Lake Elsinore Wingsuit Record Attempt

[kallend 1,623]

Quote

Some wingsuits simply aren’t made for flocking, and that’s all there is to it. Maybe if the flock had a greater forward speed or downward fall rate (we’re aiming for 66mph) it would be a different story. But… it’s obvious that some suits are better made for flocking than others. Bear in mind that this event is made up of some of the greatest wingsuit flyers in the world, with representatives from virtually every corner of the globe.
Another interesting point is that some countries have teams from their area that are physically struggling with the various flocking techniques and speeds that seem to be common to the USA.

Can you amplify on that comment - I'm not sure EXACTLY what you mean.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Skwrl 56]

Seems so.
-
For what it's worth, there will always be variances in the uses for various suits.
Like some are good for fast flight, others for flocking.
You catch his drift, no doubt.

Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography

Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

[skydivefrance 0]

Nice work guys !!!!!!
Congratulations for all you done and all you will do.

I am sorry to be busy and can't not be with you there ... maybe next time.

A big "Hello" for all friends I know there.

Friendly yours,

Daniel ALONSO
Aka: Papawaso

...to infinity and beyond !!!!!

[unclecharlie95 3]

Quote

Another interesting point is that some countries have teams from their area that are physically struggling with the various flocking techniques and speeds that seem to be common to the USA.

Big suit, slow horizontal speed and moderate vertical speed?

BASEstore.it

[mnskydiver688 0]

Zing!

Sky Canyon Wingsuiters

[DSE 3]

Quote

Can you amplify on that comment - I'm not sure EXACTLY what you mean.

I can...but I won't.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Like every story, event, or moment, this World Wingsuit Record has an end. Before we can reach the end, the beginning probably needs to be told as best as I can recount.

More than a year ago, Jeff Nebelkopf, Justin Shorb, Scotty Burns, and a few others were drinking around a campfire, table, or attractive girl when the idea came up to do this event. Through a series of twists and turns, the concept began to take form and develop into a real idea. Skydive Elsinore had spoken with Jeff about doing a wingsuit event at the dropzone, and the pieces began to fall into place.
The event was announced, along with a series of skills camps and qualifying weekend camps where flockers from around the world proved their mettle in order to be a part of this heretofore never attempted formation.
Regardless of geographic location, skyflyers from around the world were invited to participate, to ‘audition,’ and to secure their slot in this magnificent wedge (that was not yet determined as a wedge or other formation).
I attended several of these qualifying events. At the first event, I was unequivocally informed that I didn’t have the skills to fly in this sort of a flock. Expectedly so, as I only had around 25 wingsuit jumps at the time. But... I don’t like to be told “no.” Jeff Nebelkopf was leading this event, but I didn’t know him at all, outside of various web fora. I did get the opportunity to hang with guys like Sean Horton and Scott Callantine, who took me “under their wings” so to speak, and helped me figure out what I wasn’t doing right. I should mention that Scott and Sean had previously spent some time with me in Eloy over the holiday boogie. My fourth wingsuit jump was a 20-way jump organized by Scott Campos. (It’s also the weekend I met Brian Drake, who figures into this story later) These two individuals, coupled with some help from Jeff, turned a really disappointing weekend into a very positive learning experience for me. They invited me to other camps and events that I attended. Soon after, I was introduced to Justin Shorb and Scotty Burns at another one of the camps. These two both spent a lot of time teaching me to fly better. Not as coaches, but as friends interested in seeing me improve, and knowing my goal was to be a part of this record event. Scotty invited me to be a part of the now-famous jump with the Space Shuttle Discovery and I got to know Harry Parker and Mike Mascheff. They too, helped me grow and improve.
I brought a wingsuit event to Utah, where Scotty, Justin, Scotty Callantine, Sean McLaughlin, Jason Carter, John Bast, and other friends came to jump the mountains of Utah with me. This three-day event changed my wingsuiting direction entirely.
Soon, I was flying with many large flocks, and decided to go to Pepperell, MA for my birthday in August. Justin and Jeff organized a 52 way jump that was a highlight of my flocking experience.

So…enough of my story. Lemme tell you about another guy in the flock.
This guy had wanted to wingsuit for quite a while. He met Sean Horton/Monkeyboy at Skydive Utah and did his first real wingsuit jump with Sean. He was hooked. Soon after, I was able to fly with him a bit in a TonySuit Raptor he’d borrowed from Justin. It didn’t take long until he’d ordered a Raptor for himself. He did really well at the Wingsuits over Utah event in July, and was invited to try out for the wingsuit world record. He ended up as an alternate on the record, and spent the first two days of the record event flying as a proxy flocker until the more experienced jumper showed up. It didn’t take Plane Captain Mark Harris very long to realize that he very much wanted this proxy to be a dedicated member of his team, but there was no room. As the axe began to fall in the first weekend, my friend was chosen as a replacement flyer in the “foreigners” flock. Jason Carter is a Cinderella story. He joined the flock with only 40 wingsuit jumps under his belt. The guy is a natural with wings. He has a tremendous attitude, never once was late to his slot, never late to a brief, debrief, dirt dive, or team meeting, and his enthusiasm was infectious. I stand in awe of his dedication and desire to be part of this record.

Next on my list of heroes is Brian Drake. Brian broke his leg in a BASE accident a couple of months back. Brian was someone I’d flown with in Eloy over the holiday boogie, and we kept in touch as he’d traveled to Israel and met some mutual friends there. We emailed a fair amount, and ran into each other at Lake Elsinore’s qualifier camp earlier in the year. I really admire Brian. Well…broken leg and all, Brian jumped. Over and over again, up to seven jumps in a day. He’d slide every landing in, and wait until someone could bring his peg-leg to him, and then would figure out a way to get into the bed of the retrieval trucks that drove out to pick us up from the very far-out landing area designated for our team. He never once complained.
On Tuesday, he cut his finger quite badly on a shaving razor (he later found a huge chunk of skin in his shaving kit bag). He needed to go to the hospital, but refused, knowing he’d be letting his teammates down by not being in his assigned slot. He did two jumps with a finger dripping so much blood that it was coming through his leather gloves and bandages.
Brian asked if I’d stitch his finger. The riggers loft was closed, and the DZ didn’t have a suture kit. Using a sailmaker’s needle and E thread, I stitched Brian’s finger closed. He was obviously in a great deal of pain, but he said not a word, didn’t utter a sound, didn’t flinch a muscle. I know it hurt like hell, because I shoved the needle through his finger. The bleeding slowed, but later picked up again, most likely due to the non-elevated finger and the crutches he was using to get around.
Inspirational, impressive, amazing are all adjectives that I’d use to describe this young man. Brian, I was honored to fly next to you all week long.

Scott Gray….nailed in the arm so hard on the first jump of the first day that his arm was the color of a finely crafted bit of ceramic pottery covered in purples, blues, green,and yellow hues. Swollen to the point of looking like he had a billiard ball stuck in his arm, he only sat out for a couple of jumps until he could get back from a doctor’s exam. He flew like a madman throughout the rest of the days. Another impressive story.

There are other stories as well, but I’ll leave those to be told by those others. Everyone involved sacrificed a lot to be part of this great event. Money, time, loved ones, jobs, special personal events all took a backseat to this opportunity. You could see the pain in everyone’s eyes after the first or second jumps this morning; we still hadn’t achieved the record, still hadn’t built the correct-slot formation. We only had three more jumps to go and the sense of disappointment was pervasive and endemic.


We’d been up since 5 a.m., and boarded the first plane prior to 7 a.m. We were tired, feeling defeated, and knew this was it. The last day, the last chance. “Make it count,” some said. “More cowbell” said others. “We’ll never get there…” from yet others.
During the third debrief, Taya Weiss gave us a pep talk. She made it a point to say that we’d already built the coolest, biggest, safest formation ever seen in wingsuiting, but now it was time to step it up and make it be the accurate formation we all so badly wanted to achieve.
Somewhere, somehow….everyone dug deep down into their souls and found energy, strength, and motivation. Was it Taya? We’ll never know. We’ll only know that we each were galvanized to greatness, to be where we needed to be with a sense of strength that only the most despaired seem to be able to find.
Although we loaded the planes with what appeared to be heavy hearts, something happened up there that can’t quite be explained.
Everyone was in their slot, everyone hit their mark. Justin Shorb led our group to the formation, and we sat slightly back waiting for a person in the second plane to plug into his place. It seemed like an eternity waiting for him to fill his space so that we could completely move in and lock up the formation. You could almost hear the sigh of relief as he slid into his slot and Justin moved forward. Even though the formation had been heavily “breathing” with a lot of side to side and back to forward movement, there was the most brief of moments, almost like a flash of light that passed, where everything was still, seemingly in slow motion.

We achieved what we had come for. We had built the formation we came to build. We created something never before imagined nor achieved. And we knew it. It felt obvious by the time we hit the ground. The energy, spirit, and joy was almost palpable through the entire landing and drive back to the packing area. No one really spoke, no one really dared ask the question “did we do it?”

Just before the last jump of the day, manifest announced that all wingsuiters needed to gather up for a 15 minute call, but we needed to be at manifest first.
With a heavy face, Taya took the microphone. I was sure she was going to tell us that we simply could not possibly achieve this task. After watching wingsuit pilots much more experienced than I being cut from the team, I was expecting to hear that we simply couldn’t do this.

At 3:48 p.m. on Wednesday, November 12, 2008, Taya simply said “We did it.” No one said anything. She said “Guys, we did it. We built the formation. We achieved what we came here for.”

The cheers were loud, exuberant, and prolonged. Five days we’d been working to build this monster. Five days of 6:00 a.m. calls, dozens of dirt dives lying in the cold, wet grass in and out of our wingsuits. Five days of watching guys like Scott Callantine and Monkeyboy wearing Walmart bags on their feet in the early morning so they could keep their shoes dry. Five days of eating dust and dirt, long walks back to the packing area. Five nights of going to bed early so we weren’t too tired early in the morning.
Was it worth it? You bet your ass.


Special thanks from me personally to:
Justin Shorb, Scotty Burns, Jeff Nebelkopf, Taya Weiss, Scott Callantine, Jason Carter, Rick Hough, Jack Guthrie, Debbie Zimmerman, Scott Campos, Phil Peggs, Sean Horton, Rick, Reed, Lurch….and all the others that helped me learn to fly better. I’m a part of this record because of you and your guidance. They're more names, my mind is a little blank. A lot of great inspirations, instructors, flockers, and friends out there...

I'm tired. I'd like to say more...but it's late and I have an early flight to Eloy.
Watch the Skydivernetwork.com blog...more pix will be there in the next few days.

[unclecharlie95 3]

Congratulations to all the participants and organizers!

I hope this will become the first of many significant mile stones in the history of slot perfect wing suit big way formations.

BASEstore.it

[Hagen 0]

thanks for the inspirational stories and for your day-to-day reports - they must be an important work, too.

[shropshire 0]

Outstanding - well done all

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[virgin-burner 1]

nice!

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[aarthus 0]

Quote

Some wingsuits simply aren’t made for flocking, and that’s all there is to it. Maybe if the flock had a greater forward speed or downward fall rate (we’re aiming for 66mph) it would be a different story. But… it’s obvious that some suits are better made for flocking than others. Bear in mind that this event is made up of some of the greatest wingsuit flyers in the world, with representatives from virtually every corner of the globe.
Another interesting point is that some countries have teams from their area that are physically struggling with the various flocking techniques and speeds that seem to be common to the USA.

Quote

Can you amplify on that comment - I'm not sure EXACTLY what you mean.

I will be happy to comment on that !

I guess that the "some wingsuits" and the "some countries" is simply S-FLY suits & France... you can say it.

We were 5 S-Fly frogs on this event (Zun, Bertrand, MickBravo, Sylvain & me) and we struggled a bit sometimes with the lack of forward speed. I personnally had to fight during 5 jumps out of 24 & I went below the formation 3 times. ( When I was below, I saw some other big suits falling at the same time....).

We asked for more forward speed and with the good understanding & help of jeff setting it better, all of us manage to fly our slot during this event. (it was not perfect but we tried to do our best).
It's good to fight to stay up !

I would recommand to S-Fly holders, if they want to feel really confortable and at ease flocking in the USA, bring a tandem rigg or fix a drogue chute on your regular rigg, Deploy it once you get to your slot, it will allow you to match the perfect desired local fall rate without having to stress about getting under the "Flock" .

We all of us had a really, really good time in Elsinore, we met so many fantastic flyers, the level was very high, everybody was so friendly, what a Great Event !

We were proud to be there and fly with you guys, thank you everybody !

Special thanks to Taya and Jeff fixing my small issue on tuesday, thanks to Stoney for his help, thanks to Justin, Edd & Mark for the good work.

Hope we will make it with you next time !

Meanwhile, come and fly in France this summer ? why not ?

Thanks again
Patrick de Guillebon

Patrick de Guillebon

[howardwhite 4]

A news story here.
And another here. Check out the 10 pix in the slideshow.
Looks like the Brit papers love this story

HW

[Skwrl 56]

"All 71 sky-divers were separated in four aircraft, named A, B, C and D. We had them lined up one in front of the other at 14,500 ft."

Now I bet Jeff is wishing he came up with more original names...

Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography

Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

[VectorBoy 0]

Zun was perfectly stable in his slot, I know because I was partly keying off of him. I know at times he commented he would have liked a little more speed and once when we got it the speed was a little much. They tell me you did not have trouble once the slots were rotated.

Every suit style and body type was represented in the formation from the smallest of Acros to the way bigger suits. Various Tonys, Various birdman , Various Phoenix. It was a pleasure to fly with such mix of flyers. It was also a pleasure to walk for beers with you on Saturday Patrick my Brother.

[DSE 3]

Patrick, you were awesome! There are suits that are more appropriate for faster moving flocks, IMO that helps with stability as well as fall rate, of course. There were a couple of other suits falling out of the sky here and there too...
But with 71 people flying...I can't imagine getting the speed too much faster forward and still getting everyone there. It was a bitch for some in the last plane to just get to the formation, let alone settle into their slot and fly with stability. It was a long, long way (as you saw).
Having all the various suits there was a sweet experience. I sure learned a lot from various guys and their gear.

[mfnren 0]

If you and your wingsuit can only fly well in a small vertical/horizontal speed range, deal w/ it!

Either get a suit that actually has a broad range, or learn to fly the one you have better. Quite your whining, and as you say "fly your body"

[LloydDobbler 2]

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If you and your wingsuit can only fly well in a small vertical/horizontal speed range, too f'n bad!

Either get a suit that actually has a broad range, or learn to fly the one you have better. Quite your whining, and as you say "fly your body"

Funny...I didn't see any whining in his post. Seemed really 'Mea culpa,' to me.

Signatures are the new black.

[Zeemax 0]

You mean, "if you're struggling to fly your suit the way it was intended because those around you insist on flying with their ankles on their butt..." ?

p.s. Truly well done to everyone on the jumps. Like many others i feared you wouldn't get close to this number, and i'm super happy to have been proven wrong. Looks amazing and i'm very jealous i wasn't there

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

[mfnren 0]

I was refering more to what went on at the event. But it was meant in jest,(other post has been edited) it was challenging flying and the s-fliers did a great job. and as he said people in big suits almost sunk out as well.

There were so many people w/ different suits and body types, the few times we did have a faster horizontal speed many people had trouble reaching the formation and then staying w/ it.

[kallend 1,623]

Quote

Seems so.
-
For what it's worth, there will always be variances in the uses for various suits.
Like some are good for fast flight, others for flocking.
You catch his drift, no doubt.

I caught the drift. I was hoping to catch the details.

Congrats to everyone.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[ScottGray 0]

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So who's the guy in front floater with a main too small for his container????


Looks like you boys should have the time of your life!

Have fun, fly fast, take chances.

We felt sorry for him and got Les to give him a deal on a new container.

WSI-5 / PFI-51 / EGI-112 / S-Fly
The Brothers Gray Wing Suit Academy
Contact us for first flight and basic flocking courses at your DZ or boogie.
www.thebrothersgray.com

[Franzz 0]

Thank you Douglas for the everyday updates, pics and vids on dz.com and skydivingnetwork.com, looked great!

[DSE 3]

Scotty Burns is having some issues with his website, so asked if I'd post a few of his pix.
Here they are for now.
Hopefully his ISP will get him back up and running soon.

[DSE 3]

Tuesday's jumps in high def/Vimeo can be found here
Be patient, it's 1280 x 720, and unless you've got a really fast connection, get a cup of coffee while it buffers. Apologies for the delay, I thought it was uploaded last week.

[VectorBoy 0]

OUTstanding!!!!

Fly my fishes!

Anybody got that cloudy footage? That was a slick dive.