Han-Solo

PLEASE.. ..get a wingsuit or something (or come to norway and practice your subterminal tracking skills..)before you go back to that cliff. that did not look healthy at all! looks like both you guys are gonna do a cliffstrike freefalling, and then the upper guy "practically" does one under canopy, even with a pretty ok opening play safe... edit for site name ~TA

I'd say any band for the tailgate, NO band for the multi! Why would you wanna stage the deployment of the bridle at all?

here's another one: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1609 i know, it's over water, but i think it quallifies anyway... seems to be to low to do over hard ground though.

the pc-in-tow incident mentioned was caused by the multi bridle being stowed in black rubber band loops. i think this used to be a packing procedure advised by gear manyufacturers (b.r.). at least my own vertex came with loops for multi bridle stowe attachment points. and rubber bands attached... if you think about it, it's totally crazy to jump a setup like that (i did about ten, before it hit me), no matter what kind of rubber bands you use. would you ever consider strapping anything to your bridle, multi or not? it's common procedure to do a pin check before exit, but what is the point if you have an attachment point right after the pins? the pc that was used has been tested in a wind tunnel later, and showed to bee in good condition. nevertheless it stayed in tow from about two seconds, to the rubber band snapped at about four seconds. good thing the altitude was there. the pc testing showed at that speed (after four sec.) a force around 400N. any rubber band on the bridle would exceed the pin tension by far in this situation. never strap your bridle to anything with any kind of rubber band.

Hi, i did a ws-jump with a gps plotter this summer. see the attachment for the plotted charts. on this jump i made a lousy head-down exit and lost some altitude as a result, but probably gained some of it further down, due to the increased speed. i agree with the "drop a rock and say looks good to me"-plan, but know your suit and skills before you try any tight wall. also have in mind that exit altitude might play a big role in the takeoff. i did some jumps from about 3600 m this summer, and could really feel the difference (it wasn't measured, but i'd say it was a long extra second before that flying feeling hit). my ws skills are not the best (about 30 jumps) but if i'm i doubt, i throw alot of rocks to determine the face of the wall.

the song to the trollwall clip is performed by a norwegian band, called big bang...

[url=http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~hansho]the ones[/url] mentioned in the "Body position to use with tracking pants?"-thread. for those who'd like to take a look... enjoy

Hi, i found myself elaborating on the subject in the answer to kidwicked's e-mail, so why not post it, now that i discovered this thread... here goes: "hi kidwicked, first - i don't mind at all. for the sport to evolve it's essential to share experiences and knowledge. this technique (the wide body position) has been the common one amongst experienced trackers here in norway. it seems to be very effective, way more effective than the old "skydiving track" with arms an legs tight together (skijumping has evolved in the same direction). but there are also other factors than the wide position involved. to give you a good explanation, i have to start with the basic aerodynamics. the glide ratio of any freefalling body is given by the lift-to-drag ratio as these are the only forces working, apart from gravity itself. so what we are trying to do, is to maximize this ratio. either by increasing the lift or reducing the drag. increasing lift can be done by exposing a larger surface to the free airstream (hence the wide position), but in many cases this also increases the drag. to avoid this drag, we try to stiffen the surface (the fabric in our clothing) by tightening pants and arms. this season i have been attaching my pants to my shoes, both toe and heel. real tight, so that an upright position is almost impossible. in addition, i track with my feet outwards, to utilize the extra "bootie-surface" between toe and knee. the spread legs puts this extra surface out in the free airstream. for the arms i've been using a cord from thumb to thumb (witch gives palms up...), through the arms in the jacket. this is very effective, as it stretches and stiffens the fabric and also gives it an airfoil shape. the wingsuit-like arm position is very natural with this setup. think of your body, not as one wing, but many separate wings, and try to make them all effective. a tight "one-wing" position doesn't really give you any wing at all, just a very irregular surface. in addition to this, angle of attach is also a very essential element. to fly this setup well, you should try to go steep. as you can see from the videos, exit is almost head-down. as you gain forward momentum, you stay at the same angle of attack relative to the air. flying like this, it's very tempting to stall, because that gives you a feeling of incredible lift. (i have done this too many times..) it's an illusion! it will slow your speed and eventually you will loose altitude, like flaring your track. try to maintain a high speed throughout the jump. the faster the better, as lift is generated proportional to the square of the speed. but it's all in your balance, when it comes to angle of attack. therefore, try to balance your clothing aswell(pants-jacket). i hope this gives you some ideas to work with. looking forward to seeing you from our bigwalls some day. Han-Solo"