Taz

29 is me--Taya Weiss It's the Year of the Dragon.

Scott, At one point I remember you talking to us about reference points on a dirt dive and as I looked towards where mine should be there was that old guy with his cane... I had a great moment of picturing him flying in our formation in his shorts and shirt, totally calm, and trying to reference his cane in the sky. Hilarious. -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Yes Frau Barnhaus, PURE! At all times! It was awesome seeing you in Germany, and can't wait to see you again soon in the USA. I had such a great time at this boogie and learned more than I thought I had room for in my brain... thanks especially to the organizers. A lot went on behind the scenes to make this thing happen and you guys all rock! Also to the crazy UK boys for the singing, sharking, PIMMS, and general entertainment--loved it. Wouldn't have been the same without you. Next year, same time same place...? JA! FOOKJA! -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Boy can fly. Boy has mad flying skillz! It's the Year of the Dragon.

Dude, he has less skillz than me with this stuff But we'll see what we can do. It's the Year of the Dragon.

The video is pretty cool, but I have no technical savvy vis a vis posting it here It's the Year of the Dragon.

Here's the actual pic It's the Year of the Dragon.

Hmm, not a bad idea about the ride sharing thread, although I know there are lots of people going who won't look at it. Let me at least try and hook you up with a lift out. We could take you from JHB on the 26th but that's a full day before the boogie officially starts. There will be lots of people coming and going from about halfway through I think, so finding a way back shouldn't be too bad. It's only 3.5 hours from Joburg. You probably want to come from around the 29th to the 2nd? Anyone else have suggestions on dates? Let's get firm ones and then I'll send mail to the listservs here and see who can pick you up. -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

It is indeed Wonderboom! We had a great time there last weekend. The vibe is very happy and chill. Unfortunately the Southern Hemisphere flock will probably be pretty divided this year, since we have our African Freefall Convention with Jari and Jussi coming down to organize flocking and wingsuit competition. We're busy trying to get all the South Africans to that boogie, closer to home! But it will be great to hear what happens at Picton and the AFFC as they run around the same time I think. We may have wireless access at the boogie so we can post from there. It would be cool to have a running dialogue between the two boogies! Happy summer flocking, -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Check out these awesome pics from Bernard! It's the Year of the Dragon.

Yee ha! We are having way too much fun. Can't wait to see you and get you up to a respectable altitude. We're pretty chill down here, and despite (or because of) the low-pressure environment we still manage to put some really nice stuff together. When do you arrive? -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Nice to have you. No matter what anyone says about your flat flying (myself included ), the great thing about wingsuiting right now is that it cuts across those "Freeflyers are unstable" and "Flat flying is great if that's all you can do" cliques. Everyone loves wings! Flock on. -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Hey guys, here's the official weekend report as sent out in South Africa: The African Flock: Bigger, Better, On the Move December 3 and 4 at Pretoria Skydiving Club (Wonderboom) the African Flock came out en masse to darken the skies and push the limits of our skills. If the second and final Wingsuit Weekend of 2005 is any indication, this discipline is on the rise in South Africa and Beware! It is both rewarding and addictive. The flock is growing, and we hope that in 2006 it will be migrating to a dropzone near you. Vital Stats: Number of wingsuit slots filled: 125 Number of Participants: 17 Wingsuits in attendance: 7 (Birdman Classic, GTi, S3, S3S, and PHI: Phoenix Fly Vampire: Jii-Wings GS-1) Largest successful flock: 12-way clearly visible from the ground when it blocked out the sun As a wingsuit organizer, I dream about exceeding a King Air's capacity to hold all the birdies who want to fly at one of my events. On the first load Saturday, that is exactly what happened. Marius reluctantly but generously backed off to heed the call of camera work, and 13 of us boarded to start this epic weekend. We did a total of 12 wingsuit loads of between 8 and 13 people, evenly divided between Saturday and Sunday. 9am Saturday our big briefing took place under a tree, which somehow seemed appropriate (the classroom was occupied). Our main goal: to better what participants had done at the last wingsuit weekend at JSC in October, a 9-way flock. We were all about quality, not quantity. For example, an extremely tight 10-way would be preferable to a messy 13-way. We talked about focus on flying a particular slot as well as learning to fly closer. The briefing also covered safety issues like run-in, exiting from the King Air to avoid a tail strike, forming up, breakoff, and pull altitudes. We then divided into two groups for the smaller morning flocks, which included extensive briefing and debriefing. After 3 smaller group working dives of around 6 people each, we decided it was time to combine our talents and go for a bigger formation. Based on performance and preference, we rotated the base and various slots and tweaked the exit orders for the next three dives. Edgar and Rainer teamed up to hang outside the King Air door on jump run so that three people could get out at once. The result was a beautiful 12-way flock led by the seemingly magnetic birdbabe Glenda Miles in her GTi. We wrapped it up on Saturday with a good debrief and lots of smiles. Sunday we created some incredibly tight base groups of between three and six people flying in such tight formation I can now tell you in detail about the soles of Bernard van Biljon's shoes. Several brilliant 9- and 10-ways created learning experiences for everyone as we all tried different slots and approaches to the formation. Clearly the appeal of winged flight wasn't lost on PSC's working skydivers: Blikkies Blignaut finally stopped trying to resist us and shed his tandem rig for a GTi Sunday afternoon. Although he shared our loads, he went solo to work on his own flying. Picking up on the group's good vibes, he went from 71mph vertical on his first dive to a personal best of 67mph. At the end of the weekend, the eight people still fit enough to compete agreed to a "Survival of the Fittest" dive. The race put Bernard van Biljon and Edgar Gaiao on an S3 and Vampire respectively, into the base, flying for the optimum combination of time and distance. Everyone else would exit and attempt to catch up, passing if possible to become the new base. Tonto, flying a Birdman S3S (Skyflyer 3 Special), exited last and made a dramatic play towards the end of the skydive to pass both Bernard and Edgar in a display of speed. On this dive, we exited 2 miles from the dropzone and flew back in a straight line. Some of us not only reached the DZ in record time, but overflew by over a half a mile. That's pure performance! Although we did achieve our goal more than once, particularly with the 12-way on Saturday, this weekend turned out to be even more about learning than it was about achieving. The King Air, for all it's wonderful lift capacity, challenged us with a small door and fast run-in. That challenge was taken up bravely and successfully by everyone who participated. Many thanks to Pete Lawson, the pilots, and everyone at Pretoria Skydiving Club for making this event a success. We were not just tolerated but welcomed, and the atmosphere of encouragement and fun made the whole weekend a great pleasure as well as a notable accomplishment. What's Ahead: Many of the wingsuit pilots who participated in this and the last wingsuit weekend will be at the African Freefall Convention in Mafikeng at the end of the month. With the benefit of tailgate aircraft, higher altitude, international Birdman organizers, and lots of great skills building over the past few months, expect some big-way and even record attempts to rival what South Africa has seen before. The African Flock is not to be messed with. We want YOU to come and play! Blue Skies, -Taya Participants: 1. Taya Weiss 2. Eric "Tonto" Stephenson 3. Pierre Marais "Bob" Badenhorst 4. Riaan Bergh 5. Edzard Biermann 6. Rainer "Carrot" Eimbeck 7. Edgar "Vampire" Gaiao 8. Dian Kemp 9. John Mackay 10. Mark Riesnik 11. Bernard van Biljon 12. Bertus De Beer 13. Glenda Miles 14. Marius van der Walt 15. Beverly Cosslett 16. Pete "Zammy" Samuelsson 17. Blikkies Blignaut It's the Year of the Dragon.

This one is going to be off the hook--we've got so many people coming out to play that the opportunities to build some amazing stuff are there. Pray to the weather goddess. Blue skies, -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

You're on! Can't wait. It's going to rock. -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

I had never seen an electrical storm from the air before, and it was just beautiful. The moon wasn't up yet so the sky was dark, the lightning was crackling on the horizon, and the town below was glowing. A lit-up train went by during our flight. Tonto looked like a cross between a flying Christmas tree and a UFO. We had a good run-in to fly back to the DZ without a pattern. Silver wings like the ones I was flying don't lend well to being lit from within, but apparently they reflect lightning quite nicely! It was one of those jumps that will stay with me forever. When we were at Perris last year and got rained out, then we got really sore in the tunnel, we did a great shopping spree. I think it was at Walmart that we found reusable battery-powered light sticks just the right size for night jumps (like the normal size lumi sticks) for around a dollar each. We also bought the bicycle lights for our ankles and these cheap blinking kids' magnetic earring things. All went into the night jump kit, ready for glowing at a moment's notice. The effort of building and maintaining our "night jump kit" has definitely paid off! -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Come on up here to JSC or PSC and we'll take care of you Or if you'll be at the African Freefall Convention there will be plenty of opportunity and demo suits! Blue skies, -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Yesterday Edzard did his FFC with me at Pretoria Skydiving Club (Wonderboom) and casually flew his borrowed GTi (thanks John M!) at an average of 60mph vertical on his first three wingsuit jumps. At one point he got down to 51 and was covering max distance--it was a pleasure to fly with him! We may have a new base on our next wingsuit weekend! Congrats Edzard and welcome to the flock. -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Calling all Flockers to Darken the Skies over Pretoria WHAT: Wingsuit Weekend at Wonderboom WHEN: Saturday and Sunday, December 3 and 4 WHO: All wingsuit pilots who want to participate in building skills and fun flocks HOW MUCH: R160 to 11,000ft. in the King Air COMMITMENT: 8 jumps Saturday building to a big-way flock. RSVP: Please include total number of jumps, number of wingsuit jumps, height & weight, and type of suit. Confirm your commitment to 8 jumps Sat. and tell me how many you want to do on Sunday. Yup, it's time for another African flockathon. We already have nine birds confirmed a few hours after I sent out the info. Everyone's welcome, and the weather is just getting hot down here. We'll hopefully see everyone who can't make it to this at the AFFC... it will rock. Blue skies, -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

These are nice! I've added them to the JSC website Wingsuit pictures section http://www.jsc.co.za/Photos.aspx?Show=photos&Mode=0&Cat=Wingsuits. I especially like the annotated flock with arrows pointing out who everyone is Thanks Bernard! -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Thanks--see I was inspired and figured out how to edit it to be clicky in my own post! Yes--wow. The soreness. It was a workout of note but I'm sure I'm seeing muscles in my shoulders that never existed before I'll definitely try to organize one more day of flocking before the dropzones close in December. Then it's boogie time! So excited. It's the Year of the Dragon.

It also needs to be said that Riaan was an awesome base all weekend. He flew: 1. A Classic 2. A GTi then 3. an S-Fly and in all of them he was totally consistent. He also managed to lead us on the slowest 5-way flock I've ever been on--it was his first jump on a GTi I think--which was averaging around 55mph. Awesome. -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Everyone should come flock with us in December at the African Freefall Convention. http://www.africanfreefall.com/index.html We are definitely happy birds. -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Damn, boy, you just beat me to it. This past weekend was awesome. Photos have been uploaded at http://www.jsc.co.za/Photos.aspx?Show=photos&Mode=0&Cat=Wingsuits Basic stats: # WINGSUIT SLOTS FILLED: 101 NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 10. Taya, Tonto, Riaan (Newbie) Bergh, Bernard van Biljon, Simon Murray, Mark Riesnik, John Mackay, Dian Kemp, Pierre (Mare) Badenhorst, and PJ Eales. MOST WINGSUITS IN THE PORTER AT A TIME: 10 SUITS IN ATTENDANCE: 7. S3, PHI, GTi, Classic, SugarGlider, GS-1, S-Fly LARGEST SUCCESSFUL FLOCK: 9-way in perfect tight formation Despite a very windy morning on Saturday, the group decided we'd give it a go and see how the landings went. It was a good call: there was certainly no swooping in the high wind, but we ended up doing 8 full loads Saturday, alternating with a group of 27 tandems. The combination of brave wingsuiters and tandems kept the plane running. We started the day with two teams of 5 working on diving approaches and discipline in flying a particular slot. The teams did 4 jumps together with comprehensive briefs and debriefs before and after every jump. We then selected the most consistent "point of the arrow" to lead the combined flock: Riaan led the flock with Bernard on his right and Pierre on his left. Four wonderful 9 and 10-way flocks resulted in a spectacular end-of-day 9-way flock in a perfect "V" formation that could be clearly seen by spectators on the ground. This was definitely a JSC record. Sunday we completed 4 more flocking dives, this time working on the 3-dimensional positioning essential to much larger flocks that will be possible with December's AFFC planes. This kind of flock looks more like a cone with the flock leader at the tip, rather than a "V" where everyone is flying in the same horizontal plane. We nailed it, and on the last jump of the weekend the grins were so big you could almost hear the flapping of lips on teeth in freefall. Our accomplishments would not have been possible without a different run-in that took us up to 2 and a half miles out so we could fly straight back to the dropzone rather than flying a pattern requiring multiple turns. Such a pattern, while necessary if wingsuits exit on the same run-in as other jumpers, sacrifices a lot of altitude and precision. Thanks for the excellent run-ins all weekend go to the pilots, who never believed we'd make it back but did it anyway, and to Tonto's spectacular manual spotting on every jump. Big thanks go to Sam at manifest and to Barry, who took our cause to heart and made sure we were able to get the lift capacity we needed to achieve what we did. The Johannesburg Skydiving Club Committee and Skyhigh Express (the aircraft operator of the Porter) were very supportive in their sponsorship, and we appreciate their recognition of wingsuiting as an important emerging discipline in South Africa. We look forward to another event like this, and to meeting the challenges of even bigger-way flocking to come at the AFFC at the end of the year. After this weekend I truly believe the international organizers coming from Europe and the United States will be impressed with what we have built down here. ... in short, yee ha. Everyone who was there totally rocked. Organizing this thing took a lot of work (we're in Africa, wingsuiting is still really new), and all the fun made it totally worth it. Blue skies, -T Edited to add pic showing how badass we are. It's the Year of the Dragon.

Tonto and I study Jow Ga, which combines elements from both the Hung Gar and Choy Ga styles. We don't train with them, but our sifu pointed out that the addition of rings can break someone's arm when blocking. Me, I just liked the gay tailor's red underwear It's the Year of the Dragon.