5.samadhi

well I hope you're on board because if just me and Airtwardo are on board looks like we're doing an AFF jump with the pilot

seems like starting with a stupid idea (handcam while facilitating a tandem skydive) and adding a stupid idea (extending the device causing a snag point and really interfering with dexterity quite a bit too). but at least the tandem student knows enough to know that its a dangerous idea

I did too while I worked at restaurants and safety meetings were what they are, now I work at a manufacturing facility and they are what they are :(

In fact there are laws strictly forbidding landing a parachute on federal national park land

I've been to dropzones where I wonder how ANYBODY enjoys the skydive seeing as how obnoxious the tandem instructors are as people.

Thanks DSE. I think you're right. one question: what do you mean by out of balance? Is my original assumption that the pitch of the suit would change to more headlow by subtracting surface area off the arm wings? Do you recommend this as a safe experiment to gain knowledge about wingsuit dynamics (temporarily removing the gripper and tacking the suit's armwings to resemble the shadow ie smaller than the vampire and gripperless). Everything compared/contrasted with GPS data to determine fall rate differences and glide ratio differences. peace ps Dave, I know you're right too (about slow/steady progression)

I just had a thought, that kind of tripped me out, what if this thought process I am on now saves my life eventually? What if instead of jumping the vampire unmodded I research and innovate and modify my suit and find not much performance loss, but a return in ease of pulling...and what if it saves my life on a split second pull on a base jump? Not an aircraft jump where I pull at 4,000' but on a base jump over talus where I am pulling at 300 feet??? I am glad I am an independent thinker then because I would love to survive such a hairy episode!!! worst case scenario I grab wing fabric and pull until I impact!!!!! I'd sacrifice a couple decimal points of GR to avoid that!!!!!!!!!

dave hahaha I'm going to temporarily tack the arm wings (I will have to take out the drumstick to do this) and see what happens...after I get another 20-30 jumps or so. If I like it then I will cut and resew the end of the arm wings to remove the Black Death factor of having some arm wing rolled/tacked up Butters, the fabric never gets in the way even during odd body positions??? I find it hard to believe honestly! There's a lot of fabric how would it not flap occassionaly during armwing collapse to obscrure (even minor obscuring)??? Who is good enough to say that they will never have an unintentional odd body position immediately prior to pulling on a BASE jump which causes their arm wing to obscure the clump of PC??? I am in the process of getting a GPS unit that can track my glide ratio...so I will learn more with the unmodded suit and then modify it and compare the glide ratios/distance achieved....this is really all I care about with this wingsuit (getting far away from exit whether its aircraft or wall!). My theory is that the shadow and phantom can glide pretty far and their arm wings are not nearly as big as the vampire....so if the leg wing is slightly bigger on the vampire, then I would think the glide would still be superior to the phantom/shadow. There are wingsuit companies that make smallish arm wings and biggish leg wings for BASE jumpers. I'll post when I have more information. Peace!!!!!

well it doesnt matter anyways because its the only suit I have and rent is hard enough to pay so another wingsuit is never going to happen. DSE, I have reached for the pull and the fabric below the wrist can obscrure the pull, causing precious seconds lost. I thought to raise the wingsuit's arm wings similar to a shadow, but obviously do not want to throw off the balance of the suit... *that is my real question, what would happen to the flight dynamics of the vampire2 if the arm wings were reduced*

this is exactly why I bought the suit! To practice and learn enough to safely get off and AWAY from a wall as far as possible. Also its incredibly fun Im finding to push the distance that you travel on a skydive (oh I got out over the road this time and made it back to the DZ, or over the pond, or a little past the pond, etc etc whatever...as long as winds stay the same this can be a good judge for your improvement). so what would reducing the arm wing do to the forward movement??? I know it would make pulling more easy.

why hype the site before there is even a picture of the wingsuit they want to sell?

why does it have to be backside of helmet? I have my audible altimeter duct taped to my goggles right now because I sold my helmet for rent money. People were getting a chuckle at that at the DZ.

why jump if its not fun?

the way I see it the canopy is no longer the responsibility of the seller once they successfully get it to the post office and shipped. The contract between the seller and buyer is relying on the dependability of USPS and the fault is with the postal service if the item is lost. Let me put it like this. If a buyer asked you to give it to his friend to give to him a few days later. And you did this successfully (gave it to friend). And then the friend lost the gear along the way and couldnt give it to him...the seller would not be required to reimburse money. As long as proof that shipment was made successfully from the seller's end is presented.

if my first post was not clear enough the mod I was thinking about on the Vampire2 was cutting from the wrist to the body of the suit on the arm wings (basically reducing the arm wing by 4 inches removing the gripper) and then sewing the arm wing closed again. I'm not contemplating actually doing this at this point, but rather the theory behind what it would do to the suit. I strive for distance and ease of deployment. I do not care at all about range for the suit, or time/descent rate. All I practice wingsuiting for is to take them off of objects and to get good object separation when I do. (just to clarify my desideratum for a wingsuit is different than typical). thanks for your thoughts! peace!

just curious, what do the arm wings do for a wingsuit in terms of forward drive? It seems to me (very inexperienced opinion only have about 20 wingsuit jumps) that they act more like brakes and slow the suit down (in terms of forward speed and descent rate). What would a wingsuit with arms like the prodigy and leg wing like the vampire be like? Would the pitch be too headlow? What would the distance be like? I am flying a Vampire2 and I notice that when I sweep the arms back I really start to fly forward much faster. In the beginning I was 'cupping' air too much and it was like brakes....fighting the forward movement... So my idea is what would happen if you modded the arm wing on a VAMPIRE2 to make it smaller (say like a shadow or phantom ending basically at the wrist). Would this affect the pitch of the wingsuit too much negatively? Would this be a wingsuit that would have good distance still but yet remain easy to use (pulling in a base environment for instance). sorry for rambling thoughts this is what was bouncing through my head on the drive back home yesterday after flying all day.

why not sell your AAD and make a bunch of jump tickets with that money.

I just stay on the plane until the pilot looks at me nervously then I figure its time to go and fly my wingsuit back to the dropzone

how does one avoid reverse scamming if no tracking was bought? (buyer claiming he didnt receive when he actually received?)

I have never had to deal with this so I'm looking for opinions. Who is responsible for gear lost in the mail if the buyer and seller are both jumpers (not a gear dealer or anything just private seller). subtle item to be aware of: neither buyer nor seller want to be scammed (the potential is there on either side..."yeah I sent it a week ago" and "yep I never got it" - either buyer or seller could be lying so who should 'take the leap of faith' and pony up money?).

haha epic post

have you tried jumping with smoke pants? (search for this idea if you dont know what it is) homemade tracking suit basically. It provides a lot more drive on tracking...and is cheap as a pair of rain pants and rain jacket and some time reinforcing the stitching and cutting vents (I burned vents). I would love to someday use a flysight and compare smoke pants with a professionally made track suit...i guess they might be somewhat in the same ballpark...but thats just guessing.

Some rather major differences: In a skydiving track (I'll say it again) you start with at least 120mph vertical speed to use. In a max performance BASE track you will never reach 120mph vert, so this idea of diving at the start of a track to gain speed (which I assume you are transferring over from what you have heard about BASE exits) is simply not applicable. You've already got all the speed you need. Also, most guys doing much BASE tracking will be using a tracking suit. Tracking suits love to be flown steep and it's a very different flight mode to tracking in an RW suit. point well taken.

well Dave my point is that you scoot down vertical point X faster and end up at horizontal point Z (instead of horizontal point Y with a flat mushy slow track where Z is further from the origin of the track than Y). but I have already acknowledged that this might not be good for big formations...I study and practice tracking because I hope someday to be blessed with the opportunity to track off of a big wall. Different technique. I have learned the maximum technique is not always the best (because there are subtleties to be very very careful about). edit - I have also talked with a few people that have done a lot of tracking off of large antennaes and cliffs and they all say categorically a steeper track is what I want to refine. I trust them because they have proximity to ground to determine distance (where we skydivers do not have this luxury we only really have relativity to other skydivers and vague proximity to ground). They have the luxury of being able to track off an antennae over and over again and determine what AoA is best for distance...so I tend to trust them! If I want to do a bigway though I am trusting Bill and other skydivers!!!!!

You are being misinformed if this is being taught to you by some one. A flat track will deflect (no true "lift" btw, just more wrong info) air along the length of your body-creating drive ans thus speed, lifting the hips, rolling the shoulders and a few other small things each person uses differently, slows down your fall rate (when compared to the formation still falling, the false perception of "lift"), this allows for more time to gain more distance, to be safer on opening. Matt Hey Matt, what do you reckon is doing the 'driving' if not lift:drag ratio? Is it magical? I think our bodies are subject to drag and lift. we create lift with speed (thus the dive). If you stall the dive then you will lose lift (pull too sharply out of the dive) - thus perhaps this is your "illusion of lift" comment (mistaking the zero-G feeling of the onset of a stall with "lift")??? hard to understand people on here lots of times