5.samadhi

that would be a fucking shitty way to die!

Your comment is like me calling a cat a cat and then disagreeing with me and saying "its just an animal" (you're RIGHT of course that its an animal!) heh and what exactly is the initiation of a swoop if not "making a turn and diving"? We do that with our canopies (a front riser dive) and planeout (recovery arc + toggles). Why are you hesitant to agree that a wingsuit can swoop? Hell they basically are canopies that we fly for all intents and purposes, highly highly loaded canopies! Same idea a speedflyer would do here just different tool: banking the suit increases (temporarily) the downward velocity which is then converted into horizontal velocity during the LONG planeout the pilot COMMITS to. Would you say a canopy pilot did not initiate a 90 degree hookturn (note thats the degree rotation this pilot did) and use the toggles to swoop the terrain during a speedflying run over the same terrain? Do wingsuit pilots have to literally drag their toe across the dirt before you'd say they are swooping (maybe not far off!?)?? the wingsuit pilot is diving the suit and generating speed which he is converting for a long planeout (ie what most would not hesitate to call swoop...I think most wouldnt hesitate to at least, your semantic input is noted though) that is my understanding of the physics and semantics here...feel free to comment if I am misunderstanding the proximity dive/planeout thing pilot is doing...

well yes its a base jump, but it still shows impressive wingsuit flying which I guess we as wingsuiters can all agree is badass! ps heh i like 'rabidly becoming'

hey check out the 'swoop' around 3:15 in the video...I have never seen a video like this before, if I didnt know what was going on I'd guess he was under a velocity canopy loaded at 3:1+++ its a balls out swoop with a wingsuit (apache I believe). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udpmpyD46sI&feature=related Anyways not a lot of point to this, but just to comment about this as what seems to be futuristic imagination from the pilot. I have never seen so much commitment, even in the flight through the crack or Jeb's proximity flights. is this where wingsuit proximity flying is going??? To swoop features and planeout like canopy pilots would do on speedflying runs??

I think you got the semantics right The111, at least what I was meaning! thanks for the enlightening conversation. i believe I will keep pulling in "full flight" or at least during a flare (which appears semantically to mean the same I guess?!). I hope to get more 2 ways (at least!) going with people to learn more....last 4 times I've been at the DZ nobody has been wingsuiting ahhhh, solos are fun but i love 2 ways.

thanks for the comments...butters to clarify you are talking about pulling the suit in a flare but not complete stalling of the suit? \

Aussies too, as I understand it. Also there is some sort of living allowance the NZ Government gives to Kiwi permanent residents while on the course. Not sure of details on that but it's around $165 a week. You don't have to pay it back. In addition, all the jumps at the school are supervised directly by the current Course Director, and/or he jumps with the students. When you consider the cost of even the most basic coaching, that is a big bonus. I'd like to register as a new zealand citizen now haha I went to school here in the USA and all I have are three degrees hanging on my parent's wall and 50k in debt

Would love input from anybody with experience. What is the benefit to collapsing wings and deploying with an arch? What is the benefit of deploying in full flight? I seem to have better heading control while deploying in full flight, and also I seem to be able to enjoy flying a little longer since the deployment takes less altitude compared to collapsing wings and deploying with an arch. Is there something inherently dangerous about deploying while in full flight? Caveat in place that I am clicking heels for a wave-off (even when I solo to wire muscle memory).

http://www.basejumper.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2947638 here it is.

I'm glad this thread devolved into brand wars!!!

neeh...as that person would tell him to learn and fly a smaller suit to the max, before putting himself in a bigger that that the manufacturer recommends 180 to 200 wingsuit skydives minimum for. Well, I dunno man the Vampire2 seems very inuitive to fly...moreso than the tonysuit Intro!

you got me there. I walked into it I'll go back to the DZ I learned and asked my friend that taught me.

airtwardo, did you skip the part where she said the jumps are LESS than normal price for NZ citizens? That would be badass if we were 18 and could get CHEAP jumps and all we'd have to do is drive a bus a few hours AT SOME POINT.

well fine man, just replace single cessna with single caravan or otter in my above statement HAPPY now dave???

hey Chris, about deployment, why not deploy in full flight? What are the downsides to deploying in full flight in the skydiving environment? In the beginning I would collapse everything, arch and deploy and didn't like the feeling (or get good results with heading of canopy). I now always deploy in full flight and have had better success on my wingsuit jumps with heading control of my canopy and I also feel I eat less altitude during deployment while in full flight (good in case emergency procedures needs to be executed). I am jumping a TS intro for my first few jumps and now a PF Vampire 2 the last 20 jumps (if that matters). *I also always click my heels as a waveoff to develop the habit even on solo jumps.

alygator, did you read the X2 vs V4 thread on basejumper.com? There are a couple good posts by base jumpers that have jumped both and compare them. Also, for your entertainment Mccordia is funny in the thread

awesome post! And I am honored to have my mindless post included as an example! but seriously though, awesome post thanks for taking time to write

for every dropzone running 3 turbine aircraft simultaneously over a busy residential area, there is AT LEAST one DZ running a single cessna over peaceful countryside which is perfect to wingsuit skydive with no traffic issues or no big deal with off landings.

this is a perfect anecdote to support the stance that we as wingsuiters do not need USPA to control/regulate us..."we" did just fine in this case regulating ourselves by talking amongst local DZ authorities. Keep it local!

You are fooling yourself. There isn't a real base jumper that does not test new wingsuits or other gear out of planes before they take it to the mountains. You can't realistically " run to the hills". BASE pouch deployments are banned at the winsuit intructor creator's home dropzone. Something to think about if you want to work on muscle memory before a trip to a big wall. well lucky me I have just made friends with a local guy (old guy) who is a hot air balloon pilot!!!! now I dont even need a skydiving rig for long

its actually not that interesting, its done all over in lots of industries. The difference between the skydiving industry and say the hollywood film industry is that one is easier to get involved with. You need to be able to jump out of a plane and probably say things like "dude yeah that was a sick jump" and "yes I can pack sigmas" and you're pretty much promised work on a DZ.

ouch that hurts sparky but to be fair I upsized to a square 135 since starting to fly the Vampire2

Squeak, it is a manufacturer recommendation, not a USPA recommendation. I don't give a flying fuck what USPA says, but if I was to video tandems I'd want to be in line with the manufacturers, for liability if nothing more. But again nobody pays attention to those pesky manufacturers

what about the 500 v ideo jump minimum to fly video with tandems? Oh yeah nobody pays attention to that little pesky manufacturer rule, I guess NZ isnt special in that regard

Whoa, there, slugger - I'm married. Your marriage forbids you to engage in colloquial speech? :(