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yuri_base

D/L Hall of Fame

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Yo!

Face it: we live in the world of L/D crisis. The L/D Index™ - the average L/D of all wingsuit flights ever made - has been steadily declining in the past several years. It crossed 1.0 mark when the wingsuit world's race to improve the performance of wingsuits, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale, as the hordes of "f10ckers" in giant mattresses blocked every ray of sun and blue skies started looking like a mosquito party in the swamps of Florida.

In fact, average L/D these days is so low that it makes sense to skip typing all those leading zeroes and simply use its reciprocal - D/L - which is exponentially growing these days. Typical f10cker these days moves 2-2.5 feet down per every foot forward... and it's not the limit. In fact, there's no limit in D/L! You can always improve your D/L if you're persistent! Think about humble bellyflyers - their D/L is infinite!

Hence, today we celebrate the birth of The Drag-over-Lift Hall of Fame. ;) Put a proof here that your or somebody else's D/L is one of the highest in the world! Work on your imperformance and you may become one of the lucky chosen ones!

When I saw this picture posted in another thread, I thought at first, "wow, f10ckers are finally starting to fly semi-decent!", as it seemed they were gliding at about L/D ~ 2.0. I looked at it in disbelief as if I just witnessed Mother Teresa, Jarno, and his now world famous Pony having sex in my bed, but then I took a closer look and the miracle disappeared. The horizon is not level which creates the impression of a flatter glide by looking at their aggressively pitched bodies. Level the horizon and all of a sudden you see the same hopelessly falling "bananas" you see in all f10cks. But that's not all: the smoke behind both jumpers actually goes back from their legs to their helmets, totally engulfing their backs. A telltale of an atrocious stall, a giant area of negative pressure behind their bodies which totally kills any L/D... I mean, skyrockets D/L from a mere 0.4-0.5 to a respectable 1.0-1.5 (the cameraman seems to be ahead and it makes D/L look lower than it actually is) and makes them inductees of our D/L Hall of Fame. Not the highest D/L out there, but what a spectacular presentation!

Who's next? Never give up... in the world of D/L, opportunities are limitless! :P

And if you don't want to be a D/L celebrity, there's only one way to quit. Start F L Y I N G...

Yuri
Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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Are you sure you are the king? In the world of D/L, there's always someone who can do better. ;)

What I don't understand is that when D/Ling like this, don't you suffocate from the smoke? Do you land with smoky face?

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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I disagree, firstly you cant use the body position we use for RW to compare glide ratio, if the base scoots out of the door the last guy out the plane can never get "in" ...This is a mid range position to attain the largest flock or to do good rw acrobatics, whatever,

The glide ratio's are over 3 to 1 in distance race's these days, how can you say that's not an improvement?
Life is a series of wonderful opportunities,
brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

tonysuits.com

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The glide ratio's are over 3 to 1 in distance race's these days, how can you say that's not an improvement?



He's the world's best whiner, he can say whatever he wants.

His whine/contribute ratio is pretty high actually. W:C approaching infinity.
www.WingsuitPhotos.com

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Tony, we at D/L Hall of Fame are not interested in the low D/L (or rather, 1/{Wind-assisted-glide-ratio}) you mentioned. Only 1.0 and higher. The rule of selection is simple: once you're seen doing D/L = 1.0 or higher, you're "busted"! ;) Anyone who ventures into bellyflyer or poor tracking D/L land in a wingsuit, is automatically an honorable member of DLHoF.

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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Yuri,
Why not demand this standard of excellence from other disciplines? The next 300 way should turn a minimum of 10 points to be of recognizable value.
Those sit rounds? They should be required to turn at least five points on those 69 ways.

"The KING of D/L"

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The glide ratio's are over 3 to 1 in distance race's these days, how can you say that's not an improvement?



He's the world's best whiner, he can say whatever he wants.

His whine/contribute ratio is pretty high actually. W:C approaching infinity.



Did no one else see the original post as funny? Considering this reaction was known to be certain.

Kris

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0.4-0.5 to a respectable 1.0-1.5



If you are going to use gues-temates to make a point, at least try and use a bit more than just your flawed method of eyeballing, which in turn is based on your biased views on what everyone else needs to be doing to make you sleep better.

Though not an authority on the matter (Im not that big of a GPS junkie yet) my work does enable me to do a quick analysis of the picture posted as an 'example'.
Matching the camera lens, and then (in 3D) the angle based on the horizon and perspective, its easy to position a model over the one seen in the picture. Only using 2D positioning (up and back) to match the smoke angle.

When I take the resulting image overlay, and look at it from a sideview in 3D, it gives us a rough estamate of the angle at which the smoke is coming out.

Though nowhere near the performance you usually dream off while flying one handed under your bedsheets, the results are a bit more positive that the tracking results you're using here to stroke your own ego...

attachment camera_track.jpg
JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

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Nice try to cover their asses, Jarno! As a beginner measurebator, you're showing a promise. :) But your analysis is wrong.

It's obvious to the eye that your cylinder is not oriented right. If you project it on the grid plane, its axis is not in the same direction as their bodies. Once you put it in correct direction, you'll see higher D/L. Also, the perspective lines are off. Since they fly in the same direction, the lines connecting the feet of each f10cker should be parallel. By extending these lines and finding their intersection, you'll find the correct "infinity point" of the cameraman (your grid is off by ~20 degrees clockwise).

"Smoky face" is the biggest sign that it can't be nowhere near L/D=2.0.

Covering somebody's ass is not the same as inserting a pony plug, Jarno! :P

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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People!

please stop this bullshit here, on dropzone.com!

Everybody jump his discipline and enjoy it.

For performance in solo-jumps you can participate in different ws-competitions (e.g. "Wings over Marl") and indicate yours really performance.

The mind of formation jumps is the collective work and a performance of the formation is given by participants.

NOT EVERYBODY IS BORN FOR WS-PERFORMANCE D/L OVER 2.0!!!

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Spot,

Nobody demands anything. If you saw a bunch of guys in the parking lot driving Ferraris in formation at 5mph, every day, over and over over again, building different shapes and setting "world records", but always moving at 5mph, would you demand anything from them? They do it, because they like it. However, you may post a chuckle or two on some Ferrari forum - especially if you love driving Ferrari at full speed and just enjoying that feeling of speed and perfect machine.

It just doesn't make any sense, universally, to drive Ferrari formations in the parking lot. Wouldn't it be much more breathtaking and beautiful to take 100 Ferraris to one of the dry salt lakes in Utah and drive at 250mph in formation? Now, that's a sight! (I tried it with a rental car a few months ago in Utah, it's awesome, even at 100mph!)

I hope nobody would argue that the sight of 100 Ferraris flying at 250mph across the desert is much more beautiful and exciting than the same 100 Ferraris crawling at 5mph in the dirt parking lot. The dust trails will also look much different - beautiful, clean rocket-like trails in the former and engulfing, toe-to-face lumpy clouds if the latter, clean faces in the former and "smoky faces" in the latter. :)
So why those parking lot "stars" do that nonsense?

Many things.

Some of them just started driving their shiny Ferraris and they see that everybody is doing the parking lot formations. Still high with excitement of the maiden drive in the amazing machine, they jump the bandwagon and do like everyone else - drive in the parking lot at 5mph in formations.

Some are professionals who build their carriers doing that. They build up the reputation, they organize events, they lead the formations... It's important for them to maintain this treadmill. It's their bread and butter. For them, newbies are just fresh meat to feed their goals. There's lots of this elsewhere in life - using the relentless enthusiasm of young fresh meat for your purposes.

Some are no longer newbies, but that's all they did all their life. For them, this IS "it"! For them, any chuckling about their parking lot fun is offensive, because they feel as if they waisted all these hundreds and thousands of days just driving amazing cars in the fucking parking lot! These are usually hopeless. :)
Some, mostly sponsored "athletes", come to big ways and "records" only, to secure their precious name on the list. "World Record Holder" - check!

But no matter who they are, the essence remains the same - they're driving Ferraris at 5mph in the fucking parking lot! And they ferociously fight any suggestion to step up on the gas pedal a bit more and let the machine show its beauty!

See, I don't have anything against flocking per se. I did some flocking in the past, went to Flock&Dock 3 years ago, did some in Sebastian, Eloy, Orange, etc. I didn't particularly enjoy flat formations, but vertical stacks were awesome (that's me, on the left, riding an "elevator" up and down).

But pictures like that posted above, with smoke completely engulfing jumpers in a giant stall, toe to head, make my eyes bleed. Videos of wingsuiters passing a CRW formation at L/D~0.5, almost make me puke. The sight of a formation with everybody having legs bent, makes me almost fill the physical pain in my knees. (Bent Legs Pain Syndrome :) - a condition that about 75% of flyers have, according to the poll)

When these pictures and videos only circulate amongst us, it's ok, they're just perceived as shitty flying by those who like to fly. But it's especially disturbing when these smoke clouds, bent legs, shut arm wings, bent-in-half in the waist backflying, banana arches, head high pitch, etc. make it to the media and are presented as "the closest you can get to real flying", boosted up by claims of routine 250mph speeds and 3.0 lift-to-drag ratios.

This is not the pride of flying. This is the SHAME. Shameful falling down presented as the dream of flying the human kind has been dreaming about for thousands of years.

If everybody in the formation has legs bent at 45 degrees, why not everybody unbend them by the same amount and have them bent at only 5 degrees? Another trend recently is to sweep arms back but to keep legs almost fully extended. Now what? Same shit - everybody has armwings swept back in the same delta. Why not "unsweep" them by the same amount to almost full extension?

The argument that for the flocks it's important for everybody to get "in" doesn't hold water either. Ok, once everybody is "in", why not gradually 'rev the engines up' and fly better, while still in the formation? Looks like everybody has the similar, broad range with bent limbs, so why not use that range and step up the quality of flying?

Why try to settle on the same low denominator and try to please everybody by inviting everyone to the same flock? Would babies cry if instead of making, say, a 20-shitty-way of light and heavy jumpers, make a two 10-beautiful-ways of light and heavy jumpers separately, each flying close to their max glide? ("light" and "heavy" here doesn't necessarily mean weight; it's ability to stay with each other while flying efficiently, not falling down). You don't see headdown bigways taking beginner freeflyers with 50 jumps just learning how to sit. You don't see football teams with some professional players and some who just started. Synchronous swimming with some participants who can't even swim wouldn't be a pleasant sight. Etc.

So, stop making more and more of Wingsuit Shame and start doing more and more of Beautiful Flying. So that the picture of flying with smoke, with clean and narrow trail, does represent the dream of human flying, and not an illustration of aerodynamic stall suitable for use in a college book.

Stop FALLING.

Start FLYING.

Until all shitty flying is wiped from the face of our beautiful planet, I'm going to keep my D/L radar on it.

And no, I don't demand it. I'm just gently knocking on every fl10cker's head. ;)

Chief of L/D Police and the CEO of D/L Hall of Fame,
Yuri

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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Yuri,
Thank you for the inspiration to review my logbook and comprehend the depths my shame for counting smiles vs numbers. F**k me, I forgot this is an exercise in math and competition. What was I thinking? Mea culpa. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa (am I forgiven now?).:)

We really, really sucked on that jump. Should I have pulled lower? Do you suppose that looking at the beauty around me distracted my brain from flying? Maybe it was that big, red, fat ass in front of me? Would you mind running the numbers on the probability of fun x distraction=D/L increase of X? It would be important to know, because this summer I fully intend on flying behind Voodew's big flappy balls and I want to maximize my view while minimizing my D/L.
I promise I'll try to do better just for you. In the meantime, keep pulling that rubber PUD; it just *might* save your wife life.:P

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Spot, if you really think that flying better somehow would NOT make you smile after each jump, then you are, indeed, the King of D/L.

Hardcore King! :)
Now I need some clay to make a statue of the King in front of the museum...

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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