notsane

The Texas Fly BoyZ sent a huge BBQ feast to the Z-Flock and the Z-Hills staff as thanks for our efforts during Flock and Dock 3.0. It was a TON of meat from the Salt Lick BBQ restaurant ... 4 racks of ribs 2 briskets 1 sausage portion 1 turkey breast 6 bottles BBQ sauce We added potato salad, Texas toast and salad. Jeff Nebelkopf did the cooking and we all added the beer. We must have had nearly 25 people hanging out at Scotty Burn's RV. Bob, Ted and the rest of the Texas Fly BoyZ ... THANKS!! You guys are a class act!! This video clip should be up shortly .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J23pEQIRh28 Scott

Bring your tent and sleeping bags and stay at Z-Hills. You'll only be about 30 minutes from Lakeland airport.

What?! No beer fridge?!

FYI: On the black Rigor Mortis photo it's difficult to see the *really* aggressive trailing edge cambering of both the arm and leg wings,

If I can get to the Texas event, I will .. in spite of the Houston part. It all depends on the work schedule.

Great pics ... stay away from those intakes though. They're engineered to take a bird-strike, although I don't think they had us in mind at the time.

Rob that's too fucking funny.

You can go the geek route and try to figure out your true airspeed, miles covered, etc ... but when you're really pushing it and getting it right, you'll know. It would be great to have a HUD that would display glide angle, airspeed, altitude, etc .. but until that technology is perfected your best instrument is the seat of your pants.

If you're looking to get the very best performance, the best situation is to make the fewest turns possible. Have the plane keep going after the last freefallers are out. That's usually upwind. Get out as far as you dare from the DZ. If the pilot is willing he can can turn you back towards the DZ at that point so you make no turns at all in freefall.

Outstanding work, Matt! I can't wait to see the video .. Note the shadows in photo 15. In the video it looks INSANE. How'd those shots of Jeff over Sebastian get in there?

Thanks, Ted, I should've known that ... I fixed it.

Wah-Fucking-Hoo! What a GREAT time! We did some amazing stuff and no one was hurt (except for Perry’s boo-boo). I didn’t organize every flock, so I can only give you details on the one’s I did. Chuck Blue sure did his share and Rob Jones (Morpheus) was in there as well. We even pressed Robi Pecnic into organizing a couple when things got tight! Quite a number of folks arrived early, with Wednesday’s flocks really starting things off. By Thursday we were warming up with 11-way wedge piece-moves (cameraman plus two side by side 5-way wedges, halfway through one of the wedges flies behind the other) and a nice 22-way flock dive. Friday morning was foggy until near noon and we put up a nice 11-way flock followed by a 16-way wedge piece-move. This dive provided us with one of the coolest video shots I’ve ever seen as the video guy (Matt) flew under the flock just before we entered some wispy clouds. The sun behind us illuminated the clouds and cast vertical shadows from the people as the clouds rocket past us .. amazing. We did another wedge piece-move dive at 21 people before we put up two two-Otter double-chevron dives (a V shaped flock right behind another V shaped flock). The first dive had 34 people and the second had 35. These dives worked very well and proved that the idea of the double-chevron works very well. On the last dive we tried a 12 way human-zipper (where two spread out 6-way lines fly one on top of the other. The top line then flies through the lower line) but we never quite got to the zipping part. Saturday started out early. We warmed up with a 20-way combination vertical/horizontal flock, followed by a 20-way flying vagina dive (a vertical diamond without the center). 3 flyers acted as penetrators and flew through the opening. Unfortunately the top of the diamond was pretty ragged on this dive. Next we did a 20 way variation on the wedge piece-moves dive. 2 3-way wedges were on either side and 1 3-way wedge was above a 9 way wedge. On cue the wedges on the sides docked with the tails of the 9-way wedge while the top wedge flew down on top of the 9-way wedge. Finally it was time for the big-ways. 2 dives were made, each with 48 total people and 3 airplanes. The base 8 and nearby flyers were in the lead aircraft, the right side of the double-chevron in the center and the left side in the trail. The exit speed was a little high and the center airplane was caught unawares as we exited, but the first dive probably went the very best. We went right back up and did the same dive again, but it was a little looser. I’d like to note that on both dives there was no zooming around, nor were there any issues at breakoff (5000’). I should note that Mike Swearingen made his 1000th wingsuit jump on the first big-way. Everyone waited to give him his well-deserved reward until the evening … which was eggs, birdseed, feathers and quite a few pies. Some very helpful people even tried to assist Mike’s cleaning efforts by spraying him with a hose as he was showering! Lots of great prizes were awarded Saturday night, culminating in a brand new Phoenix-Fly wingsuit! Paul Luter received 30% off a Aerodyne canopy and promptly handed it to Chuck so that the next up-and-coming young wingsuiter that needs a docile canopy can get one! First thing Sunday a high altitude load went up taking a couple of wingsuiters. Lurch looked pretty tired but very happy that he finally broke the 4 minute mark with 205 seconds from 23,000’ We put up a 20-way inverted T dive where a line is accompanied by a vertical stack over the base. I was the in-air referee for the next dive … the 1st Annual Z-Flock Distance Challenge … 14 people put down their $20 each to compete against the best. I spotted, putting out people 3 seconds apart in 2 groups of seven over a line perpendicular to the flight direction. They were to start their pull sequence by 3000’. Five people ( Robi Pecnic, Jeff Nebelkopf, Tero Paukku, Ted Cheslek and Mike Swearingen) made it to the designated finish line (going past this finish line would have put them in the swamp), so those people went back for a second round. On the second round I put them out 4 miles downwind from the peas. In a very close race, Jeff edged out Robi at the very end. Shortly afterwards, Jeff positively beamed as he was presented a bouquet of flowers and the cash. Following that we put up a 13-way vertical diamond (with stingers) and a 9-way diamond that was picture perfect. Jeff Nebelkopf and Tony Uragallo also put up a 9-way all Mach 1 dive. I have got to thank EVERYONE for coming to the event. It’s you people … your skill, your safe attitudes, your willingness to try the untried .. that make something like this possible. YOU ROCK! With only 2 exceptions I can think of, every wingsuit manufacturer was represented. Not to mention that we had the manufacturers for Phoenix-Fly (Robi), Tony Suits (Tony, Jeff) and EG (Nick) actually present. We may fly different suits and there is a competitive nature to business, but this really is a community of wingsuiters! We had Norm Kent with us (I had to convince him to take the camera off and play with us), Veggie Reggie from Kamloops, Lurch and Ed Pawlowski from the NW, Ted and Bob from Texas … and too many other to list here. Many thanks to Rob and Kathy from Morpheus for putting it all together! Let’s do it again! Thanks too to Matt Hoover for keeping the camera guys safe … Scotty HD Burns, Avery Badenhof, Scary Perry, Norm Kent … did I miss anyone? Speaking of Norm Kent ... he walks up to me while I’m standing next to Scott and Chris Gray. Norm asks if he can take some pictures and I say (jokingly of course), “No, I don’t think so”. You should have seen the look on Scott and Chris’ faces! Priceless. Finally I have to mention the Skydive City folks … we are NOT the red-headed step-children at the DZ. TK has provided us with a clubhouse that’s now FULL of demo wingsuits, a video monitor, chairs, beer fridge. The pilots will fly exactly the path we ask them to. The manifest folks assist us constantly … I walk up to the window and say “I need 18 slots in about 30 minutes” She says “ Load 25 in 32 minutes, okay?” Then I go gather all the tickets for her. Sweet! Janine's food kept us going .. Italian night was good, but Latin night was great! The packers I’ve saved until last. You hope for no malfunctions and no spinners, and you certainly get that from Kahn and the Nylon City crew. But better than that, they told me specifically that any rig with a wingsuit on it would be grabbed first from the pile! I don’t think any wingsuiter missed a load because their rig wasn’t packed! So everyone, thanks again! I can’t wait until the next time! Scott

The 9 way was: Scott Bland Chuck Blue Mike Masheff Mike Swearingen Harry Parker Larry Strayhorn Zack Paul Mazillo Jeff Nebelkopf Photographers: Matt Hoover and Scotty Burns There were enough talented people to make a 16 way, but we decided not to be greedy and do the 9 way, hoping to go back and do 16 if the 9 went well. Unfortunately folks evaporated before we could do it. Believe me, the talent was definitely there.

What an amazing time this weekend. I will post many more details later, and Matt and I are working on an article that will appear in Parachutist. 48 ways, 20 way warm up dives, stacks ... I'm still tired but I'm still smiling. And everyone headed home in one piece. The "distance challenge" had 14 particpants that were winnowed down to 4 for the second round. They had a fairly strong headwind with a little push from the left. It was very close at the end between Robi and Jeff, with Jeff pulling ahead at the end. Endurance is a real factor on these dives. Particpants exited 4 miles downwind of the peas. Jeff's winning flight took him 3 ground miles in 176 seconds. While somewhat short of the expected 7 - 1 glide ratio it was still enough for the win.

Things do not suck here at Z-Hills! If you are not here then you must suck! We had a full Otter load of wingsuiters on the last dive, and the event hasn't even begun. More people arrived before we left the ground ... we are now having to use 2 Otters to lift all the wingsuiters. The weather is beautiful and we have a ton of lift capacity. If you're not here I hope that leash doesn't chafe you too badly!

Local forecast: http://www.intellicast.com/IcastPage/LoadPage.aspx?seg=LocalWeather&loc=usflct28794&product=Forecast&prodgrp=Forecasts&prodnav=none Bring your shorts, sunscreen and plenty of money for jump tickets!

Mike's right, you will not be alone. There will be a bunch of jumpers out there and as many as a dozen wingsuiters. It's the middle of the spring season and there's a boogie in progress. Being alone isn't the issue, making your way to the bar will be. Scott

For someone who weighs in the low 100's (lbs) range I'll agree with you. For those of us who do not, a sustained 35 mph vertical speed would require an open parachute.

The unfortunate incident at Dublin should highlight the need for everyone to increase their awareness levels, especially for an event like Flock and Dock. We've also seen wingsuit flight videos recently of some very near collisions that would surely have been fatal. There will be a lot of bodies in the air, in freefall and under canopy ... almost certainly more than you're used to. Remember that the dive starts when you walk out to the loading area and ends when you drop your gear in the packing tent. Staying alive means a few things: * be aware of your surroundings, don't zoom your attention in only on where you are aimed * be careful. Don't try to beat everyone to the formation ... no-one cares that you are first! follow the folks ahead of you and arrive right behind them. * no zooming around! Closing speeds can be enormous and unsurvivable! Do not zoom across the line of flight or across the formation. * Keep Your Head on a Swivel! Look around all the time! * No sudden moves .. especially at break-off! Don't suddenly turn, dive or pop. It's almost certain that's someone is there waiting for you to run into them. Make your moves gentle and look where you are going. * I'm not going to say "no swooping" but I don't see it being compatible with all the other potential targets in the air. When you're focused on your altitude, entry point and turn angles are you *really* aware of traffic? Think how bad you'll feel if you kill someone and you survive to look their kids in the eye. That's the end to my preaching. No-one has gotten hurt at any of the previous events and I'm sure we can do that again with a little effort. You other old farts chime in here and let the younger folks know how it can turn bad real quick unless you stay aware. Scott

Good grief, James! You have a sustained speed under 35mph! In a stiff wind you'd blow away!

Kathy confirms that the registration has crossed 50 people! Normally 8-10 folks register as walk ups. Ohmanarewegonnahavesomefun!

One week to go! Don't forget to fill out your Skydive City waivers beforehand. Edit to add clicky - Craig

Ed, Chuck told me he got one on an airplane once, but they took it from him during a body cavity search.

Omar, You don't suck. We don't hate you. Come flock with us ... ALL WILL BE FORGIVEN ...

FYI .. the number of registered wingsuiters is just under 50! If you haven't registered yet, get to it!