yuri_base

Glad you're ok! But dude, if it's not on video, it didn't happen. I mean, the video of freezing Dead Jaap standing on a tiny ledge with both legs draped in the gearbag, with skisocks stretched above the knees, tight elastics around the waist, in goggles with only a tiny sliver of the nose exposed to the cold of a Canadian winter night, looking with hope at the stars, unzipping his pants and singing: "It’s a small world after all..." ...man, that would make the best carnage video of all times!!!!!!! Yuri

That's why I added "if you want and can" after "share the love". Noone is ever obligated to do anything... I want, and can, and did, and will. Anyone else?

I agree. The problem is, with the 'big' manufacturers we might be stuck in minor improvements for years. 2.5 is here to stay. 2.5, 2.55, 2.59, with years in between - not very exciting... Although a pure speculation at this point, the aerodynamics of 3.0+ may dictate the design which puts the pilot at additional risk (e.g. flying very headlow, so that deployment from full flight will have a great chance of catching the lines with feet). Manufacturers don't want to see people killed by their experimental designs. For example, I wrote an email to PF describing my experiences with flying Prodigy pants and asking whether they plan to make it a separate product. Robert and James replied no, because it would put the BASE jumpers at risk of going head down after exit. And I agree - on my jumps from helicopter and balloon, I immediately went head down after head-high exit. Never a problem on 30-40 plane jumps I made in them. Prodigy pants require sufficient speed to keep the balance. Then they fly like a rocket. So I think the true innovation and radical improvements in L/D will come not from 'official' manufacturers, but from underground L/D (L vS. D... LSD?) junkies.

...and for someone else, sewing is easier than thinking. But it's the idea that should come first, not the sewing. If the two find each other, a new suit will be born. So, who can sew here? Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

I wonder if someone demos a suit, modifies it to have L/D=3.0+ and returns it... will they charge him for vandalism? Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

That's exactly what gulls would say to Jonathan... Fortunately, folks like VKB won't listen. "Nice kids, no trouble to anyone", they follow their heart, their dream... Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

So folks, why don't we share our groundbreaking ideas and know-how? What makes us keep them to ourselves? When Jonathan Seagull discovered that "the speed was power, and the speed was joy, and the speed was pure beauty" and "you will begin to touch heaven in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn't have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there." -- he tried to SHARE his joy with others. He didn't attach "meagre $1200" and $250,000 stickers to his joy... Personally, I have no monetary interest in wingsuit advances, I have no reason not to share my ideas. All my interest is the smile the perfect speed puts on your face, from ear to ear. It's that feeling when you find the sweet spot and the air around you suddenly becomes smooth and quiet and you feel you really fly... It's the joy of "being there". So if you have an idea - share. Maybe someone will be quicker in implementing it and will share the results. If you build a custom wingsuit, post the details, the complete know-how from start to finish. Materials, patterns, measurements, how to assemble and sew it. Then your brother can take it to a tailor and have it made for much less than the "big logo/Big Brother" wingsuit. Big smile on our faces will be our logo. Share the love! If you want and can. Yuri

Interesting point, James. If they lose significantly more altitude initially to get into their superterminal track and yet end up opening at the same point as a traditional tracker, that means they have much better glide after the initial drop. That also means that they will have advantage on a higher wall, e.g. on a 5000ft wall they'll fly much longer distance compared to regular track. (and on the same token, disadvantage on shorter walls) As far as I understand, this better glide is not caused just by 'flaring' the initial speed. It's a stable configuration and they can maintain the same glide for 1000ft or 10K. There seems to be a 'potential barrier' between the regular flat track and VKB track: if you assume the characteristic VKB body position from the beginning, you will not achieve enough speed for it to work. You have to go superterminal first by diving head down, then when you're past the 'barrier', transition into track. The above is pure speculation, I hope VKB guys will chime in here and confirm or dismiss it.

Thanks, Robert, for your comments! I agree that it is wrong to consider parts of a WS as separate systems. That is, in (Lw+Lb)/(Dw+Db) it is wrong to think that Lb and Db are the same as if the torso were flying alone. I used equations just to illustrate my point. The aircraft you mention that use lift from fuselage are very different from the WS in that they have almost arbitrary thrust. They have a luxury of generating the lift with relatively poor (in L/D sense) fuselage because they can compensate for the increased drag with the engine thrust. WS has very limited thrust, precisely the weight times the sine of the glide angle. The better is the glide ratio, the less is the glide angle, the less is the thrust we can work with. I believe that reducing the drag from the torso, while eliminating some lift, will be beneficial for the overall L/D. We have at least one data point supporting this point of view. It's called VKB. Yuri Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Wow, Micke, a work of art....... While Radix, Ground Is The Limit, Superterminal, etc. are great, they are kind of typical BASE videos we're used to see... Yours is real CINEMA. Speechless... Can't wait to see the whole video. It was great meeting you and PerFlare in Moab! Yuri Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Here are the pictures to clarify what I mean. In superterminal wingsuit, the arm wing runs from shoulders to crotch (not to hips). The leg wing runs from crotch to toes (not to ankles), with a swoop cord running toe-crotch-toe to help stretch the wing. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Here are some calculations as a food for thought... Total lift is a sum of the lift produced by wings, Lw, and by body, Lb. Total drag is a sum of the drag produced by wings, Dw, and by body, Db. The glide ratio L/D = (Lw+Lb)/(Dw+Db) Let's denote this glide ratio for the traditional wingsuit G_old: G_old = (Lw+Lb)/(Dw+Db) (1) Let's denote Dw/Db=X and Lb/Db=G_body (as a glide ratio of the body alone). From (1) let's get this ratio (we'll use it later): Lw/Db = G_old*(X+1)-G_body (2) Now, let's modify the wingsuit as I described above: put the body inline with the glide angle so that only head and shoulders are presented to the relative wind, while keeping the wings at the same angle of attack as before. Now the lift generated by body is reduced to zero, and drag is reduced by some factor K, while lift and drag generated by wings remains the same. The new glide ratio is therefore G_new = (Lw+0)/(Dw+Db/K) (3) From (2) and (3) we get G_new = (G_old*(X+1)-G_body)/(X+1/K) (4) We want this new glide ratio to be better than the old one: (G_old*(X+1)-G_body)/(X+1/K) > G_old or X+1/K < X+1-G_body/G_old or K > 1/(1-G_body/G_old) (5) Consider a good pilot with wingsuit G_old=2.5, G_body=0.7 (note that it's L/D of the torso alone, without arms & legs). In this case, if we can reduce the body's drag by a factor of K = 1/(1-0.7/2.5) = 1.4, the goal is achieved: the glide ratio will become 2.5+. For example, if we decreased the body's drag by a factor of K=3 by changing the angle of attack of the body from 20 degrees to 0, the new glide ratio will be, according to (4), G_new = (2.5*(X+1)-0.7)/(X+1/3) X=Dw/Db for the 'old' wingsuit. From the equation above, we can deduct that the glide ratio of 3.0 can be achieved with X=1.6. Which looks reasonable, if we compare the total area of the wings to the area of the torso. Anyway, let's just do it...

Yo! Here's a couple of simple ideas for building a true L/D meter (or "Sweet Spot Finder"©®

Kris: I think wings are moved up (that is, to back) to decrease the angle of attack (to make it more efficient), while keeping the body almost level. Commercial suits are designed to provide convenient level body position for flocking and safe deployment. However, performance-wise, the body with its L/D = 0.5-1 negates the much higher wings' L/D, averaging the total L/D to 2.5. Tom: Which models do you have in mind? Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

I have an idea how to improve the wingsuit performance. Current wingsuits have wings inline with the body. This sets the same angle of attack for both the wings and the body. The body is as efficient aerodynamically as a log due to its low aspect ratio and shape. That's why birds and airplanes keep the body/fuselage inline with the air flow, to reduce the drag as much as possible and let the wings alone generate the lift. The idea is to attach the armwings not to the sides, but closer to your belly. Sew the attachment tabs from armpits diagonally to crotch area. This will put your body much more headlow, ideally inline with the relative wind, while keeping the angle of attack for the armwings. So if your L/D=2.5, your body should be at arctan(1/2.5)=22 degrees to the horizon. As for the legwing, just push your hips up more than usual to keep the angle of attack about the same as that of the armwings. What do you think? And when VKB will go supersonic? Yuri PS. Of course, with such a suit the deployment should not be performed from full flight as PC and canopy can be snagged by legs. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Do I understand it correctly that C&D lines go through the [regular] rear slider grommets and steering lines go through the additional detachable grommets, with toggles stowed in keepers without the guide ring? If yes, isn't there a danger of slider hang up in case of a toggle fire? Yuri Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

I'm a physics expert, not a demolition expert. Also, I can attest that the gravity and air resistance worked so far on 500 jumps: not a single time I touched the ground in 29s after jumping from 13.5K. That the task of demolishing a 1400ft building seems impossible to you, doesn't make the laws of physics stop working. Read more, think more, you'll get it... Here's for starters: View of a Military Expert A paper by Steven Jones, Professor of Physics Why the Official Account Cannot Be True Muslims Suspend Laws of Physics! Physics 911 911 Research Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

The device that measures true L/D precisely (and independent of wind speed) can be built. In the simpliest, mechanical form it would consist of a plumb and a weathervane. The angle between plumb's vertical and weathervane's relative wind direction is equal to 90 minus true L/D angle. In electronic form, it would consist of an electronic level indicator and an electronic wind direction indicator. The difference between two signals can be transformed into sound with the pitch proportional to L/D (similar to variometers). The device has to be mounted on a foot-long (or so) pole to be in the 'clean' air. Any wizes out there to build such a device? Yuri Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Yo! But you're a gravity tester, aren't you? It's the beauty and elegancy of physics that allows one to debunk the official 9/11 BS using just one word we all know too well: F R E E F A L L Even without Pentagon and all other evidence of a well-executed spectacle that opened the doors to the War, the fact that on 9/11 three skyscrapers freefell through themselves -- through steel and concrete -- without any resistance is all a thinking individual needs to understand what really happened. WTC 1 & 2 fell in 10s (freefall in vacuum would take 9.2s), WTC 7 fell in 6.6s (6s in vacuum). If they show on TV that terrorists threw somebody out of a plane from 13500ft and you see that the body, perfectly flat and stable, reached the ground in 29 seconds, would you believe it? 29s is freefall time in vacuum, we know that in air it would take more than a minute. Gravity-driven self-destruction of WTC in 10s is physically impossible. It'll take perhaps a world-famous physicist (like Steven Hawking) to explain this in lazyman terms to the world for it to be believed (like Richard Feynman did with a glass of icy water and a piece of rubber to demonstrate why Challenger exploded). Until then, they call physics a conspiracy theory. Yuri Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Here's a nice documentary about protest jump from El Cap. Yuri Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Nah! When it comes to launching something, Russians are traditionally the first. --> Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Yo! Of course WTC's collapses were not 'natural'. Anybody with a basic knowledge of physics can figure this out. We gravity testers know that if something is freefalling, the only force acting on it is gravity. Both towers completely disintegrated -- from 415m to 0 -- in approx. 10 seconds. Freefall -- real freefall, without air (let alone steel/concrete) resistance -- from 415m takes 9.2s. A little bit more physics is required to take into account the fact that the mass of falling floors slows down on collision with each consecutive floor below by the law of conservation of momentum (even if there's no structural resistance). Don't sweat: I've done the calculation and the answer for the 110-floor 415m tower starting the collapse from the 20th floor from the top is 10.8s. Anyway, the towers freefell. There was no resistance from the massive steel&concrete 27m x 40m core -- the backbone of the structure, supporting 60% of its weight -- and 244 steel 36 x 36cm exterior columns, supporting 40% of the weight, with everything built with 600% strength redundancy. Why? Ask a demolition expert. If there were resistance, the collapse would take much more time (if ever reach the bottom), be much more asymmetrical and the center core would not be destroyed to the bottom by relatively light floors. There are many many other 9/11 puzzles out there. See e.g. Muslims Suspend Laws of Physics! Physics 911 911 Research "In the size of the lie there is always contained a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of the people.... will more easily fall victim to a great lie than to a small one." Guess who said that? - Hitler, "Mein Kampf". But it's easier not to think and just label everything you don't understand a 'conspiracy theory', right? Yuri Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Yo! There was an interesting experiment that started with five monkeys in a cage. A banana hung inside the cage with a set of steps placed underneath it. After a while, a monkey went to the steps and started to climb towards the banana, but when he touched the steps, he set off a spray that soaked all the other monkeys with cold water. Another monkey tried to reach the banana with the same result. It didn’t take long for the monkeys to learn that the best way to stay dry was to prevent any monkey from attempting to reach the banana. The next stage of the experiment was to remove the spray from the cage and to replace one of the monkeys with a new one. Of course, the new monkey saw the banana and went over to climb the steps. To his horror, the other monkeys attacked him. After another attempt, he learnt that if he touched the steps, he would be assaulted. Next, another of the original five was replaced with a new monkey. The newcomer went to the steps and was attacked. The previous newcomer joined in the attack with enthusiasm! Then, a third monkey was replaced with a new one and then a fourth. Every time a newcomer approached the steps, he was attacked. Most of the monkeys beating him had no idea why they were not allowed to climb the steps or why they were joining in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing the fifth monkey, none of the monkeys had ever been sprayed with water. Still, no monkey ever approached the steps. Why not? Because as far as they knew it was the way it had always been done around here... What's the moral of the story? Don't just be another new monkey!

Since the prevailing experience of others is "dip right - go right", there must be something peculiar about your particular configuration that makes you almost always open to the left. It would be interesting to find out what exactly causes such consistency and thus better understand the mechanics of offheadings. Could it be caused by your particular canopy, how tight your chest&leg straps usually are, whether your hips are not level when the shoulder dips, etc.? Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

I'm still smiling