kevin922

I'm coming that way in march will be jumping one day, any wingsuits out there? Anyone want to learn to jump a wingsuit? Kevin

Dude, did you not read the topic of the thread? It's tell us about your cutaways, not brag about how bad you are. :-)

Was the shrivel flap installed correctly? (i.e. sewn at the top of the shrivel flap, closest to pin, etc..) ? See here for complete instructions

I don't post much here anymore, but this is probably a pretty good thread to share experience in. I've had 2 reserve rides on a wingsuit, 3 total reserve rides (all happened in the same month.. just my luck). I'd have to get my logbook back out, but i'd say I had around 150 wingsuit flights on the first one, and it really wasn't wingsuit related. Cutaway #1: Had just gotton rig back from rigger who (if I recall correctly) had just repacked the reserve. Rigger had misrouted bridle (see picture) and I missed it on a gear check. Had a PC in tow (which I initially thought was just a burble) - i closed up my wings and leaned to one side to clear the "burble" but when that didn't work I looked back to see a fully inflated pilot chute. Went straight to silver. Cutaway #2 - not wingsuit related, but just a few weeks later. (See video) Backwards stilleto demo. Cutaway #3 - Just a few weeks after that, one of the PD guys had told me he rotates his D-BAG 180 degrees (so the grommet is along the bottom of the pack tray and the lines are along the bottom of the reserve tray). The purpose of this was to help with line twists, which I was getting every so many jumps - so I tried it. Deployed and it spun up more times than I could count before even getting out of the bag, then put me on my back. All of these were done with a pre-g3 mirage with no modifications. After cutaway #3 i took the rig to my rigger for some mods, haven't had a cutaway since! (dynamic corners) Something to be said, evidentally if you have a rig with FULLY dynamic corners you CAN rotate your dbag 180 degrees without it being an issue.

Info Link I know we've touched on this before, haven't heard any new news.. says expected opening date was January 15th.. is it open now? Any updates? Kevin

Here is the video of the negative G exit that I did people were talking about (http://www.interone.net/negg.html) Info: Yes it was me doing the jump, I do not recommend doing this type of jump out of an ottter!!! Interested to try it in a tailgate with a wingsuit.

Okay I give up, obviously every well intentioned comment I make on this forum is picked apart. I didn't say anything here to argue with you scott what I said was to bring attention to the fact that the process which you, betsy or whoever came up with had room for improvement. It wasn't criticizing anything anyone had done as being bad, the briefing was well done. I personally am one who wants to see wingsuits grow, I have devoted countless hours to helping educate people, i've spent time and money to put together a website, and I am a responsible pilot. I was envisioning the wingsuit flyer who ISN'T this and the fact that they COULD have the opportunity to screw things up for the rest of us. The fact there did exist a way for a wingsuit jumper to get on a load without going through a briefing. I was being somewhat sarcastic with my "announcements aren't enforcement" comment but an announcement doesn't force a person to do something - it gives them information that they can either abide by or not. Not giving manifest a jump ticket I believe does force someone to not get on a load, or get a lot of bad looks when they figure everything out. I am a "what if" thinker, that's how I am. I'm constantly thinking up scenarios of "what would you do here" and asking others for input. This was another what if but I was simply giving the input to those who could use it. I have nothing more to say. That sounds so absurd I don't know if your joking or just that naive. When the S&TA of a DZ comes on over the PA, or any member of manifest for that matter and makes an announcement concerning safety, it isn't a suggestion. "If you are unable to follow the landing pattern establilshed please feel free to land at the alternate landing area or off" isn't a suggestion, it is a polite way of telling people to pull their heads out of their asses and follow the rules. If I really have to explain this any further there are deeper issues involved than what we are talking about. Whether you care to acknowledge the fact that there was a process in place or not is your choice. However, the DZ had an established process that preceeded the boogie with notification on their website to include here on DZ.com, over the PA every day, on the dry erase boards at the Birdman tent and the loading area and at the Manifest window. At WFFC it was much easier since people manifesting for A/C were already kitted up and it was easy for a manifestor to see if someone was WS or not. IF it were up to me I would impliment a die hard way to ensure that everyone knew about the flight plan but I think most people would object to my methods. However, I am not in that position. I do take concern over overall safety and the right to fly WS at boogies. I will not let someone who has a disregard for their safety or anyone elses jepordize my privilage to jump a WS. I'm not here to argue. I am here to make it clear to everyone concerned that for all intensive purposes WS flights nearly came to a screeching halt at the boogie because of the actions of a few individuals. Apparently some people walk through life oblivious to their surroundings and personal safety regardless of how many announcements or signs are posted in their environment..No method of insuring people are briefed or that they will do the right thing is fool proof. Once you say it is a smarter fool will come along. There is no way anyone can justify or claim that they were not in some way aware of the WS requirements if they were at the boogie for even a short period of time. My point , as I stated in the other thread, is that if we don't police ourselves or those who are either ignorant of the basic rules or simply disregard them, the privilage of jumping WS at large boogies may not exist in the future. Does anyone really want to be known as the one who got WS flights banned at a particular boogie or banned period? I don't think so. So follow the boogie rules and if for some reason the rules aren't made apparent to you or they aren't clear, then you should have enough foresight to at least ask for your own safety.

I suppose that had I viewed things through your eyes...I would have had a discussion with "the organization". Well I guess hindsight is 20/20 and i wasn't there to start "bitching" about how things were run as some would have probably taken it as that.

You weren't at manifest the entire day, so I would certainly have to say that that isn't a true statement, although you are certainly entitled to your own opinion. Well I was jumping till the 30th, so I don't know what happened after I left but from the 25th to the 30th this is exactly what i saw. If you were part of a "group" the person manifesting would often times be asked to see their band, but questions about the other members of the group were not raised. *** As wingsuit flying is still in its infancy as discipline, it is clear that we all need to work together in order to provide a safer environment for everyone. This is exactly why I posted this so that you guys could know about things that a person who was not involved with the organization of the boogie saw from an organization standpoint for the purpose of improvement.

Just talked to him today, he's just fine.

If I were a betting man I would bet that Ivan is right, considering the link with the picture :) So angel, you wanna bet? :)

I agree and we quickly found that out, which is why both myself and the S&TA increased the announcements over the PA on a daily basis. Announcements aren't really enforcement, they are suggestions. Not taking responsibility for yourself or claiming "no one told me" is not an excuse. As an experienced WS pilot you should know that a flight pattern exists. If your buddy who manifested you failed to ask then you're both in the wrong. You spent enough time around the Birdman tent that you had to of seen the dry erase board or at least heard the FFC students receiving the Flight plan brief and map of the designated birdman area. I may be wrong but this sounds as if you are jumping to a conclusion. I didn't say I didn't have the briefing - in fact it was one of the first things I did after I got to eloy and made the decision to jump, I said no one asked me - and i don't think in the briefing you stated that other wingsuit jumpers were responsible for verifying that members in their group had had the briefing - saying it's irresponsible for another jumper to police me when that was never brought up a little assuming. Responsible or not, you are saying that a process was in place that was mandatory and i'm telling you this is not the case. Mandetory to me means if you don't do it then you don't jump, it was mandetory to give manifest a jump ticket in order to get on a load. Any joe smoe who was registered for the boogie with an "approved rig" could hop on a wingsuit flocking dive with no questions asked. At least from what I saw.

Ground briefs WERE mandatory in Eloy and WS pilots were briefed on how the boogie was operating and what Birdmen had to do. Once they were briefed they had their wrist bands annotated. Part of that breifing was to check flight patterns daily at the Birdman tent and at the loading area dry erase boards prior to getting on a load. A aerial photo with the designated Birdman area was also available to Birdmen the entire boogie. On top of that , announcements were made over the PA system througout the day. Just a quick note here, even though an effort to make the briefing mandatory was made it definately had holes in it. My first 3 jumps at eloy I was not asked about a wingsuit briefing or anything - in fact I didn't even manifest myself, another wingsuit jumper did. I believe this statement is true for every wingsuit load I was on where I didn't manifest the entire group. I was asked once, maybe twice, to see my arm band when manifesting out of the 12 jumps I made.

chuck (skymonkey1) might be the best to answer this, he used to jump them all the time - i think the problems i've heard is you don't know what you're gonna get you could get a colbalt that opens great or one that slams you..

Really? What's the difference between a drougless tandem birdman and a birdman rodeo WRT efficiency? I got a lot more airtime on a birdman rodeo with a 100 lb rider than I do on a normal skydive, let alone a drougless tandem. Not argueing. You know a lot about Birdman - I know a bit about Tandem, just want to hear the logic. t I'm not sure what you mean, a rodeo isn't very efficient either. The people i've come in contact who initially had this idea had the notion that you'd be "flying" just as if you were flying with a wingsuit.. it's a nice notion but as you know with a rodeo this is far from the truth. You don't cover much ground, a tracker without a wingsuit could cover "10 times" as much ground than a wingsuit rodeo or for that matter a wingsuit tandem. That is what I mean by "not efficent" add to the fact that you have much more risk when you throw tandem into the mix, what is the point? To say you've done it? Yeah I guess that's cool and i'd still be open to trying it but other than that all you've done is slowed a skydive down by marginal amounts. My rodeos are still around 120 MPH which is what my non wingsuit freefall (if I remember correctly ) was around... perhaps all my people were more than 100 lbs. (but hey if you have ridden me and you're reading this, you don't look a pound over 98!) p.s. i define efficient with respect to wingsuit flight as being able to cover considerably more distance than a non wingsuit flight at a considerably slower speed than a non wingsuit belly to earth flight given the same altitude and geographical considerations. Yes you could argue "if it's stable and you walk away from it, it was efficent" i guess... but that's not what i mean.

I'm so glad I got to jump with you in Eloy.. i knew this day was coming, i was hoping however that you'd stay a moderator here, hopefully you'll at least continue to frequent here. Your opinions are highly respected (by me at least) and you are of great educational benefit to others.. it would be selfish to not share that knowledge! Kevin

i just looked, i guess they do still make the Tri... i thought that was a discontinued canopy.. anyway congrats!

A triathalon? They still make that?

Is that also true if both jumpers are experienced wingsuit flyers? I wonder if you could design a "tandem" wingsuit, intended to take advantage of the configuration--kind of a biplane wingsuit. Sounds scary. I think I'd rather do a tandem BASE jump. Yes both were experienced wingsuit jumpers, I believe vladi was one of them. I just about talked one of my tandem instructors into doing a 1 wing tandem wiht me being the passenger wearing a wingsuit basically a rodeo, but they backed out at the last minute.

wingsuit tandems are not efficent, you're practically falling nearly straight down.

I used to do kite buggying, my big kite is a quad-line skytiger from cobra kites its a hi-60 which is 60 sq feet, large wingspan and has picked me up in relatively low winds. My smaller is a quadrifoil 4 line kite which used to be made by quadrifoil kites, but I don't think they exist anymore. it can easily pull you around on rollerblades swiftly. I've had my buggy up to 55 mph with the skytiger.

uh congrats on saving yourself? :)

Not trying to hijack this thread or anything but adrenaline rush made adrian sound as if he was the inventor of wingsuit flight. If he did come before birdman, why didn't he ever put anything into production? Just didn't feel like devoting the energy to it?

I also did the same as you did, until they told me that's how Parachute de France do their 3 ring system... and now there is the Advance rig, with a "3 ring" but the middle one is not a ring, but some kind of oval shape... It received a prize for innovation at the PIA last year I think Are you talking about the aerodyne miniforce system that won an award?

Didn't know they were giving one away, where was that?