DZ has an Apache (the original one). I'll see if I can get a picture of it at some point. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Thanks. I'll check in with Jarno. I'm curious about the angles he's able to get with it. As for cutting holes in the suit, that's true, but it's relatively easy to make a small hole with a zipper that will handle the arm of the bel-vue. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Has anyone used one? I'm considering picking one up to capture weird angles. I'll either put a Contour GPS or a CX110 on it. Thoughts? Anybody have one they aren't using? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I think Howard meant to post this in the CRW forum, since that's what Mike Lewis does... Having said that, this is a rare opportunity for wingsuiters to jump a Caribou - there hasn't been one used as a jump ship in the north east since 1992. The Flock U guys will be out, and they're organizing some fun speciality jumps, including CRW flybys (yeah, they'll mention it to Mike first), smoke jumps, and more. I believe there will be first flight courses for those who are interested and a Flock U coach class. (Talk to the guys in Flock U to confirm that if you're interested in either.) The birdhouse kegerator has been restored to life and will be doing its magic after hours, and since I'm going to be there, there will be a metric ass load of fireworks. This being dropzone, let's start the list. Wingsuiters I already know will be there are: 1. Skwrl 2. Lurch 3. Matt Veno 4. Rick Hough 5. Justin Shorb 6. Joner 7. JP ... Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Now it looks like it will be a Caribou, not a CASA! Check it out: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4138331;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Jumptown in Orange, MA just announced they will have a Caribou for the Fourth of July Boogie (Thursday, June 30th - Friday, July 1st - Saturday, July 2nd - Sunday, July 3rd - and Monday , July 4th). This is an incredible aircraft that holds 43 jumpers, and not something that is regularly found at boogies! In addition, Flock U is hosting an event for anyone interesting in wingsuiting - including first flight courses and more advanced drills for folks trying to develop their skills. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

There's a little known wingsuit by-law that requires wingsuit camera dorks to be in yellow and black. See, e.g., the attached. We have matching canopies, too. Probably hard to believe, but none of that was planned. And yeah, Hoover's colors were grandfathered in. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Does anyone know if it was the same B17 that was occasionally made available for skydiving operations (for a fairly hefty lift ticket price)? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

There have been two completely unrelated Tonysuit wingsuit designs known as "Apache". There was one from about 5 or so years ago; I think it was before even the Mach 1. I recall jumping it in late 2007. (To confirm this, I went through my gmail and found a chat log from early 2008 where I was discussing the original Apache as a early/beginner suit, and mentioned that someone at the DZ I jumped at had one.) The other, of course, is the current suit. So, Tony and Jeff recycled the name, but what we now call the Apache is a completely different suit from what was originally called the Apache. Not sure how you want to reflect that in your table, Medusa. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I think what he's saying is you wrote "frommel" in there, and he thinks you meant "funnel". Most of us know what a "funnel" is, but a "frommel" is a new one to me (and I'd bet others). I'm pretty sure John Rich (what do you have these days, John, 5 million jumps?) would know if "frommel" was a generally accepted term.

It's not a brand name - if you watch a person do it, it traces out a shape like a "J". Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I took the lateral overhang off and then had to get a larger plate to deal with my new combination (T2i + CX550). Obviously, my vote would be to leave it alone unless you definitively know you won't need it... Ever. The front overhang was excessive for my arrangement, so it is trimmed to the brim of the helmet. I'd post pictures but I'm out of town without my gear. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

You know you're a skydiver if... Last night I got a text from a friend, which read "Osama is dead." My immediate reaction was, "Another canopy collision?!?" Granted, that thought only lasted a second, but... Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

So basically if the legstraps are undone then the yoke lifts up, is that right? The quick answer is "yes". The more correct answer is "it depends". It depends on if you're sitting, who is pushing up against you on the plane, etc. You need to make sure you stand up and aren't leaning on anything or touching anyone before you shrug (if there's something pulling on your rig, you might not notice). Best practice in my opinion would be to check on the ground after zipping up to feel the buckles through the fabric, and then doing a shrug in the plane to make sure you weren't having an Alzheimer's moment on the ground. But in my opinion, that's not enough. Feel the buckle again... Check shit three times. Seriously. If that's the one piece of advice I can give (and I ain't got much), listen to that one. Humans are predictably retarded. We get distracted, we lose focus. Checking stuff at least three times significantly reduces your chances of not noticing something important. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

There's this dominatrix I met who told me that once... Lies, I tell you... Lies... Anyway, for those who won't cry, I've got one day's worth of pics up from skwrl.smugmug.com. I was only at F&D for one day (I had a hard drive failure that completely hosed me on a project I had for work, so I had to bail and try to rebuild my work.) From what I saw it was yet again a fun, safe, and enjoyable event. It seemed to me to be one of the larger F&Ds in recent years (which has its pluses and minuses, I'd say). Overall, it was great to see and get slobbering drunk with a bunch of folks that I hadn't seen in a while. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Oh, I'm not "upset" - I'm not a sales rep and don't have a stake in the game. I got no preferences or brand loyalty - the next time I need a suit, I'll find whatever the best used suit I can get for the money, I don't care if it's made by Tony, PF, or Lurch. But what I was getting at is that it is like hanging out in Atlanta (where Coca-Cola's global headquarters are located) at a Coke bottlers convention and observing "Gosh, people must really prefer Coke over Pepsi..." Maybe, maybe not, but... Of course, if you want to give me a free suit, I'll happily say whatever brand you want is awesometastic, outflies Lear jets and makes my penis larger. I stand by my advice to the original post - try both before you buy, and fly with another experienced dude so you can get a better idea of performance. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Jeez, Jarno, so you're saying that, at a PF-sponsored event, where some of the PF reps have arrived early but not every one else has arrived yet, there are more PF suits than not? Shocking. To the original poster - yes, try both suits, but (if you can) try them while flying with another experienced wingsuiter so you can get a meaningful idea of performance.

Damn it, Matt, I had an elaborate practical joke worked out for you and I to pull on Scotty. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

An addendum to what I wrote before. I don't think that the formation that we pulled off is the best possible EVAR, but it's impossible to judge success or failure without criteria for success or failure (and to my knowledge, there was nothing else proposed other than the "pretty picture test"). I do believe that we wingsuiters should challenge ourselves to do better next time.... That's part of what will grow the discipline. (But of course that requires us to figure out what "better" means, dudn't it? I'm staying out of THAT shit storm, personally...) But I look at the vertical events and saw a bunch of wingsuiters who were able to pull together (more or less, judge for yourself the results by the pictures) a pretty tricky to fly formation that, to my knowledge hadn't been done by wingsuiters before. Skills demonstrably improved at the challenges, after a lot of effort was put in by the participants. It wasn't a record, for sure. But it was definitely a worthwhile project - in part because the organizers sidestepped some of the politics (I thought) by not calling it a record - and the events pushed the sport forward. -JPD P.S., Instead of "record holder", we should call participants "challenged". It seems sort of fitting for wingsuiters.

Oh. I read this thread before and was wondering "Why is Zach talking about this now?", but I get it - it's in response to my article in Parachutist. I think I am the last person in the USPA to receive his magazine each month. I called (and still call) it a "successful" formation because we successfully set out what we aimed to do in that event. Period. I wasn't involved of the planning of it, but I think it was called "Challenge" and not "Record" for a reason. I don't know about anyone else, but my goal in that event was (1) to have fun, and (2) to look good (or more accurately, my personal goal was to make you all look good in pictures) while you guys were having that fun. ( I suppose "safety" was in there somewhere, but that's my numbers 1 and 2, and I'll stand by them, as anyone who has jumped with me knows.) Anyway, I never heard about anyone wanting to match any grid or Gaussian equation for a geometric lattice or anything else. From what I understood, we were all supposed to look at a picture that someone took and go "yeah, that looks pretty!" or not. We got a picture of it that I think looks pretty. Could it look better? Fuck yeah, it could. So could most of my ex-es, but that doesn't mean I didn't love them. Is it geometrically precise? Of course not. I don't know (and to me it doesn't matter) whether it meets The Grid. It is what it is. Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I admit I may be biased about it - it is my picture after all. But I thought the picture that I took was pretty, so I called the formation a success. And people seemed like they were having a good time, notwithstanding the cold and shivering in the unusually cold Florida night, so I called the Challenge a success. Plus I got to make a wingsuit video of it using music from Dr. Who and people seemed to like that video, so I'm kind of surprised I didn't call it an "orgasmic success". I'm a geek like that. If someone needs objective metrics, that wouldn't have been the event for them. Could another bunch of 25 in the future get a better picture? Certainly possible, but we all learned it is a tricky formation to fly. But I've not heard anyone propose a binary (yes/no) system to judge vertical formations (for what it's worth, I'm not saying we should). But if we adopted such a system in advance, that would be different. If I wrote about an event that was set up with the goal of meeting those specific rules, then I wouldn't call it a success unless it met those rules. But this one had no pre-established rules for judging. Anyway, anyone who feels it wasn't a success is completely welcome to their opinion. I'm not going to debate it. I had fun. I (sort of) made you guys look good. Success. BTW, I didn't end up going for the CX that you recommended, I went with a different one (same price, I found it used). I'm concerned about the OIS, though - I thought you said you found it was OK, as long as it was "off", correct?. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Great work, as always, Matt. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Taxes are expressly authorized by the Constitution, and all taxes are a taking of property. As the Supreme Court explained in 1916: Brushaber v. Union Pacific R.R., 240 U.S. 1, 24 (1916). In Rev. Rul. 2005-19, 2005-14 I.R.B. 819, the IRS confirmed that the argument that the federal income tax violates the due process clause of the 5th Amendment is “frivolous” and reliance on it can result in civil and criminal penalties. The claim that “income taxation, tax withholding, or the assessment or collection of tax is a ‘taking’ of property without due process of law or just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment” has been identified by the IRS as a “frivolous position” that can result in a penalty of $5,000 when asserted in a tax return or included in certain collection-related submissions. Notice 2007-30, 2007-14 I.R.B. 883. Unless you are going to take the position that the Supreme Court is not the ultimate arbiter of what the law is in the US (pro-tip, it is, that was settled in Marbury v. Madison in 1803), you're dead in the water on this argument. Now, you may not think it's right, you may think it somehow runs afoul of the "Rights of Man", you may think it's dumb policy, whatever... All of that may be true, but that's not what the law is. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Hi all, I have a Vapor Wes Pro that I got recently, which I really like. I had been jumping it with a T2i and a CX110, but I recently got a CX550. The CX550 is significantly bigger than the CX110, for those who aren't familiar with it. When I originally set up my Wes Pro, I trimmed the plate to the top of the helmet (in other words, I got rid of the "lip" that surrounded the top of the helmet). The lip had an overhang of probably 1/2 inch (1.27 cm) on the left and right side of the helmet. I now need that space back because the CX550 is so damn large, so I'm planning on buying a new carbon fiber plate that I will bolt to the existing plate. The new plate will overhang the side of the helmet slightly (like the one from the factory does, probably a 1/2 inch on both sides). The question I have relates to the carbon fiber plate I am going to get. The existing plate is about 1/8 inch (0.31 cm) thick. Is there any reason to go larger for the plate that will be more exposed to the air stream (i.e., the overhang). I can also go a lot smaller with that plate (e.g., 0.059 inches). I'm assuming that wouldn't be a good idea due to the potential shear forces on it (two expensive cameras attached to it with quick releases). Any thoughts? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

If that were even remotely true, the only thing that would be able to harm my sperm would be green kryptonite. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I am curious if this is the same basic thing as the Tonysuit safety sleeve. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork