outrager

I'm afraid you're stretching it a bit - otherwise an immediate pre-emptive strike against Israel is in order Israel long-range delivery options just aren't quite that good. They can reach southern border areas, but to continue further on (and penetrate air defences) is a very different task. Besides they would be trying to target large Jewish populations If Israel did have a capability and a policy of launching such a rogue long-range strike against a third country, it would be preemptively destroyed at the first sight of any trouble in the region - out of pure necessity. bsbd! Yuri.

Yep. Iran has every right to have nukes. It will offset Israel's warheads and may finally create some stability in the region. It is too bad Saddam went into Kuwait before developing nuclear arms - if he waited there would not be either of Iraq wars. The worst case scenario, where Israel and Iran do use their nukes and wipe each other out, might just be the best case scenario - the one that cleanses the whole wasp's nest once and for all. bsbd! Yuri.

Please don't bother. bsbd! Yuri.

While we are waiting for genetic engineering to catch up.... Are any tall skinny long-legged female wingsuit flyers up for a good old genetic selection method? This is all about our future! PM please bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I hear what you say, and agree with most of it. More airtime = more skill. While flocking and maxing out are quite different, there's plenty of crossover experience. Still, somebody who only flies in the mountains may perform quite poor in a large flock. Likewise, somebody with a thousand flocking dives may have a hard time off a gnarly cliff. The sport has already developed enough where every sub-discipline requires a different skill set. My point was not to drive the wedge between "base" and "skydiving" pilots or to judge their skills. I just highlighted an obvious observation: Perfomance (glide) is #1 priority for selecting a suit for BASE, but it isn't so for most skydivers. If it were #1, every suit sold 3 years ago would be S3, and every suit today would be V1. Instead, quite the opposite is true: a bunch of new models came out from every manufacturer to address other goals than perfomance, and skydivers are buying all of them. As you said, it is nice to max out at the end of a flocking dive, but it isn't the goal of the flight. Opposite is true in the mountains: a number of sites one can fly is proportional to the glide ratio of a pilot, and those he can fly often improve a lot with a bit more perfomance. Gear selection and development are dictated by the goal at hand. These goals are very different in skydiving and BASE environments, and wingsuits will follow canopies and containers path, becoming more and more specialized. That in no way reflects on the pilot's level - for each his own. A perfect field to apply both precision and perfomance skills is the new exploding discipline of proximity flying (what Loic and VKB do so well). I doubt it will convert enough DZ regulars to really close the gap, but those who survive this discipline will become the best all-around flyers in the world - out of pure necessity bsbd! Yuri.

Ron, It is perfectly ok for you to be scared. Everybody agrees that is a good enough reason not to buzz you or anybody else unexpectedly. As far as actual risks go, you are not qualified to assess them, and not required to. You don't want to be buzzed, so you don't get buzzed. The rest is a technical discussion for wingsuit pilots. You also need to work on your conflict resolution model. As it stands, trying to break somebody's nose will get you hurt and arrested. Not a good outcome. It's just too easy to push your buttons. It has already developed into dz.com game, with off-line betting etc

The main video is 14min long. I made a good quality DivX rip, it's only 97mb. If VKB decides to release it online i will be glad to upload. For now only full DVD pirate copies are allowed

Yeah! We come to the final agreement on this highly entertaining topic. It is fear after all. Let's happily announce the conclusion: "Do not scare the cones!"

Most of the world is unaware of the mere existense of FAA bsbd! Yuri.

Ron, you are such a perfect cone

Brilliant! And it illustrates the whole issue very well

You just defined a dock, not a buzz. It is indeed dangerous. I defined a buzz as being far enough to account for any unexpected canopy maneuver. Such a distance greatly exceeds any margin for the pilot's own imperfections. It is safe. bsbd! Yuri.

This is soooo funny It illustrates perfectly what i said: unplanned buzzing scares the hell out of some people. It is all about fear. Once again: unplanned buzzing isn't cool. It is simply not unsafe. Don't do it for the right reason bsbd! Yuri.

That would be an extreme case of target fixation. Certainly possible, but very unlikely - such a person wouldn't live long enough to take up wingsuits Flying a wingsuit around tandem canopies is very much like driving a car around orange plastic cones. The amount of control and glide that WS pilot has is almost impossible to imagine for a skydiver who is used to helplessly falling down bsbd! Yuri.

Again, this is assuming that the person or persons under canopy won't do anything to alter their current course. You still don't get it, even after somebody gives you a perfect example! Amazing... A properly executed buzz accounts for any unexpected canopy maneuver. This is what makes it absolutely safe. An issue of politeness and fear has been covered already. It has nothing to do with safety. To F111: yes, proximity is important. A bulletproof distance is such where any canopy maneuver will not put it in WS path. For a tandem, this distance is quite small. An actual safe distance is even shorter: since a wingsuit can outfly any canopy, it is only determined by a pilot's reaction time. bsbd! Yuri.

I very strongly disagree. Repeat: the act of buzzing someone is very safe, as safe as clapping hands. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! Do not forget a drug check! Them jumpers are know junkies that cannot be trusted bsbd! Yuri.

Regarding WS canopy buzzing, it does not endanger someone elses life/well being without their consent. Instead it does scare someone else. The difference is huge, but the end result is the same. People do become angry. What matters here is not the risk, it is the fear. bsbd! Yuri.

There are 2 sides to this: A reasonably skilled WS pilot can pass within, say, 100' of your canopy absolutely safely. This accounts for any of your unexpected turns - if preplanned, the distance can be 0 (as in actual docking). However, it takes another reasonably skilled WS pilot under canopy to recognize this. Most people who are buzzed are not wingsuit pilots, so they can and do freak out. Plus, they have no way of knowing if a WS pilot is indeed reasonably skilled. I strongly disagree with those who said that unplanned buzzing is dangerous. When done by a skilled pilot buzzing is very safe, but this isn't a matter of safety - this is a matter of trust. If i clap my hands behind somebody's ear, people tend to freak out - same goes for a wingsuit buzz. It's a matter of being polite, rather than safe. Fear and real danger are frequently unrelated, and this is a perfect example of it. bsbd! Yuri. P.S. Watch "Superterminal" for some fine examples of close proximity wingsut flying. It will open your eyes and blow your mind.

Bravo! bsbd! Yuri. P.S. Anywhere between 4k and 300', depending on the gear and DZ particulars. A small elliptical canopy easily adds 2k to the comfort zone, then Skyhook shaves 1k off that. A BASE rig puts it in a different league alltogether (yes, there are plenty of places that allow or tolerate that). Finally a DZO can give or take a couple of grand

Genetic engineering Othat than that - WS will split up even more. Unfortunately, there is only a tiny fraction of pilots that are actually inerested in perfomance flying (i.e. improving glide ratio). Vast majority of skydiving WS pilots don't really care about perfomance while flocking etc, and many recent wingsuit models already reflect it. The bulk of WS designs will improve in other areas such as style, colors and convenience. There are still some small incremental gains in WS perfomance design to be achieved, though. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! "Superterminal" DVD came in the mail today. I just watched it twice to make sure the footage is real and not computer-generated. Well, there are some nice virtual reality bits in Extras section but the main movie perfectly matches what i remember of those cliffs. It's got to be genuine

Yo ! Nope. CIA just killed a lot of women and children, and created a bunch of new freedom fighters. Good work! In tone of your message... 35 US occupants have been killed in Iraq so far this year. Got those mother fuckers! Don't you love posting in an international forum ? bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! Just in case, that's a different guy from New York. I will most likely be flying in the mountains all summer. bsbd! Yuri.

Not here, but Iiro and Jeb will both star in "The Courier" that starts on 23rd on CBS. bsbd! Yuri.