VectorBoy

Dave, when you say ours do you mean an aviation quality approach certified panel mounted unit? Because the hand helds we tested in the field were thousands of feet off in altitude and several hundred feet off horizontally, which is to say junk numbers in my book. And remember standing still on a mountain top with no interferance. Those units would have had a much harder time providing numbers if we were actually moving in any direction at any speed let alone several hundred feet per second.

Just to make my point clear, I don't think that it is a bad thing to have trucks picking up stray jumpers if his approach to the jumpers is on the perimeter of the landing area. I just don't feel that it is necessary for them to be cutting through the landing area. Like someone said before two weeks ago it was landing madness. Lots of visitors, some military Demo teams and not a lot of staff to go around and pick up everybody. Throw in a few cuttaways and other scattered gear. Tim was a very very busy man. I myself picked up several jumpers on more than a few occasions one day in this same busy week while looking for lost gear wayoff the property in my jeep. I was typically there seconds after they landed. Tim needed some slack as the outlanders were running him ragged . Like I said before some people stretch the definition of landing area. Its all good. If you land out far enough you may be able to hit a drive through on the way back.

Yes B2 and her S3/G3 combo will be quite hard to catch But I will give it my best with my soon to arrive M2/V2. I just hope I don't exceed its VNE or I will feel like an FNG..

I'm not fond of GPS technology at the hand held or user carryable size package. I've been hiking and have compared several type of units to each other and they couldn't agree with each other on location or altitude. A topo map and lensatic compass proved they were all very very off! And we were standing still on a mountain top not flying along at 100 mph horizontally or vertically. I can't speak for the stuff thats available to military units that the public can't get but for the most part the only units I really trust are aviation level units. And the only ones I trust to give me three axis info would be "panel mounted" and certified for use on IFR approaches. I feel the pain for my wingsuit buddies that are playing with GPS tracking. They may be impressed with the numbers they are getting but you know the saying garbage in garbage out.

No... that's what deep brakes are for. Quote If you are up wind of your landing zone hanging in brakes and being stingy with your Altitudeis the way to go as the winds will do their part to bring you to the landing area. If your are down wind you will still have to be stingy with altitude but smart about howstingy and now the winds will not do their part to bring you back but will actually make things harder on you. You need all of the glide you can get out of your canopy but without it compromising your penetration into the headwind. Hanging in rear risers, which can be physically hard for some people, and takes some finesse to keep from inputing too much. Letting your risers spread out by loosening your chest strap,which not everyone wants to do. Picking up your legs, getting smaller with less frontal area drag will be the way to go. This is a skill and it takes practice. It is much easier for manufactures to say hang in x-amount of brakes as this a more forgiving method of being stingy but in the end not the optimum way to go.

I disagree, the bird-man logo is sexy sleak and laid out flat like in flight. That could be the Fat-man logo, not sleak but wide, and leaning up against the buffet counter.

Tim really is the guardian angel at Perris. He knows what he is doing and you were in no extra danger but I know if you are not use to something like this it could be unnerving. He keeps his eyes in the skies most of the time and can tell you where that CReW stack is even though it could be a mile to the west. If you bust your ass in the pond his face will probably be the first you see when you resurface. During the busy season there may be many other staff in other vehicles on or near the landing areas, compounded by the fact that some jumpers stretch the definition of landing area. Perris has buses for special events out at the pond or secondary "target" landing areas. trackters to keep that student circle groomed. Outlander chase vehicles and soon to debut the DC-9 luggage handler.

Those are the same numbers I get. If you are six foot tall and weigh 150 pounds and have hollow bones you will get better numbers.

It's a Long EZ with drop tanks. http://www.long-ez.com/ Nope luggage pods. The stock long has got a 1500 mile range without extra tanks but with cockpits the size of sailplane extra baggage rides in sleak pods.

Ironically there are several walls at Perris to play on for all skill levels. Oh that would be LAKE Perris and you use the eastern entrance to the lake. Enjoy.

Don't sweat not jumping it. It pays to have a fire wire-able system on the ground for dubs you want. Its better than finding a VCR on the DZ.

Yes, If you are going to use it, use it the way it was intended. Commit to sewing a bridle up on the shrivel flap. I didn't and it cost me my perfect record and a reserve ride. All of the above being much more expensive than purchasing a dedicated bridle just for the pouch. For me it was just an experiment and not worth a dedicated bridle- the reserve ride cost me more than buying a bridle just for my little experiment.

Atair is full of bullshit on this one too. They claim that their canopies fly slower and have a better glide rate then other similar canopies. I was trying to bump endcells on my old Cobalt 150 and a Stiletto 150. The Stiletto was loaded more then me and I had to keep putting on the brakes since I was passing him. Not only that but I needed the brakes to float with the Stiletto since it was gliding flater then me. I thought that it should be the other way around... Phree I've had several canopy manufacturers demo rep tell me I need to try one size smaller than what I'm on now. At WFFC one company rep was so adamant that he would NOT let me fly apples to apples and made an excuse about not having any in the size he didn't want to let me try only one and two sizes smaller than my current cobalt. One company ( in my personal experience, in all of the on site gear demo situations I've been to )wouldn't let me try smaller than what I was flying now. Wanna guess who, everybody's favorite?

Not to a skydiver.

Reliable, inexpensive solar is somewhat new and it will take a while to become mainstream. Ten years ago it took more electrical energy to grow, what was then the common, wafer than the wafer was ever going to give back as solar power in its lifetime. Improvements have been made in the how solar panels are made. In the seventies we had an rapid expansion of solar water residential installations. This was then and now a very valid and solid home improvement but too many fly by night installers and hacks soured the general public with junk installs. Solar water heatings rep has never recovered.

I'm familiar with the two parts and epoxies having totally redone my A3. I just don't want to waste the money since this helmet is plastic. I'm familiar with the bulldog as a way of using cheaper sign painters colors between expensive two part clears. I will give the krylon a try.

Is on a Z1 helmet? Anybody know? Can it be touched up with rattle cans or do we need special paints for plastic? It looks like the helmet is made of a similar plastic to industrial hard hats.

Oh and Dubs are $5, everyone knows that. Wha -at? Whoa buddie you better secure that attitude or next time we will just make you wingsuit base then fly the other way! I don't really need the dub, its prolly not any good. I just want to see it once.

He better share pictures from the wingsuit sunday Ira boogie or we are going to sew his wingsuit booties closed!

QuoteYou dumb son of a bitch. Don't you know nobody WANTS to jump them anymore. Quote Yup! did you you have to psycho pack it?

That calls for a lugi! Reminds me of an airforce tanker's "boomers" view.

Paul, sounds like you have shot some welding? An idea to experiment with is to use a welding helmet lens as a filter. Maybe even a lighter shade like the ones that are used for cutting.

Body flight Skill, even spillover from other skydiving disciplines, body type and currency in wingsuits all play a major role in performance gains in a wingsuit. Bird-man products have a great deal of performance overlap when flown properly.When not flown correctly it may seem that the smaller suits fall short of what the bigger suits can do, not the case. Many people think they need a " bigger suit" when they are sucking compared to other flockers. Often times its just bad body position or lack of body awareness. Coaching with some one that can fly alongside and give hand signals or video would benefit the situation and its much cheaper than a new " bigger suit". Don't rely only on a protrac for performance bench marking. Get you and your suit to boogies and flock it will pay off in skills gained. Being current on what you got is very important. If you only put the suit on once in fifty regular jumps what do expect. Its worse if you have to stop jumping all winter. If you are not putting in the jumps to be current on a wingsuit you are doing yourself a disservice that a bigger suit won't fix. If you are sucking in a small suit there will be nothing worse than sucking in your big suit and few things more dangerous. If you can't fly a GTI efficiently than you can not deploy in an S3 safely. There have been several times when we fly with a new person we just meet who has a tubby body and middle of the spectrum suit and due to skills alone gives us quite a surprise and a workout too. That is the person who is ready for a bigger suit. Sounds alot like the canopy lecture doesn't it?

A wingsuit flyer has more to deal with under canopy, especially under a canopy with the line twists that are not uncommon to novice wingsuit flyers. Canopy collision with a non-wingsuit flyer, "oops I needed to free my arms."Quote You are very correct in the first part of your reply. This is why wingsuit novices must fly a docile or at least predictable main. And as novices we MUST pull higher than a regular jump. This is not safe under a regular jump run. But in wingsuits we are not falling under a jump run. We navigate several thousand feet or up to some miles from the jump run and navigate back ( when done properly ) to a deployment location that allows deploying high. So there will not be any regular jumpers to collide with. Like I said before some DZs even have wingsuit operating areas away from regular jumpers and any jump run. Its like AFF all over again in the saddle around 5 grand but still deploying offset from any jump run. Even a bad wingsuit pilot will get enough separation after break off from others in the flock. To follow up on the last bit of your statement wingsuits have a few seconds of added workload post opening. All wingsuiters can still reach a riser and turn the canopy away from traffic if need be with wings on. We can fly to and deploy in an area with no other canopy traffic than our own group and the ability to get excellent separation from those in our group at breakoff. Do you have knowledge of a specific incident that you can share?

Congrats you two! Oh, and get separate his and hers toothpastes.