Birddogging

[cpoxon 0]

I had the opportunity to buzz a CRW formation this weekend and it was a lot of fun. There is a reasonably large CRW contingent at my dropzone including national and international competitor as well as 3 members of the 85-way diamond record. I'd been thinking/talking about flying past a CRW formation since watching Loic do it in Soulflyers, but this weekend the opportunity finally arose.

My biggest concern was timing/positioning the exit. I'd watched a few videos of the guys building their 8-way stack and they were getting a lot of it together within a minute, so including another 30 seconds to get to them after exit I wouldn't need to wait long before chasing them. Since the stack would be descending faster, especially the bigger it got, I wouldn't really need any extra altitude but I did consider both getting the plane to continue flying on line of flight before exit or whether to get it to do a tight circuit. I can cover a fair bit of distance quite quickly on a wingsuit but after discussing it with the CRWdogs and some other wingsuit pilots I elected to get the plane to circle around above the formation.

I gave it a minute before getting out pretty much over the top of them. I flew a carving flight down to them. I originally wanted to pass to the right of them since my camera is mounted on the left side of the helmet but the number 8 was having a bit of trouble getting on and had gone back out that side to try again so I kept it to the left. The canopy with the yellow stripe is the camerman and you can see him swinging it about in order to keep down with the large stack. I passed as close as I wanted to to the formation. I think I could have got closer but I wanted to be conservative initially. I passed the formation a little lower than I wanted to as I would have liked to have been half-way down the stack when crossing it. I actually wasn't flying the suit very well as I passed them; I was so busy enjoying the view that I practically stalled the suit out!

You can see the video on Skydivingmovies.com

I know this has been done before but we all still had a lot of fun and experienced something new. Not bad for a pre-second effort I thought! Any comments?

I wasn't sure if I was going to get anywhere near them so I took my wide angle (0.45x) off my camera before jumping. Does anyone think I should have left it on?

Thanks to Dave my CCI for letting me try this. Thanks to the pilot for helping me play. And thanks to the CRW dogs: Plastic, Doug, Maria, Taz, Gavin, Martin, Karen, Gordon and PD for trusting me not to kill them!

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

Looks like fun Craig!

_________________________________________

[The111 0]

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I passed the formation a little lower than I wanted to as I would have liked to have been half-way down the stack when crossing it.

You did better than we did in Puerto Rico (video in my sig). We were stupid and got the plane way too far from the formation and had to max out to get there. The best I could do was go by about 30 feet low. BUT I did roll over on my back and continue to watch it from underneath.

Your video was cool. One of those guys who broke away early and was zooming side to side with his canopy would have made me nervous... looks like he was almost coming for you at the end - if he had started that swoop to the left a little earlier it looks as if he would have cut you off and you'd have had to abort.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[cpoxon 0]

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BUT I did roll over on my back and continue to watch it from underneath.

Yes, even a couple of the CRW dogs asked me why I didn't do that! I didn't even think about it! D'oh! We didn't get another chance to try it again due to the weather, but next time I will do it. Besides, didn't want to spoil the cool fly-by with my flailing on my back!

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looks like he was almost coming for you at the end

Yeah, it's weird - although I had my eye on him and the camerman the whole time, he didn't seem that close. With a wide-angle lens he would have seemed miles away. I wonder if the lack of lens actually makes him appear closer (camera was zoomed all the way out)?

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[LouDiamond 1]

Very nice

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[Zoter 0]

That looked nice.....!

[MB38 0]

How well did you show up in the CRW camera flyer's video?

I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[plastic 0]

He did show up on our cameramans video but it did not look as good as my view of him as pilot of the formation!

looking forward to him getting some more footage later this summer.

our videoman also has some great footage from when he was videoman for an ex-uk rotation team called skytribe - famous for the skyvan exit - when they trained at clewiston in 1995, this was of local cameraman bob neely freefalling between the stack and the cameraman as they were doing rotations!

this was planned by the way.

plastic

[Gadget 0]

This message is worthless whitout pictures and/or video

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes???
My logbook

[plastic 0]

Hi Hans,

I will see what i can do!

[Gadget 0]

Wouldbe appriciated

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes???
My logbook

[cpoxon 0]

Yes, as Plastic said, I did show up on video but there wasn't a lot to see. Due to PD (cameraman) having to swing the canopy about to stay down with the rapidly descending 8 stack as well as concentrating on the formation I was almost missed. Also PDs video made it look like I was really sinking out on it (obviously I wasn't! :-P). So it wasn't great. I usually love to see myself on video but I didn't bother getting a copy of it although I should have done for completeness and will do so next time I see PD.

I have some Motorola walkie-talkies with some cheap throat mikes and ear pieces. Gus and I tried them out a couple of times whilst flying our wingsuits and they just about worked if we kept to very simple one word communications. Next time, I'm going to give one to one of the CRW dogs (probably the stack pilot) so we can have a bit more communication eg when I'm leaving the aircraft and when I am approaching. They should just about work for that.

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[cpoxon 0]

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This message is worthless whitout pictures and/or video

I guess you are talking about the cameraman's footage and I know wearing camera in a CRW formation is a big no-no due to snag hazards but bullet cameras are readily available these days. I wonder if any in the stack would be willing to wear one? (Bear in mind that it would make you more of a target! :-P)

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[Gadget 0]

Actually i was revering to the footage of the freefaller passing a stack plastic was talking about.He did send me that on private mail and i was impressed.As for wearing a camera in a stack: i would and have done that. Maybe we are comming over to Langar in September for some Cf and we could arrange a jump with multi camera angels

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes???
My logbook

[cpoxon 0]

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Actually i was revering to the footage of the freefaller passing a stack plastic was talking about.He did send me that on private mail and i was impressed

Ahh! Can that be shared on skydivingmovies.com Plastic?

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Maybe we are comming over to Langar in September for some Cf and we could arrange a jump with multi camera angels

Cool!

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[Bowie 0]

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I guess you are talking about the cameraman's footage and I know wearing camera in a CRW formation is a big no-no due to snag hazards but bullet cameras are readily available these days. I wonder if any in the stack would be willing to wear one? (Bear in mind that it would make you more of a target! :-P)

Hmm not that i know anything about crw but the new danish video rules says that you can jump crw camera with 50 crw jumps but for filming freefly and fs you need 150 of each specific jump???

is that another mistake made in these new rules. I know of the biggest one
(a wingsuit flier is not allowed to fly next to a open canopy)
and for someone that loves to buss tandem that SUCKS

Bo Wienberg

vimeo.com/bowienberg

[plastic 0]

I will do that, i just ran out of time last night. will try to get that posted this evening. I just took the quick and easy way of giving hans some satisfaction!

plastic

[Gadget 0]

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I just took the quick and easy way of giving hans some SATISFACTION

Oh yes please do. Don't stop giving me that.

To Bowie:

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you can jump crw camera with 50 crw jumps

I think tey mean filming outside of the formation.Not inside

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes???
My logbook

[plastic 0]

Footage on skydivingmovies.com in the crw section, file is ffall past stack.avi

This is two clips joined as the videoman makes a pass down the side, slightly in front of the formation and the second one he is going right down the back between the formation and the team videoman.

Footage is courtesy of PD Smith my team videoman.

Enjoy
Plastic

[The111 0]

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this was of local cameraman bob neely freefalling between the stack and the cameraman as they were doing rotations!

The video was definitely cool, but it did not look to me like he actually went between canopies. Not knocking the video, just saying...

Thanks for uploading it!

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[plastic 0]

No, you are right he does not go directly between the videoman and the formation but it does look like he is closer to the formation than the videoman.

plastic

[Zeemax 0]

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3716

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[pdsvideoman 0]

He didn't go between the formation and me but on the third time we tried it he passed close enough to read the logo on the side of the canopies as he went by. I could hear him as he went by.

All good fun.

PD.

[plastic 0]

Um, i dont think we will bother trying that at langar!

plastic

[Gadget 0]

Chicken

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes???
My logbook