MickeN

Well, I've done that as well, and it's a lot of fun But I think we're comparing two different things here. Do we want to flock with a lot of forward speed, with a good glideratio? Or do we want to just try to group together, not paying attention to speed and glide ratio? If we choose the later, then I see no problem with people flying with their wings collapsed. Wings collapsed means you don't use the potential of the suit, and in slow-horizontal-fast-vertical flocks that is OK. In the jumps we've made at the swedish Herc-boogie for the last couple of years (I know several of you been on those loads) we've often had a leader flying on his back. That guy (most of the time it's been Andy Ford) flyes really well on his back, but the glideratio is far from what we achieve when we speed up on our bellies. As I understand that is the norm right now for how flocks are built. I think there is more potential in flockdives where the key word is faster forward speed, better glideratio. If we all went out and did our best flight we would be scattered all over the sky, but with adjusting wingsuit sizes and models, and by experimenting with weights, I'm pretty sure we could group together with a lot more speed. More speed and more tuned jumpers/suits would open up for, in my opinion, more interesting flock dives. And after all, we all want to FLY our suits not make them NOT fly, right? Time will tell. /Micke

Kris, I agree, collapse the wings and you should be able to follow. But some people claim they cannot fly very well with the wings collapsed, or rather partially collapsed, the wings get floppy and the jumper get a feeling of not being in total control. They would for sure get more relaxed, and with a faster fallrate, using weights. It makes sense. /Micke

What about weights?! Skinny people should put on weights, just as any RW jumper do all the time. We discussed this on our DZ... or, I TOLD people to put on some led since they wanted to flock and they thought I was falling too fast. It never happened though, the attitude was "Why should I put on weights? It will decrease my freefall time!"...... Well, how can you argue with that? /Micke

Just to give you an idea what a norwegian hikehour really is... If a norwegian says 1 hour it's equivalent to 2 american hours. Several of the popular walls in that area have killer hikes, it's like hiking hills #2 and #3 at Kjerag for several hours. Straight up. Have you seen the norgies run up the hills at Kjerag? Then you know what I mean, these guys are like mountaingoats. With that said, the 3 valleys are beautiful! Long freefalls, fantastic jumps! /Micke

Yes, I'm referring to the BirdMan Pantz. At it's best they equal the performance you get with booties, but many times they don't inflate at all giving no extra boost. I'm talking about BASE here, but on skydives they always inflate. I guess the sudden terminal wind in skydiving make them inflate easier. The modifications I made was very simple but made all the difference. I put small booties on, that gave the Pantz stability from the toes and up. I also closed most of the lowerleg inlets. I've found (by playing around with smokepants) that too large lowerleg inlets don't work, it's like putting a PC on each leg, it will inflate but not help the track. And last, I put a really small wing between the legs, just enough to help spread the fabric of the legs giving a wider and more stable surface. As stated earlier, these small modifications made the Pantz hot! If I was the kind of guy that takes it all the way down, like Atle and the guys , I probably would have opened at the edge of the main landing area (talking about Kjerag here), but since I'm old and slow I had to pull a little higher...

Not really. I've done 200 jumps at Kjerag, 150 using booties. When I bought the Pantz I put 100 skydives on them before using them at Kjerag and they definitely did not get me any further. Then I put some small booties on the Pantz, almost closed the leg inlet, and put on a mini-wing (really small)... and they kicked ass! Almost took me to the grassy landing area So... no, the Pantz does not work better than booties as is, but with some minor modifications... Yes! /Micke

Put on your RW-suit and use those booties! Booties make a lot of difference, a good tracker with booties will by far outtrack a bad tracker with Pantz or smokepants. Freefly pants... well, you really need to be a good tracker if you want to get moving in those. Even though Kjerag is high and you get plenty of freefall, you DO want to get away from that wall. When it comes to technique it depends on what you're wearing. The classic "legs and arms together" will work with the RW-suit and booties. A wider arms and legs position is probably preferred if you use smoke pants. Nothing will really help if you jump a freeflysuit /Micke N

Arno, Do you know if he had many skydives using the legpouch? Is the impact site close to the wall indicating that he didn't flew the suit? Regards, Micke N BASE268

A few years back I had that EXACT malfunction at Kjerag. Hard opening and probably a tail inversion and a bridle that wipped back and forth, and than back again, at opening. I nearly chopped it away (yes, I was using a reserv

From the article: "But researcher William Farthing said women prefer high-status males to risk-takers." I don't agree with this, a lot of high-status guys/gales takes plenty of risks to stay "in the lead" and keeping the "high-status"....brainsurgeons, corporateleaders etc, they put their neck on the line all the time, just not physically...... I think this researcher better do his homework one more time...... So don't give up so easily pBASEtobe! :) / Madde ( at MN's computer)

Panasonic GS400. Anyone tried this one yet? The specs and price sounds OK, but how about performance in freefall...

Isn't there ANYONE out there who has used the GS120? I've also had my eyes on this one, compact and 3CCD to a very resonable price sounds like a good combination. /Micke

At least one of them who didn´t cut away is swedish, which means from the same country as yourself(according to your profile), so my suggestion is that you ask this person on the "Skydive-maillist" or in person, why he didn´t cut away...I´ll make sure he reads it, even if I can´t make sure that he´ll answer..... Ta´t lugnt i trafiken! Madelene

If you order Birdman Pantz make sure they are large enough to inflate. My Pantz are too tight, and when jumping my Pantz from Kjerag they inflate only on every third jump, and sometimes only on one leg, which makes it a little more interesting

Have you skydived with the GL2 yet? Is the picture OK? /Micke

Ask yourself this question: Would you land a Velocity 25 with your belly first? Then multiply the danger with x for more speed and y for the f-ckup factor. Still up for it? I'm sure someone will land a suit eventually, it's going to be one h-ll of an accomplishment. Looking forward to see the video

I get the best speed/glideratio when looking up pointing my nose in the direction of flight, sort of streching my neck towards were I want to go. This works very well for me both on Classic and Skyflyer. What I've found flying the suits since -99 is that every jumper has his own style, different bodypositions works for different jumpers wearing different suits. The thing is to find out what works for you, don't let anybody tell you you're doing wrong until you've tried it out yourself

They jumped the building without wings and after a couple of seconds they "magically" streched out the wings hidden in the arms and legs The exit altitude for the buildingjumps was 370m (1250ft). Five 2-ways and five 3-ways were made. On the 2-ways they did a couple of 8 second delays and opened 60m (200ft) from the building! Micke N Team Bautasten

I'd like to get in touch with belgium BASE jumpers. I'm going there in a couple of weeks and would like to get some guidance on what to jump, and not to jump. Please contact me on [email protected] Thanks! Micke N BASE 268

Good to hear people do enjoy solo flights! But too many times I've heard people say "flying solo is boring". A comment like that always surprises me. What is their motivation? Do they think flying with others will give them more of a flying sensation? Or is it a social thing, a need for "showing off"? The flying sensation comes from seeing the ground move, seeing the cloud pass by horizontally, or by passing that tandem so close you can see the passengers toothfillings. Why would any wingsuit flyer choose not to do these kind of jumps in favour of flockdives? I still don't get it... /Micke N

When people talk about wingsuit flying they usually talk about flying relative to other wingsuit jumpers, flockdiving. You often hear people stating that flying wingsuit alone is boring, you need more wingsuits in the air to have fun. Is that the common opinion? I've done all sorts of wingsuit jumps but the ones I by far enjoy the most are the solo jumps. When flying solo I can do EXACTLY what I want WHEN I want. I choose my own path in the sky, I find my own line through the cloud, I swoop whatever tandem I want. I max out the suit, I fly it as efficient as I can, or I collapse the wings and go into a steep dive... For me wingsuitflying is about just that, flying. Many times when people get together and make flockdives they forget the flying part, it's more of a RW-jump with the heads pointing in the same direction. People are more focused on the proximity than the actual flying. Why? Am I the only wingsuitjumper enjoying the solo wingsuitflight? Or am I just old and whining? Don't get me wrong, I've done many great flockdives, but what do people have against doing solo flights? /Micke N

Copied from a Tomb Raider forum: (about the trailer) "...and then is showed her and some dude high-diving off of a huge building lookin thing. after they dove off of it they opened their arms and some wind lookin thing came out of them and they sored down to the ground."