Basejumper.com - archive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4c4DhVVAwU

damn dude. thats freaking epic.

the 1:20 on, the slow motion shots, it looks identical to the way we look as we reach Max -Q on a good track.

I don't know what would be cooler, giving that guy my parachute, or him letting me use his skis.

Hmm.
I wonder what would happen if they put some sort of small wings under their arms....and a small leg wing...

I still have two pairs of jump skis sitting in storage. they are just waiting on the right ski base....

I have yet to talk to a single ski jumper that doesn't dream of wingsuit flight. we tried but couldn't get bjoern to stop parting long enough to skydive with us last time he was here for a visit.

Ski flyers are some of the few humans to have experienced ground effect first hand.

Espen Bredesen, a Norwegian ski-flying superstar, was a skydiver, and the Norwegian national team does yearly tracking practice out of planes.

Every third Norwegian monster-tracker I talked with was an ex-ski jumper.

and yet, the only people I know to take skis out of aircraft did something resembling freeflying (probably cause they were free skiers)

dude. cutter, lend me your skis. there is a jump or two here in colorado. and I want to fly them from the Balloon, see if I can control them slow and sub terminal, the way most ski BASE jumps would be.

Trying to launch a pair of 270 cm skis out of a balloon would be . . . um . . . just get it on video.

I think the best way to train would be to start making ski jumps with a base rig to get the CG issues worked out, then take it off a cliff.

Ski jumping skis have no edges, so the jump in-run needs to be very nicely built.

I don't think this is ground effect, the aspect ratio is too low and the distance to the ground is still too large to see any noticeable ground effect. What we perceive as ground effect is skier starting to approach sustained glide ratio and the curve of the slope getting steeper, more and more parallel with his velocity, so it seems he's flying on a layer of compressed air like an airboat. It's an illusion.

Is there some site where you can see more data about ski jumps - e.g. launch speed, height to landing? (and is length of the jump measured horizontally, or it's along the slope?) With this data, it's possible to calculate his average L/D using L/D Calculator. I wonder how his L/D is compared to that of best BASE trackers...

I don't think that the Ski Flyers, even the best, are reaching their best L/D. so the numbers would not mean that much if you did get them. (I think)

I dont know much about it, but from the looks of it I think he is only doing 80-120 Kmh.

And I originally thought from looking at the vid, that for the last full second he was flying the skis, he was withing a few meters of the hill and in ground effect. but having a wingspan of only three or four meters, in full flight, ground effect would be pushing it. it seems that as soon as he is within range to fly the ground effect, he is transitioning to land.

my god that's awesome, transitioning, AERODYNAMICALLY, -SKIING- to land.

whats even cooler and more promising than that is, the transition is not a flare, its the exact opposite.

how expensive is a sky flying set up? 2 or 3 k US?

getting a gear set up is easy. maybe 1,500 for everything. the hard part is the skill set required to jump. its like BASE. it weeds the weak. most people don't know that the takeoff hangs negative 10 degrees. if you don't jump hard with the right technique you go nowhere...in a hurry. takeoff speeds for skiflying sit at around 100-105km/h. everything you get for distance you create on your own. the other big thing is they now restrict skiflying to the top 40 guys in the world. take a look at some of the world cup results. 3-5 meters and a few style points is the difference between winning and not making the 2nd round(top 30)

Now, had they had spent all these years of hard work to ski fly in wingsuit, starting from small jumps and progressing to longer flights, and doing WS skydiving and BASE to approach the goal from both ends simultaneously, not only we would have seen WS BASE landing done, but the birth of a new sport as well, with giant trampolines and gigantic jumps.

What are they thinking?!

damn cutter. a rotor pilot and a Ski Flyer? AND a BASE jumper? thats pretty freaking awesome man.
I might be able to swing 1500 sometime. will you teach me?

I spent most of my life on a quest to defeat gravity.

it's been a solid 4+ years since i've been off a ski jump. the longer you go the scarier it gets. Brendan (grayhghost) spent his share of years jumping as well. I know the Utah Olympic Park offers public jumping but it's only on the small hills. strapping on a pair of 250+cm skis with free heels and no edges on a 40m jump is plenty to start