Taz

The rules at the USPA Board Meeting were not changed. All wingsuit formation rules remain the same. I was at the meeting. For any further questions or confirmation, please contact Scott Smith, the chair of the Competition Committee. It's the Year of the Dragon.

Hi all, The following was posted on the sticky/locked thread for the IPC Working Group, and on the IPC discussion forum. I thought I'd re-post it here for discussion and questions. Please share your well thought out proposals and comments on the IPC site (link below) for the voting members of the Working Group to consider. Thanks, -Taya Objective 2 of the FAI IPC Terms of Reference for the Wingsuit Working Group is: b) To investigate ways to define and judge no-contact wingsuit large formation records. The Working Group would like input from the Wingsuit Community as to what they think the basic parameters for large no contact big formations are? The Wingsuit Working Group came up with the following parameters as a starting point: 1. Two dimensional Formation designs will be two-dimensional for this record category. How can/should we limit vertical deviation, and should we require evidence of flatness for judging (i.e. a side camera angle)? 2. Slot Definition A slot is a target in the air for each flyer in the formation (some examples: a single point on the head, a shape such as a circle, box, or any other shape around the entire body). How should the rules define slot? 3. Margin of Error Margin of error is a standard for how far a flyer is allowed to deviate from his/her slot (however defined) to still be considered “in” the formation. How should the rules define Margin of Error? 4. Flight Angle Based on the slot position, Flight Angle is the angle at which the flyer is located relative to the next flyer. To which degree, if at all, will we limit the relative angles at which slots within a formation can be flown? 5. Short Range and Long Range Order Depending on the method used, flyers can be judged on their relative position on an individual basis (short range order), or the formation can be judged as a whole by its shape and form (long range order), or both. How should the rules address this? 6. Glide Ratio/Flight Performance Should there be a minimum required glide ratio or overall flight performance of the formation? How would that be measured? Let the discussions begin!!!!! To comment, please go to the following link and engage in discussion on the IPC forum, which is moderated and monitored by the voting members of the IPC Wingsuit Working Group: http://www.fai.org/parachuting/node/1725 It's the Year of the Dragon.

There was a change of plans: Summerfest wingsuit organizers are Jeff Nebelkopf and Justin Shorb. I won't be there this year, but hope you guys have a great time! It's the Year of the Dragon.

The press release is here. The June issue of Parachutist will have a full feature article on the weekend and some very sweet photos. I will post the pdf of the article to the Raise the Sky site once I get it from USPA (it goes to print this week). Skydive TV is doing a segment with some of our video footage, and Phil got to show off his rough cut edited to Angels and Airwaves' "Soul Survivor" to the band yesterday backstage at their concert. They are now Phil Peggs fans, and the final short video will be on our website in the next few days. Thanks, -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

More updates on the Raise the Sky blog are up now with a few photos. Tagle and Nebelkopf wrote their own entries. It was an amazing weekend, and we are grateful to Skydive Moab, Sunpath and TonySuits, and our Raise the Sky charity partner, Operation Freefall. Everyone is safe and happy, and we're looking forward to a next round of Project XRW! In the meantime, look for photos in an upcoming Parachutist magazine, and once they're published we'll put more online. One of us will post here when there is some video online very soon.

I'm also talking to Erin about organizing there, so looks I'll be there too! Yippee. Edited to add: I think the POPS record is a great idea! Happy to help in any way I can, Kallend.

They are massively kicking ass again today. They've really dialed in the wingsuit surfing, and they did a jump into Mineral Bottom for very pretty photos. We will post to the Raise the Sky blog again tonight, but we're definitely also hoping a few of the stills will make it into print! It's the Year of the Dragon.

Phil has put an awesome play-by-play from Day One on the Raise the Sky blog. They'll start jumping again soon... It's the Year of the Dragon.

That would be awesome ! Today's footage will be on the Raise the Sky blog tonight, once they're done jumping and back at the house with internet access. Today was a warm-up day, Day 1 of a weekend that we hope to turn into a longer running project. It's the Year of the Dragon.

Jonathan Tagle, Jeff Nebelkopf, and Phil Peggs (video) have started jumping today for Project XRW. Tagle and Nebelkopf have been docking this morning, and are starting to dial in their relative speeds. This just in: "Tagle surfed my back for about 20 seconds" -Jeff. Updates, etc. will be posted on the Raise the Sky blog throughout the weekend and next week. Project Brief: Project Extreme RW (XRW), hosted by Raise the Sky, Operation Freefall, and Skydive Moab, will explore the possibilities of how skydiving’s two fastest growing disciplines can interact in the air. A wingsuit flyer in freefall and a high-performance canopy pilot will come together for every type of interaction made possible by gravity and the skill of the athletes. Performance Designs Canopy Pilot Jonathan Tagle and Tonysuit Wingsuit Pilot Jeff Nebelkopf will work on body surfing, upside-down links, and other never-before-seen configurations. The XRW launch will take place on the weekend of April 24th at Skydive Moab and will raise awareness of the incredible work of Operation Freefall. Practice jumps at the dropzone will be followed by exclusive footage shot against the backdrop of a red rock canyon. Miss Nevada will do a tandem jump Saturday, April 24th as part of the Operation Freefall event. Sponsors include Sunpath, Skydive Moab, TonySuits, and Raise the Sky. It's the Year of the Dragon.

Vertical Relative Work (VRW) and head-down formation records are defined by flight angle, but skydivers do not require an additional piece of equipment to fly in a head-down orientation. Same for belly-to-earth formations. What we do (and our flight angle) requires equipment. Even putting aside the complexities of taking reliable, comparable measurements of glide angle for any given flight, the definition of a wingsuit seems critical to the future of competition and individual performance records. Artistic comps, some potential future version of 4-way Horizontal RW, and even individual distance records, etc. can be more simply differentiated by the equipment we use. CRW is defined by the use of equipment, and there are frequent comparisons (some more convincing than others). It's the Year of the Dragon.

September 5th-11th at Prostejov, Czech Republic: The PROSTEJOV BIGWAY PROJECT will have Wingsuit and FS Bigway camps going on side by side for learning and fun. This will be a camp geared to intermediate and advanced wingsuit flyers. Organizers are Mark Harris and me (Taya) on the wingsuit side. Joining us are awesome and very experienced plane captains and coaches: Rolf Brombach, Jari Kuosma, Duncan Wright, and Phil Peggs. We are working closely with World Team FS organizers Kate Cooper-Jensen, Lesley Gale, and Herman Landsman to take advantage of the big-way knowledge they have that crosses over into our discipline. Seminars and knowledge sharing will go on all week as we jump. Each plane will have a dedicated videographer, plane captain, AND coach - plenty of individual attention to each person's skills. One helicopter Mi-8 and minimum 2 Turbolets L-410 The Prostejov dropzone website is still a little bit in progress, but here is the link with available info, and registration will all be online: Prostejov Bigway Project The website will be updated in the coming few weeks, so if there's anything missing now hopefully it will be filled in soon! Thanks, -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Thanks for the link. I like it! It's the Year of the Dragon.

This makes sense to me. I'm guessing that wingsuit manufacturers will agree with the "intent" mod. The working definition I posted earlier (that this is based on) had input from S-Fly, TonySuits, Birdman, and Phoenix Fly (did I miss anyone?). It wasn't written by any one person, but rather as a collaboration between manufacturers. For what it's worth, I think the IPC should keep the definition to what manufacturers are happy with since they make our toys. The definition of a wingsuit is a discreet thing, and a starting point. Performance can be determined as part of record or competition rules. It's the Year of the Dragon.