Skwrl

Oh, you mean Article IV, Section 9, paragraph 3: "No Butters Allowed." Gotcha. [For the humor impaired, this is a joke - it doesn't refer to him by his dropzone.com nickname...] Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I'm not going to argue with the sentiment behind Scott's idea, but I want to point out an unintended consequence of it. Suppose I'm a manufacturer-licensed WSI, doesn't matter which one (a BirdFly instructor!) Some guy comes to me with 102 jumps and wants a first flight course. I'm going to say "come back when you have more experience", because I don't want to lose my BirdFly instructor ticket. What is the aspiring wingsuiter going to do? If all of the manfacturers hold to the 200, he's going to read the part of SIM 6-9 where it says "recommendation". Then he's going to read about the stuff he thinks he needs to know on dz.com and in user manuals and self-teach. I'm guessing that most of you instructors think doing the self taught thing is not a great idea. Maybe I'm wrong on that, I dunno. Before anyone mis-reads my intent, I'm not disagreeing with Scott at all - they should have their tickets yanked by the manufacturer if hey are breaking the manufacturer's rules. I'm just pointing out an side effect of the "recommendation" language. The whole "recommendation"/"requirement" thing is really an entirely different conversation, though - I'm not trying to de-rail the thread. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

+1 to this, but I'd take it a step further. My ring sight was attached using a nylon thread nut, yet I was unable to break it off when it got entangled. In fact, it held on well enough to take my helmet clean off my head and stay with the canopy the whole way down... So, you're right that metal nuts are really freaking dangerous, but people shouldn't feel complacent just because they have a nylon nut... Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Mayhap. But as long as I can someday see the kangaroos in Austria, I'll be happy. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

It's threads like this that make my ADD-lawyerishness kick in. So, the issue with importing stuff into the US is that some stuff is subject to tariffs. The US International Trade Commission publishes the US tariff rates here: http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/bychapter/index.htm Oddly, there isn't a separate entry for "wingsuits" (I know, you're shocked), so you kind of have to figure out under what category they would be classified. The rates range from 'free' to 'very high', depending on what you (legitimately) classify a wingsuit as. Example: Classify it as "Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted", and it's priced by the pound. (Maybe the European wingsuit manufacturers should start knitting wingsuits for the US market, you know, for tax reasons...) Put it under the classification of a "sporting good" and it ends up determined by the sales price. Some categories get exceptions if the item is less than $500, others $1,000... Point is since wingsuits don't neatly fit a category, you could kind of arbitrarily end up with a “bad” (high) rate because someone at Customs (or one of the carriers, like FedEx - the company, not the guy posting in this thread) classified it wrong. I haven't (and won't) read through it to see if there's a category that you could legitimately describe a wingsuit as that would result in the tax being free or "low". But I could see how describing it as the wrong thing could end up generating a big bill. I'm sure the EU have got similar arbitrary rules that depend on people's judgment. No suprise people get hit by weird fees. To Saskia's comment: I don't think it's so much "Americans have no clue about the rest of the world", as much as "Americans don't usually purchase products from overseas directly." /Not defending FedEx (the guy, not the company). Just figured I'd 'splain this bit to avoid more of the "U R retarded!!", "No, U R!!!" that this thread has turned into. We all know who the REAL retard is in this thread. //Why is everyone looking at me like that? ///Personal attacks are permitted if they are against yourself, right? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

On the plus side, with gaps like that, the helmet might just stay with the main canopy when both inevitably have to be cutaway! (I keeed, I keeeeed...) +1 on the "cover the gaps" line of suggestions. On a more serious note, please, please, please think about and practice your helmet cutaway in relation to your malfunction procedures. I'm not going to bore everyone with my story again, but since you're new to camera jumping and may not have seen that thread, I'll share with you that by all accounts I should be dead because of an out of sequence main/helmet cutaway. An out of sequence cutaway can snap your neck pretty easily. So, it's not enough to go "Cutaway? Yep, got me one o' thems!". You really need to think about when you would use it (and when you might not), how you'd know the difference, and what the sequence of your cutaways are... (When do you just cutaway your helmet? When do you just cutaway your main? When do you cutaway your helmet and then your main? When do you cutaway your main then your helmet?) (I don't consider myself an expert, but I've been doing it clumsily for a while now, and I've learned how not to do it, sometimes at great pains - literally - to myself.) Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

So, what you're saying is the other applicants weren't the right fit for the position... Got it. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I think we're talking past one another. You keep saying "This risk can be reduced with education and awareness." Yes. I agree. Absolutely. Fo' sho. That's not what I'm questioning, though. Here's the issue put more succintly: "How do we convey the education and awareness that you're talking about?" How does it go from the brains of the people who have it to the brains of the people who need it? What I think Jay Stokes is pointing at - if a little indirectly - is "do we want to have a USPA wingsuit instruction program?" There is no USPA instruction on wingsuiting at the moment, so they aren't fulfilling the "education" role that you want them doing, right? So if you want them "educating", how do you want them doing it? Do you want them to develop a "First Flight Manual"? If so, no argument here. However, as I hope you'd agree, there's a lot of skydiving that you can't get from reading a book. If they're going to come out with a First Flight Manual, you'd want to be able to identify people who are qualified and capable teachers. That would lead to a USPA wingsuit instructor role. If you don't want the USPA educating, and want to leave it to skydivers to instruct other skydivers or gear manufacturers, then your slogan for the USPA ought to be "neither education nor regulation". And as for you never having sought out instruction: I'm glad it worked out well for you. I hope that all skydivers who want to try out a wingsuit have your natural ability to fly one. My suspicion, though, is not everyone does. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Hey Dave, That's a good point, but I'd suggest that the difference between going from other forms of skydiving to wingsuiting is bigger than the difference from going from belly flying (for example) to free flying. I know a lot of people who started free flying right after getting their A license. There are a few differences between the two, for sure, but nowhere near as many as with the transition from other skydiving to wingsuiting. I think what I'm suggesting is that wingsuiting is just different enough to warrant special training. Yep. I agree 100%. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Well, a licensed skydiver who has never wingsuited before sure does know about a few things about skydiving, for sure. But I'd argue they a skydiver with 200 jumps who has never put on a wingsuit isn't all that much different than a late stage, pre-A license student - with respect to the differences created by the wingsuit. Stop and think about it - wingsuiting has a HUGE number of differences between it and "traditional skydiving". Just a few: - We wear an additional piece of gear (the wingsuit) that can be misthreaded, set up wrong, or otherwise fouled up. ("Surpise! you misthreaded your wing!") - The additional piece of gear can make inspection of the other skydiving gear difficult for the inexperienced (e.g., the hidden leg strap issue). - We exit out of the aircraft differently than any other type of skydiver. How so? Try doing a count with your leg, RW-style, while in a wingsuit. I watched a very experienced RW chick get peeled off the plane on a FFC because she didn't realize that or remember not to do that. - We're way more prone to instablility (whether true flat spins or tumbling), and we get out of it in different ways than your typical skydiver. (I learned in AFF that arching solves most stability problems - not so for a wingsuit flat spin, right?) - We have to navigate! You can't just wait for the 5 to 10 second separation and jump, you need to plot where you are, where you're going, and (most importantly) where everyone else is. - Our waiving off and deployment sequence is very different. We all know that. - On most suits, we have to deal with unstowing/unzipping/dealing with our suit after deployment. We all know that can be a problem given a surprise situation (a malfunction, another canopy coming straight at you, etc.). It's large set of different skills. Sure, some of the skills used in wingsuiting carry over from traditional skydiving (an experienced skydiver knows his or her rig better, can pilot a canopy better - all things being equal, for instance). But there's enough differences that it's almost a different species of skydiving. Think of it this way, Butters: when you first wanted to wingsuit, you sought out an instructor, right? Why was that? Sure, the SIM says it's recommended, but I suspect the real reason you did it because you wanted to learn how to do it safely (and well). The reason you felt you needed to do that was the significant differences between the two, right? Now, the truth of the matter - that very few of us are willing to admit - is that not all instructors are equal. Most are great. Others, maybe not so much. Some teach a lot. Some give you the bare minimum and show you out the door. The different manufacturers use different curricula. What I think Jay Stokes was getting at is, does the USPA want to have a formal, standardized program (so we have all the information in one place, as you suggested) and roster of wingsuit instructors (in the same way that USPA has a roster of AFF instructors)? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

So, then you would be in favor of getting rid of the AFF and SL programs and replacing them with a really kick ass user manual, right? If not, what's the difference? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

That's a great slogan, but what does it mean? Seems to me like the USPA educates and regulates already. They regulate who can teach an AFF or S/L course. They regulate who can jump with a student skydiver (i.e., instructors, coaches), and when a skydiver can start jumping with others (when they get an "A" license). They regulate how often people need to do recurrency jumps, among a whole bunch of other requirements... As for the "educate" part, there is no USPA wingsuit instructor rating at the moment - so the USPA is not educating on wingsuiting at all. USPA has, up to this point, basically just suggested that all wingsuiters receive "one-on-one instruction from an experienced wing suit jumper". The concern I have there is the result is hit or miss. Being an "experienced wingsuiter" doesn't automatically make you a good instructor of wingsuiting any more than having attended kindergarten makes you a good kindergarten teacher. So, when you say "educate", what do you take that to mean - what would you want it to be? Because clearly there's no "education" being done by USPA at the moment... Now, if you're saying, "well, once I get my 'A' license, I should have a right to do whatever the Hell I want to and the USPA should just stay out of my way", I see your position, but I'd point out one problem - it's not just the wingsuiter that's put at risk when he puts on a wingsuit - it's pretty much everyone on the load. We're basically gravity-powered bombs cruising around the DZ's airspace. Sooner or later, we're going to hear about someone colliding with another skydiver or canopy - or even worse, a tandem - and we're collectively going to have the crap kicked out of us when USPA suddenly realizes they need to regulate us to protect other skydivers. It seems to me that navigation is a critical skill; if that's not being taught well, we're going to have to deal with the consequences of it, sooner or later. Personally, I'd rather get out in front of the wave than get hit with it. If there is a push to help adopt standards, the wingsuit community ought to be the ones driving the bus. I heard through the grapevine that the BPA Board accepted changes to their regulation of wingsuiting: a new training manual and a "sticker" system for categorizing new wingsuit flyers. If Mark Harris reads this, maybe he can comment on it further - I'd be curious what the accepted proposal was... [In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not an intructor (wingsuit or otherwise) and never will be one. But I do have an interest in not seeing my friends and others in the skydiving community get injured or killed.] Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

What's so hard about spelling "Oliver"? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Oliver Furrer; he's Swiss, from Niederuzwil... Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

"Did I leave the iron on?" Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Right, but they are two different suits (Indy and Verso). Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Is there an English version of the Indy's page? My French is limited to "avec fromage", which is of limited use here. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Oh, thank God!!!! I was getting worried since I hadn't seen an inane suit-brand pissing contest on dizzy.com in way too long! I was concerned that something had gone horribly wrong with all of you (Replaced by pod people? Wasn't sure...). I'm glad to see that everyone is OK and we're back to status quo. (Besides, everyone knows that the Hardcase is the best suit out there.) Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Great shots, Scotty. Looks like it was fun. I'm sorry I missed it. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

One of the features they didn't list is the coolest (at least in the "gee whiz" sense) part about it: it can "heal" if punctured. My friend Justin took a small swath of it, pushed a pen through it, and then rubbed the fabric together. The result? The hole was gone. It has to to with the design/weave of the fabric. It's pretty cool stuff. If I hadn't just bought a canopy, I'd be looking into getting a Pilot made out of it. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

I'm not sure if the original poster is still reading this thread or not, but it seems like there's a pretty simple path forward. Decide whether or not you want to achieve the goal; if you want to wingsuit, do what you need to do to achieve it. If it's important enough to you, you'll get there. If your ADD kicks in and you decide you want to do something else, that's fine, too. It sounds like simplistic advice, but Lao-Tzu was right on this one: even a thousand mile journey begins with a single step. Save up $200 and go to a local dropzone and try out a tandem (or AFF, doesn't matter, though I'm sure a lot of people here have preferences about whether you should do a tandem before AFF; that's not the point here). Rather than complain about how far the distance is, start the journey. Like Lurch said (yeah, quoting Lurch and Lao-Tzu in same post, scary), getting the necessary experience to start wingsuiting is an adventure in itself. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Depends. Do I have an infinitely large bucket to hold it in? Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Without personally having seen or used one, I think it's fundamentally flawed for wingsuiting: there's no place to put a camera. (Or, if you are Purple, there's no way to geek the camera.) Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

Possibly an interesting reading on this subject: http://www.2think.org/abortion.shtml It points out that the "religious perspective" (that abortion should be prohibited) is actually almost a brand new issue, relatively speaking (it really arose in the late 19th century) - and it had nothing to do with religion! Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

The year 391 called, they want their headline back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria#Decree_of_Theodosius.2C_destruction_by_Theophilus_in_391 Although, in fairness, back then it was a whole library. Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork