whatever

yeah, like t says: go rob a liquor store already! it worked for me soon to be gone

I haven't finalized my travel plans yet. Just looked at the African Freefall Convention website quickly and it seems trickier to get from Capetown to Mafikeng than I thought. Are you guys going to start an 'African Freefall Convention Ride Sharing Thread' ? I think it could be really helpful. I could get to JHB area pretty easy and relatively cost effectively, from there it seems a hassle if you don't have a car. Anyone willing to give me ride from JHB area to or from the convention, let me know! I also won't be able to stay the whole duration, I think about 4-5 days only, which days would be the best ones to be there for the flocking? thanks! sam soon to be gone

wow T, you guys are rocking out down south! I just hope I don't totally embarras myself with crappy flying when I get there... last time I flew my wingsuit was 29 October and even though I have done 121 jumps since, only 2 of those involved an airplane... hopefully I'll remember not to pull 3 seconds after exit and I won't be too scared by the now unfamiliar sight of those two extra cells on my canopy and that scary looking slider... all the same, I'm really looking forward to flocking bigtime when I get over there and the prospect of not even slightly caring how I pack my canopy really appeals to me... cya sam soon to be gone

ever since I put my S3 on, I rarely leave the plane without it, so last year it was time for a new canopy and wingsuit compatibility was the main priority I tried as many suitable seeming canopies as I could get my hands on (liked a Spectre 135 a lot) and then went to Eloy for the holiday boogie and demo'd some more canopies... Nitro 135 - I liked it, but liked the 120 more. Nitro 120 - I liked this so much I bought it. Pilot 124 - maybe marginally nicer openings than the Nitro, but not nearly as fun to fly Safire2 129 - the demo canopy was pretty beat up and needed new lines, so no surprise I didn't like the way it flew or opened... my exit weight is 200 lbs I have been really happy with the Nitro 120 ( I have about 200 wingsuit jumps with it now). get Beezy to send you a demo or borrow one, you'll be glad you did! the only possible downside to the Nitro is that it is so forgiving while in linetwists, that it's made me kinda lazy/sloppy at pulltime, I just throw something out there and see what happens, sometimes I get a fun little ride, but they always work fine... PS - you get to make up all kinds of cool names for the winglets and what they do! soon to be gone

make that 3: soon to be gone

Really? I thought it was a rigging error? technically speaking I guess you could say it was the rigging error, but I consider it a wingsuit fatality, as he was doing the rigging because of his wingsuit and would not have done it if the wingsuit was not involved, therefore no wingsuit = no additional rigging = no rigging error = no fatality how do you figure, please elaborate? on a sidenote, are you headed for the desert again this year? soon to be gone

to keep this from being a purely photoshop contest, I suggest these two additional rules: - you must post video from your perspective - you must post video from the ground this will make it fun for all the online spectators to try and keep it from being carnage (in case there are enough stoopid people out there willing to do this with the wrong equipment and/or experience ) I suggest this additional rule: - you have to be able to stand up the landing and walk away from it uninjured having said that, did you really only have an open skydiving canopy at 400 ft ? soon to be gone

hmm, I'll be in sunny S.A. then, I think I'll come and flock! hope I can keep up to you fast and floaty people... cya sam soon to be gone

crosspost, as I'm trying to get maximum visibility here: looking to see how many of the jumpers from skydive burnaby, in ontario, canada, are on these forums? speak up now cya sam

OK, so here's the answers: - log the second jump only (my one Protrack did this) 21% off the poll chose this so far - log both deployments as separate jumps (my other Protrack did this) 26 % off the poll chose this so far the WRONG answer would be: - log the first deployment only (neither Protrack did this) 54 % off the poll chose this so far (I know they sum up to 101% - which must just be a rounding up error in the polling program) mr2mk1g - Protrack 1 showed only the 2nd deployment, logging a 10 second delay, Protrack 2 showed both, logging 8 seconds on the first deployment and 10 seconds on the 2nd, with pretty much the same altitudes as Protrack 1 for the 2nd 'exit' and deployment. I guess one likely explanation is that 8 seconds is close enough to the minimum required 6 seconds for logging the jump, so likely Protrack 1 did not register the exit as quickly, or the deployment as late, as Protrack 2 and did not see the required 'delay' to log the jump. phoenixlpr - I agree with mr2k1g on this one, also, I have a number of jumps with exits below the first warning on my Protrack and it still logged them as long as I did the required minimum 6 second 'delay'. interesting instruments, these Protracks, these days I am in the habit of chasing my home DZ's Twin Otter around the turn after I exit in my S3 and the resulting dive has seen me attain descent rates of up to 152mph TAS, before the plane gets too far away and I pull out of the dive, translating forward speed into 'lift' and usually achieving enough deceleration to fool the Protrack into thinking I have deployed a canopy. Exits normally around 14000ft, Protrack normally logs 'deployment' at 11-17 seconds and around 12500ft. For all the Neptune fans - I jumped a Neptune for a weekend and fooled that into fake deployments far more frequently than my Protracks.... (it's owner thought it might be in need of a software update) soon to be gone

I disagree. If the high man starts backflying, he's just put himself at the disadvantage, as very few wingsuit pilots will outfly pilots of similar ability while on their back and the opponent has the option of flying on their belly. think about it soon to be gone

Perry I resized and posted the pics for you.... here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/gallery/imageFolio.cgi?direct=Personal_Galleries/whatever/Phoenix_Fly_Phantom&img= cya sam soon to be gone

Ok, heres the jump: exit at 4800 ft, short delay, fly canopy to good spot to get cutaway canopy to land on DZ cutaway at around 3000ft, take a short delay before deploying second canopy you wear a Protrack on this jump, what's it gonna do? I did this jump, I had my 2 Protracks in the left and right pockets inside my Z1 helmet. I will post what they did after I've gotten an idea of what people think their Protracks will do, just so I do not affect anyone's opinion by posting my experience up front. cya sam soon to be gone

Really??? I used to jump one of each back to back on a regular basis and never experienced a "loss of flare power" Odd. uh, yes really. like I said, I have NOT experienced the alleged 'loss of flare power' I just wanted to clarify that I stated that the Blackjack has the same flare power as the Ace. soon to be gone

OK, I'll bite.... I find your views on valved and vented canopies quite strange for an experienced jumper. I only have 150 basejumps, 133 of which on 2 different Blackjack 260s and 17 on a vented and valved Rockdragon 266. Most of the local jumpers here jump Mojos, Aces or Blackjacks, so whereas I have never jumped an Ace or Mojo, I have seen others jump them on the same load and so I feel I have gotten a glimpse of how the canopies compare. I love my Blackjacks, they have been good to me and allowed me to walk away from a wire strike under 200 ft and 2 seperate 180's from 330-350 ft underhung objects.... I am convinced the vents and valves helped in both these cases. I have also seen a very experienced jumper have the most violent 180 I have ever seen, slider off on an ACE, followed by a cliffstrike and a helicopter rescue.... I have not experienced a loss of flare power on the Blackjack compared to my friends on Aces. I did however find the Rockdragon to have a lot less flare than the Blackjack, although the openings were good, based on my limited exposure of 17 jumps on one. as for the 'less than 50 basejumpers in the whole world who might take advantage of valves', I guess it's just some sort of strange coincidence that in my 1.5 years of active jumping I have seen a handful of them and the jumps that they could have used valves on.... my 2 cents cya sam soon to be gone

I'm having visions of some bizzarre Monster Truck wheelchair contraption. "SUNDAYSUNDAY!!!!! LIVELIVE!!!!!!...." not quite so monster truck or bizarre, but there has been some pretty good development in the field of downhill wheelchair racing, as a wheelchair equivalent of downhillmountainbike racing... might be worth looking into for this sort of application, here's a link: http://newmobility.com/review_article.cfm?id=165&action=browse cya sam soon to be gone

like Tom said except, I'm pretty sure that you won't get the response you are looking for from either of the gentlemen that Tom mentioned PM sent contact me cya sam soon to be gone

PM sent contact me cya sam soon to be gone

go here: Twin Falls, Idaho. come back after a good FJC and twenty-something jumps, ask the same question to the right people in person.. and they will be far more willing to share their objects and information with you soon to be gone

the idea you are describing is based on airfoils producing lift due to Bernoulli's Principle I have heard from several sources that this has been challenged fairly succesfully and that airfoils' mechanism of creating lift is Newtonian. I'm hoping some very educated and knowledgeable folk will comment on this. thanks! sam soon to be gone

hey Chris! care to share the names of your friends? it's a small world... (say hi to tonto and Taya, and I hope your sis is still progressing with her recovery - I was on a Sentinel load with her when she just started going stowed) like I said, it's a small world!! I'm planning to be back 'home' for the African Freefall Convention - hope to get some quality flocking in then. cya sam soon to be gone

hey Chuck any idea what Vladi's wingloading would've been? Curtis wasn't wearing any weight (except if you count his camera helmet - it's pretty heavy), which he said put him at about 6:1 on the 40... I saw pro-track numbers in the low 50 mph TAS region for this jump. I regularly fly in the 45 mph region for pro-track TAS on solos, but that requires more forward speed than the 40 had, so I had to put the 'brakes' on a little and Curtis basically hung on the front risers to match glide angle. soon to be gone

had PC problems recently and I'm busy as a motherF*er at work, so no real progress on the video yet as for the dock, the wingsuit did not dock on the canopy pilot, the canopy pilot docked on the wingsuit I flew in, we flew relative and I sideslid up to Curtis' side and just in front and just flew steady Curtis then flew the canopy in and docked his foot on my butt, just below the rig. (the plan is for him to walk along my back or surf me, but that's a few jumps away) so, you can't see the dock on my video and his foot is out of frame on Curtis' too to be quite frank, we did not fly the dock, it was quite short, but we did fly very close for a large portion of the skydive hope that helps your curiousity! cya sam soon to be gone

this nugget from Jaap's goodbye post: I'd really like experienced jumpers' opinions on this. I think using your comfort zone as a risk evaluator is a fundamentally flawed way of reasoning, especially at low jump numbers (like mine, or better yet, Jaap's). There is a very real absolute risk factor to any basejump, that does not depend on your amount of skill, training, or physical attributes. Doing jumps way outside of your comfort zone is never a good idea, as you might not be able to focus and do what is required. And doing jumps well inside your comfort zone is arguably MORE dangerous than being just outside it, or on the edge of it, as complacency has a way of setting in and catching up with you. Your own skillset, experience, equipment, equipment knowledge and physical attributes will determine how well equipped you are to deal with any particular jump. One risk is not knowing how your own comfort zone, your evaluation of the risk and the actual risk of the jump compare. Experience will increase your understanding of the relationship of the above 3, but you never really know and every incident/injury free jump only tells you were right on your evaluation of that jump or you got lucky. I guess my point is that some people's comfort zones have a way of writing checks that their skills can't cash, so their ass end up paying. do you really know how well calibrated your comfort zone is? and do you really think staying inside it will keep you safe? just wondering... sam soon to be gone

how about trying to search for Felix Baumgartner? you want to go here: http://www.felixbaumgartner.com please try harder next time before making us south africans look like we have no internet savvy.... especially on a south african's website sien jou in die rondte vriend soon to be gone