Balu

Because my answer wasn't given, and there might possibly be one more first flight wingsuiter somewhere in the future who is seeking advice here. The U-pattern is what Rolf taught me on my FFC. So i suppose it is the best for first-time-fliers, even if it might not be the best for experienced wingsuiters and flockers. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Don 't think too much about distances to fly back to the aerodrome. Take a close spot and if you are stable fly a U-pattern. The first leg leads away from the jump run, the second leg is opposite to the jump run and the third leg leads back to it. By doing this you can balance height versus distance to fly, by varying the length and heading of the tracks. And if even if you get instable and losse some altitude you won't be far out when you open your chute. And talk to the pilot. Tell him in which direction you want to fly. He shall turn to the other side. Otherwise there is a high risk of getting to close to the plane. Also talk to other wingsuiters one board. If one goes left, the other one goes right. Enjoy! 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

On a short stop on a journey from Italy to Germany we visited Paracentro Locarno. After a friendly welcome we got the opportunity to do three of the most remarkable jumps in our skydiving careers so far. The scenery is simply stunning. If you don't believe it check it in Google Earth. The aircraft climb alongside high mountains, which are snow covered on the top. Freefall offers you a great view over the mountain world of the Swiss Alps and the beauty of Lago Maggiore between them. Make a solo first to get your time for watching this! The excellent manifest organization, combined with two Porters, allows lots of jumps on a day. The dropzone is open six days a week and the planes don't need to be full. Eight jumpers are enough to take-off, and with students even very comfortable loads with seven on-board are done. The shop is nice and well-equipped, the outside facilities are very good and, most surprising after visiting so many dropzones, the toilets are also five-star.

The dropzone of Reggio 'nell Emilia is easy to access. Just leave the A1 where aeroporto is on the signs and you are right there. We've been there on a weekday first, and sadly we had to realize that the dropzone is open only on weekends. But this is normal in Italy, as in most parts of Europe. However, on the following weekend we received a warm welcome at the Manifest, and so it went on. The friendliness of the Staff and the jumpers is simply great. Whatever you ask or need, they will help you or find somebody who can help you. The introduction into the landing area and procedures could have been a bit more extensive, but for our experience level it was okay. However, someone less experienced may not have some of our questions in mind. Reggio has three aircraft, one Pilatus Porter, one Turbo-Finist and one C206. When we've been there only the Porter was used, but when more jumpers are present they also put the Turbo-Finist into service. So the capacity is good for lots of jumpers. The spotting by the pilot was always excellent, nobody had an outside landing as long as we had been there. The landing area itself is huge. The runway is about 1300m long, and you can land on either side on the grass. The boarding calls were handled in a relaxed manner, which I suppose to be Italian style. That means zero minutes to boarding is more like two minutes. Not a problem, just a bit irritating for people not from Italy. However, we got used to it quickly. The packing hangar is large enough to allow approximately 20 jumpers to pack at the same time. The bar is nice, with good italian food for fair prices. The pool is really big with clear water. Nice! The toilets and showers are the only minor point of critique. As on always any dropzone they could be a bit less rudimentary. However, they were clean enough and I visited Reggio for jumping, not for the toilets. I did not sleep in the bunkhouse, but had a look into it. No problems there, many beds and very clean. As in any other bunkhouse around the world you don't have much privacy. If you want that, there are nearby hotels at fair prices. As a conclusion I can definitely say, that Reggio is on my Top-Five-list (and I travel a lot). Check the dates for Boogies if you want to jump a lot, then the dropzone is also open during the week. If you have a vacation in Italy, and just want to jump a bit, plan for a weekend.

Rolf Brombach made his 12000th last year in Eloy. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

RW suit and freefly pants. Almost every jumper spends some time on his belly, and freefly pants are good for freefly of course, and for funjumps on belly as well. So The more important question to ask is: Where do I get most for my money? Rather spend a bit more money but get a suit with a long lifetime. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

But it is so simple. Carl is living under the rule of law, as everybody else in a free country does. If you start cutting people's rights, you are violating their constitutional rights. Our society claims the freedom of every individual person, other than for example communist societies do. If you see it from the point of philospohy of law, importance does not matter, as everybody has the same rights. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

I have only pilot experience with it, but i would surely not recommend it for skydiving. The tail is to close and to low. No doubt the exit would be fun, but it would be even to dangerous. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

When i started skydiving i already had about 500 hours on gliders and another 500 on powered aircraft. So in theory it was all clear, and in real life it was nothing absolutely new. Though it needed some time to become a better than average canopy pilot, I guess I was much faster than most of the other skydivers which are no pilots. When I started to really learn how to control my canopy, my experience gave me the chance for a deep understanding of how i works. However, this learning process is far from being finished, assumed that this can ever be. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Your question is very general, but I will try to give an adequate answer. If I don't answer your question please specifiy a bit closer. I am an Air traffic controller in Germany, and within my airspace are the dropzones of Gießen, Breitscheid and Ailertchen. Our normal procedure is to separate all traffic for three minutes after termination of dropping, with a minimum of 2,5 nautical miles to the edge of the dropzone. That sums up to 4,5 nautical miles to center of the dropzone. Nevertheless most of my colleagues don't like going to the minimum and add either one or two miles extra, or just apply vertical separation 1000ft above the exit level. This is very sensible, because we do not only separate IFR traffic from the dropzone, but also from the jump plane, as long as it is in Airspace class C or D. Separation to a moving object always requires a bit more than separation to a static airspace. Even the slowest wingsuiters still do about 4000 feet per minute in descent, so you are not much slower than the descending jump plane. In total that means that you are safe in respect of IFR traffic. Concerning VFR traffic, that is allowed not even to come close, but to cross a dropzone at any time, it is different. But that 's not ATCs business. We don't talk to VFR traffic as long as it is not in Airspace class C or D, or on a Flight Information frequency. I am not sure if it help's just making a dropzone bigger (e.g. 4 miles in diameter). I think it would prove better if the dropzones were highlighted in aeronautical charts (fat red or so) to attract more attention from the pilot. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Mainbullau is located near Miltenberg, in the southern part of the "Spessart"-region on top of a hill. I did my S/L-training there in 2003. Pros: The staff is very friendly, and the atmosphere is famillial, like on other small dropzones. In the summertime they often have Apres-Skydive-Barbecues. Coaching is excellent. The instructor is very experienced, holding some World-Record-Titles in CRW, and has taken part in several Big-Way-Records. The landing area is huge with a covered packing area aside. Snacks and drinks are offered at the bar for reasonable prices. Cons: First: the german weather. Second: the airplane. Having lots of tandems on the weekend means you have to wait up to two hours for your next jump. Third: Low altitudes because the dropzone is on a hill. Normally 2700ms (9000ft). Conclusion: Good for initial training and occasional fun jumps. Bad for regular jumps and team training.

I went to Skydive Spain in March 2008 with a group of 15 german skydivers. We 've been there for one week, and that is my personal review: Pros: The DO 28 always dropped from 15.000ft(4600m), and is climbing extremely quick! The staff was friendly and gave us every assistance we needed. The landing area is huge, but also has some cons (see below). The packing area is big enough, and has a shop aside. The bar offers reasonably priced snacks, meals and drinks. The weather in southern Spain is generally good, but sometimes windy. On several occasions a jump number limit between 100 and 500 was imposed. Cons: The landing area has a hard dry surface with some obstacles. Large stones, a big metal arrow showing the landing direction and a ditch through the middle of the landing area. Some rules for canopy flying are not valid for everyone. Some people get crapped on flying right turns before landing, some skygods don't! Even though they have two airplanes, only one was flying. That meant we had to wait for up to two hours for the next load. Accesibility is okay, but the last 3km are on a bumpy dirt track. Last but not least: Only a earthquake is worse than the toilets and showers! I know that skydivers are not very demanding on that, but these toilets are definitely below every standard. "Cleaned on a daily basis" seems to mean, that once a day somebody spills a bit of toilet cleaner inside and that was it. Conclusion: Not too bad, but also not convincing. I will try another dropzone next time.

http://www.rainbowsuits.com Expensive but the absolutely best RW-suits ever. A friend of mine made over 1200 jumps in his Rainbow suit, and it is still okay. Very good fabrics and strong sewing.

I have both, and both are perfect for jumping. The HC-32 has 20x optical Zoom, which makes better ground-to-air videos. The HC-40 has Firewire at the cam, the 32 needs a docking station, what ist a bit uncomfortable on the dropzone. Best thing to do: Buy both and be happy! 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Lots of lessons to be learned. Nothing basically new, but a lot that should be remembered from time to time. Thank you for sharing your experience with us! However, you made a good job handling it down to earth without any injuries. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

I also use the Cookie MxV with Sony HC-40 and HC-32. From my point of view a very good choice with a perfect helmet and good camera. I made lots of jumps with both cams, and also put them on the wings and tail of my glider to get some inflight video. They worked well at speeds up to 280 kilometres per hour and g-forces up to +6,5 and -4! I'm going to put a Canon EOS 350D on top of the MxV at the beginning of the 2006 season. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

And now back to Skydiving!!! 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Somebody took the following picture of an accident, which many of our friends did not survive. R.I.P. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Hello, I am using the HC-40 and the HC-32. The reason i decided for these two is that have a DV-in port, what enables me to save my videos on DV-tapes after cutting. There is no major difference between the HC-32 and the HC-22 besides of this one. I am happy with both camcorders. One more thing: Has the HC-22 20xZoom? That was the reason for me to buy the HC-32 after the HC-40. It makes much better shots from aircraft and jumpers in flight. Blue Skies!!! Sebastian 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Check this: www.cookiecomposites.com Not the cheapest, but very good helmets in regard to quality and safety in handling. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Since the beginning of August i jump a Cayenne 170 (WL 1.18). Like Malta Dog i am very happy with it. It is relatively easy to pack, compard with other zero-p canopies. My openings have always been very soft so far, but they are not always on heading. That might have something to do with my container, which is rather small for a 170 canopy. So i think the problem might be created when the bag leaves the container. At least that is what my instructor said. For that point it would be nice to have more opinions from other Cayenne-users. Flying characteristics are very good. A pretty fast turn rate makes it very enjoyable and the flare characteristics allow good landings even for beginners. Overall i am very happy with the canopy and can recommend it. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Sorry, i did not want to make a poll out of this. Just a new topic. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Hello, i come from Germany and will visit New York in September. Is there a Skydive Shop in New York or somewhere close to New York? I would like to buy some equipment in the US due to lower prices. Blue skies!! Sebastian 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

Here in Germany almost every DZ has some gears for rental. Normally you get one for 10 EUROs per jump which ist about 12$. At my home DZ we have canopies from 230 down to 170. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

I ordered two of them, one for me and one for my girlfriend. Mine is perfect, hers did not fit. After i sent an email it was replaced for free and fits now very well. Due to a long time bad weather period we made only some jumps wearing this suits, but so far they are absolutely satisfactory. 1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!