Skwrl

The picture is of the expression I made when I read that quote. We flock with big suits all the time - if you have a big suit, you just need to have others with big suits that know how to fly them in the flock... Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

There is nothing wrong with the CC1 helmets as top/side mount designs go, but I am trying to top mount both my still camera and video camera. In fact, if you were looking for a general use, all around helmet for wingsuiting (and other stuff), I would recommend the Tonfly CC1 in a heartbeat. It is lightweight, very comfortable, and well built. It has a very good/reliable cutaway system that I tend to trust. Overall, Tonfly makes a great product. (And it just so happens I'll be selling mine.). I'm just looking for a top of the line helmet for dedicated photography and videography. Currently I have my still camera top mounted and my video side mounted. I have noticed a little shake on my video when I shoot video for tandems. It occurs because the camera box is in the windstream The problem doesn't happen when I wingsuit, but I want to have one solution for both. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

A question for you all: I'm looking to get a top mount helmet, and I'm trying to choose between Bonehead Composites' Flat Top Pro and Skysystems' Vapor Wes Pro. I will be using it principally for wingsuit video and stills, with an occasional tandem filming now and then. I currently jump a Tonfly CC1, with my still top mounted and a side mounted video camera. I am already familiar with the "turn your old helmet in and get a discount" deal that Bonehead is offering; I'm really just curious to hear about differences in quality, design, use, etc. (So, for the purpose of this question, disregard any differences in price.) I did a search but nothing particularly useful to me came up. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I'm not going to say Tony's accent is the easiest for us Americans to understand, but I could understand the confusion. I'm not a Tonysuit rep, but I think that they offered a modification for the Eagle's wings that gets rid of the webbies and puts in a safety sleeve for around $150. The modification that you seem to have been expecting is the "-bird wing" modification (e.g., turning a Raptor effectively into an R-bird). That's $400 (or at least it used to be, the last time I asked). It includes basically involves creating brand new wings for the suit; the old wings are removed. I have no idea whether it's even possible to do on an Eagle, though... So if you asked for a modification to your Eagle's wings, Tonysuits might have thought you wanted to get rid of the webbies (which quite frankly I think is a good idea), but not completely replace the wing. Again, I'm not a Tonysuit representative, and I could be dead wrong, but that's my limited understanding. I'm sure someone can chime in if I'm wrong. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Giselle is rolling out her prototype for Lurch to try? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Nah, I'd never recommend suing for something like that. Just send a nasty but well worded letter. People either stop doing the bad stuff or send a token amount back (I'm guessing in the range of $100). And to be clear, I'm not advertising my services. I did it for Matt for free because it's fun to use my powers for good and not just evil. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

That's not correct. Trademarks designate a source of goods; the theft here is the image itself, which is protected by copyright. You could recover lost profits and statutory damages. Copyrights arise from putting pen to paper, you don't need to register them (unless you actually want to sue someone). If you can track down the seller, we can send him or her a nasty-gram (a demand letter) asking for some kind of compensation. I helped Matt Hoover do something like that when a newspaper published a few pictures of his without his consent.

No, but I just figured out what I'll be doing the next time I say, "Hold my beer and watch this..." Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Not that I care (I'm not an instructor nor will I become one, nor do I have any involvement in the PFI program - I don't even own a Phoenix-Fly wingsuit), but why do people keep referencing this boogeyman? USPA made pretty clear that there is very little support for a USPA WSI rating. It ain't going to happen, at least any time soon. As an aside, I thought many of the people bitching about the PFI thing on this thread hated the idea of a USPA WSI rating, too. You can't win with some folks, I guess - even when you give them what they wanted. (A mandatory program got switched to be non-mandatory because of feedback; the program being USPA-driven got switched to manufacturer-driven because of feedback; the documents being "open source" got switched to being proprietary, etc., etc.) And yet people bitch anyway... I'm utterly convinced that you could offer free beer and hookers for all and some of you guys would bitch that the beer isn't your favorite brand, wasn't cold enough, or that there aren't enough midget tranny hookers for your needs... By the way, someone complained that PFI wasn't putting the materials on line, and that this wasn't "in the interest of safety". The original project, which was to make the WSI rating into a USPA rating, resulted in the attached document. It gives lots of information about wingsuit flight instruction, but like much of the SIM, it's written in a dense and hard to follow format. It has been superseded and is no longer part of any proposal, but it still contains information on running first flight courses. As for PFI not disclosing their material for free, why should they? It's their intellectual property and they should be able to do with it as they see fit. If you wanted it to be freely disseminated, you should have supported it being run by the USPA, which doesn't have a commercial interest... Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

A year ago tomorrow, our brother bird Steve Harrington had a tragic accident following the last jump of the 68 way in Elsinore. Many of you jumped with Steve and knew the measure of the man - a quiet, unassuming guy who wanted nothing more (and nothing less) than to fly his wingsuit. He wasn't showy. He didn't care if there were cameras running or whether the jump was a "boring" small flock or a record. He just loved to fly. On November 21, 2009, just a few of Steve's many friends got together to fly a missing man formation in his memory. The video from that day is here: http://www.vimeo.com/8228284 and a memorial page about Steve can be found here: http://flockuniversity.org/steve I, for one, miss him. We will not see his like again. Blue skies, Steve. -J To the mods: I know that there's other places for memorials and blue skies, but as I've said before, wingsuiting is a community within a community and this post would be lost there. I ask you to make an exception on this one. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

In my opinion, that person should not be jumping with a camera if he misunderstands his gear and his emergency procedures as poorly as that. The RSL/camera debate has raged for a long time, but at the VERY least your pal should know that putting a camera helmet on means you must adjust your EPs in the case of certain malfunctions. Simple example: steering line tangle on camera resulting in spinning twists... must cut away helmet first or risk almost having your neck broken. Skyhook or no, your guy is a danger to himself. Having said that, I love my Skyhook. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

01 - Scott Bland 02 - Macca 03 - Robert Pecnik 04 - Jarno Cordia 05 - DSE 06 - Tom van Dijck 07 - Butters 08 - Mike Miller (maybe) 09 - Skwrl 10 - Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

That looks a lot like the twists I would get when I would have bad body position (i.e., a turn) while deploying in a wingsuit. Were you still tracking at deployment? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I'll likely be out Sunday (assuming weather is good, etc.); unfortunately, I have something going on Saturday. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Let's assume, solely for the sake of argument, that you're correct. So how does that apply to families (of whatever shape, size, composition, etc.) without children? Using your rationale, non-reproducing groups of people should be able to form whatever marital arrangements they consent to, but in the case of folks who do reproduce, separation and divorce should be much, much harder... Am I reading you right on that? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Thanks, Spot. I appreciate the effort. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Yep. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I know that this is listed in the wrong forum, but I'd also bet that 95% of you never look at the parts of dz.com where this should go. Since wingsuiters are a community within a community, I'm hoping the mods will let this post stay here. I'm missing my old Tonysuit Mach 1. I jumped it earlier in the year, but between a couple of moves (divorce is fun!) and a lot of travel this summer, it seems to have gone AWOL. It's an old suit with a lot of wear on it, I'm told it's ugly as Hell, and it has the old (non-"bird") wing, so it's not worth a whole lot, but it was my first suit and it has nostalgia value to me. $400 reward for its recovery; no questions asked. It's black, with a red front and trim tape, and has a neon green swoosh/stripe on the wings. A picture of it can be found here. http://skwrl.smugmug.com/Skydiving/Pepperell-July-25-2009/9052770_36cY5#602558799_jVNno Thanks. Edited to bump the dollar amount up. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Hahahhaah.... No, but it's all the information I got. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Since all DZ.com threads get into speculation mode, I figured I'd share the following info that I got from a friend of mine. "only thing I know from what [AFF instructor at Pepperell] told me was a newly a-licensed visiting [Nearby DZ] jumper. using student 240 gear, low pull, vigil fire, 2 out, in trees near horsefarm. one of the news stories said they just got him down and he went to hospital... " For what it's worth, I've jumped on and off at Pepperell for years now, and I think it has more safe outs than any other DZ in New England (which, as you'll see, doesn't really say much). Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Clarification question: does one need to have a teaching certificate to use the "challenge" option? I could imagine that there exist people who have decent pedagogical skills other than state certified teachers... As I sit here thinking about it, I'm not sure that it's such a good idea to waive the Coach requirement, because skydiving instruction is different than many other types of instruction. For example, I teach a couple of law school classes. I have to talk about areas where different bodies of law (e.g., patents and contracts) intersect. It's complicated, nuanced stuff, but I think my students get it by the end. However, I wouldn't feel as comfortable suddenly being put in the role of, for example, Driving Instructor. Driving is a Hell of a lot easier than patent law (at least I think it is), but the skills that I use to teach abstract concepts (like patents) are a lot different than the skills that are needed to safely drive a car. One is abstract, the other is kinaesthetic - the brightest student in one setting might not be the best learner in another setting. Now, having said that, if someone were an aviation flight instructor, taught a Skip Barber-style racing school class, or taught any number of other things that involve bodily responding to a higher stress situation, I could easily see giving him a pass on that requirement. But if someone shows up with a Kindergarten teaching certificate, I don't necessarily know that he's really mastered the same skills. [Insert joke about skydivers are kindergartners here.] Just a thought. Per usual, I have no real dog in this hunt. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I'm going to tell this story that I've told before because I think there's a lesson in it. I'm not directing this at any particular person, but it relates to the "can you get your helmet off fast enough?" question. When I was at around 210 jumps, I started jumping a Sony CX7. This was before GoPros and Contours were available. I got a shiny new 2K Composites helmet. Clearly, I knew what I was doing, because I had more than 200 jumps, right? Well, it turns out the video was crap, because I never knew where to have my head pointed. So I did what anyone would do - I added a ring sight. Because I wanted it to break off, it was attached with a nylon bolt and nut. So no shit, there I was, at the end of an otherwise uneventful free fall. It was probably my 225th jump. I pitched, and as I was in line stretch, the steering lines caught on the ring sight. My head was pinned to the side, but I actually couldn't tell what was going on at the time - all I knew was that my head was twisted to the side, it hurt, and I was in a serious spiral. I panicked. I knew I didn't have a good canopy over my head, so I did what I was trained to do - for my first cutaway! So I went "Reach red, pull red, reach sil-FUCK!!!!" The main canopy had detached from my rig (as it was supposed to do) and my RSL (different conversation, yes, but we'll talk about that later) had released my reserve. Great situation, right? Except the main was still attached to my helmet. And my helmet was still on my head. I had a horseshoe because I was a dumb ass and didn't seek out good advice before putting a camera helmet on. I never asked an experienced camera flyer how I should change my emergency procedures. And when the time came, I was too busy panicking and remembering my AFF training to think "shit, I need to cut the helmet away!". So no shit, there I was, my weight suspended almost entirely by my neck. For those without a medical background, this is an ill-advised thing to do. By just about all accounts, I should be dead. Thankfully, the helmet itself gave way. It basically failed - the cutaway was never pulled. It was just too much strain on the helmet. I was really, really lucky. The video helmet and camera were recovered, still attached to the main. The last 2 minutes of footage show it spiraling under a (main) streamer - and documented the fact that I was an idiot. * * * So when I hear about inexperienced jumpers putting on a GoPro and not worrying about it, all I can say is that I hope the Fates like you as much as they seemed to like me that day. If you INSIST on being a dumbass like I was, then (a) get a camera helmet that has a cutaway; (b) talk to an experienced camera guy about how you're going to change your emergency procedures - and practice them in the hanging harness; (c) spend time with gaffers tape to do your best to minimize snags; and (d) wear an audible, because you ARE going to go low as a result of "trying to get the shot" (that's another story) - it's a distraction because you will NOT "turn it on and forget it" (that's as big of a lie as "just the tip"). * * * Good luck and be safe, all. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

For a presentation I'm working on... What year did the PCA ban wingsuits? (The block of text I found on it was “No wings, cloth extensions, or other forms of control surfaces may be used without written authorization from the main office of the PCA.”) When did the PCA (or was it USPA?) remove the ban? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Attempt at humor failed, unless Guess? Jeans is making wingsuits. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Wow! There goes a major player. I hope Guess? Jeans is still in operation; it's never good for the consumer to have too much consolidation in the marketplace. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork