mdrejhon

Rainbow Boogie 2012 -- the world's only gay skydiving event! Comes to Skydive Chicago from September 1-3rd (with reunion on August 31st) !!! ...As seen in our colorful advertisement in the June issue of Parachutist issue as we speak -- with our colorful advertisement of the Rainbow Boogie! So it's time to send out a reminder that we exist, and are an all-inclusive group, GLBT and straight! SDC's provides lots of organizing, including Kat Haney, a fellow Rainbow Skydiver who is a freefly organizer that organizes all year at SDC! It also coincides with a full moon, so night jumps are planned. And our group will also have the Gay-Way World Record attempts (estimated size: 20-way); inquire within if you want to join, and after that, likely a mixed gay/straight 40-way fun jump. As usual, all kinds of fun boogie jumps -- including some surprises. And, don't forget to wear something obnoxiously rainbow-colored or silly-colorful to the Sunday party (i.e. hawaiian T-shirts, tie-dyed stuff, rainbow-colored hat, etc) even if you're straight! Calendar, currently published at www.rainbowskydive.com/boogie.html Main Website: www.rainbowskydive.com Facebook Event link: Rainbow Boogie 2012 at Skydive Chicago (RSVP) Facebook Group: Rainbow Skydivers (Over 300 gay skydivers!)

I intentionally added "without ramp" -- the thought experiment is the takeoff from a 'flat' diagonal slope. That said, you do brings up an excellent observation: Jettisioning the skiis to allow flight. In addition to reduce entanglement risk with the BASE parachute, it is also presumably because previous wingsuit flights do not show good stability while wearing skiis. That's already observed, too. ...But have hinged ski jumping skiis EVER been used for a prolonged period during wingsuit flight, and attempting to angle the jump skiis aerodynamically to benefit flight, much like a ski jumper uses them to get a little extra distance? And if so, given the constraint that a wingsuit gives to your legs/feet, would any kind of hinge modification be needed to get skiis into a safe, stable, 'flight' configuration, that's easily controlled by your feet like for a ski jumper? I would presume that none of us are able to answer this question unequivocally, just yet...

Actually, with hinged skiis, you don't have to be perpendicular to the hill, and there's some flexibility as to what kind of angle you need to be. With a wingsuit, you have even more control over how much you lean during skiing: Leaning forward too far? Just add air resistance to balance. Leaning not far enough? Just reduce air resistance. This is clearly a very learnable human endeavour; skiiers already do this -- i.e. standing up vs. kneeling, and leaning forward slightly to compensate for sudden air resistance when you suddenly stand up (from kneel) during high-speed skiing. Already knowing fallrate control during skydiving, also somewhat semi-translates to this skill. This improved lean angle control that a wingsuit gives you, will somewhat compensate for the danger aspect. Just acclimate into this during low-speed ski runs while wearing wingsuit, until you're a pro at doing this at very high speeds. (In theory, at least). Now, you've got access to a wide 'lean' range, that overlaps some angles of certain intensities of wingsuit flaring. This is the best feat-engineering question that come up in this thread. You are very right about the different types of skiis, for racing vs. jumping vs. recreation. It is very possible some custom ski hinge may be necessary to get the best of both worlds. That said, if we're just skiing straight-line down a long straight slope, much like down a take-off ramp, one might only need some good ski-jumping skiis, since you're not going to be alpine-skiing during such an endeavour. On the other hand, such a slope may have different requirements that warrant some kind of compromise ski. Mind you, there is definitely uncharted territory here - but the amount of untrainable uncharted territory is shrinking.

Or sponsored by Zeus Packaging, the apparent supplier of the 18,000 boxes for this wingsuit landing attempt. (reference in a comment here)

Hello, First, some interesting facts: - The world record in ski racing is 156mph (251.4kph) - clicky - Ski jumping using a ramp can reach 60mph (100kph) - clicky - The speed of the successful wingsuit landing was ONLY 50mph glide (many references, video speed measurement seem to agree) - Wingsuit flare angles approximately overlap ski jumper angles. Do you think a short wingsuit takeoff from a ski slope is possible? Even if just a few seconds, even 1-2 seconds? Essentially, ski-jumping without a ramp? I believe so, based on my research. The technique, in theory: 1. You're already experienced in ski racing and wingsuiting. 2. Find a very long, steep straight ski slope. 3. Wear a big wingsuit and racing skiis (flexible ultralight race bindings, not boots) 4. Race down the slope, kneeled with wingsuit collapsed. 5. Achieve at least 100kph (less than 1/2 world record) 6. Halfway down the slope, suddenly stand up and flare with wingsuit. 7. You're flying in the air for a few seconds, before touching down, ski-jumper style. 8. You land, before the end of the steep slope. NOTE: Due to wingsuit fabric hanging out even if collapsed, you'll need to race harder to overcome the resistance of a collapsed wingsuit. For example, you may need to as if you're going 130kph in order to reach the needed approximate 100kph for takeoff speed. Practice technique, in theory 1. Become good at wingsuiting. 2. Become reasonably good at ski racing (straight runs). 3. Become reasonable good at ski jumping. 4. Race down ski slopes while wearing wingsuit. Just to get a 'feel' of the air resistance. 5. Beginning at slow speeds, flare your wingsuit while going down a slope. Just to lighten your weight by about 20 or 30 pounds off your feet. Fly your wingsuit while you ski downhill. 6. Practice until you're good at balancing yourself using wingsuit while skiing. 7. Progressively go faster, while flying more and skiing less. More weight in the airflow and less weight in your skiis. 8. Rinse and repeat. 9. Do trial runs with you eliminating more than 50% of the weight off your feet, so you're mostly flying your wingsuit while skiing downhill. 10. Flare more and more during the middle of long steep slopes, so you've eliminated 70-80-90% of the weight off your feet while you're flying wingsuit while skiing. 11. Finally, on your real run, ski at least 100kph and then flare your wingsuit sufficiently enough to take off, to fly above the slope by a few feet for 1-2 seconds. 12. You land conventionally like a ski racer. Except there's no ramp, you took off using the wingsuit rather than off a ski ramp. 13. Rinse and repeat, achieving longer flights above the ski slope. (Theoretically, you can move on to attempt this from an airplane; and land on the ski slope. You'd have to throw in other training, such as practicing GPS runs at high altitudes first, too, and maybe also practicing low flights over a slope with a BASE parachute first -- like that Solomon promo a few years ago. But you don't really need to go quite that fast.)

you mean like this ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZizIbSpI-g Even though this guy was no where near terminal. I believe I probably linked to this in one of my old clickies. :-) Yes, this is one of the many potential practice techniques that can be done. You'd need to do other forms of training, too. High speed ski racing with wingsuit and then braking with wingsuit in straight line on steep slope (for practicing balancing/flaring/flying with skis at the same time), is another training technique that will need to be done. Heck, I suspect one may even achieve brief lift-off when flaring suddenly after reaching over 100kph on a slope with wingsuit -- essentially ski jumping on a 'flat' diagonal without ramp. But many runs of practice would be needed and practice flares first, to get accustomed to the sensation of temporarily losing weight on skiis -- at first a little, then some, then most, then all of the weight, then liftoff attempt (for 1-2 seconds of flying before landing immediately and braking), and seamless transitions between skiing/flying. This could be another way of achieving wingsuit flight, now that even plain pro ski racing can significantly exceeds the speed of stable wingsuit 'flare'. And also one possible conduit of training before doing a wingsuit landing attempt from altitude. You would only need to speed-ski at less than half the world record speed, something already attainable with a slightly-less-than-pro ski racer using a long straight steep slope and standard racing skiis -- the skills bar should be low enough to increase the pool of willing people to try this vector into uncharted wingsuit territory. Note that there will be some drag with a collapsed wingsuit even as you crouch over, so it may take someone who's able to ski-race 130kph down a straight slope without wingsuit to ski 100kph with collapsed wingsuit bent down in ski racing posture, at this speed, a brief 1-2 second liftoff may now be possible just by standing up and immediately flying your wingsuit to temporarily pop up above the slope. Ski jumping without a ramp!

Someday, I may get big into wingsuiting, and if I did, I'd like one that has a visual pulsing of descent rate. So it ideally should have a LED output. Slow pulsing means slow descent, while fast pulsing means fast descent. I'm deaf, so I don't benefit from audible feedback devices. (dreaming: bicolor or tricolor LED, so color would also change based on glide speed. Green for slowest, yellow for medium speed, red for fastest, and all blends of colors in between. But I imagine the market is too small/unprofitable for a fancier solution such as this, unless it was an iPhone accessory LED with an iPhone app that measured from cross-referenced/smoothed-out combined GPS/gyro/accelerometer data, that auto-compensate for some GPS inaccuracy)

This wingsuit landing was slower than ski jumping. He was able to flare to approximately 50mph gliding speed (just 15mph vertical); the best professional ski jumpers often take off faster than 60mph on average. And ski racing approaches about 100mph, the world record for ski racing is 156mph (251.4kph) -- three times the speed of this wingsuit landing! I would not be surprised that within the next 10 years, there will be creative wingsuit landing attempts -- including landing on skiis on a ski slope. Look at the flare angle, it looks similar to an angle that a ski jumper would land. Heck, you could safely land a little faster than this wingsuit landing -- if it was necessary to get the proper angles for ski landing. You'd obviously have to practice at altitude with some GPS tracks, to get the right stability while also wearing the extra weight and aerodynamics of ski equipment. Obviously, flaring over a diagonal surface will present its different challenge, but I would imagine you would flare much more slowly, and gradually transfer your weight to the skiis barely touching a ski slope. That way, you can "feel" your flare -- at least theoretically -- balance flying your wingsuit AND ski at the same time. (much as a pro swooper can fly precisely while splashing through a pond, as he decelerates), gradually inreasing the % of weight on the slope, i.e. keeping flying your wingsuit even as you're taking several seconds to "land" on the ski slope. Skiiers also take advantage of air resistance to slow down by standing up and spreading arms out (to bleed off initial speed before they brake with their skiis), i.e. such as after passing a finish line and you have plenty of straightway after. Instead, you're leaning into the wind with your wingsuit, as the means of slowing down. You'd balance on your skiis simply by "flying" your wingsuit. You could practice doing this simply by doing a little speed skiing without ski poles and wearing your wingsuit -- not to go into the air, just skiing down the ski slopes fast while wearing a wingsuit, and using the wingsuit to practice balancing on your skiis & practice decelerating. Basically ski-race and then suddenly flare your wingsuit until your body has learned how to balance yourself slowing down with a wingsuit while going fast on skiis. I imagine it would not be too difficult to learn for a pro-league ski jumper who's also a pro wingsuit jumper / BASE jumper. Practice would involve ski jumping with wingsuit, ski racing down extremely steep slopes with wingsuit sans ski poles (practice braking using wingsuit), as well as skydiving with wingsuit+skis at altitude using GPS tracks. The problem is, very few people in the world has learned high-level skillz in all of these sports, and of those, which people has the steel balls to try combining the sports...! But it is just a matter of time that someone becomes interested enough, i.e. pro wingsuiter who has a little ski racing experience and will brush up, or pro ski jumper who just got the BASE bug, etc. Again, this wingsuit was slower than ski jumping! And less than HALF the speed of ski racing! I actually suggested this in 2005 :-) (clicky) ...and suggested again in 2010! (clicky2, clicky3)

What impressed me was how slow the landing looked, at least on video. Wingsuits are known to go incredibly fast. I bet that after analyses are done on the landing angles and speeds, that people will be doing other wingsuit landings within the next decade for publicity/fame/media -- now that this path is trailblazed -- including on a slide, on a ski slope (with skiis), and more. I see ski jumpers going at higher velocities than this!

Squeak, dictionary time. ..... forgot: past participle, past tense of for·get (Verb) (1) Fail to remember. (2) Inadvertently neglect to attend to, do, or mention something: "she forgot to lock her door"; "I'm sorry, I just forgot". ..... It would seem to me, that there's some overlap between negligence and forgetfulness. When in a court of law, the word "negligence" vs "forgetfulness" can be debated, but the fact that debate happens show what a fine line there is. I think my spouse (training as a paralegal) would be able to answer this better. There's a batch of words (forgetfulness, inconsideration, negligence, etc) that can become quite controversial without clearly defining everything. Now, we can define the specifics of "forget": Does "forget" refer to the action of moment in time, or does "forget" refer to the training about how to pull? Maybe Squeak is talking about the latter, and billyvon is talking about the former? Of course, Squeak, I agree with you that you DO NOT "forget" your training of pull. You're absolutely right. But, agreeing with Billyvon and others too, there are people who "forgot" to pull at the RIGHT time, and have been saved by the Cypres. Forgetting to lock a door because you were focussed on recovering from tripping on the stairs. Forgetting to pull a parachute at the correct time because you were focussed on a tumble. Same thing about the momentary forgetfulness. Then, if this was brought into court, I'm sure a lawyer (lawrocket?) would be happy to chime in. Context is very important in law.

One thing I like about Skydive Perris is IHOP -- onsite accomodations at the drop zone. It's a house with bunkbeds. At $15/night it's much cheaper than hotels, but it is still air conditioned, you have a kitchen, and you have free WiFi. Call them weeks in advance to reserve a bed, though! That said, if you have higher standards for accomodations, the quality of surrounding hotels near a dropzone can make or break a dropzone -- a dropzone in the middle of nowhere with hotels far away, versus a dropzone near a lot of high quality hotels.

They have fabric colors for all the rainbow, the problem is possibly the complexity of it all. I wouldn't mind hearing back from the factory why the design is difficult/impossible, so keep tuned. One idea: 1. Focus on the black template. 2. Create 12 color wedges (2 of each 6 color, rectangle shaped, not skydiver shaped) 3. Sew the wedges to the edges of outer black circle template 4. Sew the inner black circle template. Now you've got solid colored skydivers. 5. Finally, cut the wholes for the whites. 6. Sew solid blue circle piece (or solid green circle). 7. Sew the dark green land (or blue sea, if solid circle) on top of the fabric. There might be other simplification ideas, that allows the rainbow logo. Printing is still an option, if there's a way to make it reasonably durable and safe. I don't mind it being one or two sizes bigger, if necessary.

Agreed, agreed. I'm told it's been done before, but that normal printing crumbles off throughout many packjobs, so some new strongly embedded printing method is needed, such as dye-sublimation, which hasn't been perfected at the moment on nylon canopy fabric, as far as I know. Ask Aerodyne. They're looking for ideas. As long as it's tested / already proven safe to be used on canopies. One idea (that also presumably increases safety, in the light of fabric degradation risk) is to print on separate appropriate white fabric, then sew the appropriate fabric to the canopy. Or create the fabric off-canopy before sewing it on. Icarcus (SkyArt) has some special software that distorts image files to add the geometric stretch areas for the seams between cells, so that it doesn't look distorted when sewed on. I'm not sure if Aerodyne has this software, so it might be more difficult for them. We'll see... There are obviously many options that can be done for this design. The money hasn't changed hands yet, simplifications are still being brainstormed before a final price can be nailed down.

Rainbow Skydivers Facebook group has over 300 members, we have some 'gay' gear that exchanges hands at what seems normal prices. But I don't anticipate ever selling... LOL -- but that is a photoshopped screen shot, because the canopy editor doesn't accomodate artwork. Obviously, it'll be sewn on the bottom. We are working on reducing the cost; keep tuned. There are several simplifications being considered. That said I'll attach template images (attached below). Geometry can be simplified. The Earth can be made of fewer zigzag lines, and possibly (theoretically) just a green overlay on top of circular blue fabric, so that the blue fabric does not have to be cut. Land would look dark (a very dark blue-green) but that would be acceptable, if it saved a lot of money. The whites in the skydivers are just holes in fabric, showing white canopy through. Such simplifications will dramatically decrease cost and man-hours by the fabric people. These separations are not in the correct/final format, but you get the idea. Still waiting to hear back of the separations they need me to send. I may have to create 6 images of the 12 skydivers for the color components, because of the 'stretch' that is needed along between the cells. If the design cannot be done, then it might even be switched to monochrome (I have a monochrome version of the logo too, but it loses a lot of the effect.)

I stand corrected. I incorrectly remembered Skyventure Montreal was 16 foot. Ooops! You are right, the exact words were "carbon copy" including size, so yes, 14 foot.

Hello all, This is my new logo canopy, being ordered for this summer, on time for the next Rainbow Boogie at Skydive Chicago. It's a Pilot 140, which I've demoed too many times already without buying.

I got a chance to demo jump a Pilot 132. Now I've tried all Pilot sizes from 124 to 150. I liked the Pilot 132 landings, and I could easily land it without front riser acceleration, very easy with front risers, and it landed even more beautifully. P.S. -- I think the 'max loading' rating on the warning label of the Pilot 124 was pretty accurate; when I demoed the Pilot 124 last summer I was right exactly at that number (or about 2 pounds overlimit).

I recently replaced my Vector2 with a used Vector3 for $899. It is a few years newer, and has much better riser/bridle protection, the prime reason I upgraded after my CSR 200 experience. I got a PD143R for $550 to replace a Raven Micro 150, after having demo jumped and liked the PD Reserve. However, I am going to slowly begin buying new components. Probably an Icon Fire container is my next container because it already matches my jumpsuit perfectly. And I'm ordering a custom Logo canopy, as well.

Hey, Just wanted to post an update because I forgot to. Aerodyne did now reply to my inquiry. So all is good, although I've now had to save up again. Sorry, I should have mentioned. Also, I've demoed at a few different elevations from near sea level, to places like Perris. The dense air at the lowest levels will provide the benchmark for me -- landing at higher altitudes will be more challenging. For the Pilot 124 which was demoed at landing less than 1Kft AGL. I agree you can probably easily land it fun in a swoop, but I am a travelling skydiver -- doing BIG WAYS with 1-in-10 chance of an 'out' landing -- which means I will try the parachute at events where Aerodyne typically sets up a booth, so I got experience under Pilot 140 at elevations up to 4Kft -- I've been demoing for 4 years and haven't bought yet. (Still on the same size). I need a parachute that will be fun to land straight-in, while allowing me to play with some light/tame recreational swooping. Landing a WL 1.5 pilot straight-in at near sea level is beginning to behave more like a 7 cell canopy -- you now have to flare harder and it won't surf without front riser acceleration. Pilot's are trimmed to fly slow and less steep, so you don't have as much speed for flare room under less square footage. It becomes better if you accelerate it first, but again, I'm looking for a different sweet spot than a swooper - the ability to still be able to land it in a backyard while also still letting me learn more swoop techniques safely at a leisurely pace as a secondary/tertiary interest.

Switch, switch, switch dropzones!!!!! Pronto. Get off dz.com and go to a different dropzone. The bonus is it's cheap to start over again: You probably already bought your rig; if you're already at jump 75. I was lucky I was at a dropzone that made sure I belonged (Accomodating a deaf skydiver like me, that needs special training, after being turned away by a few!) and there were efforts by friends to make it easy on me, one person sold me their rig and allowed me to pay in instalments to ease my burden too. Some short notes because I've had friends who were upset about dropzone treatments (in two different countries) There are different vibes in different dropzones, some of the ones I visited actually work hard to save you money and enforce beer-fairness (i.e. make sure everyone can afford the beer), and are apologetic. It's a tougher economy than it used to be -- some dropzones are more tourist-oriented while other dropzones are less tourist oriented (For example, I know of a Canadian dropzone that does NO tandems) Also, I know I found jumps after Jump 25 and before jump 100-ish is more lonely than average -- you are finally experienced enough to jump solo, but not experienced enough to go in highly experienced groups. This is a common complaint by new skydivers these days, but you may be at the end of that lonely tunnel. Earning respect from skydiving friends sometimes needs a triple-digit jump count (25 jumps away). I know one wants to rant if they've had a pretty tough time, and I've been there, but let's move on. Switch dropzones so you don't have to go through this. Choose the dropzone you want to celebrate the 100th jump with; that will help you make more friends. But ease off on the ranting a bit, it got me into trouble. Cheers,

For a moment, i thought you meant poor RIM -- the manufacturer of BlackBerry phones. It's almost as if it is "sweet dreams, dear old BlackBerry!"

I talked to my connections. I'm confirming they found a site in Mississauga & the size is 16 foot. Carbon copy of Skyventure Montreal, they are the same owners! Construction begins this summer, though bureaucracies may delay construction begin to fall. I was also the first person to take photos of Skyventure Montreal construction site before Skyventure Montreal posted photos on their site. I'll try to visit the Mississauga site (when it begins) & take photos, unless they beat me to publishing their construction photos on their website!

They did temporarily, but not at this time. I got injured by a Sabre slammer opening (not packed by me) while travelling to the USA, my neck became immobilized so I had to be driven to the hospital. I was sore for 4 months in my neck and shoulder -- all the hospital expenses were paid for by RBC insurance for the precautionary CT scan that confirmed it was not a spinal injury, but stretched ligaments in my neck. Thankfully, I'm fully recovered. That was August 2010. Hmmm, I wonder if that was my incident that made RBC decide to add a parachuting exclusion for a short while. I did notice, but the exclusion is gone again now. They must have had a wave of cancellations that made them reconsider, or they switched reinsurance companies. I do continue to recommend RBC travel insurance. I presently have one full year of RBC travel insurance covering unlimited 14-day-and-less trips. I may be switching insurance companies when this expires, since I'd like to get repatriation insurance too (medical flights home), after helping start the fundraiser websites/Facebook pages for a fellow injured skydiver where that was not covered (www.forsabine.com) (P.S. I always now always pack my own Sabre's. Only when I get a Pilot canopy or similar, I will trust other packers to occasionally pack my canopy again.)

Wow, you replied to an old post of mine! Since I posted that message, I also demoed a Pilot 124 at 1.5WL (I was loading it at approximate maximum rating, on its warning label) on a calm day, two times. One straight in and one double-front assisted straight-in. It does not flare as well at 1.5 for these types of 'ordinary' approaches, I preferred the Pilot at either wingload of 1.35 or 1.4, since they behaved as the sweet spot for me. The Pilot 140 is the sweet spot. For the 140 size for my 195-200lbs exit weight, the landing is easy no matter how I land (brakes, risers, etc.), and it was pretty tame to let me do occasional 90 degree swoop without feeling threatened (something only done when I was past my 500th jump), on those good-weather days when I'm not doing big ways jumps. So based on personal experience (about three dozen demo jumps combined, on 124, three different 140, and at least two different 150), I don't recommend the Pilot at 1.5, but it works great at 1.3 and 1.4. I almost bought a Pilot at two opportunities (The 124 was being offered at a great price, but I decided 124 was way too small for me). I still have an unanswered inquiry about a potential RainbowSkydiver-logo canopy price estimate (new Pilot with custom logo) that I still need to prod Aerodyne about. NZ Aerosports confirmed they can do it with the SkyArt option, but I prefer to support Aerodyne... After all, I need to replace my Sabre soon. Even though it's still in excellent condition and opens fine (if *I'm* the one packing it), it is now itself approaching 800 jumps.

An important note that everyone forgot to consider is that it can take several days for an international cheque to clear -- they may have very well been depositing cheques until they got bad news from the authorities at UAE. And the cheques deposited before, were still clearing thereafter. It's important to point out there's two areas of refunding: The refunding of the Dubai fees, and the refunding of airfares. (I think the latter is possible because both Emirates Airlines and Skydive Dubai, both have good relationship with the Dubai government, and a lot of the airfares were booked via Emirates).