QuietStorm

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Everything posted by QuietStorm

  1. ......32 Birds so far So we are now looking at running two aircraft formations ( Casa & Otter ) and NOT splitting the loads? Right?
  2. uh duh; too fast on the keys, it was September 2005
  3. I'll be there! Arriving Manchester, N.H. on Thursday August 21st at 7 pm via Southwest. Anybody arriving this time frame into this airport? 001.Scotty Burns (Sky 2 Productions) 1. Justin Shorb (Flock U) 2. Jeff Donohue 3. DSE 4. Scott Gray 5. Lurch 6. Steve H. 7. Chris Gray 8. Andreea 9. Rick H. 10. Yeyo (PR) 11. Margaret (PR) 12. Soby 13.Dawn 14.Reed Searle 15.Rob Szabo 16.Mark krazinski 17. Aerial M 18. Dave Gerstein 19. Purple Mike 20.Dave Godin 21.Riccardo S 22. Phil Peggs 23. Danny Mattox 24. Matt Hoover 25. Tony Uragallo 26. Tony Gwinn(mexican tony) 27. Jim Hickey 28. Scotty Burns 29. Ward Hessig(Mirage) 30. John Bast
  4. Why not? Yeah...why not? " Oh.....nothing comes between Spot and His Birdman Jeans........nothing. Brooke Shields....such an elemental presence in all my adolescent fantasies.
  5. FFC by LouDiamond in September 2007. After the first hit of nylon crack I put down the plastic and got a Firebird by Birdman.
  6. That's it..... We need to have Jarno's pic made into T-shirts or helmet sticker.......maybe a poster for the hanger?
  7. At first I started thinking....... But then saw Jarno's photshop job.....and lost it. Justin; you've been nuked dude!
  8. I have TWO points: 1. I once had an absolutely psychotic ex-girlfriend who did manage give a brick enough forward speed that it did sustain lift and flew quite well; an act that superceded other talents. 2. Nice flight FMMobley. This is why my freefly suit and RW suit sit in the closet collecting dust and I now have TWO rigs permanantly attached to my Blade and Super Mach 1.....isn't this shit great?! Flock On!
  9. ahhhh.....that nylon crack hits them all better than heroine! First suit? My wife just ordered the "standard" Tony Intro for $600; she'll get $400 credit back when she is ready for the next level up on the Tony Suits. Check it out. Welcome!
  10. ehemmm.....I EXPECT a signed print of these flockers suitable for framing!
  11. Yeah Scotty: How do we compensate you for pictures we select? Oh yeah, some pics just beg.....beg to be "captioned" especially some of the ones used by the newspaper. Any plans for a "produced" video; similar to what you and DSE did for our Elsinore event?
  12. What an incredible time; this needs to become an annual event on the "wingsuit circuit" I would like to thank the "unsung" heroes; especially DSE's wife Lynda who took the time to make the Walmart runs keeping the ice coolers stocked with water, Gatorade, and providing lunch on both days so we could stay focused and not distracted by hunger or thirst. She also "herded cats" coordinating our evening get togethers on Friday and Saturday night. Many thanks the Skydive Utah owners, pilots, and staff who made the wingsuit event successful with the high tandem business demand of the King Air. Phil.....you seem MUCH HAPPIER on your new DZ; good to see you again! A LOT of "behind the scenes" effort was put into this by the DZ that we probably were not aware of ( i.e. FAA permitting etc for the Farnsworth Run ). The work put into this event really showed in its success and good vibe. Many thanks to the volunteers who manned up the ground / retrieval crews for the Farnsworth Peak high altitude-distance jump. DSE's briefing for this jump that included a multimedia presentation of GPS maps for inflight and parachute opening , planning of landing areas, high altitude briefing was the best I have ever participated in. DSE did a great job in coordinating local media. The reporters even participated in the retrieval crews for the Farnsworth run and saw before their own eyes Callantine flying overhead winning the distance challenge.....in a relatively "smaller" Tony Wraptor....what a bird; he ought to get some kind of trophy or something for that flight. In addition to winning distance Scott Callantine reported over 4 minutes of flight on his Altimaster Neptune. I guess this settles the arguement that its the number of jumps a wingsuit pilot has and not necessarily a relatively larger wingsuit that matters. It shows that buying a bigger "better" product is no substitute for lots (1,000 plus) of wingsuit jumps. Wingsuit pilots don't do "tunnel". Wingsuit pilots don't "fly" in simulators. We EARN our experience one jump/flight at a time; fly wingsuits! We had one reporter / photographer stay with the birds all day and take an observor ride for more photographs. The newspaper media was very inquisitive, sincerely interested, and highly engaged to get a complete in depth story. Thanks to Justin Shorb of Flock U who brought MANY Tony Wingsuits to try and fly. My Eloy wingman Shawn McClaughlin was able to rent a DZ rig with the new PD Storm which gave much better openings than his usual ride of a Stilletto. On our last flight at Eloy the weekend prior Shawn had to chop his Stilletto after a nasty spin up on a wingsuit deployment. As far as wingsuit canopies go; thumbs up on the new PD Storm! My wife Anne got felt up....uh I mean measured for her first wingsuit a Tony Intro and many other flockers got measured for future orders to be placed; thanks Justin and Flock University!
  13. Three (3) Altimeters: I wear an Altimaster Neptune in one of those Square 1 gloves with a pocket designed for it. I really don't use it under wingsuit flight but like it on my hand out in the airstream as a data logger. I still have not got around to downloading to Paralog though and using all the software features......too busy in my work life. I have an Altimaster Galaxy mounted on a BoneHead mount to my container mudflap. I use this under wingsuit flight. For some reason the "analog movement" of the needle for altitude vs. time in the air "works" in my head better. In my helmet I wear a L&B Optima. 4,500 ft for break off, 3,000 for pull, and 1,500 siren hard deck to go for handles. I also like the adjustable canopy alarms that sound off. Even though I have a "sense" of low altitude under canopy I still like the audible chirps. I also like to fly listening to my I-Pod in my Oxygen A-3 Full Face Helmet. The helmet is very quiet, I can hear the music great, and I can hear the Optima alarms over the music quite well. Music of choice will flying; trance of course! Its even more surreal when you fly your wingsuit on a night jump. Have Fun!
  14. Avery: This shot is so cool. You need to send this one to National Geograhic, Flying.....a publication other than Parachutist or Skydiving to really get the recognition both the accomplishment and the photo deserve.
  15. QuietStorm

    Mach1

    So......Ed; what your REALLY saying its not SIZE that matters but HOW you use it?
  16. Judging on the number of views on this thread washing wingsuits really has a lot of interest / concern. In my experience: - I use a mesh style laundry bag that lets the water and detergent get in without letting any off the internal part of the washing machine come into contact with the suit. I use Woolite detergent, cold water, and gentle wash cycle. Usually I run a second rinse cycle using only water to make sure all the detergent is out. - If you happen take a really bad "digger" in mud or grass off or on the DZ; I have had great success using Spray and Wash getting these stains out. Use the Spray and Wash on the stains before the suit ( in its bag ) goes into the wash. - After letting my wingsuit drip dry in the shade I apply a light coat of Scotch Guard ( Red Can ) fabric protector. This keeps any kind of dirt, dust, sweat, grime, etc. from taking a "hold" in the fabric. If you take a "digger" you can usually take that part of the suit to a sink or hose on the DZ and with a wet cloth get a lot of the stain out before it can "set"; the Scotch Guard really helps with this. I don't wash my wingsuits all that often like I would a regular jumpsuit ( durability reasons ) but only when really needed and its usually from of a long weekend of jumping in really hot and humid weather where you wind up drenched in sweat and everything you wear winds up smelling and you'd better wash it! At first I was really worried and scared about washing something I had paid so much for and like many others didn't want to f&%k it up; but everything has worked out great so far. I have also found that my 2nd and 3rd wingsuits in parapack are far more durable and stain/dirt resistant than my first wingsuit made of balloon zero p material. Neither material seems "cooler" than the other in very hot weather.
  17. Yeah, Once out at Longmount, CO 2 yrs ago. All I remember was that low horizontal stabilizer burning in my mind and cannon balling out the door to make sure I got below it. I remember the door was small ( being used to Otters ) and the radius curve of the fuselage made it seem even smaller....and hard to exit out of "clean". I remember being blown out the door like grass from a leaf blower.....not fun. DSE; How have the exits out of your DZ's King Air been? I guess you guys in wingsuits up there have it dialed in so to speak.
  18. To All: Being fortunate to have an RV permantly located nearby; should we plan some sort of grill-out / keg fest at my place? As an alternative the SkyRider has a patio/covered porch area as well. We also have some charcol BBQ grills by the pool at the DZ with bathrooms right around the corner. With the size of group not sure how we would go about something this size. Scott, could Betsy help out / coordinate logistics with SDAZ for something like this?
  19. Hey Justin: .....how FAH is the DZ from DA EHPOIT ? anybody WHANT to go in on a Rental CAH ?..... .......the BAHZ.....AH DE FAH?
  20. 1. Jeff Nebelkopf (Tony Suits) 2. Rob Pecnik (Phoenix Fly) 3. Scott Gray (The Brothers Gray) 4. Chris Gray (The Brothers Gray) 5. Sean Horton 6. Frank Boluk 7. Tony Uragallo (Tony Suits) 8. Marion Mobley 9. Le RoyDB 10. Kallend 11. Missingparts 12. Simon (Mr. Bones) 13. Scotty Burns (SkySquared Productions) / Z-Flock 14. Jeff Smart 15. Rob Jones (Morpheus / Phoenix Fly) 16. John Bast ( aka SpaceCadet or LT Adderall ) * I will be arriving at Skydive Carolina Friday morning. I would have liked to arrived earlier but work precludes this. Looking forward to some tight flocks. * Can you camp on the DZ? Are there showers there? Have not been to the DZ in Chester yet.
  21. Going back 2 years in the log book I am finding 110 to 119 second flights in my Birdman Firebird with exit altitudes around the standard 13,500 and deploying around 3,000 to 2,500. Average vertical speeds in the lower 60's to upper 50's. Most of these are solo's or with 2 or 3 other birds. * From experience my Firebird needs to fly fast in order to maintain lift. I have fallen low on many flocks in this suit when forward speeds are relatively medium to low. * With smaller wing and a heavy body these flights have really "smoked" my chest and shoulders with barely enough strength left to pitch the PC at pull time. 5/11/08 - 131 Seconds in a Birdman Blade Avg Vertical Speed via Neptune: 58 mph Exited at 14,100 deployed at 3,000, Flew Solo 5/18/08 - 127 Seconds in Birdman Blade Avg Vertical Speed via Neptune: 67 mph Exited at 15,000 deployed at 2,300, Flew Solo but trying for distance, covered 4 miles * Check in with DSE he flew better than me on this one! * Looking at my log book the vertical speeds of larger flocks ( Lodi & Elsinore ) I have been in has ranged from the mid 70's to upper 60's. My Blade has given me more "range" in these flocks. * With the larger wing surface I have less stress on my chest and shoulders during flight and experience far less fatigue after a day of jumping wingsuits as compared to jumping my Firebird. Even with a few hundred winguit jumps I hope my data / observations on Firebird vs. Blade flights show that there are just way too many variables to definatively state that one suit is better than the other and a lot really depends on the person flying the suit. By the way, whoever made the statement: " The only naturals in this sport crap through feathers."; is brilliant!
  22. All the advice my fellow birds on canopy types rings true. Highly loaded "twitchy" elliptical canopies on wingsuits are a chop looking for a place to happen. You can't fly the canopy opening. If you are just slightly off heading during deployment in wingsuit flight you will spin up. Can you do it? Sure but this past weekend at Elsinore I watched Johnathan Tagle; one of the best canopy pilots chop his Velocity while flying his Birdman S6. For three years I have attended the winguit seminar by Scott Campos at the Eloy holiday boogie and the number of video footage collected of spun up elliptical canopies deployed from winguits grows every year. I will chop if I absolutely must but knowingly putting myself into a situation where I a main canopy chop is assumed is not part of my operating procedures. I have had great success with my Talon FS container bottom corners "unstitched", 9 FT bridle, and lines stowed up packjob. The long bridle really gets my PC out of the burble, the deployment bag comes off my back on a clean 45 degree angle, and the openings on my Spectre 170 are consistently on heading and smooth. Occasionally I have 1 or 2 line twists but my hard riser inserts negate their effect. I even use this pack job belly or freeflying with no deployment issues. Many folks fly wingsuits with standard container configurations. However, before I made these modifications the deployment bag never came out my container clean and the Spectre 170 opened rough and with many, many line twists to kick out of. As far as winguits go; I really like to freefly as well but having to lace my wingsuit back and forth on my rig got to be a hassle. I really like how the Tony Wingsuits zip on and off your rig fast ( under 1 minute ). From what I have seen so far the Tony Intro suit has the same wing surface area as Birdman GTI or Firebird. I have flown with folks in this suit and it flies well. Tony Suit also has a wingsuit buy back program for the Intro. For the same amount of dollars I see being discussed on this thread you could get a new Intro, measured to fit you instead of somebody elses used wingsuit that may not fit as well. When you are ready to move into a higher performance suit Tony Suits will buy it back from you with credit toward your next wingsuit. The details are on the Tony Suit website. I
  23. 1. Purple Mike 2. Lurch 3. DSE 4. QuietStorm ( a.k.a Space Cadet & LT Adderall )
  24. Ed: That was a great vid. My favorite part of the weekend was the demonstration jump into your neighborhood and party at your home. Thank you for your hospitality!