outrager

I have to disagree here - while the speed will vary quite a bit depending on a pilot and a suit, the average is quite faster that 3..4sec delay. I usually fly slow, and my Classic opening were comparable to 6..8sec delays. Most people (and Skyflyer suit variations) fly faster. My skydiving opening on the S4 prototype feel almost terminal. To quantify this: on a reasonable flight (40mph vertical, 80mph horizontal) your total airspeed is about 90mph. You can flare a suit, but it won't slow down much. If anybody has developed such balls, they will stretch to a watermelon size by the very first slider-down wingsuit opening ;-) This is going to hurt more than landing a wingsuit without a parachute. On the question itself: i believe that vents are irrelevant in case of wingsuit deployments. They don't cause any problems nor do they have any benefits here. If i had a wingsuit-only canopy it would be unvented (to avoid extra bulk, weight and price). However, as D-Dog pointed out before, most people would use the same canopy in a slider-down situation at some point. If there's even a remote chance for this, i'd get the vents. This is where i agree with JJ - unless you only do higher slider-ups, a vented canopy is a way to go! Troll MDV, specifically ;-) bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! Any GPS unit should be able to calculate GPS altitude, however it's less accurate than barometric reading (or GPS horizontal position for that matter). Horizontal fix needs 3 satellites, altitude fix requires at least 4. For logging wingsuit flights barometric is better. Units that have barometric altimeters generally use barometric readings for instant access and can adjust calibration for weather changes by using long-term average GPS altitude readings. Don't forget to turn this feature off, since we don't need any adjustments during the flight. Set it to "manually calibrate altitude" or such. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! On 200mph CASA exit you can climb anywhere around 50..100ft above the plane. You have to exit in a maxed out position and just ride the air. I loved these exits at CSS a while ago. bsbd! Yuri.

The most tired are deltas, triceps and some chest muscles. Abdominals get a good exercise too, calfs get tired sometimes from pointing the toes, and there's probably a lot of other muscle groups involved to a lesser degree. I don't train specifically for wingsuits, but between karate and climbing during the last year i can notice some endurance improvements. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I wrote an article a while back on GPS use: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=rec.skydiving+GPS+use+wingsuit&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=986ce2%248f7%240%40dosa.alt.net&rnum=1 Main points: chest strap is a bad location, your body blocks the signal. Helmet is ok, a pocket on the back side of your leg is probably the best place. Garmin eTrex Summit, Vista etc (GPS + barometric altimeter) is a good tool to have, as barometric altitude is more precise for our purposes. Get a satellite "lock" before exit by holding GPS by the window. It will continue to deadtrack for 30sec after losing a signal - use this time to exit promptly. With a recent software update (on garmin.com) it will keep tracking barometric altitude even after loosing satellites - very useful for jumping from a plane if you have trouble with a signal inside. You must download the current track to a PC to make use of most data (on Summit it's usually big enough for a few jumps). Don't save tracks in GPS as they get compressed and loose a lot of data, including time/speed. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I don't know - it seems to work ok in SLO mode during stable flights, but i don't own one and thus don't have enough statistics. I guess if you dive down and flare, at some point it will think you have deployed. I remember seing 30mph or so as a cut-off point, and you can easily slow down way beyond that for a couple of seconds. Maybe a placement is a factor too ? I usually put it in a side or leg cargo pocket of my pants. bsbd! Yuri.

Not really. When i'm tired the entire wing bends back, but it stays pressurized and keeps the form equally well with or without mylar. IMHO it's more a question of keeping your entire body as a single efficient wing, rather then distorting the arm pieces. So far i don't see mylar making any measurable difference, but it does look cool on the ground ;-) bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I have been flying a new suit over the weekend (a prototype that is essentially S3 with mylar ribs and other small differences). My regular suit have been pre-S3 prototype with smaller wings, and Skyflyer and Classic before that. A few thoughts i would like to share here: 1. At this point the main limiting factor is muscle power (or rather, muscle endurance). I was very happy with my old suits flying relatively slow, being able to max it out for full 3+ minutes. Now as the speed increases noticeably (and resistance increases as a square of speed) plus the arm wing is quite a bit bigger, it becomes really hard to hold the perfect position for an entire skydive. This is anaerobic endurance issue rather than max power, to put it in a scientific way, since at this point we start to use the muscle close to 100% shutting off the blood flow for a long time. 2. Since flying the suit proved to be an art rather then a science, here's a couple of observations: Each suit i have flown has it's own "sweet spot" and a feeling associated with it. Usually it's a feeling of laying on a ball of air, or even laying on top of the suit, instead of being inside it ;) Kinda hard to explain, but to repeat the best flights i have to recreate this feeling instead of focusing on body position directly. It is very psychological - sometimes it flies great and other times it's horrible. A sub-point here, especially with the newer suits: i find that maxing out the suit is an art of balance. Maxed out position is relatively unstable, and any wobbling kills the flight. The balance seems to suffer first whenever you're tired, hangover or in a bad mood. On the new suits the issue is more profound, because we have to balance at near 100% muscle power. Once our muscles get sufficiently tired, they start shaking and loosing balance. It is very noticeable after about 2 minutes into the maxed out flight. Choices are to wobble or to relax a bit - either way abandoning the ideal position. Typical ProTrack data to illustrate the point: 4th flight of the day, 1st minute average is 36mph, 2nd minute is 39mph, and it's probably good it doesn't record after that ;) Luckily the endurance issue is less of a problem on BASE flights, but soon enough we'll be approaching 2 minutes there too... ;-) Finally i'm bummed that swooping tandems after maxed out flights is becoming a problem - they're usually below 2k by the time i get to them :( bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! Another point here... yes, minimum descent and maximum glide ratio speeds are different for the same airfoil. However, when we fly a wingsuit we alter our body position significantly to accelerate or slow down, essentially creating different airfoils. I belive that the body position that gives the slowest descent rate is also the same (or very similar) to the one that gives the best glide ratio. The difference between max glide/min descent speeds for this unchanged airfoil is relatively minor, compared to speed differences attributed to changing body positions. bsbd! Yuri.

Totally agreed. It's just so much easier to measure time, everybody does it, while distance is a bit trickier. GPS waypoints at the exit and then at the opening spot work, but many/most really nice flights don't follow a straight line. Then you have to carry GPS on the flight, download the track etc... major pain in the rear. Also in narrow gorges GPS gets rather unreliable. Any ideas on how to get easy and precise (non-GPS) distance measurements in this circumstances? bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! That is a pretty cool flight! Also last year there have been 1:27 and 1:29 flights from another wall nearby, and 1:34 from Troll. BUT, legally speaking, any so-called "Troll" flights have actually originated from Romsdalhorn across the valley ;-) bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! "What is a definition of making love? It's what a woman does while a man f_cks her." Running for cover ;) bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! Airlocks are completely useless here. The wing holds its shape just fine as it is after the first 2 or 3 seconds. It also needs to deflate instantly at pull time, this is where airlocks would be a problem. Mylar ribs idea is to have the wing somewhat pre-inflated as you step off. It might be marginally beneficial for BASE exits, that's still to be seen. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! Well, the suit won't really start flying until it accelerates beyond the stall speed, and by then it's well pressurized anyway. I'm curious if mylar ribs will make any difference on BASE exits, but my gut feeling is it'll be negligible. I should have an opinion later this summer. I believe the inlet size is practically irrelevant. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I believe the law says "illegal aerial delivery to or from the National Park" :-( By the way, could anybody with legal knowledge clarify if aerial delivery law applies to private land within National Park borders ? bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I will be touring Europe August 1 - September 28. The plan is very open at the moment: driving around until eventually ending up in Norway. I'd love to catch up with everybody i haven't seen in a while and meet new friends. If your phone #s changed in the last couple of years, or even if we didn't meet yet but you want to make a few jumps or flights or beers together - please drop me a line at [email protected]. I'll also put my current GSM numbers in reply. Let's make a bunch of jumps and party! ;-) bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I have finally recovered enough to put in a couple of words here... ;-) Definitely the best BASE event ever. Everybody kept saying this as some kind of mantra, and i agree without a doubt. Jumping was excellent, but it only accounted for a fraction of total pleasure. Kinda like the first Matrix movie, had to keep asking - is this real ? There was a perfect balance of jumping and partying, and yet the public image somehow didn't suffer too much ;-) Therefore keep an eye on the next events there, they are likely to blow your mind. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! Started Shorin Ryu karate two years ago. Also got into climbing this year and noticed they are a perfect pair. Both activities have a lot in common, mental and physical, and the combination balances muscle groups very nicely. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! Wow... your mileage may vary ;-) I met a few girlfriends because i base. My best skydiving friend and CRW&crime partner started base jumping. My mother nags me to send her all base footage before i have a chance to edit (it helps she's got about a thousand skydives - in the good old round days! ;). There're many large base-related pictures hanging in my office, and bank's official car was driving me between a hotel and a tower during our last work retreat in Brazil. Most of it is sheer luck, but i notice that positive vibes help a bit with public opinion. Black Death is a lot of fun in private ;-) bsbd! Yuri.

I believe "locals only" originally referred to a less then obvious road to this object. It was a joke: this antenna has been jumped by more different, mostly visiting people then any other tower in the world. 5 years ago Florida was a very friendly place. I guess it has changed since the number of jumpers increased about tenfold and available objects keep burning... And of course it'll never be the same without Vertigo ;) bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! This is mostly correct - the jumper in question almost landed a suit. He did however get the line stretch (slider still in the rubber band on C line) that stood him up. He did not brake his legs, only knocked out some teeth with his knees and dug rather large holes in the ground. He did brake his back and is now jumping with a complex titanium construction in his lower spine (very cool Terminator x-ray). It was a very low pull and a lot of luck after that. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! In addition to what screamer said, it's a rather advanced site anyway. I have been stuck there in a blinding snow blizzard in the middle of July. On a positive side, body recovery would be relatively easy ;-) bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I've seen Aquaboy thingies on chest straps - it's not much of a flotation but may be sufficient to satisfy a DZO. From a couple of wingsuit water landings i had without any flotation - it's not really that bad, but i see how things may change to worse in the open ocean. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I'll be in Salinas, Ecuador next month for work, and would love to hear a bit about the place. Looking for any BASE object beta (towers?) and skydiving opportunities. Have seen the picture in Parachutist already ;) Any comments from the boogie crowd ? bsbd! Yuri, [email protected]

Yo ! I'll be in Salinas, Ecuador next month for work, and would love to hear a bit about the place. Looking for any BASE object beta (towers?) and skydiving opportunities. Have seen the picture in Parachutist already ;) Any comments from the boogie crowd ? bsbd! Yuri, [email protected]