RolandForbes

Ive heard the same number of 500 per day on a busy day. Granted that information came from a drunken asshat of a TI who recently got caught drinking on the job so who knows

Bring a first time jumper to sacrifice to the tandem gods, and you get a dollar off!

Will objects be limited to avoiding earth/span, or will it also include flaming tennis balls?

Lololol ^. 

The heavier a canopy is loaded, the more likely it is to dive in line twists.

5 hours ago, rdufokker said:

 At break off some of us would tackle another jumper and ride them down well below 2000', holding them so they couldn't pull.  When the panic got too great we'd let go and pull. 

You sir, are an absolute savage lol.

Sounds like you'd be a good AFF IE

Gotta love that subterminal track. 

Thats awesome though that ramp must have taken forever to setup!

The fact that you have a good healthy fear of skydiving probably means you'll end up being quite good at it. 

I was in the same boat though too man. Had to ride down my first few static line jumps because of fear, now I'm most of the way towards 1000 jumps. 

I'd suggest you push through these early days, what awaits you on the other side is so much bigger than a couple sweaty palm 182 rides.

Agreed Bluhdow, however the same pattern can be seen in a multitude of other sports.

Taller swimmers tend to be faster, because their drag to power output ratio is smaller. Taller runners have longer glide, taller rowers have longer range. These are well documented phenomenon in a few different sports.

I think it all comes back to the idea that volume and surface area do not scale in unison. As bodies become larger, they have less surface area relative to their volume. I dont see why this theory would be different for wingsuit flying, I mean were cruising through a fluid, just like swimmers do.

But yes, sorry for the dum science rant. You are correct that in real world conditions, skill is the only thing that really matters! I can still flatspin on my back no matter what my weight lol

@kleggo very interesting. I'd argue any single race is too small of an N to reliably reference for normalized data.

Would be interested to know the body size/experience level of him vs his competitors.

Interesting point though for sure

11 hours ago, alfonso904 said:

What do you think is the difference in speed and glide between someone who is 5'7" and say, 6'6" 

Glide is a variable thats (mostly) independent of wing size, so theoretically a 5'7 pilot will have the same average glide a 6'6 pilot (because arm size is fixed to height). 

What gives the taller pilot more range is the fact that they have more mass, and more mass means faster freefall. With this in mind: 

Airspeed * 2 == availableLift * 4 

^ double your airspeed, quadruple your lift

The heavier pilot will be able to take their suit faster than a light pilot, thus resulting in much more available lift, higher max speed, bigger potential flares, etc.

So moral of the story is, if you're short and wanna out fly your buddies, just put some sand bags in your legwing!

8 hours ago, DonnellyB said:

This actually brings up a fascinating point.  The human wingspan is 'fixed' to a degree - this is true - but within a range that fluctuates from person to person. 

You can look up concepts like 'wingspan' or 'armspan' and their effects on many different sports.  I wonder if wingsuiting is the same.  Does anyone know if we've quantified the effects?  If we look at some of the best wingsuit pilots in the world for example, do they have abnormally long arms?  Are they abnormally tall?  

In a few sports there is talk about the 'ape index' (ratio of wingspan/armspan to height) playing an important role in performance.  I really wonder if that could be the same here.

Yes certainly. Its no coincidence that most national level wingsuit performance comps are won by guys who are tall and lean. 

Same reason being tall as a TI is the shit. Taller TIs have more surface area to fly their students, thus making it a bit easier to maintain stability in tandem freefall

 Id assume its for similar reasons that static line BASE jumps yield a lower off heading rate than handheld or stowed.. Would be interested as to the physics behind it but it seems removing PC oscillation may be a factor?

Thanks for posting! 

On 10/1/2022 at 1:24 PM, chuckakers said:

They have a waiver (by jumper name and venue) from USPA that allows them to deploy at 1,000 feet. 

Lol such hypocrisy that they allow 'special Red Bull jumpers' to do this, but not anyone else.

Do as I say, not as I do..... Am I back in Catholic school?

I personally feel that minimum opening altitudes should fall entirely in the purvue of the S&TA. They're the boots on the ground, they should have final word when it comes to enforcing (or not enforcing) minimum opening requirements. 

S&TA's are an order of magnitude more important than the USPA, and should be treated as such. USPA sends you a really shitty magazine once a month, S&TAs derive and define safety culture, give you advice, help you get to new milestones/ratings etc (oh and watches you on every jump to make sure you're not going to kill yourself or your fellow jumpers) just to name a few

The engrained nature of the S&TA makes them much more knowledgable of which jumpers need minimum opening altitudes. For example at our DZ, all wingsuit flyers with less than 100 flights must open by 5k. That's an S&TA imposed rule that largely has benefitted us, and something that in our jump culture likely has prevented at least a few sketchy situations.

Saw this happen at like 2k in the DC-3 at Eloy. Fuckin dood took his rig off and repacked it in the aisle. I shit you not, a true cowboy

Get some flaps to make opening the door a bit easier.

Dont step on the flaps on the way out. 

Have fun! When you land go buy your pilot a bottle

Regression to the mean

8 hours ago, BMAC615 said:

I remember the ‘90s :)Now, I’m pretty consistently open by 3,500 ft in my wing suit. In terminal BASE, opening at 750’ is “In the stratosphere.” Why wouldn’t USPA consider allowing people jumping BASE canopies in dual harness rigs to open at whatever altitude they want?

Lol once you can see the white's in your S&TA's eyes, then its time to pull.

Doubtful, the USPA has no place telling non students what to wing load at. That falls under the pervue of the S&TA at your local DZ.

Good questions to ask yourself before upsizing would be: 

Am I achieving laminar airflow, or just plowing air like a student?

Am I having consistent on heading openings? 

Can I fly my suit at all angles of attack? No need to get a big suit if you can't go steep. 

Am I willing to accept the risk that my AAD may not activate if I need it due to low air speed?

If you can say yes to all 4, you're probably good to go.

The new suits are incredible, but the performance asymptote is being reached. Average G/R is still in that low 3 range, for average glide. It likely always will be because the human wingspan is fixed to its height.

Remember a wingsuit is nothing more than a really shitty glider, almost no aircraft have as poor of a glide ratio as a wingsuit.

The real performance gains have been in the flares though, 2-300 feet of altitude gained. 

If you want to see the numbers behind it, Skyderby is the place to be: 

https://skyderby.ru/virtual_competitions/2/year/2022

On 8/25/2022 at 9:06 PM, kleggo said:

 

Just like I buy Campagnolo and not SRAM.

But Atair is literally the Campagnolo of skydiving...

Skilled European craftsmanship > cheap Asian labor

I've flown the Epicene Pro quite a bit but no Omicron. Another vote for the Winx though, has better openings than the Epicene and wayyyyy more flare power. 

Get a big wingsuit! That way you have the sky to yourself under canopy 

For realsies though my rule is: If I can count every canopy on the load (like a 182 DZ), then I'll be a total asshole under canopy. Spirals, stalls, have a good pee... You know the works
 

If I can't count all canopies easily then I fly like a conservative grandma going to church.

So just depends on the DZ/load specifics

6 hours ago, base615 said:

Lost altitude awareness on a night jump and pulled really low. I was fully open below 1,000ft and had to land in a paddock next to the DZ in almost complete darkness. I bought a Time Out the next morning.

I would hope that darkness would hide your mistake from your S&TA lol.

Land and be like 'Low pull? Nah I pitched at like 6k'