johnmatrix

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Everything posted by johnmatrix

  1. I agree if you want to wingsuit, just get a wingsuit. I only got a tracking suit because I wanted to get into BASE and now I love tracking, it is a different feeling to flying a wingsuit and better in some ways, but if I was just skydiving I'd probably just be wingsuiting.
  2. My wingsuits are all black and white, you just have to accept that yes, the white will get visibly dirtier quicker. I don't feel like they look any more ragged out than an equally ragged out suit of another colour. I prefer more white than black so I get less hot wearing them in summer. I choose black for the parts I know will get dirty the quickest - knee and butt area due to moving around/sitting in the plane.
  3. Have a read of Yuri's essays in the other recent threads, they may interest you.
  4. 100% agree. Flying fast is a good skill to learn skydiving but it's not the important safety factor in the skydiving environment that it is in BASE. Skydiving you should already be a safe wingsuit pilot before you start working on maximising your forward speed.
  5. This I think is the problem. You are doing it for someone else, not you. I think when you want to jump you know it, like you know if you are straight or gay. I'm someone that 100% wanted to, no doubt about it, and for me it was still extremely stressful and scary at the start. A lot of doubt, anxiety, sleepless nights, but something kept dragging me back to the DZ. If I was forcing myself to do it it would have been much more unpleasant. Totally untrue. You are already doing it - you said so yourself, your jumps have been 'textbook' and you have landed safely. You're just not enjoying them like other people appear to be enjoying them. And nobody should be disappointed in you because if you've been in the sport more than a short amount of time you understand that the sport just isn't for everyone, and there's heaps of other awesome stuff you can do that just isn't for lots of other people. Spot on. Regarding your wife, I think it's natural to go through this sort of skydiving evangelism when you start. I know I did. It opens your eyes and you suddenly think everyone could and *should* do it, but eventually in time you realise that's just not the case and that a lot of people in fact just have no interest in it. Anyway my point is you CAN do it (you've proven that) but I think you have to really want to do it to continue, because it's scary shit and expensive especially at the start. If it's not your cup of tea and your wife does continue in the sport then she will eventually realise that this is normal and perfectly OK. Either way you've gotta do what's right for you. :)
  6. I don't have a background in aerodynamics and for me it's about how I feel when I'm in the air. It's fascinating and useful thinking about the equations and data after the fact but in the moment for me it's just about just trying to be like a missile, not a glider.
  7. ... you would present a smaller profile to the relative wind, pick up airspeed, potentially generate more lift and your glide ratio could increase and become higher than 1:1. It's in this zone, the speed zone, where tracking gets really interesting. Certainly possible and higher certainly feasible. One of my friends was doing 1.8:1 in his PTS recently but whether it was sustainable is another question. Also one body type can achieve things another can't. Looking back on some footage of myself I'm surprised at how flat I look when I feel like I'm going steep and fast when I track. Pic attached. More on angle of attack: http://topgunbase.ws/angle-of-attack-for-dummies/ Angles relative to horizon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_0K4jBp97E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkUxB_oIpvg
  8. Once a new model has been released you must immediately purchase it or you will almost certainly bounce. Do not let the many prior years of safe and fun wingsuiting around the world with other older canopies fool you, this is serious shit and if you can't fork out for the latest released gear this sport is not for you.
  9. If you don't get the latest design being marketed on Facebook you will certainly go in. Anything less than the newest model brand new is black death.
  10. One day I am going to read every last word in this thread I swear it.
  11. I don't know much about the Icon range but as you're a beginner I'd say get what is best for all-round jumps. It will be fine for wingsuiting. But more importantly ask the manufacturer what they think. Personally I feel like discipline-specific gear is more for later on down the track when you are already doing said discipline and know 100% that you're sticking with it.
  12. Thanks, setting it to 25fps seems to have done the trick.
  13. I'm sure we can cope with Yuri mentioning his app once or twice or 100 times.
  14. Who cares how it flies - it looks awesome.
  15. Brilliant. And each suit guaranteed to be hurled at someone by a gorilla before shipping.
  16. "Gorilla marketing" I just realised you meant "guerrilla marketing" but I'm afraid your term has stuck for me now forever. Love it - and agree 100%.
  17. All that is very interesting but I must disagree with that point. I was at the WBR this year (not competing) and the subject came up that none of the major WS manufacturers are sponsoring the event nor using it for marketing that much. Sure the manufacturer of the winning suit will do a social media post about it like they do with any other event (skydiving or BASE) but the WBR is still primarily a community event organised by locals in Romsdalen.
  18. I must say that is the best rant I've read here for quite some time. Felt a bit nostalgic actually, reminded of the days of this forum some years back where it was just about seeing the latest cool-looking new suit design from whatever manufacturer (and nobody cared which manufacturer it was) instead of the same looking thing coming out again with the same old marketing. But don't you think that given that extending the wing surface past the extremities of the body has proven to become quite unsafe that we've reached a size limit for what a mass-produced wingsuit can be? I.e. people are managing to have enough incidents already with the current suits in circulation, do we really want to see how many more will occur if we have struts for the arms extending out past the hand? And that given that general size limit, isn't there a particular planform that will be generally the best and it's the T-type you mention that tended to get popular after the first Tony Suits X Bird? I must say the 'Flick Tail' design from TS that was used by the winner of the the World Base Race in 2016 was an interesting departure from the norm.
  19. +1 I wouldn't say it's stagnant though - just reaching it's logical terminus with marketing playing an increasing role as it has to in any business.
  20. You should be able to find something for points 1 and 4, but 2 and 3 might be difficult. I am not aware of any system that allows access to the bottom slot of the X3000 without screws being involved, nor of one where you can change the angle like on a GoPro.
  21. [#112f4d]Lol well, it's an interesting one. When I talk about skydiving to people, I tell them I'm learning. I'm not sure when I'd consider myself a "real skydiver". In my book if you do AFF 1 you're a skydiver. I know what you mean about talking to wuffos though. I think 'learning to skydive' is what I used to say. But you're not a wuffo any more. :)
  22. I like mine but I have found that of the 2 stabilisation modes the less stable one is the better, the more active stabilisation produces wobbling and ripples in the footage when in freefall. Footage quality is excellent. GPS tool is pretty cool but if you want data a Flysight is still heaps better. The editing software Sony made for it is a bit unstable.