NSEMN8R

Hey Grey bros. That was a nice boogie and some good flocking. We had a lot of fun with you guys. Thanks for everything!

Looking good guys! I can't wait for the season to start. We'll almost have enough birds to do 12 ways from the 3 182's!

It should be the opposite of that. Why should one group of people's opinion on what is "safe enough" be forced upon another group? When it comes to shit like jumping out of planes, shouldn't we all (even students) be treated like adults who can decide for themselves how much risk is acceptable? I know the people who try to make rules to protect people from themselves all mean well. I still don't like it. What's happening to personal responsibility? By the way, is there a big difference in the number of tandem head injuries between the countries with these opposing mentalities?

I would agree that TMs should wear a helmet. I strongly disagree that there should be a rule or law that says we HAVE to wear them. Shame on you if you're suggesting there should be.

I was really surprised how much work goes into building these things. I spent a week in December at the Nitro Rigging loft working with Nick on building my Volturius II prototype. It took 3 of us four solid days from sun up to sun down to finish it. The wingsuit manufacturers are definitely earning their money.

I think it varies a lot. When I'm being a tandem instructor I will tell people "Don't worry, I'll get you down safely as long as you do what I say". When I'm teaching an experienced skydiver to fly a wingsuit I always tell them "As long as you don't fuck up you should be fine, but if things go to shit out there no one is going to be able to save you. Once you step out the door you're on your own." "Instructor" doesn't have to mean the same thing all the time. Saying that a tandem instructor and a wingsuit ffc instructor or Base FJC instructor have to carry the same amount of responsibility for their student's safety just because they all use the I-word is ridiculous. I think the important thing is that the correct expectations are set beforehand.

From the Nitro Rigging website: To become an EGI you must have a minimum of 500 skydives (or a combination of skydives and BASE jumps), a minimum of 100 wingsuit jumps, the possession of at least one Nitro Rigging wingsuit, and the successful completion of the Nitro Rigging Instructor course, of course good looks will do nothing but good! We will consider full or partial wave of the rating requirements if the candidate is already a BMI or a PFI or if she/he has other exceptional expertise. EGIs also will be responsible to eradicate the myth that wingsuit flying is a dangerous discipline. We know that wingsuit flying is not any more dangerous than RW or FF. With the proper basic training anyone could enjoy wingsuit flying. EGIs should be passionate about wingsuits and spread the love of wingsuit flying!

If he writes a book about his wingsuit/base experience it's not going to sound very cautious. Did he take it out of a plane at all first or were his first real wingsuit flights actually off a cliff in a Vampire?

Drawings of the Arm wings for Nick's new suits are attached. He's building me a Volturius II. It should be done this week. This will be the first one, so I'm not sure what to expect. How do you think this thing is going to fly? The arm wing attaches just above the knee and the legwing is the same as the rigor mortis legwing (Portugese Whore). What kind of flight characteristics would you expect out of a wing shaped like that? He's going to market it as an aerobatic suit, but it doesn't look like any of the other aerobatic suits on the market. He says it's the first elliptical wingsuit. Think it will fly?

Probably not as big of a difference as you might think right now. You're both flying wingsuits just fine right now and you both started with less jumps than some people think you should have. In a couple years when you have a thousand or whatever jumps you'll look back and realize that there really wasn't much difference between 150 tracking jumps and 150 FF jumps. You're green as fuck either way at that stage of the game. And once you have a bunch of ws jumps (or put a sweet video on youtube) it won't matter how or when you started anyways. Jarno said it well: That's why I sometimes don't have a problem teaching newer people. They're really not any more likely to fuck it up and have a bad experience than someone with 250 jumps. I think people should be able to decide for themselves what they are ready for.

I think he made it pretty obvious in the video that some more experience would have benefited him as far as his canopy skills. Even with the lack of experience he had great flights though. I'd say that's true for 100% of us dodo's who get into this. More experience is always better no matter how many or few jumps we have or how good we think we are. Seroiusly? If you're always hearing about them there must be more than 2 or 3. I always thought it seemed like the other way around though. I think we hear more stories of bad first flight experiences from lowtimers (and sometimes not so low timers) than we hear the good stories. I believe this is because the low timers who do tell success stories on here end up catching a lot of shit (some of which they bring on themselves) like Butters and Skittles. If Chris McNamara had come on here a year ago (with 100 skydives and a handful of cliff jumps in a home-made tracking suit), looking for info on wingsuits for base jumping, he likely would have caught some shit too.

Excellent video. The dude is a rockstar. But... Some people might say he rushed into it a bit without doing all "the work". Maybe I misunderstood what he said in the video, but I got the impression that he started base jumping after only 100 skydives and went to WS Base with only another 50 jumps off the Potato Bridge. I'm not saying I think there's anything wrong with it, just that it doesn't seem to fit the criteria of what most of the people on here would consider "all the work".

Are you serious?? The dude only has 175 jumps.. Wingsuits are automatic Black Death if you have under 200 jumps!!! You should go Skittles. It's going to be a fucking riot. A bunch of us from over here are going. See you down there! AAD's are not required. Flotation device is required for the beach jumps though.

How does the drouge attachment position affect the use of the Handcam? I've used handcam on both Strong and Vector and I've never really noticed any advantage or disadvantage to either.

There are tons of people out there flying wingsuits with

Maybe not appropriate for this thread, but I'd like to hear more about this. What was your error? Did you teach him something incorrectly or leave something out? What things do you watch for now that you weren't before? If you've already posted the story, could you send me a link? Thanks.

Uh-oh... Here we go again with the jump numbers.. Let me just say first that 'safety-wise' he did fine. He was stable right out the door, he did his practice touches, he flew the pre-planned pattern, he pitched on time, landed on airport... (Please don't anyone say "..but he doesn't know what he doesn't know..") 'Performance-wise', I would agree that if he either had more jumps or he'd spent more of his first 175 jumps tracking he probably would have flown better on his first WS jump. Some might also say that if he started flying wingsuits at 100 jumps, he would have been flying better this weekend. You guys have never seen someone with "enough" jumps have weak leg position on their first flight??? I think watching some video of himself flying so he can actually see what he was doing would do more for his wingsuit skills than some tracking or RW jumps.

The suit is actually an Eagle, not an Aerobat. He's the same size I was when I bought it. Once we get him to straighten out his legs and stop arching, there's no reason he can't be flying it comfortably in the 50-60 mph range.

Hey Skittles! Nice jumping with you this weekend. Congrats and welcome to the flock! You and Crystal both did great on your first flights. Especially considering the condition you were in from the Halloween party the night before! I had a lot of fun with you guys! If I can make it back next weekend I'll bring my camera helmet. Video will help you A LOT. If I can't come, I'll send the Eagle down with Hoyt if you want to jump it some more. Don't worry too much about freefall times. When you forget about that stuff and just focus on flying the suit your times will get better. Just keep your feet off your butt and have fun! If you want to get better at flying wingsuits, fly wingsuits more.

I think Manufacturer ratings are important. They designed and built the gear so I think it's important we understand how they intended it to be operated. There are some major differences between the different rigs. The bullshit rating is USPA and if anyone is in it to "make a few bucks more" it's those fuckers.

Up to now, I've been leaving them seat belted in until 2000 ft. At 2k I usually tell them they can take off the seatbelt and get up on their knees if they're in back and they want to look out the window. Then at 8 I have them sit in front of me so we can hook up. I'm not sure hooking up prior to take off is a good idea because of the reasons mentioned above, but a good compromise might be to hook them up as soon as they take off their seatbelt at 2K. That might really suck when you get the big ones though.. having a 250 pounder leaning back on you for 8000 feet doesn't sound like fun. I might start doing that with the hotties though... for safety sake.

This is pretty much what was going through my mind when I was in the door. I trust this pilot more than any other I've flown with. I've landed with him before without power and he said he had it this time. I told him as I shut the door that if it were anyone else behind the wheel I'd be gone. I chose to stay with the plane rather than landing a tandem reserve off airport from 3000 ft. These are exactly the kinds of things that I'm realizing in hindsight. I can also think of a few other mistakes I made on this load that I won't bring up here. But , I will say that this was a huge eye opener and a great learning experience for me. I'm glad it all played out the way it did on this one, but if I ever find myself faced with the opportunity to make a decision like this again, I think I will be getting out.

So we were at about 4K in a 182. 2 fun jumpers in front, me behind the pilot and the tandem student all the way in back facing me. There's a loud bang, smoke coming in through the dash board, the pilot opens the door and yells get out. The 2 way got out and I got the student turned around and slide up into the door. I had the dudes feet out with just the uppers attached and the silver out of the pocket as we were passing through 3000 ft. I look back at the pilot as we're about to bail and he says "I think we got it". I looked down and was sure we would be landing off if we went. This is a very experienced pilot that has been flying me up and down for at least the past decade. I decided to stay with the plane. I shut the door and buckled us up. The pilot landed the plane without a problem (You're the man, Dennis!). The fun jumpers landed way off, but safely so it all ended fine (except for the big hole in the motor). As I sit here a couple weeks later, I'm wondering if it was the right decision to stay with the plane. He shut off the engine, but the prop was still spinning and the plane was shaking and vibrating a bit. I can't help but think that if the bad situation got worse at say 1000 ft, the decision to stay could have killed all 3 of us. If the motor shook itself off the mounts or something at a grand, the pilot may have been able to get out but not with me and a student in the way and I'm not totally sure a tandem reserve would open that low. I guess it was the right move since no one got hurt, but I'm wondering what others think... What would you do?

Last year was a great time. I'd come down for that again. Who will be organizing the Wingsuits this year?

Why not just pre-date the card to 10 days earlier so that the pack job expires the day the 4 year is due?